Transformers: One - New Animated Prequel coming September 20th, 2024 - New Toy Official Images!

[Undead Scottsman]

TFA was pretty safe, but as a foundation for building a trilogy it wasn't awful, though I would have liked more explanation of how we went from 'Yub Yub" to the First Order poised to take over the galaxy, but whatever.

TLJ had a lot of great ideas of where to take the franchise, wrapped in kind of a half-assed plot that falls apart when you look at it. Still, the throughline is there, first movie is about the past, second movie is realizing the need to break from the past, third movie should be about forging something new.

But then the reaction to TLJ was so extreme and Disney lacked any kind of coherent vision, that they brought JJ back,who just absolutely phoned it in. Like, remember how Poe was "dead" but then turned out not to be in TFA?

Count how many times JJ does that in ROS.

Spoiler

Palpatine, Chewbacca, C3PO (technically a mindwipe), Babu Frik & Poe's ex/Kylo Ren.

There's still good Star Wars stuff to be had; Mando S1 and most of S2 was great, Andor is phenomenal. Bad Batch was pretty good too. Disney just, as has been said, has no overall vision so the good stuff is buried in a load of mediocrity and crap.

But we're kinda getting far afield of the topic here.

 

[LordGigaIce]

Oh I don't disagree that the main issue with the ST is that it wasn't pre-planned rather then who was in the director's seat; but I also feel the way it did go was influenced by fan reaction. The first movie people largely complained that it was too safe and too much like what came before; which to me is fine for a starting point. So then the next movie, they go an entirely different direction to be more original, and then we get complaints about how its now nothing like star wars and such. After that it feels like Disney tries to course correct as hard as it can, bringing back Abrams and trying to tie it all together with, imo one of the worst movies in existance, not just SW.

I like and can rewatch TFA and TLJ, they aren't perfect movies but there are things about them that I enjoy and some of those things I like the fandom hates entirely; but RoS there are only two moments in the entire movie I enjoy, and both are roughly the same thing: "Main character has vision of past character, that helps set them straight" Those were the only parts of the movie I found any enjoyment in. I've seen it twice, and both times it just pisses me the hug off with how stupid it is.

I agree with pretty much all of this.

My "in retrospect" take is that Disney and JJ and everyone else involved in TFA should have just said "this trilogy is concluding the OT's story and those characters' journeys, we'll be calling back a lot to it" and just embrace it. Will some people complain and moan about it being "unoriginal"? Sure, but sticking to the vision is preferable to just being reactionary to everything.

Rian Johnson had a really interesting take on the Star Wars mythos that I wish we could have seen more of, but giving him movie #2 as a reaction to TFA's reception, and then taking it away from him again, did neither his vision or JJ's any good.

As bad as RoS was, I kinda feel for JJ who was told "ok do your version of Episode VII and IX in one movie."

Ideally they would have let JJ do the ST to get Star Wars back to basics and then let Rian do his thing with his own series of films to let his vision be fully realized without the two fighting for space in the same set of three movies.

As for Star Wars fans in general? I'll quote the one I'm engaged to.

"We're Star Wars fans. We deserve nothing."

But we're kinda getting far afield of the topic here.

Um... TFO was a good movie!

I'm kind of lost on TFO honestly. Like it's an excellent film and may be my personal favourite Transformers movie, but the discussion around it is almost entirely centred on why it failed. And that sucks.

Also I think everyone's said everything that needs to be said.

 

[Sabrblade]

Spoiler

& Poe's ex/Kylo Ren.

Spoiler

I didn't know Kylo Ren was Poe's ex.

 

[Shadewing]

To this day, I've never rewatched Rise of Skywalker in its entirety. I'm an easy mark for STar Wars stuff...but RoS? I will die on the hill that is one of worst pieces of main Star Wars media ever produced.

And that includes The Holiday Special

I only rewatched it becuase a freind hadn't see it and wanted to while they were visiting me. Despite warning them how bad it is, and they know me well enough to know I can like a lot of "bad movies" They had the "surely it can't be that bad" with a mix of "this might actually be painful". I was proven right in the end.

..oh I just remembered... They played Lego Skywalker Collection before seeing RoS, so they though that a lot of the stupid stuff in Lego RoS was just Lego's humor. No buddy, the movie really is that stupid.

 

[CoffeeHorse]

I skipped the whole trilogy and I regret nothing. The moment I saw a red lightsaber I had no hope that they knew where a post-ROTJ story should go.

 

[LordGigaIce]

I skipped the whole trilogy and I regret nothing. The moment I saw a red lightsaber I had no hope that they knew where a post-ROTJ story should go.

 

[Shadewing]

"Somehow Palpatine returned" Just entirely sums up the vibe of that entire movie.

 

[LordGigaIce]

"Somehow Palpatine returned" Just entirely sums up the vibe of that entire movie.

I don't like to say "I could do better" then people who have actually written movies, but I could absolutely do better. So could you. So could anyone.

"Somehow Palpatine returned" should have been met with a hearty "GET THE F OUT" as soon as it was pitched in the writer's room.

 

[Shadewing]

I don't like to say "I could do better" then people who have actually written movies, but I could absolutely do better. So could you. So could anyone.

"Somehow Palpatine returned" should have been met with a hearty "GET THE F OUT" as soon as it was pitched in the writer's room.

And its not even a NEW idea, "Palpatine returns after death due to cloning" was an idea that existed since the 90's iirc. I was in some novel or comic book back in the day. Heck, it kinda makes sense that the guy that took over the galaxy with a clone army, would have at least one clone of himself. The idea really could tie all three trilogies togeather... if they hadn't been so stupid and lazy with it here.

 

[Sabrblade]

"Somehow Palpatine returned" Just entirely sums up the vibe of that entire movie.

You know, when it was announced that the Legend of Zelda movie would be written by one of the same writers who wrote The Rise of Skywalker, people started making "Somehow Ganon returned" jokes, and I was like "Uh... yeah. That's literally what happens in the games. Are you guys even familiar with the Zelda series?"

 

[Cybersnark]

And its not even a NEW idea, "Palpatine returns after death due to cloning" was an idea that existed since the 90's iirc. I was in some novel or comic book back in the day.

Comic book. Dark Empire (followed by Dark Empire II and Empire's End).

Notable for being the series that also introduced the idea of holocrons.

 

[Sabrblade]

I was in some novel or comic book back in the day.

You were?! Wow! Congrats!

 

[LBD "Nytetrayn"]

"...in Fortnite."

Spoiler

The craziest part is, I'm not even making that up.

 

[Glitch]

Seems I'm getting Transformers One on Amazon Prime at 12AM on the 10th December in the UK. I paid £13.99 for it.

 

[Sabrblade]

You know, if Hasbro had really wanted to schedule the release of TF One around the anniversary of something, TFTM came out on August 8, 1986. While August 8, 2024 was that movie's 38th anniversary, it was also a Thursday, and a lot of movies released on Fridays nowadays do tend to receive early screenings the night before on Thursdays. So had this movie been released on the Friday of August 9, 2024, it would have coincided with TFTM's anniversary and would have released in a summer month where it would have face very little real competition.

And being the 38th anniversary of TFTM instead of a more celebratory milestone would mean that Hasbro wouldn't have to juggle celebrating TF One's anniversary in the same year as those of both TFTM and Beast Wars (and, surprisingly, Dark of the Moon since 2011 was TFTM's 25th anniversary and Beast Wars's 15th anniversary).

 

[CoffeeHorse]

Or pick a day when summer camps are in session. They do see movies sometimes, and they will absolutely ruin your experience, but they do boost ticket sales.

 

[Fero McPigletron]

Dunno where to put this but I saw the Secret Level game anthology Unreal Tournament ep and, well, I can easily imagine the fighter being Megatron.