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DOTM is the only one of the Transformers movies which really irks me because of what I see as many lost opportunities. Here’s only some of how I would’ve changed that sucker if I’d’ve been in charge!

1. Get rid of Sam’s parents entirely. True, I found them funny in the first two movies (so sue me), but they were too toned down here to be amusing and added nothing of consequence to the plot. Only possible reference needed: Sam maybe muttering, “Mom’s gonna be sooo disappointed…”, when you first see him at work. Bag all the rest.

2. Get rid of Sam’s dog. He paid no attention to the poor thing anyway. Animal neglect…not funny… If it’s a Bay law that there must be one mastiff cameo per movie, then use the mastiff in place of the two salukis owned by Carley’s creepy boss.

3. Get rid of Wheelie’s new pal…Brains, was it? I couldn’t even figure out what the heck that thing was supposed to be. Looked like a Transformer troll doll. Maybe a good enough design for a toy, but for my extra special, guest director’s cut of Dark Of The Moon? Gone! As for Wheelie himself, he needs to hide out with Simmons, not Sam and his new squeeze. Would make more sense—he helps Simmons ‘research’ his books—and I like the thought of him sparring with a VERY disapproving, stiff-lipped Dutch. Oh, and Wheelie’s potty mouth and cheap hood persona? They stay in full. (So sue me a second time.)

4. The John Malkovich character, he’s gone too. On a certain level, I do think he was funny, but it was a performance which belonged in a comedy about office shenanigans, not in a Transformers movie. There’s no need to even show Sam being hired or interacting with a boss at all. Those job interviews alone were enough to explain why Sam, decorated hero though he was, winds up working in a mailroom.

5. As for whacked-out co-worker Jerry Wang? Needs to stay, if only to draw Sam into the Decepticons nasty evil plans and to give Laserbeak (who looks like a Muppet designed by Satan) a chance to strut his stuff. Besides, the ‘suicide’ cracked me up.

6. Now that the padding’s been cut some, it’s time to switch over to the TRANFORMERS’ big moments and rewrite some of their key scenes! First one I’d change is when Ironhide dies. That’s a huge scene—a major death and Sentinel revealing his true intentions right after he’s ‘rescued’—and needs to be expanded. I’d borrow from the novelization, add Sentinel killing the Twins right after he kills Ironhide, then a good ol’ long one-sided rampage before confronting Mearing. Can’t remember for sure…did Sentinel address her by her first name in the movie? If not, I’d add that line: “You don’t want me for an enemy, Charlotte.” Just the fact that Sentinel would know to do that at all to express disdain…it’s just creepy and disturbing. Scene could effectively end on a nice tense note with Sentinel raising his foot and threatening to crush Lennox and co. unless Mearing gives up the pillars…

7. Scene of Optimus arriving at the NEST HQ, discovering the awful truth, could also use expansion. THIS is when some acknowledgement of Ironhide’s and the Twins’ deaths could so easily have been made. I’d show Optimus kneeling down, reaching towards Ironhide’s minimal remains, then withdrawing his hand, his affect stunned throughout. Then a whole gamut of emotions flit across his face—disbelief, grief, shame, rage—before he stands and rushes off. Coulda been a shining opportunity for the animators too, to try and convey all that without a single word being said, seriously…

8. Other big ‘fix’ I’d want to do is get Megatron more involved in the story and have him decide to backstab Sentinel all on his own, none of this crap with him needing Miss Exposition Fleshbag to point out the obvious. At least two quick extra scenes of him squabbling with Sentinel over their respective positions in their new power hierarchy would be needed to make it believable, I think, before you get to the one where Sentinel actually hits him. And was Starscream there when Megatron ‘redecorated’ the Lincoln Memorial? He should have been, just to encourage plenty of gloating as Megatron sat there watching the Prime he THOUGHT was working for him set up his teleportation pillars. Lines like, “Look at him, Starscream. A greater fool even than Optimus…”…yeah, that’s the stuff. Of course, Hugo Weaving always does such a good job of voicing his role that Megatron could probably read numbers out of a phone book and still make it all sound menacing and slimy and evilly charming.

9. I’d also change the ending some. During the big final battle with Sentinel and Optimus going at it, I picture Megatron being drawn out by the sounds of the fight and approaching at first just to watch, angry enough with Sentinel by this time to toy with the notion of betraying him but also too aware of his own weakened state and afraid of Sentinel’s strength to act. Maybe he also feels some righteous indignation because Megatron believes in a weird way that he owns Optimus, Optimus should be HIS to kill and no one else’s, or perhaps there’s something still deeper there at work which Megatron isn’t even consciously aware of anymore. Sentinel spots Megatron watching at some point but ignores him. He’s doing just fine fighting Optimus on his own, thank you, and doesn’t need any help. As per the movie, Optimus is eventually maimed and falls. Sentinel, with some regret, prepares to kill him. But then—a crisis erupts! The space bridge is failing! Sentinel immediately shifts his priorities and snaps a command at Megatron to “Finish him off!” Then he makes the biggest mistake of the rest of his life. He assumes Megatron will accept his order to kill Optimus and TURNS HIS BACK ON HIM to go attend to the imminent collapse of his space bridge.

To be addressed like a common drone by a hated Autobot is the last straw for Megatron, I should think, and he retaliates at last, injuring Sentinel badly and incapacitating him. Then it’s Megatron’s turn to commit his own last serious lapse of judgement. He assumes that the Optimus lying at his feet is still the Optimus of old, the one who’s so good-hearted and naïve that he’ll buy any show of fake mercy and pleas for peace. Maybe he even puts his hand out, to help him up, at which point…well, the movie does fine as it is at depicting the rest. Coldly pragmatic, self-appointed jury, judge and executioner Optimus Prime, yes indeed… You can call this movieverse version of him a lot of things now, but boring sure ain’t one of ‘em!

No. Wait. There’s one more change I need to make. That very last scene? That should belong to Optimus too, so he can stand somewhere out in the open and look hopefully up at the sky as he does his end voice-over, just as he did in the last two movies. Simmons will just have to reschedule his grab at his one-time shagalicious Intel bed buddy or drop the attempt entirely as a bad idea.

How would I change DOTM?
Too many ways to actually list, but the ones off the top of my head:

* Sentinel Prime saying "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few!"...get rid of it. It's WAY too much unnecessary winking on Nimoy's part, and he already did the once-more-just-for-old-time's-sake cribbing of STII dialogue in Abram's Trek.

* Although...on the flip side of that, when 'Bee says goodbye to Sam before boarding the Xantium, I would have cribbed the WHOLE line from STII instead of just a bite of it: "I have been, and always shall be, your friend." Between the distortion of the 'radio' and how much Nimoy's own voice has aged, I think at the very least the GA wouldn't be immediately aware that it was the same guy, or at most wouldn't care).

* Furthermore, I'd have kept Sentinel's characterization the same, but I probably also would have just kept the name Ultra Magnus for him as previously planned. I think it would have made his betrayal even more of a kick in the nuts.

* The whole business with Sam's Decepti-watch...something more should have been made of this. At the very least, 'Bee should have given him a last handshake before boarding the Xantium and slipped a Que-made device on Sam that hacks into the watch and reprograms it, inferring the Autobots were aware of it the whole time (seeing as in the past they've been able to peg 'Cons in their alt-modes before), and in reprogramming it to suit Sam's wishes it would double as the weapon he uses to kill Starscream with. Speaking of that...

* An end-credits scene of the 'Cons remains being carted off for analysis, one of them being what's left of Starscream's head and brain *koff*sequel fodder*koff*.

* Another end-credits scene from the debris of the Chicago battle being cleaned up where Brains and Wheelie finally crawl out of their wrecked ship and thus resolving the question of their fate (I have to admit, I found them less irritating the Twins).

* The final Optimus and Megatron battle needed to be longer (meaning Optimus probably should have kept that arm at least long enough to get the job done, rather than just decide "No Truce!" and lop off Megs' head without a moment to spare).

* Optimus regains his trailer...only to get tangled up in a bunch of wires? Gimme a ****ing break.

* I didn't care to see Que start cowering and surrendering to Soundwave only to get killed anyway, after always being the Autobots' and NEST's weapons guy...personally, rather than have him JUST beg for mercy only to be offed, I'd have him beg and Soundwave offs him only to discover Que's booby-trapped his own corpse to explode in the event of his death, as a final "**** You" to the Decepticons.

* Dylan's death would be more like it is in the comic - good old-fashioned Nazi-melting style. Tasty stuff.

* Give Shockwave a bigger part or get rid of him entirely. Heck, have Shockwave survive the battle so that at least we haven't killed ALL the big bads off.

* On that note, switch out Soundwave for Barricade in the final battle with Bumblebee, justifying Barricade's return with substantially more screen time and giving that little rivalry from the first movie a final resolution (and sparing ANOTHER big bad for future installments).

The whole business with Sam's Decepti-watch...something more should have been made of this

Yeah they didn't really do a whole lot with this. It's like they started to make it important but then sort of just...stopped.
Also, while I liked SoundWave and Bee's fight, switching him with Barricade might have been better. For one, it resolves the whole rivalry thing they had. For another, with SoundWave being high ranked, it makes more sense for him to push the ProtoForm around later.
Also, Barricade's ambiguous fate in the film, had it been switched with SoundWave could have been a sequel hook, since they plan on more movies. SoundWave would be a great main villain.


@Biddybot:Hm, I liked the whole ending, what with Sentinel pushing Megatron too far. I think, just to give Megatron an awesome moment, I'd probably make him defeat Sentinel without any sort of treachery, which considering Sentinel's strength, would make Megatron look pretty tough compared to his losses in ROTF.

I'd cut 30 minutes...maybe even 45 minutes...a majority of the human storyline/jokes and make it a leaner/meaner movie.

I'd do the same for Revenge of the Fallen.

I thought the first movie was the right length/pace.

Evil_the_Nub wrote:I agree with what's been said especially about the fights being too short and there was too much focus on the humans. I don't mind that humans are involved, but I'd rather see the Autobots fighting their way through the city than Sam and Epps running around.

This! Or, they should have had a couple of Autobots for each of the two human teams. Bumblebee and Ratchet with Sam and Epps and Dino and Sideswipe with Lenox team. And while I love Optimus, he got all of the main bad guys, need to save some awesome fighting and winning glory for the other Autobots. I was hoping to see some more Sideswipe humor in this movie, but after The Mexican Standoff, he only made some commands, and that was it. Would have been nice to see him and Dino in a fight with some select CONS, while quipping oneliners to eachother (I loved Dino's little Italian voice, what we heard of it back at the hangar when Optimus was in his silent mode) *sighs* why waste all of this time in designing these Transformers if you're not going to utilize them?

I also would have ditched the parents. They already set up for their absence, they were on a road trip.

Could have narrowed down the runtime by eliminating Sam looking for a job, he could already have one, the whole Wang plotline was a waste of time and money, Sam's parents taking up too much time, the skydiving scene and the Navy Seal scene wasted time, don't eliminate the skydiving, but it could have been cut.

What about wasted money that could have been utilized more effectively. Uh, the whole building collapsing thing, how much money was wasted on that driller when we could have some awesome Autobots vs Shockwave, and give the thing justice. The Lazerbeak Pink Bumblebee thing was really a WTF moment.How much did it cost to hire John Malcolvich for such a corny role?

And, two last things, Ironhide needed something by the end. I'm sorry, but he was such a huge favorite in all three movies to not have something said at the end, to him specifically. And, there are less hilarious ways to hold up Optimus Prime other than having him hung up by a bunch of construction wires.

I liked the movie, but, I walked away knowing that I could have done things that most people would have enjoyed more than the end result. Really, when the "worst" movie out of the three will be remembered more because of one killer ass fighting sequence, you know something is wrong. It needed a fight scene on par or better than the forest fight, but alas, it didn't have it.

First, i'd like to say I loved the movie. But if I could change things it would be as follows.

1. More Megatron: explain why he is so weak and can't heal like the others.
2. More Shockwave
3. Ironhide not dying so pathetically ( I guess it make Sentinel more of a villian killing him so cheaply though)
4. Longer fights
5. Let the Matrix have a bigger role in giving Optimus power, somehow.
6. Combiners or Omega Supreme (picture Omega fighting multiple Drillers)
7. Wheeljack not looking so ghastly.
8. Wreckers being WRECKERS.
9. Optimus talking about Ironhides death.

I would add the scenes with the Twins. True, I like 'em so it would be sad for me to see them die on big screen, but so was with Ironhide.

Then maybe yeah, some more scenes with Megatron's demented truck mode. probably a bit more of Starscream.

As I said somewhere else, I would make someone protest against Que's execution. Maybe Bumblebee and Ratchet. Bumblebee was, as I understand, his friend. Ratchet just because I like him.

When Megatron was in desert, he could have demonstrated his fusion-cannons might by killing an elephant. Imagine his throne there decorated with elephant skulls and tusks.

Somehow making enough room in continuity to have autobots and NEST somehow honor Ironhide's death. 'Cause I guess that it wasn't mentioned because there was no time to do it. Maybe after the credits, after Simmons and that what's-her-name-again's kiss.

Simmons, more time and some more importance, like in ROTF.

Show actually how Optimus's trailer combines with him into flight-mode.

Give Shockwave some action and use that assault-mode.

Que having some more action, also to Ratchet and Wreckers.

Brains and Wheelie stumbling to the gangs meeting at the end, after Sentinel's death, and having others praise them for taking down that mother-ship.

And maybe, just maybe, having a real wedding of Sam and Carly, with NEST and Autobots witnessing. And for the fun of it, having Carly throw the bouquet to that defense director or whatever, only for her to watch with a stunned impression at Simmons, who then smiles at her.

If you wanted something Oscar-worthy, you'd probably have to rewrite the entire thing from the ground up. That's really not what I think these films should be, just something entertaining.

-A little bigger of a role for Megatron would have been nice. Sentinel Prime kind of stole the show, which I'm not really upset about because he did a good job of it, but I think most people agree, he probably should have left a little villainy for Megs.
-Make the fight scenes slightly more coherent. I thought the highway scene looked wonderful, but it's very jumbled up during the end, and difficult to follow, but I guess that's only to be expected.
-Removing scenes that are just flat-out unnecessary, like with Sam meeting up with his parents. Yes, we get, they exist, but the scene felt like it was pulled out of nowhere. It could have made the film a little shorter to flat out remove it, or they could replace it with what most people are watching these films for: the Transformers.
-There really needed to be more of a final fight between Optimus Prime and Megatron. It just felt way too short, and a little anticlimactic to me.
-The ending needed rewriting. I thought it was a cop out. I remember hearing that the movie was originally going to end with a truce between the 'bots and 'cons, and I think that might have worked a little better than Optimus Prime turning down Megatron's offer and cutting his head off. Something completely different could have worked, though I'm not a script writer and I probably couldn't think of something better off the top of my head.

I saw this film last night and I loved it. But there were a couple of things that could have been changed.

Firstly, like so many have said, a little bit of recognition for Ironhide. I thought it was a good way for him to go as it showed Sentinals betrayal well- but Ironhide wasn't mentioned after that.

Sencondly, wtf was Carly doing just walking up casually to Megatron having a good old chat?? I mean I know it's probaly to give her character something to do other than walk around in tight clothes but seriously? I know these films are just for fun and not meant to be taken seriously but I found that scene a bit ridiculous.

In fact it's a bit of an irk for me when I watch TF films that so much focus is put on Sams' relationships'. I personally don't care about his pointlessly one dimentional love life, I just want to see robots going crazy and blowing stuff up! In fact they should have cut out Carly completely because I just found her a boring character and would have freed up more time for robot carnage!

I also thought the ending was a bit rushed- it was a bit like... ok so we've destroyed the bad guys whooo! The End.

But other than those few things- I thought the film was great!

I loved the movie but was surprised by all the bots nobody's ever heard of. Why didn't they just use more G1 bots that we already know. Que needed to be Wheeljack. Just make him Wheeljack! How hard is that to understand?!? The dreads and wreckers....just show us Thundercracker and Skywarp, Trailbreaker and Prowl and Mirage for example. I didn't understand this line of thinking in ROTF either. The twins should've been Cliffjumper and Brawn for example. Jolt could've been Gears...etc

I know I may be alone in my opinions...I just wanted to see more G1 bots instead of these Bay bots. There are so many G1s we haven't seen, it doesn't make sense for them to keep inventing new ones for the movies.

Also, I would've loved to see Omega Supreme in DOTM...really surprised that he wasn't.