April Fools! Real Transformers developments that would have seemed fake years earlier

[Shadewing]

I feel the first transformers movie is exactly what it needed to be to sell the concept. Just like the First X-Men movie, that also changed quite and bit and did its own thing while keeping to th core ideas.

Of course the robots aren't the focus, those special effects are expensive; I recall that in one of the sequels just trying to render a scene melted several computers. Of course they aren't gonna ben there as much as we want them to be. But at the same time, it works for the first movie. The movie works, becuase we see the human perspective of this war, and considering this is an introduction to these characters and this war; using the human element to sell just how powerful and dangerous can be is important. It sells the weight of Optimus desires and ambitions, make his choices feel like they really matter and weigh on him.

I'm sorry it wasn't just MTMTE 3parter rendered as a shot for shot remake like some Live Action Disney movie.

 

[Sabrblade]

I recall that in one of the sequels just trying to render a scene melted several computers.

It's because that scene in question was Devastator's combination sequence.

 

[CoffeeHorse]

The first movie kinda hits on the reason why the human characters usually suck. They usually don't serve any narrative purpose whatsoever. The human characters don't actually provide a human perspective. The camera follows the Autobots around on their adventures and the humans just tag along, providing some extra eyes watching what we are already watching. The only reason they're there is because producers who have never asked a child about it keep hallucinating the idea that children cannot relate to the cool robots.

The 2007 humans deserve some credit. They actually do provide a human perspective for a change. You can follow the Transformers around and tell a story in which the disguises technically matter, but that doesn't let us feel it. The 2007 movie does let us share the human experience watching the plot unfold without much more knowledge than they have, because the camera hasn't been following the Transformers around the whole time.

That first group transformation of the Autobots would have been the limpest reveal in movie history if we'd already met them in the Bumblebee-style grand Cybertron opening people think they wanted.

 

[PrimalxConvoy]

Well, at the time, Bay was known for Armageddon (which ran about 20 minutes too long, but was much more hopeful than the more critically acclaimed Deep Impact)*, The Rock (which I've not heard anything bad about) and making a movie about Pearl Harbor that actually did well in the Japanese market (the distributor played up the romance plot angle).

Considering several parts of the original Pearl Harbor were removed or edited to placate the Japanese market, it's questionable at best to say "Pearl Harbor did well in the Japanese market". Rather, a Japanese-friendly edit of the film didn't offend enough of the Japanese market:

- https://www.nytimes.com/2001/06/22/world/pearl-harbor-in-japan-love-or-war.html

 

[Steevy Maximus]

I feel the first transformers movie is exactly what it needed to be to sell the concept. Just like the First X-Men movie, that also changed quite and bit and did its own thing while keeping to the core ideas.

I still maintain that TF07 was better than it had ANY right to be, in terms of the talent involved and the end result. I know for some, that isn’t saying much, but, again, to have Steven Spielberg attached to your franchise in any capacity is a HUGE win. And in 2007, of the 6 films he had directed to that point, Bay only had one significant flop (The Island, which still did well overseas).
I mean, the closest analogies to the kind of film Transformers was aiming to be was stuff like Godzilla 98, Lost in Space 98, Dungeons and Dragons 2000 and Masters of the Universe 1987. Not exactly a sterling group to be a part of.

I think at this stage, it’s easy to deride the action films (however much they may deserve it), but it also seems that there isn’t as much acknowledgement to what those films did end up doing for the franchise. Again, most of the items in this thread, from the Crossovers to the Haslabs to the deep cuts in Legacy, owe a, not insignificant, debt to the films‘ financial success.

 

[Sabrblade]

To this day, I still can't help but wonder what the first live-action movie would have been like if Spielberg himself had directed it instead of having relegated the job of directing it to someone else.

 

[CoffeeHorse]

It may be blasphemy but I'm not convinced that would have been better. Going with your two films theory, I like Bay's half better. Lennox and Epps could have carried a whole movie.

 

[Steevy Maximus]

Frankly, I think a Spielberg Transformers film would have ended up very similar to what we got with Bumblebee, but without the benefits of the prior decade of films to reflect on.

That isn’t to say it wouldn’t have been a good movie, perhaps a better film than what we got, but I’m not sure it would have “captured lightning” like Bay’s version ended up doing. Bumblebee is very good, but its more modest disposition (in my opinion) didn’t lend itself to the spectacle the franchise had become known for. In 2007, not having that big spectacle may have had adverse effects on the film’s final success.

 

[Sabrblade]

Or, here's a thought. What if Bay had directed the first film like normal, but then Spielberg directed all the sequels?

 

[Haywire]

Honestly, after the first few minutes of the first movie, the introduction of Blackout, I feel like it was mostly downhill from there. There were still moments here and there in all the films that I enjoyed, but until Bumblebee, I don't think I ever really liked the live action films as complete movies.

That said, I like what they did for the brand, I highly doubt we would have any of the awesome toys we've gotten over the last 20 years without the contribution of the live action films.

 

[CoffeeHorse]

If Bumblebee had been the first film I don't think this would have been a billion dollar movie franchise. It's solid but utterly forgettable.

 

[PrimalxConvoy]

If Bumblebee had been the first film I don't think this would have been a billion dollar movie franchise. It's solid but utterly forgettable.

Can't agree with you there. I think it would have been fine as is.

 

[Haywire]

I think Bumblebee could do what it did because it didn't have to lay the groundwork of world-building; the first live-action movie did that. It's still the one I enjoy the most as a complete film, but I do recognize that it's standing on the shoulders of the previous films.

 

[Tuxedo Prime]

I've said it before and I'll say it again. Of the five films under Bay's tenure, the first one is the one that most consider to be the most decent or most competently made. But when one takes a good hard look at it, it becomes clear that it really feels like at least two separate films mashed together.

Nice to know I'm not the only one with fixed ideas! (I suspect it's part of the fannish condition to some degree.)
Of course, given what happened with the making of the sequels, there's no reason that both descriptions ("most compentently made" and "two films mashed together") can't both be true about Transformers: A Michael Bay Film.
Anyway, I was going to bring that aspect up if you hadn't done so again, but as you did, let's talk about one of those gluing elements...

[Sector Seven] just show up out of nowhere halfway through the movie to interrupt it for a while, only getting things back on track when they're suddenly used to bring all of the separate casts of characters together at Hoover Dam.

Sector Seven's inclusion might have felt more natural if there had been at least one scene earlier to foreshadow their arrival at the Witwicky home. Like, when Maggie and Glen are arrested, maybe show Simmons and Banacheck watching their arrest from afar, wearing their suits and sunglasses all mysterious-like. This would make us wonder about who the two of them are, so that when they both show up again later and formally introduce themselves to the Witwicky household and John Keller, respectively, the two of them and the secret organization they work for wouldn't have felt as randomly-inserted midway into the movie as they did.

I suspect that S7 was supposed to be a deeper cut for us fans to enjoy, though instead of a lore cut (though tie-in comics did try, putting Golden Disks in background art and the like) it was something In The Manual from the Alternate Reality Game that had been going on from Feburary 2007, as well as the prequel novel Ghosts of Yesterday.

(As a shameless plug for my own fixed ideas, I gave said ARG a universal stream identifier based on best recollection of the dates. I could do no other.)

 

[Sabrblade]

I suspect that S7 was supposed to be a deeper cut for us fans to enjoy, though instead of a lore cut (though tie-in comics did try, putting Golden Disks in background art and the like) it was something In The Manual from the Alternate Reality Game that had been going on from Feburary 2007, as well as the prequel novel Ghosts of Yesterday.

That doesn't make any sense. Those comics, books, and the ARG all had S7 in them at all because it was going to be in the movie itself. Those were media produced specifically to promote and hype up the movie, using things that were going to be in the movie to do so.

 

[Tuxedo Prime]

That doesn't make any sense. Those comics, books, and the ARG all had S7 in them at all because it was going to be in the movie itself. Those were media produced specifically to promote and hype up the movie, using things that were going to be in the movie to do so.

Right, but because the larger story of S7 was In Other Media, Orci and Bay felt content that their presence in the film would have the fandom going "Ah, yes, it's those guys." while the general film audience saw John Tuturro only giving us Need-To-Know Backstory.

Anyway, pretty sure TFWiki wouldn't like my stream identifier, given the back-and-forths I'd seen about the ARG, but I think it's the best fit we can ask for. Anyone else try the link?

 

[eaglekiller]

I never thought we would have new figures of all the Scavengers!

 

[Sabrblade]

Right, but because the larger story of S7 was In Other Media, Orci and Bay felt content that their presence in the film would have the fandom going "Ah, yes, it's those guys."

No. That is not how it went down. Neither Bay, Orci, nor anyone else working on the movies gave a darn about whatever was going on in the tie-in media. All they cared about was the movie itself. All those comics, books, games, etc. meant nothing to them.

Otherwise, the movies wouldn't have kept consistently contradicting and writing out what was happening in all that secondary media, to the point of needing John Barber to come in and put all the pieces back together (that is, until AOE, TLK, and BB came along and just tossed them all even farther out the window).

You are giving way more credit to the alternate reality game and an obscure novel than either are warranted. Only the TFWiki folk would have cared enough to pay attention to them, and TFWiki was still in its infancy in 2007.

 

[Tuxedo Prime]

No. That is not how it went down.

I didn't know you worked for Paramount!
Of course, you'd probably want to hide that, considering how many would be bothering you for leaks. Not I, though.

 

[Rufus]

Michael Bay directing the 2007 live action Transformers film is what created the divergent timeline we're currently in. Spielberg should have directed it, that's the timeline we want to get back to.