Michael Bay Blog Update: Transformers 3

I'll be the first to say that I loved TF1. Definitely one of my favorite 2007 movies. There was a terrific balance of heart, action, mystery, fantasy, and humor (with a couple small exceptions). But man TF2 wasn't all that great. I'll buy the blu ray, but only for the action scenes and a couple of lines. The plot felt convoluted. Things that really needed to be explained were left unexplained. And most of all, the story just kind of tripped along as we went from scene to scene. It was 2 and a half hours of fart jokes intermingled with occasional scenes with Robots. That and the humor in this one was far too juvenile:

A kitchen-bot with a dong-gun.
Numerous fire-farting robots.
Dog on dog humping.
Jon Turturro's butt.
Racist robots.
Leo.

I could go on and on, but the point is, I think all of that was a result of Michael Bay. If he makes TF3, Michael needs to check his adolescent humor at the door and try and make something more in line with TF1.

Bay did not rape your childhood.. He is not the anti-christ...He not the %100 person to blame for some of the points you made.. He's just the easy choice lol.. The writing on ROTF was atrocious, Kurtzman and Orci were bad choices to write that flick, they should stick with fringe.. Not to mention this ridiculous style of directing Bay uses. The direct 50 setups a day is great for the studio and the guys writing the checks but ROTF suffered from it badly.. I think we can all agree that ROTF felt entirely too rushed.. Bay needs more time and a budget to go with it..

Before actually reading the article, I just saw "meeting with Steven Spielberg" and immediately hoped that it said:

Michael Bay wrote:Got call into a meeting with Steven Spielberg today and was told I won't be doing TF3 and that they'll be getting somebody competent to direct the next one...

Oh well, back to work on Bad Boys 3! 50 Cent and the Rock are gonna be in it and do all the music for it. The story is about these two guys with a jewel encrusted skull that's stolen by aliens who blow up the White House. So they fight their way around the world, shooting lots of terrorists in the desert because they're after the skull too, until they finally get to the aliens secret Island base of Alcatraz. But then the aliens use the skull to summon an asteroid to destroy the Earth. So Fifty and the Rock have to fly a top secret jet, that transforms into a penis, into space and drill a hole in the asteroid and then plant a giant nuke in it to blow it up. Then there's some sexy, naked, green alien chicks, and I still haven't figured out the rest, but it's gonna be AWESOME!

Was I the only person that thought that? Does that make me a bad person?

I never said Bay raped my childhood. Quite the opposite really. I didn't really get into Transformers until the first movie came out.

Besides, the whole Kurtzman Orci argument doesn't fly. Star Trek was excellent and was written by the same writing team. Even the writers were a little embarrassed by some of the, ummm, humor present in the film, but not the script. And let's not forget, a movie is like a train. If a train barrels off a cliff, who do you blame? The conductor. When a movie sucks, who do you blame? The director. He calls all the shots. And it's not like Bay is known for thought-provoking Dickensian story-lines outside of Transformers. The guy's known for three things: Car Chases, boobs, and fart jokes.

I just hope we wait for 2 years like between 2007 Movie and ROTF instead of 3 years for TF3.

Heres an idea, dont bother. Let this version of TF die. Nothing good can come of a 3rd one (well except hasbro making a shit load of money & thats why it will never die). With this track record its just going to be a bunch of 3rd grade toilet humor with a bunch of explosions, no talent actors and no plot once so ever. Unless he tries to make the 1st movie again(or just tries to make a real movie for once). That one sucked as a TF continuity but it at least stood up as a stand alone movie. ROTF was just pure garbage. If he is going to go through with a 3rd one then he better stay in tune with the fandom. But i doubt it since he already T-Baged us all with a giant frakin monkey bot. He might as well just flipped us off and been done with it. Im not even going to bother seeing the 3rd one. Ive lost enough brain cells as it is from the one viewing of ROTF.

Damn. The TF movie scene could use a new director and new writers IMO. It needs some freshening up and a new approach after TF2.

I know it did well at the box office, but I think that's mostly because people enjoyed TF1 and were hoping for more of that caliber (or better).

Having seen "Star Trek", I can't blame the writers too much for TF2. It's plain that they can write a good complex film. Therefore, I blame the Director for faults in TF2. That said, I still thoroughly enjoyed the movie and am looking forward to the third installation. Of course, I'm praying they'll use the third film to give us a mature, detailed, complex, and kick-ass story.

UltraPrimal wrote:Before actually reading the article, I just saw "meeting with Steven Spielberg" and immediately hoped that it said:

Michael Bay wrote:Got call into a meeting with Steven Spielberg today and was told I won't be doing TF3 and that they'll be getting somebody competent to direct the next one...

Oh well, back to work on Bad Boys 3! 50 Cent and the Rock are gonna be in it and do all the music for it. The story is about these two guys with a jewel encrusted skull that's stolen by aliens who blow up the White House. So they fight their way around the world, shooting lots of terrorists in the desert because they're after the skull too, until they finally get to the aliens secret Island base of Alcatraz. But then the aliens use the skull to summon an asteroid to destroy the Earth. So Fifty and the Rock have to fly a top secret jet, that transforms into a penis, into space and drill a hole in the asteroid and then plant a giant nuke in it to blow it up. Then there's some sexy, naked, green alien chicks, and I still haven't figured out the rest, but it's gonna be AWESOME!

Was I the only person that thought that? Does that make me a bad person?

Ha ha ha....this does not make you a bad person....just aware.

At the very least, I would say Speilberg would pass on Producer rites to Bay if he chose (or was instructed) not to direct the Third film just so the marketing team could tag his name to TF3. Kind of like they did with Friday the 13th. But I find it funny he would choose a winner like Bad Boys 3 over Transformers 3. That shows some interesting direction right there. I mean, the Bad Boys franchise surely is a giant to to go on par with the Transformers franchise right? Right?

If he does go through with it, I would prefer a 2011 release date verses the 2010 date I think Paramount announced. Even then, if you need that extra year, by all means take it buddy boy. But don't push up the release date just for the sake of Bad Boys 3. If thats the case I would strangle Paramount for "NOT" getting a replacement director.

Josh

Hokay, I hope they do not rush TF3.
2012 seems reasonable. More time to flesh out a better story.

I wonder if the producers ever look at this site...They might get some ideas! XD

Ah well, just in case, I'll post mine:

Extend both Jolt and Ratchet's roles - They had so little screen time. Jolt needs some lines, as well. Give him some good lines and develop his character. (Ratchet was even more underused in #2! As if his role was short enough in #1!)
Sideswipe - One word; MORE!
Give Soundwave a decent amount of action - As awesome as he was, he was missing out on the action, below! (I bet he was seething.) And bring him to Earth, too.
Unicron - Enough said.

The basic story could be that the Decepticons are really pissed because of their second defeat. As it happens, Unicron is approaching; Megatron makes a deal with Unicron and Soundwave tells Unicron of the humans' dependence on everything electronic. Soundwave then disables everything on Earth (as his toy bio suggests) and bring the continents to a standstill; global disruption (think 'Live Free or Die Hard', but bigger), so that Unicron can make an easy meal of Earth. The only thing standing in their way is a dedicated team of Autobots, as they try to get everything back up and running (thus, Jolt's role can be enlarged, instantly).

And then you have a basic underlying structure which would be centred around 'opposites':

Introduce Prowl - in his police car, he'd be a match for Barricade and it'd clear up Barricade's role.
Introduce Nemesis Prime - Optimus' evil twin and stick him in a Kenworth Truck; I have a photo of a sweet Kenworth cab and it looks so deliciously evil. Perfect match for Optimus.
Soundwave's Earth form - Possibly an F-35; basically an F-22 that hovers (if you know your Lockheed Martins), so he'd be a direct negative to Starscream (seeing as how Starscream is very deceptive behind Megatron's back and Soundwave is one of his most loyal soldiers).

Also, Soundwave could have his voice damaged and his vocal processors crudely repaired, making him sound more like his G1 counterpart...

Take 'em or lave 'em!

Orci and Kurtzman have been in the writing scene for quite a while. They wrote some very cool episodes of both Hercules and Xena back in the early days, then when went on to work on Alias and Fringe. In the movie scene, they both worked on Star Trek, Zorro, Mission Impossible 3, as well as many others.

Most, if not all of that work, had a moderate level of intelligent writing. I also cannot remember any scenes of blatant vulgarity just for the sake of being stupid vulgar. Xena and Hercules might have been silly at times, but that was for a comic effect, and they never pushed the envelope to the point of making the characters appear out and out disgusting.

So considering that knowledge, the main factor behind the wreck that was Transformers 2 was Michael Bay. Orci and Kurtzman created a plot line moments before the writers strike. And if you remember, during the strike, Bay said he "came up with ideas" during the strike so that he could start filming.

In discussion of what they felt TF2 was suppose to be like, Orci and Kurtzman had frequently discussed movies such as Empire Strikes Back, where the drama level gets amped up to the next level (and where the bad guys win at the end?), but I think we will all agree this is no Empire Strikes Back.

I would be very surprised if Orci and Kurtzman return to work on TF3 with Bay, because quite frankly, as a writer, I would be sickened to see my writing turned to excrement by such.

Look Micheal Bay did indeed rape my childhood. Both movies were travesties in different ways. The first raped the G1 plotlines, but delivered a good replacement story. The real problem was that Bays action sequences suck. The robots look like a maelstrom of metal when they fight and there is no choreography to speak of. This guy makes the worst action scenes in the buisness and still gets work. Also there was too much screentime given to the human characters and far to little to the actual stars of the movie.

ROTF was even worse at raping the original story and added insult by having a bad replacement story. I actually think despite the far inferior plot, ROTF was a better movie for me just because it actually involved the Transformers as more of characters though there is still far to little IMO. The large difference was that the action sequences were far and away better in ROTF. When the robots fight they do karate moves, judo throws, and other choreographed movements that the first movie lacked. I wasn't going into either of these movies expecting Gone With The Wind. ROTF actually delivered much more of what I was expecting, cool action scenes of robots kicking robot butt!

Still I would like to see something different for part 3, my thought is there are two directions to go. Forward gets you an escalation of the current plotline with Unicron coming into play and battles on an unprecidented scale. Backward (as in prequel) gets you more character developement and sets up a final movie much better. A prequel where we see the cybertronian plotlines send Megatron, Jetfire, Shockwave, The Dinobots and others to earth in a second attempt to harvest energon from the sun by searching for the primes, meanwhile Optimus and the Autobots battle Starscream back on Cybertron. This movie could also setup the legend of Unicron and Primus while introducing new characters and freeing the cannon of human influence so we can see some real action!

it should be intersting i read somewhere megan fox & m bay are having disagreeemnents wiht one another so if he does decidde ot do another transformers question is will we see megan fox or not or have her killed off, or replaced if these fights with fox & bay continues.

i would like him to do another i think te second one he listend to the fans to much if he did that & pout more action in it than what other poeple would have like to see it will be intersting to see who does make t3 if decides to reject the project.

Loved TF 1, loved TF 2 even MORE! But I do agree TF 3 needs less silly humor. As for plot, I really don't see what was wrong with ROTF. I understood what was going on. Did anyone see Rise of Cobra? Now THAT was utter crap. If people did like the story, then blame the writers. As for raping your childhood. I think animated did that not the movie.

omega666 wrote:Loved TF 1, loved TF 2 even MORE! But I do agree TF 3 needs less silly humor. As for plot, I really don't see what was wrong with ROTF. I understood what was going on. Did anyone see Rise of Cobra? Now THAT was utter crap. If people did like the story, then blame the writers. As for raping your childhood. I think animated did that not the movie.

I'm an aetheist, but not anymore. I now know that YOU are god sir! Lol but seriously, you've made the most sense I have ever heard from a fan.

I love most of the designs for the characters, and the uniqueness of the designs, like arcee and demolishor and so on, but the storylines could do with a bit of work, theyre not terrible, but some things sure need working on, especially the humour, and how Grindor came out of nowhere, and how devastator was useless, still, i cannot see where the third film will go, the only storyline i could think of would be including unicron.

oh and what happened to poor barricade

I always imagined barricade to be a bit like tarantulas, not crazy, but to act to his own accord and to have his own plans and motives

Wow! Plans for 2010 release?
I hope that's not true. They need more time.
As for the writers, I don't think it's their fault. TF2 was bad indeed, but c'mon I think Rise of Cobra was worse even though it didn't have the toilet humor.

About raping childhood, hmmm, did you see G1 when it was on tv? Or did you just download the episodes from piratbay? Anyway, G1 is G1, this is the Live Action adaptation there's a difference.
I actually like the action scenes, I think the humans need to be toned down a lot in the third movie. As for Unicron, I don't think writers can handle such a character for live action.

Hopefully they get another director, there are plenty of directors who can handle a comic/toy franchise, why does it have to be a Bad Boy?

I think Bay prefers doing Bad Boys 3 and will put more energy in that. So I wouldn't be suprised if TF3 is an even worse movie then TF2.

If Bay still does TF3, he needs to understand 3 things: Robots don't fart, Robots don't have sex (they combine and baby robots come from a shining gold discoball) and Combiners can't be defeated by human weapons!

PS. I really liked Megatron in TF2, his design was cooler however I didn't like him acting like a dog for The Fallen. Good thing he fought The Fallen in the video game

One thing needs to be made clear though, The third movie needs to be the last one. I'm sure I'm not the only one on this fourm who is getting sick & tired of reissues of the 2007 toys amped up and coloured for the ROTF line as well as a load of pointless repaints.

Besides the movie line is getting extremly boring and it has been going on for a while now that Animated is dead and buried.

Megatron Wolf wrote:Heres an idea, dont bother. Let this version of TF die. Nothing good can come of a 3rd one (well except hasbro making a shit load of money & thats why it will never die). With this track record its just going to be a bunch of 3rd grade toilet humor with a bunch of explosions, no talent actors and no plot once so ever. Unless he tries to make the 1st movie again(or just tries to make a real movie for once). That one sucked as a TF continuity but it at least stood up as a stand alone movie. ROTF was just pure garbage. If he is going to go through with a 3rd one then he better stay in tune with the fandom. But i doubt it since he already T-Baged us all with a giant frakin monkey bot. He might as well just flipped us off and been done with it. Im not even going to bother seeing the 3rd one. Ive lost enough brain cells as it is from the one viewing of ROTF.

You know, with as much as I love the designs and the toy line, and the bit of enjoyment the first film gave me, I gotta agree. This as a film franchise has been a train wreck. The best thing they can do now is sack Bay, Kurtzman, and Orci(cuz, no matter what they claim, they're just as responsible for these sh*tbombs cuz they wrote 'em), and reboot the franchise ala Batman or Punisher. Keep the designs, cuz they are good, but for the love anything and everything, get rid of the current team. Otherwise they'll keep reducing Transformers to lame fart and sex jokes.

i'm fine witht he movie, you can't epect everything to be the same as in cartoon to live action, and also the racist robots? one was played by a black guy and one was played by a white O_o how is that racist?

noctorro wrote:If Bay still does TF3, he needs to understand 3 things: Robots don't fart, Robots don't have sex (they combine and baby robots come from a shining gold discoball) and Combiners can't be defeated by human weapons!

What movie did you see, there was no robot sex of any kind in RotF.

D-340 wrote:

Megatron Wolf wrote:Heres an idea, dont bother. Let this version of TF die. Nothing good can come of a 3rd one (well except hasbro making a shit load of money & thats why it will never die). With this track record its just going to be a bunch of 3rd grade toilet humor with a bunch of explosions, no talent actors and no plot once so ever. Unless he tries to make the 1st movie again(or just tries to make a real movie for once). That one sucked as a TF continuity but it at least stood up as a stand alone movie. ROTF was just pure garbage. If he is going to go through with a 3rd one then he better stay in tune with the fandom. But i doubt it since he already T-Baged us all with a giant frakin monkey bot. He might as well just flipped us off and been done with it. Im not even going to bother seeing the 3rd one. Ive lost enough brain cells as it is from the one viewing of ROTF.

You know, with as much as I love the designs and the toy line, and the bit of enjoyment the first film gave me, I gotta agree. This as a film franchise has been a train wreck. The best thing they can do now is sack Bay, Kurtzman, and Orci(cuz, no matter what they claim, they're just as responsible for these sh*tbombs cuz they wrote 'em), and reboot the franchise ala Batman or Punisher. Keep the designs, cuz they are good, but for the love anything and everything, get rid of the current team. Otherwise they'll keep reducing Transformers to lame fart and sex jokes.

Yeah i will admit the toylines were pretty good. But the designs need some tweeking. I understand the need to make them look alien but all they look like is piles of scrap metal walking around. Most of the time you cant even tell what they turn into and when they transform parts just move around then poof alt mode. They dont even look real and wasnt that the original idea for the look? What they need to do is add more solid parts and actually think "when this robot transforms will it look real and make scence?" Thats another reason why i like the toys, they keep the basic "new" look but it all fits together and works. But like you said, They need to kill the franchise maybe wait a few years then reboot it with a new cast (keep the voice actors though well change bumblebee), a new production staff, change the look of the bots (combine the movie look with the standard G1 look)and try and pick a story line that will either be followed through all the movies or just have every movie a stand alone story. Out of all the TF franchises that have come along over the years bays version is the worst of em all. Id rather watch armada again then sit through another bayformer movie.

Megatron Wolf wrote:
Id rather watch armada again then sit through another bayformer movie.

Couldn't have said it better myself.

Evil_the_Nub wrote:

noctorro wrote:If Bay still does TF3, he needs to understand 3 things: Robots don't fart, Robots don't have sex (they combine and baby robots come from a shining gold discoball) and Combiners can't be defeated by human weapons!

What movie did you see, there was no robot sex of any kind in RotF.

Lol, I refered to the part where Wheelie has hormones. Which he doesn't, those are organic.

Well, if TF3 blows, I'm done, I'm just collecting the figures for the movie lines. The movies: Keep to the action, have a discernible and SENSIBILE plot and plot device, make all human scenes relevant to the plot and please, for the love of god, when you promise a darker overtone, DON'T ruin it with American Pie and... *Shudders* Leo!

I'll be honest I'm looking forward to at least enjoying the aesthetic sense of the second film in the comfort of home with a slightly higher screen resolution than that of my cinema. Watching a Linkin Park video last night on Sky HD+ made me think this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQR2zias9ek

Savage wrote:Having seen "Star Trek", I can't blame the writers too much for TF2. It's plain that they can write a good complex film. Therefore, I blame the Director for faults in TF2. That said, I still thoroughly enjoyed the movie and am looking forward to the third installation. Of course, I'm praying they'll use the third film to give us a mature, detailed, complex, and kick-ass story.

I don't know about Star Trek. Being familiar with the franchise, I felt the Trek movie was a bit dumb down in comparison with other Star Trek films. The time travel plot just didn't make sense in light of other time travel stories in the franchise. The whole cadet to captain of the FLAGSHIP was just hokey. More or less, I saw similar traits in both the recent Trek film and the Transformers movie. "Dumb-downed" works for Transfomers as I am familiar with how "laid back" the G1 cartoon was.

Honestly the biggest problem with RotF (imho) was the pacing of the movie. The first half progressed reasonable well, but once Jetfire does his giant info dump (talk about over exposition) they movie dragged on until the battle of the Pyramids with more than half an hour of filler. Another note for the third installment is this: avoid jargon. The fans will understand Energon, Matrix of Leadership, et al, but others wont with out that kind of horrible exposition that Jetfire does.

Oh, and if they use a pretender again, give it a more credible role as a spy. If Alice had 'joined' the group with Sam, Leo, and Mikaela, and followed them to Egypt until the right time to strike... far more interesting than an over-sexed college girl throwing herself at Sam before trying to kill him.

D-340 wrote:

Megatron Wolf wrote:
Id rather watch armada again then sit through another bayformer movie.

Couldn't have said it better myself.

You might just get your wish. I remember Lorenzo di Bonaventura, one of the producers, saying ther might be Mini-Cons in the 3rd film. Seriously.

Rodimus Prime wrote:You might just get your wish. I remember Lorenzo di Bonaventura, one of the producers, saying ther might be Mini-Cons in the 3rd film. Seriously.

So this really means that TF3 will really become a homage to Transformers Armada?
Why don't they just pay homage to the original Transformers series?

Rodimus Prime wrote:

D-340 wrote:

Megatron Wolf wrote:
Id rather watch armada again then sit through another bayformer movie.

Couldn't have said it better myself.

You might just get your wish. I remember Lorenzo di Bonaventura, one of the producers, saying ther might be Mini-Cons in the 3rd film. Seriously.

I'm telling you, it's going to be "Batteries Not Included" with dynamite.
Aw look at this cute little robot Sam? It looks so cuddly an-

BOOM

Bay knows how make money. I had no doubt in my mind that he would assume project control of a 3rd film.

These movies are designed to appeal to both fans and mass casual audiences. While its still a mixed bag.

Some love the first, hate the second. Some the other way around. Some hate both. Without being pretentious and giving a majority to any side. I just hope for another solid ballz to the wall movie. I think the first was the better movie but the second had more dark elements amongst what was noticeably more raunchy oriented comedic element.

For a 3rd film. I'd like them to go a bit more serious. I don't need Dark Knight EMO serious but I want a good movie. I want character deaths and deaths that are permanent. No more of this all spark nonsense.

No more human characters than the ones already there.

How DARE they discuss introducing a non G1 element, how DARE they! What is this, a diverse, ever-evolving brand that caters to the tastes of children!?

End sarcasm.

Blurrz wrote:G1 sucks.

BLASPHEMER!!!!

He he he, sorry had to do it before all the hoop lah.
Up up and away!

mini-cons? I thought the kitchen bots, wheelie, and the doctor WERE the mini-cons!

Grendel wrote:mini-cons? I thought the kitchen bots, wheelie, and the doctor WERE the mini-cons!

Me too.
What's going on here?

UltraPrimal wrote:Before actually reading the article, I just saw "meeting with Steven Spielberg" and immediately hoped that it said:

Michael Bay wrote:Got call into a meeting with Steven Spielberg today and was told I won't be doing TF3 and that they'll be getting somebody competent to direct the next one...

Oh well, back to work on Bad Boys 3! 50 Cent and the Rock are gonna be in it and do all the music for it. The story is about these two guys with a jewel encrusted skull that's stolen by aliens who blow up the White House. So they fight their way around the world, shooting lots of terrorists in the desert because they're after the skull too, until they finally get to the aliens secret Island base of Alcatraz. But then the aliens use the skull to summon an asteroid to destroy the Earth. So Fifty and the Rock have to fly a top secret jet, that transforms into a penis, into space and drill a hole in the asteroid and then plant a giant nuke in it to blow it up. Then there's some sexy, naked, green alien chicks, and I still haven't figured out the rest, but it's gonna be AWESOME!

Was I the only person that thought that? Does that make me a bad person?

That would be an awesome movie, I would so watch that.

omega666 wrote:Loved TF 1, loved TF 2 even MORE! But I do agree TF 3 needs less silly humor. As for plot, I really don't see what was wrong with ROTF. I understood what was going on. Did anyone see Rise of Cobra? Now THAT was utter crap. If people did like the story, then blame the writers. As for raping your childhood. I think animated did that not the movie.

Wow, now I believe aliens exist, because I think the exact opposite:
- Animated was the best show since Beast Wars, it had the characters of G1 and the personality-writing of BW
- Rise of the Cobra was an excellent movie, I loved it. Character development and backstories used as they must.
- TF 1 was a good movie, not bad, not awesome, but good, with some excellent scenes - TF2, however was a clusterf*ck. Reused dead characters' CG models, minimum screnetime for each robot, and the worst humor and directing of movie-history

There was a Movie Theater-Fest last week here, when you could watch movies for half price - I watched Rise of Cobra again, but couldn't get myself to watch RotF.