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[Burn]

I've watched the trailer twice.

Both times I've been left unimpressed. There's a lot about it I don't like.

But it's not for me. And from the comments I've seen here, on Facebook, and on Twitter, it's appealing to a lot of people. So that's fine.

I'll make the effort to see it, it's Transformers, of course I'm going to consume it, and hey, I may end up enjoying it, who knows, I've only seen the trailer and that's a far cry from the entirity of the movie.

[Tyrannacon]

My reaction to this has been a bit weird and varied, on one hand, I have that optimistic aspect of my fandom I get excited whenever there's any kind of new media to consume and ultimately absorb. My slightly more negative slant to my point of view is regarding how drastic the vocal characterizations are from both Peter Cullen's and Frank Welker's performances. Chris Hemsworth and Brian Tyree Henry are great actors, but they sound nothing like what Orion Pax and Megatron should sound like here in this. They lack the familiar hallmark of those characters' voices and it seems the characterizations just frankly, don't match at all.

I think that's the reason why I have a slightly negative slant towards it because I would've preferred some attempt in the voices to sound similar to what would be Peter Cullen's or Frank Welker's vocals for their characters albeit younger sounding. At least the War for Cybertron Netflix series made an earnest attempt at that, which you know...says a lot. Transformers One does not attempt this though, whatsoever.

It's not so much the fact they're changing the origin story yet again. They've done a different origin story more times than I can count already, it's like Optimus Prime dying and coming back to life level of being done and back, a hallmark of the series. It's the voices I have an issue with and why I'm a little less enthusiastic about the film. The characters sound more like the actors voicing them than the character's they're supposed to be and that is honestly terrible. I'll give it a chance, but out of the door here and now we're not off to a great start and it will impact my overall stance on the film.

[Sabrblade]

I don't disagree about the notion of casting celebrities over regular voice actors who do this kind of work for a living. That's always gonna be irksome for fans of voice-over acting.

But, to be fair to Chris Hemsworth's Orion Pax not sounding like Peter Cullen, the original Orion Pax sounded nothing like Peter Cullen either, as he was voiced by Laurie Faso.

[Deadput]

I just chuckle at the idea that people actually thought we were going to get the rather grim/serious War For Cybertron/Fall Of Cybertron games but on the big screen for an entire movie.

Video Games are not movies, they typically last for more hours and are aimed at more niche (by comparison) audiences that are usually lone-adults or teenagers unless your like Nintendo which even then doesn't exclusively do kids games.

Movies like these are for a wider audience such as families including children and parents who typically aren't going to relish watching a WFC/FOC movie or otherwise get upset at taking their kids to such things.

The Cybertron games also happened in a past era where games were cheaper to make compared to now, which is part of why we haven't gotten any big video game for a long time and part of why I presume Transformers Online, uh I mean Rise, oh actually I mean Reactivate is currently struggling with it's development.

As silly as the idea is to consider, I don't believe this franchise is exactly big/successful enough to warrant that kind of film as of now, and unless Hasbro/Paramount turn things around that ain't gonna happen any time soon in any of our live times.

[partholon]

anyone remember this from 16 YEARS AGO.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KN5RkRYsru0&t=333s

Cause thats what we SHOULD be getting

[Sabrblade]

anyone remember this from 16 YEARS AGO.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KN5RkRYsru0&t=333s

Cause thats what we SHOULD be getting

No thank you.

[AllNewSuperRobot]

anyone remember this from 16 YEARS AGO.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KN5RkRYsru0&t=333s

Cause thats what we SHOULD be getting

No thank you.

Agreed. I couldn't even finish watching the video. Let alone a film based on that.

[-Kanrabat-]

anyone remember this from 16 YEARS AGO.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KN5RkRYsru0&t=333s

Cause thats what we SHOULD be getting

No thank you.

Agreed. I couldn't even finish watching the video. Let alone a film based on that.

A movie based on the IDW Megatron's Origins would be much, much more interesting than this War Within thing.

[AllNewSuperRobot]

A movie based on the IDW Megatron's Origins would be much, much more interesting than this War Within thing.

Yes it would. But much like the backpeddling IDW did with it. Some people didn't like the idea of the Autobots being the villains of the story.

[Sabrblade]

And Megatron Origin was originally supposed to be a Dreamwave story related to War Within, before IDW resurrected it and reworked it to fit their continuity better.

[AllNewSuperRobot]

It also worked better narratively with IDW than most of Dreamwave's output.

[Sabrblade]

And if we really wanna talk gladiator Megatron origin stories, there's the OG granddaddy of them all: Marvel UK's legendary "State Games" by the one and only James Hill.

[Sabrblade]

From the man himself:

[DeathReviews]

They're all reading a sign.
Pax: "It says... if you can read this, you're a big ugly.... HEY!"

[muddyjoe]

That looks like a big plate of hot garbage and the voices just don't work. This feels too much like those last two cringe-worthy Thor movies.

You mean the Thor movie that is arguably a top-5 movie in the MCU? Ragnarok?

A "top-5 movie in the MCU" is the equivalent of being the smartest kid on the short bus. Ragnarok started ok, but went to slag pretty quick... Tutti-fruity Wattusi is about as crappy a movie-maker as Michael Bay, M. Night-Shama-lama-ding-dong or Rob Zombie.

[Tyrannacon]

I don't disagree about the notion of casting celebrities over regular voice actors who do this kind of work for a living. That's always gonna be irksome for fans of voice-over acting.

But, to be fair to Chris Hemsworth's Orion Pax not sounding like Peter Cullen, the original Orion Pax sounded nothing like Peter Cullen either, as he was voiced by Laurie Faso.

True, I concede on that point. Laurie Faso sounded nothing like Peter Cullen in War Dawn.

Touching on Deadput's point. I don't think I was expecting something on the same level as those games, a 1-to-1 adaptation of them, or even that tie-in novel that was done. I also wasn't expecting the trailer to portray the origin story for Optimus and Megatron like a "buddy comedy" gone off the rails either. I am still cautiously optimistic despite the issues. They aren't deal breakers in so much as just "Okay, this is way different than what we got before." I know both Cullen and Welker are getting older and closer to retirement, so I understand the logistical reasons why they won't or don't want to voice younger versions of their characters. I think both Hemsworth and Henry should have made a more distinct effort to give a performance where you recognize who these characters were or are going to become.

[Sabrblade]

I know both Cullen and Welker are getting older and closer to retirement, so I understand the logistical reasons why they won't or don't want to voice younger versions of their characters. I think both Hemsworth and Henry should have made a more distinct effort to give a performance where you recognize who these characters were or are going to become.

To be a little fair to Henry, it's not as if Megatron has really had that much vocal consistency in the past 40 years.

• G1 cartoon: Frank Welker made him sound like a scratchy-throated geezer.
• TFTM (Galvatron): Leonard Nimoy made him sound like, well, an evil Leonard Nimoy.
• G1 cartoon (Galvatron): Frank Welker changed his voice to make him sound like a high-pitched raving madman.
• RID 2001: Daniel Riordan made him sound like a different high-pitched raving madman with a hint of Robert Axelrod's Lord Zedd in his voice.
• Unicron Trilogy: David Kaye made him sound like a grumpier, less charismatic version of Beast Wars Megatron.
• Movies 1-3: Hugo Weaving made him sound like a generic, deep-voiced angry man.
• Animated: Corey Burton made him sound like a grumpy impression of Sir John Hurt.
• Cyber Missions: Tony Gialluca II made him sound like an impression of Hugo Weaving's Megatron.
• WFC/FOC/ROTDS: Fred Tatasciore also made him sound like an impression of Hugo Weaving's Megatron, but a little higher-pitched.
• Prime: No longer able to do the scratchy-throated geezer voice, Welker made him instead sound more like a deeper-voiced Bond villain but with his own occasional bouts of raving madness.
• AOE/TLK: Welker again altered his voice to make him sound deeper but also more robotic and inhuman, more alien, and still very angry.
• Prime Wars Trilogy: Jason Marnocha made him sound like a wonderful impression of the snarky Universal Studios walkaround Megatron character, and even a bit like Bernard Erhard's snarky Cy-Kill from Challenge of the Go-Bots (though, I sure these were both unintentional).
• Cyberverse: Marc Thompson made him sound like a halfway medium between Hugo Weaving's Megatron and Welker's Prime Megatron.
• Netflix WFCT: Jason Marnocha changed his Megatron voice to sound deeper, grumpier, and nowhere near as snarky as before.
• EarthSpark: Rory McCann made him sound a LOT less angry and, well, Scottish.

Conversely, a majority of Optimus Prime's voice actors have been either Peter Cullen, Garry Chalk, or Peter Cullen impressionists (Neil Kaplan, Eric Edwards, Jon Bailey, Jake Foushee, and Hiro Diaz). The only real vocal deviation in Optimus Prime voice actors has come from David Kaye's younger Optimus in Animated and Alan Tudyk's unique Optimus in EarthSpark.

[Glyph]

TBH Hemsworth's Orion sounds largely on point to me - the "I accept those terms!" bit stood out.
I strongly suspect Henry's performance of D-16 is going to change a lot as he becomes Megatron, but can't argue that D-16 is the most jarringly unexpected* voice in the trailer.

And re Cullen/Welker "can't/won't do it any more", I think it's clear that the studio was going for name-recognition actors rather than seasoned VAs. Which is its own issue, but bears remembering.

(*And obviously there's an aspect to D-16 and B-127's vocal characterisation where I have to pause and ask if it's actually objectionable, or am I just showing an unacknowledged bias...)

[First-Aid]

TBH Hemsworth's Orion sounds largely on point to me - the "I accept those terms!" bit stood out.
I strongly suspect Henry's performance of D-16 is going to change a lot as he becomes Megatron, but can't argue that D-16 is the most jarringly unexpected* voice in the trailer.

And re Cullen/Welker "can't/won't do it any more", I think it's clear that the studio was going for name-recognition actors rather than seasoned VAs. Which is its own issue, but bears remembering.

(*And obviously there's an aspect to D-16 and B-127's vocal characterisation where I have to pause and ask if it's actually objectionable, or am I just showing an unacknowledged bias...)

At the end when Hemsworth says "We all stand together...as one." The last section 'as one' I've listened to over and over again and damned if that doesn't sound almost exactly like Cullen. Makes me wonder if there is a transition to Cullen at some point.

[Brokebot]

A "top-5 movie in the MCU" is the equivalent of being the smartest kid on the short bus. Ragnarok started ok, but went to slag pretty quick... Tutti-fruity Wattusi is about as crappy a movie-maker as Michael Bay, M. Night-Shama-lama-ding-dong or Rob Zombie.

That post is better written than the scripts of the last 3 MCU movies.

[-Kanrabat-]

A "top-5 movie in the MCU" is the equivalent of being the smartest kid on the short bus. Ragnarok started ok, but went to slag pretty quick... Tutti-fruity Wattusi is about as crappy a movie-maker as Michael Bay, M. Night-Shama-lama-ding-dong or Rob Zombie.

That post is better written than the scripts of the last 3 MCU movies.

Savage!

[william-james88]

[*]G1 cartoon (Galvatron): Frank Welker changed his voice to make him sound like a high-pitched raving madman.

He sounded like the wicked witch of the west

[Sabrblade]

[*]G1 cartoon (Galvatron): Frank Welker changed his voice to make him sound like a high-pitched raving madman.

He sounded like the wicked witch of the west

Nah, you're thinking of Barbara Goodson's Rita Repulsa voice.

[AllNewSuperRobot]

[*]G1 cartoon (Galvatron): Frank Welker changed his voice to make him sound like a high-pitched raving madman.

He sounded like the wicked witch of the west

It suited the personality shift from the merciless, calculating leader who would have ended the Great War with Decepticon victory. To one fuelled by utter insanity.

[Sabrblade]

[*]G1 cartoon (Galvatron): Frank Welker changed his voice to make him sound like a high-pitched raving madman.

He sounded like the wicked witch of the west

It suited the personality shift from the merciless, calculating leader who would have ended the Great War with a giant purple griffin. To one fuelled by utter insanity.

FTFY