The Energon Pub

Sun Aug 14, 2011 10:54 am

Just wanted to throw something out there-

What is your all's least favorite depiction of a character in the films? It can be looks, personality, the way they talk, their alt modes, screen time, etc.

For me I'd have to go with Devastator in ROTF. When I heard he was going to be in the movie I was so excited. Then I saw the movie and was disappointed to say the least. I think they should have kept Devastator for DOTM and had him tearing up the city (can you imagine?!!) And his vortex mouth? What's up with that? Don't get me started on his eh...undercarriage.

What do you all think?

Sun Aug 14, 2011 11:46 am

To my understanding, Que in DOTM was supposed to be Wheeljack. If so, then hands down I think that was the worst translation of a character.

The real problem is that, if it wasn't Optimus or Bumblebee, there wasn't much character representation to speak of.

Sun Aug 14, 2011 11:56 am

the greatest problem I have with bayformers is the lack of character development or chracter in general. If you view the films as stand alones, without any knowledge on the characters from other continuities, there simpls ISN'T much characterisation other that of optimus, bumblebee and megatron.
all other characters are... dull. they could be describes with one word mostly, which is sad...

Sun Aug 14, 2011 2:52 pm

Mizuno wrote:the greatest problem I have with bayformers is the lack of character development or chracter in general. If you view the films as stand alones, without any knowledge on the characters from other continuities, there simpls ISN'T much characterisation other that of optimus, bumblebee and megatron.
all other characters are... dull. they could be describes with one word mostly, which is sad...

it wasnt just high concept

it was stratospherically high concept, where every character aside from optimus, bee, megatron, and at stretch soundwave and lazerbeak had any development, or even lines for that matter

Sun Aug 14, 2011 3:50 pm

I think it's funny that people complain there isn't any character development, then they list a bunch of exceptions. Everyone can't be the star of the show.

I was disappointed with Shockwave though. He's always been one of my favorites and I was hoping for more of him in the movie.

Sun Aug 14, 2011 4:56 pm

I guess you could at least have developed ONE more if bay would have less "sexy" shots of either mikeala or carly, and ONE more for any jokes like "wheelie humping mikaelas leg" or showing an "kitchen-former in roft with a penis cannon" left out, and ONE for the unnecessary explosions (some are fine, but half the film of it, is just bad).
Just my two cents. Overall I think with all the playtime of the films there could be just a bit more character development. Chracter develpoment is what every TF series so far has a great drawing factor for me (like the new prime series). I'm not stating that the movies where bad, just that they were a bit...frustrating on the character development level.
I for one would have seen Starscream, Ironhide or or Ratchet more developed as they have been more or less in all the 3 movies.

Sun Aug 14, 2011 5:24 pm

Mizuno wrote:I guess you could at least have developed ONE more if bay would have less "sexy" shots of either mikeala or carly, and ONE more for any jokes like "wheelie humping mikaelas leg" or showing an "kitchen-former in roft with a penis cannon" left out, and ONE for the unnecessary explosions (some are fine, but half the film of it, is just bad).
Just my two cents. Overall I think with all the playtime of the films there could be just a bit more character development. Chracter develpoment is what every TF series so far has a great drawing factor for me (like the new prime series). I'm not stating that the movies where bad, just that they were a bit...frustrating on the character development level.
I for one would have seen Starscream, Ironhide or or Ratchet more developed as they have been more or less in all the 3 movies.

I can agree with that. I would have liked to see more of Arcee and Sideswipe in RotF instead of Skids and Mudflap. I liked the twins, but I would have rather seen kick-ass characters than comic relief characters.

Sun Aug 14, 2011 6:12 pm

Evil_the_Nub wrote:
Mizuno wrote:I guess you could at least have developed ONE more if bay would have less "sexy" shots of either mikeala or carly, and ONE more for any jokes like "wheelie humping mikaelas leg" or showing an "kitchen-former in roft with a penis cannon" left out, and ONE for the unnecessary explosions (some are fine, but half the film of it, is just bad).
Just my two cents. Overall I think with all the playtime of the films there could be just a bit more character development. Chracter develpoment is what every TF series so far has a great drawing factor for me (like the new prime series). I'm not stating that the movies where bad, just that they were a bit...frustrating on the character development level.
I for one would have seen Starscream, Ironhide or or Ratchet more developed as they have been more or less in all the 3 movies.

I can agree with that. I would have liked to see more of Arcee and Sideswipe in RotF instead of Skids and Mudflap. I liked the twins, but I would have rather seen kick-ass characters than comic relief characters.

I also agree. Sideswipe and Dino should have had more character development/lines then being just transformers in the background.

Sun Aug 14, 2011 8:48 pm

Movie one - I liked all of them
Movie Two - Scalpel, Wheelie, Devastator
Movie Three - Well, they could've gotten a better voice for Laserbeak, but other than that they're all good.... well, of course, there's Igor...

Sun Aug 14, 2011 10:11 pm

To me, Michael Bay's TF films remind me of Toho's many Godzilla series. Very heavy on human plot, weak on Monsters. It was handled very poorly after Rotf. Dotm copied the same formula as Rotf although it was better (new villian, megs 2nd in command again etc) maybe bumblebee? let the F'er talk! Hes not Wreckgar! Soundwave unreckonizable in dotm. I could go on and on

Sun Aug 14, 2011 11:44 pm

Hm, I'd say Kway/WheelJack...I sometimes pronounce the "Que" like that for no reason...
That's probably the one time I prefer the G1 appearance over the movies, no wait, second. Not a big fan of The Fallen's design. It wasn't bad, but his bulky G1 design was better in my opinion.

News Credits: 1 · Mon Aug 15, 2011 1:31 am

Dreamwave Fallen has a horrible design IMO. At first, I was really bummed it turned out to be 'that' the Fallen.

IMO Sideswipe is a massive fail. ALl the hype, none of the, well, anything. Yeah, he splits Sideways. That's about it.

News Credits: 1 · Mon Aug 15, 2011 6:00 am

Mizuno wrote:I guess you could at least have developed ONE more if bay would have less "sexy" shots of either mikeala or carly, and ONE more for any jokes like "wheelie humping mikaelas leg" or showing an "kitchen-former in roft with a penis cannon" left out, and ONE for the unnecessary explosions (some are fine, but half the film of it, is just bad).

Exactly what I felt but more for the transformer-centric shots.

Michael Bay commented on when they ran out of time, or money, and how he's really like to have done more, for example in the final battle in ROTF.

And then I watch the movies again, and I see pointless stuff like the kitchen scene, leg humping Wheelie, and others I'd rather forget, and I'm mentally calculating this time/money/animation could have been saved
for this, for that, etc.

I have nothing against the scene with Mikaela bending over though... because it doesn't waste CGI-animation money :lol:

News Credits: 22 · Mon Aug 15, 2011 7:14 am

Starscream.

poopy design, poopy character, nonexistent development. Total waste of screen time and CGI.

Shockwave at least looked cool. And Devastator had 1 single good thing to him, his combination. Right after he was together, though, he went straight to hell.

But Starscream was already there.

Mon Aug 15, 2011 10:23 pm

RhA wrote:Dreamwave Fallen has a horrible design IMO. At first, I was really bummed it turned out to be 'that' the Fallen.

IMO Sideswipe is a massive fail. ALl the hype, none of the, well, anything. Yeah, he splits Sideways. That's about it.

Eh I don't know I liked it. I don't dislike ROTF's Fallen anyways, it's just...different.
Oddly, everyone seems to dislike StarScream's design, I really like it.

News Credits: 4 · Tue Aug 16, 2011 12:43 am

I cant decide, so i'm going to use a chart:

Worst Character Development: Megatron, Starscream, Jazz, Mirage.
Worst Screentime: Three way Tie between The Fallen (main antagonists my...), Shockwave, and Megatron
Worst Altmode: Alice (pretenders just don't fit in the movie-verse)
Worst Design (robot mode): Igor (WTF)and D@#$ Bot ( :BANG_HEAD:

)
Worst Voice: Bumblebee (I wished he actually talked after the first movie)
Worst Role: Ratchet, and Shockwave

News Credits: 101 · Tue Aug 16, 2011 5:19 am

I hated Movie Starscream's desing at first. But when I got the HftD Leader Starscream, he quickly grew on me.
>picture related
My only regret is he did not have enough screen time and character devlopment. All of the movies should have focused less on humans and more on the 'bots.

Tue Aug 16, 2011 8:49 am

Kanrabat- wrote:My only regret is he did not have enough screen time and character devlopment. All of the movies should have focused less on humans and more on the 'bots.

even the humans have nearly none character development. (aside from sam, and even he just to a small degree) its sad, really ;_;

Tue Aug 16, 2011 12:18 pm

some driods in one scene in Star Wars have more character

Sat Oct 08, 2011 7:34 pm

Sideways. I would of loved to see him mess around with the 'bots and the 'cons on which side he is on.

News Credits: 1 · Sat Oct 08, 2011 7:44 pm

I say Carly was the worst character ever. I mean, her personality wasn't even like it was in G1. She use to be such a nut for the Autobots. She didn't hate them like in the movies. She also would of ended up going out with Bumblebee if she had the chance, ever before Sam. And I'm sure she would of too. And she was actually smart, not some dumb model who is **** the director.

Sat Oct 08, 2011 8:30 pm

Shockwave. Partially because he had no lines, partially because he was just so different from his awesome movie comics interpretation.

News Credits: 1 · Thu Oct 13, 2011 1:25 am

Shockwave, I guess.

He resembles his G1 look closely enough, but his characterization is about as flat as a can of opened beer from last week. The Driller does nothing to compliment the character at all.

While I know movieverse is it's own continuity does NOT have to follow G1 in any way, at least make his status and rank in the Decepticon army more prominent. If he's meant to be some bad-ass general/soldier/warrior, then have OP or some of the Autobots mention some of his past atrocities.

While there are certainly other TF's who were left unexplored, Shockwave is the most glaring example, as his inclusion in the movie has been hyped to such a point that you expect a lot from it. Sadly, he was just there for cosmetic reasons.

At least in the case of Soundwave, he was still the Decepticons' intelligence and communications officer.

News Credits: 101 · Thu Oct 13, 2011 4:49 pm

SKYWARPED_128 wrote:Shockwave, (...)

tl;dr

He sucked.

Yeah... He was very disapointing. I don't mind the way he died. But he should have transformed a few times and he should be made clear he was a commander of sort. Yet, he was just the fourth Dread.