Transformers: Rise of the Beasts

CoffeeHorse

Exhausted, but still standing.
Staff member
Council of Elders
Citizen
But that was just a glorified brainstorming session. None of those ideas became a complete script, and it shows. TLK is a collage of individual movie ideas loosely stitched together without a guiding vision.
 

Steevy Maximus

Well known pompous pontificator
Citizen
Hey! Rise of the Beasts is shaping up to be the best domestic performing Transformers film since Age of Extinction in 2014! Despite a slate of new releases, and dropping to number 8 on the charts, Transformers only saw a 32% revenue decline and still pulled another $5 million. The film is guaranteed to pass $150 million domestically, and while early numbers have been soft internationally, it is looking like the film should get close to $500million grand total. That would be better than Bumblebee, and about on par with The Last Knight. Which wouldn’t be a bad thing all things considered.

In fact, outside of the initial second weekend drop of 66%, drops for the film have been pretty solid, staying in the 40% range. It might not be the Uber hit Paramount would have liked, but it’s definitely holding its own better than many of the tent pole releases this summer. And again, Paramount may be amicable to this performance depending on the backend performance of the digital release, disc sales and how well Hasbro ends up doing with the line
 

LBD "Nytetrayn"

Broke the Matrix
Staff member
Council of Elders
Citizen
You probably thought that because it would have made more sense than the actual movie.
I mean, just watching TLK from beginning to end is a big ask in itself, actually remembering all of it is to go beyond.
The man has half a billion dollars already.

You don’t *have * to keep accepting the dump trucks full of money of money they offer…
I mean, we don't know what sort of contract he had...


I mean, granted, the trajectory wasn't quite the same, but...
 

Steevy Maximus

Well known pompous pontificator
Citizen
I mean, just watching TLK from beginning to end is a big ask in itself, actually remembering all of it is to go beyond.
A young man I work with (because I’m old AF at this point) binged Age of Extinction and Last Knight back to back. I warned him not to, but he was foolish.
He did not enjoy the experience and still can’t keep the two films separate in conversation. I guess that’s what happens when you watch cinematic diarrhea for 5 hours straight…

I HAVE convinced him to watch Rise of the Beasts and Bumblebee, rightfully convincing him that both are WAY better.
 

CoffeeHorse

Exhausted, but still standing.
Staff member
Council of Elders
Citizen
This was a surprisingly good weekend for ROTB. It is slowly losing theaters, but it's really not too bad a drop at this point. There are newer movies that are getting dropped faster, and not just The Flash.

If we're comparing to TLK, ROTB played in 2,475 theaters this weekend and brought in $5,000,000 (that's certainly an estimate, and likely to be revised). In TLK's 5th weekend, it played in 1,025 theaters and brought in $1,169,678. Note that TLk opened in more theaters than ROTB did. They just dropped it hard.

TLK really hurt this movie. ROTB didn't open in as many theaters as it clearly deserved. It has been a respectable performer in the theaters it did get.
 

Steevy Maximus

Well known pompous pontificator
Citizen
Some more concept art has been collected by TFW. More explorations of Mirage's look, including different head and body shapes. More stuff with Bloodhound and key frame visuals. Probably the most interesting are numerous design explorations of Scourge, including a number of different "masks". Two that stood out to me were one where there was clear influence from The Fallen (going back to the corrupted Prime origins for this character concept), and another sporting a very "Tarn-esque" Decepticon mask. Perhaps a throwback to concept material where the Terrorcons were all formerly Decepticons, and this would have emphasized that?


Film is out on Digital Purchase and Premium Rental. I went ahead and bought, and jumped into the Bonus/Deleted Scenes and had a few takeaways:
-I wish they had retained the Transit encounter. Not only does it help establish continuity, but also contextualizes Optimus Prime in this film. It casts Optimus Prime as someone trying to protect his friends while fearing both Decepticon hunters, but also humans after what happened with Sector 7, and it puts his general hostility into a more understandable position for the rest of the film. Plus, it was a nice action sequence that was CLEARLY far along, so it seems a bit wasteful to scrap such a seemingly expensive set piece.
-Originally, the cavern sequence featured the Maximals, not the Terrorcons. I'm glad they changed things here, as this sequence puts the Maximals in a more antagonistic position before the later meet up. Had this remained, I think it would have been harder for audiences to accept the Maximals as heroes, when we had this extensive sequence where they tried to kill the main human characters. The trailer shot of Rhinox comes from this sequence, though as it is included in this selection, the sequence is less finished that the trailer.
-I'm SO glad they opted not to do that BS finish with Optimus and Unicron. Probably the wisest move was to wrap the film on an upbeat note (even if Mirage's revival is a mid-credits scene). Not only does it retread on what Age of Extinction/Last Knight did, but it would end up an open cliffhanger, that I think audiences are tired of.

Overall, the changes from earlier versions seemed to tighten up the film's pacing, lighten up the mood of the film, and by making this reasonably self contained, it prevents the stigma of having unrealized sequel bait. They probably made a good call on these, though, I still wish that Transit fight had been retained. Might have been a bit excessive coming off the new opening with Unicron, though.
 

Lobjob

Well-known member
Citizen
I'd love a cut where id be able to watch these, even if unfinished, in the movie.

Is the cave scene really that harsh on the Maximals?
 

Steevy Maximus

Well known pompous pontificator
Citizen
I'd love a cut where id be able to watch these, even if unfinished, in the movie.

Is the cave scene really that harsh on the Maximals?
I mean, it's the SAME people footage from the final film. Instead of running from Freezer, they start running from Cheetor before Rhinox tries to gore them. Not a flattering first impression.
 

Sabrblade

Continuity Nutcase
Citizen
I mean, at this point, that kinda sounds typical for the Heroes of the Movieverse. 😛
 

Undead Scottsman

Well-known member
Citizen
While I think this is part of the problem, I think most of it is that budgets are simply out of control. They need to bring back low and mid budget movies instead of trying to make each film a blockbuster. $200 million for every single movie is just not sustainable for a wide variety of reasons.

That's definitely an issue as well.

Lately I've been thinking a lot about the big CGI fest against a horde of mooks at the end of Rise of the Beasts (and practically every MCU film) in terms of how much did that cost to make, and what did it actually add to the movie. It was basically an excuse to show off the good guys doing cool team up movies (like Arcee riding Rhinox) but that's it. There's really no tension there, nobody is getting taken out by Freezer or Scorponok. Its just noise.

Wouldn't it have been better if it was just the 8 Autobots/Maximals versus the 3 Terrorcons, and the Terrorcons actually hold their own because they're supposed to be super powerful instead of getting taken out by one or two bots because they need to end the movie?
 

Sabrblade

Continuity Nutcase
Citizen
I get ya. But there's also the fact that Hasbro would like these movies to advertise as much product as possible, and using vast armies is definite way to do that, even if the story suffers as a result.

Plus, there's the fact that big scaled army battles have been ingrained into the brand since it first launched with 18 good guys (not counting Bumper, the Kronoform toys, the Powerdashers, or the Omnibots, which would make 28 good guys) and 10 bad guys in 1984.

Stacked numbers of troops are something that a lot of people have come to expect, and CG limitations like we had in Beast Wars (which led to its great writing) have diminished since those days.
 

CoffeeHorse

Exhausted, but still standing.
Staff member
Council of Elders
Citizen
DOTM handled it well. It's the mook slaughter fest Hollywood thinks we want, but there's enough named Decepticons to give it some structure. It is possible to track the Autobots' progress as the tide shifts one major Decepticon at a time.
 

Haywire

Collecter of Gobots and Godzilla
Citizen
Mook is slang for a stupid or incompetent person. In this case, used similar to "minion", but with the added connotation of being too dumb to avoid getting killed easily.
 

MrBlud

Well-known member
Citizen
Holomatter avatars are a vast reserve of cheap characterization they keep leaving on the table.

It’s hard to care about (for example) Sentinel killing Ironhide when Ironhide only had a paragraph (or less) of dialog over three movies.
 


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