The Energon Pub

News Credits: 1014 · by **First Gen** » Fri Apr 03, 2009 12:29 am

In a recent report, Reel Movies got some insight on the production experience with Director Michael Bay from Transformers Revenge of the Fallen's visual effects supervisor Matthew Butler.

In the report Butler stated:"He's brilliant, but he's a challenge....he's incredibly fast-paced. He's a whirlwind to keep up with, both on the set and in post... [Bay] took the production value up many, many notches. Just the backgrounds alone are huge. It's a combination of Apocalypse Now and Ben-Hur, in regards to fantastic backgrounds and the unbelievable sets we worked at around the world."

Aside from Mr. Butlers descriptions of the great detail the filming backdrops contain another interesting note was added to the end of the report. According to Reel Movies, there are over 60 robot characters in the movie. A substantial amount more than the projected 20 bots we reported here.

You can view the original post on this here.

by **Mr. Autoboto** » Fri Apr 03, 2009 12:38 am

...And more than half of these will be cannon fodder, nothing more (besides a reason to make toys, of course).

News Credits: 402 · by **Mkall** » Fri Apr 03, 2009 1:34 am

Well, this means that this line is going to last forever (1 figure per character, and then at least 2 repaints of that figure.)

News Credits: 8 · by **Megatron Wolf** » Fri Apr 03, 2009 2:55 am

jump the shark any one? Yeah this movie is going to suck and pretty damn sure be hard to follow.

News Credits: 9 · by **Mykltron** » Fri Apr 03, 2009 3:17 am

We already knew this. One of the cast said in an interview that there are 4 times as many robots in this film. As the original had 13, 13 x 4 = very nearly 60. So this news is not a surprise.

Megatron_Wolf wrote:jump the shark any one? Yeah this movie is going to suck and pretty damn sure be hard to follow.

Why do you think it'll suck? The toyline will, cos they'll all be rushed through the design process but I think they spent long enough writing the script to make it good. After winning awards for the CGI they won't skimp on this one.

News Credits: 3 · by **Serpent O - R** » Fri Apr 03, 2009 3:22 am

Jump the Shark? It's only season 2... If they do that now how will they convince the world that a boy can put on armor that will power the super weapon that will destroy the TF equivalent of god?

C'mon, in part 3 we have to 'suspend disbelief' long enough to accept that Megatron is actually Primes step brother and the reason for their conflict emerges from an energon dispute in deepest darkest seibertron because unicron ordered the death of all tf's for not turning over the location of the sacred matrix location. but unicron found it anyway and tricked prime into having the matrix installed to defeat megatron for killing the other members of the council, when in actuality megs was following the orders of unicron to steal spark fragments from the council to create the ultimate tf, lockdown...

or something like that, i think... i don't know where i heard that...

[edit- i'm such an a-hole]

by **Doubledealer93** » Fri Apr 03, 2009 7:24 am

well i am not going to be able to save any money. only for TFs :-(

i am not buying any repaints in this line. too many not worth the money.

by **Uber Galvatron** » Fri Apr 03, 2009 8:23 am

Oh good.
More robots = More figures = More annoying repaints = EVEN MORE repaints = An even LONGER lasting toyline = Good-Bye Animated

Whose wanting to bet that most of these characters will just be generic people in the backround with no resemblance to the plot?

News Credits: 3 · by **Autobot Firestorm** » Fri Apr 03, 2009 8:37 am

Mr. Autoboto wrote:...And more than half of these will be cannon fodder, nothing more (besides a reason to make toys, of course).

If this is true, hopefully those character that are killed off aren't ones that would have made for cool characters in future movies. With 'Swipe in this one, I had been hoping 'Streaker would be in TF3. I also thought Hound, Mirage, Ramjet, Thundercracker, Laserbeak, etc. would be cool to see on the big screen as well.

News Credits: 1 · by **Solrac333** » Fri Apr 03, 2009 11:44 am

AWESOME! The more robots the better. Of course they'll be canon fodder. What part of robots fighting a WAR is hard to understand? As for the toys, I think I will only buy a select few this time around.

by **jedigrimlock** » Fri Apr 03, 2009 12:19 pm

i think this is going to be interesting. i all ready had a feeling that there are going to be different things going on at once *thoe whole op fighting demolisher in some asian area and seeing parts in Giza then seeing sam in college*. i just hope they dont cram it in like in spider man 3. im thinking they are going to focus on the main characters *the main names we know so far*, then just bring them in towards the middle and end. all out war with lots of bots for the third movie maybe? im thinking something like x-men 3 where they bring in lots of characters for war, then have them fight at the end, then leave more room for the sequel. then again, who knows

by **Primus C-00** » Fri Apr 03, 2009 12:45 pm

Serpent O - R wrote:Jump the Shark? It's only season 2... If they do that now how will they convince the world that a boy can put on armor that will power the super weapon that will destroy the TF equivalent of god?

C'mon, in part 3 we have to 'suspend disbelief' long enough to accept that Megatron is actually Primes step brother and the reason for their conflict emerges from an energon dispute in deepest darkest seibertron because unicron ordered the death of all tf's for not turning over the location of the sacred matrix location. but unicron found it anyway and tricked prime into having the matrix installed to defeat megatron for killing the other members of the council, when in actuality megs was following the orders of unicron to steal spark fragments from the council to create the ultimate tf, lockdown...

or something like that, i think... i don't know where i heard that...

[edit- i'm such an a-hole]

What?

The?

Hell?

Are you talking about?

:shock:

News Credits: 10 · by **Lapse Of Reason** » Fri Apr 03, 2009 2:27 pm

So much for more robot character development!

Hopefully it ends up to be something like a major battle between the known characters, with an ending where two shiploads of other bots are flying into the frey as lead-in to part 3.

by **Rated X** » Sat Apr 04, 2009 5:08 am

Well this rumor just leads to another question...How many of these 60 robots will actually be cool ??? When I say "cool" I mean robots that dont have wheels for feet, gremlin like faces, walk with a cane, or transform into a household appliance that nobody cares about.Im in favor of quality...not quanity.

Peace

News Credits: 2 · by **First-Aid** » Sat Apr 04, 2009 2:47 pm

Mykltron wrote:
Megatron_Wolf wrote:Yeah this movie is going to suck and pretty damn sure be hard to follow.

Why do you think it'll suck?

Go back and look at his posts. he has yet to say anything positive about this movie or the last one. I suspect a case of "Bay ruined my childhood" syndrome or It's-not-G1-itis. But that's just my professional medical opinion.

News Credits: 1 · by **TRANS+CRAZY** » Sun Apr 05, 2009 1:02 pm

WHAT?! Over 60 Robots in ROTF?! I thought there was only going to be around 40.

News Credits: 1 · by **YRQRM0** » Mon Apr 06, 2009 5:59 pm

That's bad news. Sure, the more action the better, but if they have to render sixty robots with a hundred parts each, It's gonna look fake. They're not gonna spend enough time I'm worried. Plus, they'll be no character developement for anyone, except MAYBE Starscream, I hope.

by **syphonn** » Tue Apr 07, 2009 2:14 pm

It'll probably be a cybertron flashback, during one of their wars where they show 40 robots on screen ... I hope.

by **Siren Prime** » Tue Apr 07, 2009 6:46 pm

That many? Doesn't really surprise me.

Prime did send a message that said to ALL Autobots that could hear him. Who knows how many that could have been.

And we KNOW Starscream went for reinforcements.