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Iamwarhorse wrote:

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.

I really like these ideas. Plus, the film needed more Ratchet, he's the only Autobot (besides the Wreckers who are pretty new) to not get some sort of "awesome moment." That's why I think him killing StarScream would've helped.

SideSwipe+Dino would've been awesome, since they were both like robo ninjas. I also liked how Dino/Mirage just laughs when he catches Hatchet. I liked how he seemed to treat it like a game. More of him would've definitely benfitted(?) the movie.

Also, just remembered something I think would've been helpful. They should've shown how BB and the rest of the Autobots were captured by Decepticons. That way it'd make a bit more sense. Plus, it could be a chance for SoundWave and Barricade to get some cool moments, possibly ShockWave if they wanted to throw him in there.

Both DOTM and ROTF seemed like a bad DiY project where you start out all motivated to redo your bathroom and make it awesome and then getting burnt out halfway through and trying to finish it as fast as possible.

I agree with the above posters that it wasn't as bad as it was underwhelming considering there were so many things from the mythos that could have been included pretty obviously and some great opportunities for classic dialogue were missed. The first film had tons of little easter eggs for the fans, I don't see why the others couldn't have.

So while I'm at it I'm gonna throw in a couple grumblings from ROTF that I just was thinking about too.

1. I would have really liked a scene where we saw these new autobots arriving in ROTF or DOTM and with the other autobots at least identifying them so the GA won't be like "who was that?" the whole time. Maybe even have a little scene where NEST agents have to register them for security clearance or something. That brings me to my next point...

2. More robot characterization in general and trim the fat on the human aspects, but since everyone else has mentioned that already I'll move on.

3. I would like to know what happened to the surviving arcees, jolt and any others that were lost in the shuffle between films.

4. I would have set the beginning of DOTM a few months after ROTF not 3-4 years later.

5. I also would have liked to have seen Ratchet actually repair a comrade like his job description says. I get that some autobots were maybe too damaged like Jazz and Jetfire but I don't see why he couldn't have saved the damaged Arcees or something.

6. An autobot with an alt mode that is not a car or truck (laptop doesn't count)maybe powerglide or maybe even seaspray since the battle was at CHI around lake michigan.

7. less generic decepticons at least give them some vehicular characteristics instead of having all of them look like protoforms. i.e. The Dreads showed no characteristics of their vehicle mode while in robot mode.

8. Like I said above they should throw in more bits of classic dialogue and other references to past series. Even though most of us still tear up when we think about the autobot shuttle massacre, but I think they could have recreated it a little when the xantium was leaving or maybe even recreating it with jolt and the twins while they're on patrol on the dark side of the moon or something.

9. Speaking of the shuttle massacre... I think that it would have been so much more endearing to the audience if sentinel hadn't immediately finished ironhide off and when sentinel gets done wrecking the autobot base and is leaving to meet up with Megs, Ironhide crawls over and grabs his leg and begs him to stop, setinel would execute him after saying the "such heroic nonsense" line.

10. A little bit of retconning having Megs at least mention the fallen and the state of the decepticons and what happened to the Nemesis and why he's gone all emo-ish and stuff. Also, like one of the other posters mentioned, I liked the idea of megs betraying sentinel after sentinel gives him an order and I would include megs saying some of the defiant dialogue from the 86' movie when he's being ordered by galvatron.

Ok that's all... for now

I think it's fine that they kind of ignored the other movies.

Basically, much of what I would change has already been said.

I would definetly make an epic final battle between Prime and Megatron. I like Prime vs. Sentinel, but it did weaken Prime too much, at least for a proper battle with Megatron. The fact that Prime beat Megs with one arm is kinda dumb anyways. I think all the other bots should've teamed up against Sentinel and Shockwave, and Sentinel would be nearly dead. Then after killing Megatron, Optimus could've gone over to Sentinel who was in Autobot custody, and then the "This is for Ironhide" thing could've happened.

Instead of having Prime brutally destroy Megs, I'd have Megs and Optimus team up against Sentinel, followed by Megatron's truce offer being sincere, and Optimus allowing him to take the 'Cons back to Cybertron to rebuild it.

I feel like Prime brutally killing both Megs and Sentinel kind of defeats his whole "Freedom ... all sentient beings" thing.

The fights were way too short.

Megatron deserved a better death, or at least, a better fight leading up to his death.

Optimus's characterization was f***ed up.

I would have loved to see the Twins die.

Shockwave should have done more. He was just a waste of screen time.

I honestly would have preferred if the movie ended the way the book did.

I have other ideas, but I can't think of them right now.

Interesting to see everyones different views on how they would change DOTM. I think if anything, this proves that no matter who takes over in the next few years, people will always find something to change and that it will never full fill their expectations to their fullest. Their are alot of good ideas, a few not so good, and a few that would be good, but would probabaly require twice the budget. I'd love to see more robot time and dialoge, but that also means more animation and there for more money.
i would have given up the decepticon ships and the driller for more robots, but i know those were made for the general audience. General audience looses interest; money is lost. Alot of money. Its an unfortunte catch 22.

Skywarp64 wrote:Instead of having Prime brutally destroy Megs, I'd have Megs and Optimus team up against Sentinel, followed by Megatron's truce offer being sincere, and Optimus allowing him to take the 'Cons back to Cybertron to rebuild it.

I feel like Prime brutally killing both Megs and Sentinel kind of defeats his whole "Freedom ... all sentient beings" thing.

This. I know most people love the bloodthirsty, savage Optimus Prime portrayed in the movies, but to me, Optimus Prime is supposed to be like Superman, a hero, representing an ideal that we should all aspire to. A lot of heroes like this that are portrayed in media aren't necessarily realistic in their uncorrupitable nature, but to me that's part of the appeal.

In addition, I would have removed all the stupid humor, and I would have re-written the story so that it wouldn't conflict with the established continuity of the first two films.

And I would have included a lot more G1 characters. In place of the Dreads, I would have had maybe Breakdown, Wildrider, and Dead End. During the invasion, it would have been nice to see some more jets, like Thrust, Dirge, Thundercracker, Skywarp, and Ramjet.

irishking44 wrote:...some of the defiant dialogue from the 86' movie when he's being ordered by galvatron.

He wasn't ordered by Galavatron, he BECAME Galvatron. UNICRON was the one he answered to. (AND the one who turned him into Galvatron.)

Skywarp64 wrote:Instead of having Prime brutally destroy Megs, I'd have Megs and Optimus team up against Sentinel, followed by Megatron's truce offer being sincere, and Optimus allowing him to take the 'Cons back to Cybertron to rebuild it.

I feel like Prime brutally killing both Megs and Sentinel kind of defeats his whole "Freedom ... all sentient beings" thing.

My brother had the same idea, except he wanted to have ShockWave throw in his alliance with Sentinel for a 2vs2...not sure how much I like that bit, but it's interesting nonetheless. I really would've preferred Megatron NOT dying. It makes perfect sense why Prime killed him, I just think the overall ending would've been better had it not gone down that way.

zenosaurus_x wrote:One thing I noticed is throughout the movies it is a common complaint that the robots have no characterization. The first chance I noticed for an easy amount is the Africa scene.

That to me, was such a monumental waste. After years of ignominy in crap modes, finally, you see Megatron looking really good, really cool. The set up is so perfect, and you think YES! Megatron looking badass, Western bad ass. My mind was immediately fantasizing Megs-Prime showdown, a la Prime vs Motormaster, G1 style.

What a waste.

zenosaurus_x wrote:The other thing is I would've added ShockWave to that scene since he had the smallest amount of time out of anyone, he could even get some actual...lines.

Again a wasted set up. You see Shockwave making a grand entrance, Prime and he acknowledging each other like there's been a vendetta that's going to get closure, and then.... nothing!

zenosaurus_x wrote:Another thing was StarScream's death, which bugged me. Not just because Sam killed him but because of how ridiculous it was. It seems like after millions of years of war he would've just resorted to tearing the object out of his eye. He has shown he repairs pretty easily (he just stuck his severed arm back on in ROTF). Rather than dying by Sam's hand, it could be Ratchet! Why? Well, Ratchet doesn't get to do a lot in the movies, ever. This would've given him a chance to be awesome for once.

That part was just ridiculous. Just one eye sent him whining like a stuck pig? He should have been taken out by an Autobot. And yes I agree, preferably someone who was relatively obscure, like Ratchet, that you think would have no chance with Starscream, he's gonna die, then boom! Kinda like The Expendables, where you think that Steve Austin's gonna buy it at Stallone's hands, and maybe Statham's, and when he fights Randy you think maybe Randy's going to get killed. But surprise! It's Randy that kills him.

zenosaurus_x wrote:My last major thing is the end fight. I liked it overall, just not Megatron's part. I'd probably draw the fight out a bit more, have Megatron actually gain the upper hand before dying. After all, Optimus is at a severe disadvantage in this case, he shouldn't have one so easily.

Enough has been said about the ending and how ridiculous it is

That's probably the weirdest thing about the Movie, Wasted potential.
Thinking about it, it was probably for the sake of more human scenes. In my opinion, that hurt DOTM more than the other 2 films. I've never felt as bothered by the percentage of human scenes vs robot in the first two, only with DOTM.

zenosaurus_x: Watching all that potential go to waste is exactly what bothered me about DOTM too. And until DOTM rolled along, I also thought that the people working on the trilogy were frankly incapable of taking a serious approach to anything Transformers-related, ergo never once felt that the other two movies needed changing at all. Now, alas...

I’m even starting to wonder whether Sam even needed a girlfriend again. I mean, anything plot-related…Sam could have gone to work for the girlfriend’s creepy boss right from the start, no? It wouldn’t have taken much rewriting at all to make it work and would have freed up a LOT more screen time to devote to the bots. Such extra scenes don’t have to be all about them bashing each other, either. I’m actually happiest when aliens are filmed as though they’re just members of the character cast, not as special effects.

Then again, I'm not a guy. Would it have bothered any of you other fans if the Carley character were cut out of the movie entirely in favour of more time spent with the Transformers, even if said time was mostly just talking heads-type scenes? (Trying to stay realistic here and within a budget.)