Transformers 4 & 5 to Film Back to Back with Jason Statham?

Don't know how I feel about this...

Ahahahahaha, let's hope this is not true. It's funny, I'm actually laughing at Michael Bay returning more than Jason Statham's rumored casting. I knew he wasn't stupid enough to walk away from the never ending gold mine that is the Transformer movie series. Would love to see another director get their hands on it, but hey, you know what they say: if it isn't broken, don't try fixing it. From an overall stand point, these movies need a complete overhaul in every category except for visuals. But hey, the fans eat it up, so why bother?

I'd personally LOVE to see more of the live-action movies.....in a few years. If they come out too soon, they run the risk of over-saturating the market with too much Transformers action and the corresponding toys. People just don't need 26 different versions of Bumblebee in such a short span of time. The DOTM line has already given us that.

If they were to come out in say....summer 2014 (or later), which is a little more than 2 1/2 years away and have a coherent plot without holes big enough to drive Optimus through...then I'd GLADLY welcome them. I'd love to see more of the war on Cybertron, maybe the entire history of Transformers on earth (which would be the only logical reason to include Dinobots) and maybe if it's really done as a two parter, then you could have Unicron at the end of the 4th movie as a cliffhanger leading into the 5th.

As far as the Jason Statham rumor...I've seen him in a few movies, and all they really required him to do was speak in a gravelly tone of voice and be badass, so it's hard to tell if he can really act or not. I'd like to have someone unknown, who can really act, be a part of the franchise- hopefully Shia won't come back as Sam unless it's a cameo. His schtick got pretty old from ROTF on.

They need a head/power/target/master type concept in the next films, human and robot working together.
This or something different because without something new the concept of just transforming robot will get stale with the normal film going public!

"MOOOoooo....!"

That's the sound of the cash cow fearing for it's life. I wouldn't mind so much if they were actually good movies. I'm with Scatman Jazz with regards everything but the visuals getting a workover.

Scatman Jazz wrote:Ahahahahaha, let's hope this is not true. It's funny, I'm actually laughing at Michael Bay returning more than Jason Statham's rumored casting. I knew he wasn't stupid enough to walk away from the never ending gold mine that is the Transformer movie series. Would love to see another director get their hands on it, but hey, you know what they say: if it isn't broken, don't try fixing it. From an overall stand point, these movies need a complete overhaul in every category except for visuals. But hey, the fans eat it up, so why bother?

Except for you, that is. Because you have an opinion and are not affraid to use it online.

Hurray for TF 4 BTW.

Oh, for the love of Primus...

The first one I really enjoyed. The second one was pretty bad. The third one was up there as one of the worst films of 2011 that I've seen (it was only pipped at the post by "Your Highness" in my opinion... and maybe "Green Lantern").

I'm an avid Transformers fan (ask my wife) - I literally grew up with Optimus Prime. I've collected every incarnation of the comics (it's how I learned to read and draw - and subsequently become an art teacher years later), watched the cartoons from G1, G2 (with it's fancy-pants digital bits), Beast Wars, Beast Machines, The Cybertron Trilogy, Animated, Prime. I collect the figures (mainly Optimus Prime but I have begun to diversify). I've bought multiple versions of the '86 film, I have the extended '86 soundtrack (which is on pretty high rotation on my iPod - I heart you Vince DiCola), I also have the soundtracks for the first and second live-action films. I have bought the various Ultimate Guides and even bought the Transformers: Vault the moment I laid eyes on it at my local comic store. Why am I telling you this? Because of what I am about to write and I KNOW people are going to accuse me of not being a "true" Transformers fan just because I dare think something that is about Transformers is (Shock! Horror!) rubbish.



Dear Bay,

I have seen some sh*t in my time but this movie almost takes the crap-frosted cake. I mean, seriously? That's the best storyline you could come up with? That's the best acting you could get out of your thespians? Nothing but over-exaggerated caricatures and lame clichés? That's what you wanted, Bay? Throughout the whole three films you have had access to some pretty good actors and you don't really give them anything to do, anything to work with. You just blow sh*t up around them and tell them to yell a lot. And if they're not yelling then they're running so you can get the right money shot on the overly well-endowed young lady with the poorly supporting bra, or they're acting like hyperactive, sugared-up kids with too much red cordial running through their systems. Oh, and did I mention the yelling?

Okay, sure, have some lighter, funnier moments. Humour is an excellent juxtaposition for the serious, dramatic parts. Unfortunately, the drama was hackneyed and played out as just filler between disjointed action pieces. I mean, really? Did you just happen to throw random scenes at a wall and then use those that stuck, in the way that they landed? Did you just mine the Transformers' history and just randomly pick which bits to incorporate with no thought about how to do it effectively to create a cohesive (and intelligent) story?

I know, Michael. You're a "big bang" type of guy and you want to give the audience as much bang-for-its-buck but sometimes having a quiet, well-acted scene without cheesy dialogue and an even cheesier sh*tty slow song can actually have more "oomph" than all of your special effects explosions combined. This isn't a new concept, it's been around for years. It's called "story" mixed in with a bit of "drama".

I'll be honest, I wasn't going to see this film at the cinema. I was going to wait until it was out on DVD. Possibly even 'new-to-weekly' DVD or (probably) just wait til it was shown on TV. Why? Because I knew that the guy who helped write the second film was writing all of the third one. And the second film sucked pretty badly. So I had accepted in myself that I was not going to see the third film on the "big screen".

Alas, against my better judgement I ended up letting a friend convince me to go. So I went in with no expectations. Anything should have impressed me. Unfortunately, even those non-existent expectations weren't met.

This pains me because I am a pretty hardcore Transformers fan and I will forgive a lot (and when I say "a lot" I mean: "Shane McArthy"). I just couldn't this time. I couldn't walk out of that cinema thinking "Well, it was worth the cost...". It just wasn't. It wasn't worth the admission and it certainly wasn't worth the (considerable) time invested.

I now hear whisperings of a Transformers 4. Please, for the love of Unicron, don't. Or, if the producers feel the need to do it then get someone else to direct. Get Spielberg himself to do it. Or James Cameron (he does "epic blockbuster" pretty well). Or the guy who did Empire Strikes Back (the best movie out of that whole series) - if he's still alive. Just get Michael Bay and Ehren Kruger away from it.

As far as this goes. Count me out. I know my opinion around the world counts for even less than whats on the bottom of my shoes, but seriously what else can you do?

You have giant robots that have mastered inter-stellar travel with advanced technology and just enough power to make huge explosions every time they fire a weapon only to be taken down by conventional bullets and fire extinguishers.

You have Autobots that are one step away from becoming shattered glass versions by killing every Decepticon, even those asking for a truce. The only cons that they left alive are the minicons that couldn't even hurt a human.

You have Decepticons that don't really hurt anyone and that take prisoners. Seriously the human Sam was taken prisoner in every movie. How many times can this happen before somebody thinks its a good idea to just stop taking him prisoner? You have the wreckers that are taken prisoner as well. WTF?

You have humans that virtually indestructible as they dangle from ropes and are slammed back and forth repeatedly into buildings.

You have physics such as bringing a planet into orbit around the earth without having an affect on tides, weather or anything else.

What is worse you have Optimus Prime keep loosing his trailer (something that appears sometimes from no where and attaches to him) and you keep killing off characters with personality and leaving Bumblebee to be a hero.

Lets do everyone a favor. We know you are going to make more movies. But instead of doing more stories with no continuity and plot holes large enough to drive a Transformer though lets try something different. Get rid of the humans. Get rid of Earth. Do 3 prequels on Cybertron. Lets learn some of the back story to some of the characters you have already established. Bah, what am I saying our only hope is that the Mayan calendar is right.

_Anshin_ wrote:Lets do everyone a favor. We know you are going to make more movies. But instead of doing more stories with no continuity and plot holes large enough to drive a Transformer though lets try something different. Get rid of the humans. Get rid of Earth. Do 3 prequels on Cybertron. Lets learn some of the back story to some of the characters you have already established. Bah, what am I saying our only hope is that the Mayan calendar is right.

I see this plea at least once a week on this website. You guys DO realize that a Transformers movie with no Earth and no humans would literally kill this franchise, right?

Do you honestly think your casual movie-goer wants to see that? No, they don't. They want to see high-stakes action that makes them gasp and think "Oh my God, what if that did happen here?" The second you take away that human element, we're back to praying for the next Beast Wars to pull the franchise out of the fire.

You want movie-verse prequels and sequels with no humans that take place on Cybertron? Go buy IDW's Movie Prequel and Reign of Starscream comics. They're fun, and they have a majority of robot action.

And as for Statham and Bay? Yeah, I'd be down for that. That would probably be amazing, actually. I would like to see Shia cameo, though.

lowman_x wrote:Just get Michael Bay and Ehren Kruger away from it.

I hope we've seen the last of Kruger, Murdermus Prime scares me.

Marcdachamp wrote:

_Anshin_ wrote:Lets do everyone a favor. We know you are going to make more movies. But instead of doing more stories with no continuity and plot holes large enough to drive a Transformer though lets try something different. Get rid of the humans. Get rid of Earth. Do 3 prequels on Cybertron. Lets learn some of the back story to some of the characters you have already established. Bah, what am I saying our only hope is that the Mayan calendar is right.

I see this plea at least once a week on this website. You guys DO realize that a Transformers movie with no Earth and no humans would literally kill this franchise, right?

Do you honestly think your casual movie-goer wants to see that? No, they don't. They want to see high-stakes action that makes them gasp and think "Oh my God, what if that did happen here?" The second you take away that human element, we're back to praying for the next Beast Wars to pull the franchise out of the fire.

You want movie-verse prequels and sequels with no humans that take place on Cybertron? Go buy IDW's Movie Prequel and Reign of Starscream comics. They're fun, and they have a majority of robot action.

And as for Statham and Bay? Yeah, I'd be down for that. That would probably be amazing, actually. I would like to see Shia cameo, though.

That's an excellent point. It's exactly why I didn't like the game Bioshock, the entire thing took place in a city under the ocean and there was no chance of it getting out. I found myself not really giving a crap about it because of that and I got bored with it really fast. The same thing would happen if they made a Transformers movie that took place on Cybertron, especially if it's a prequel. We already know the war went so there's nothing to tell there. Plus the general audience wouldn't care because they can't identify with it.

Even though I've loved the movies I think they should give it a rest for a few years. I don't want to see the market reach a saturation which will cause people to lose interest in it. Focus on Prime for now then get back to the movies in maybe 5 years.

I feel that they need to cut their loses and let the third movie end the current movie universe. The end ensured that only the Autobots were left, and trying to pull anything else into the next 2 movies would be a huge cop-out. The next movies would REALLY benefit from a reboot.

Especially if they get rid of Micheal Bay, Shia and most of the writers. While I enjoyed the first movie, I will freely admit that it wasn't a great movie, or even a 'good' movie. It was an action movie that was fun, but the characters were really flat and one dimensional. The second one was horrible and I will only ever watch it if I have the Rifftrax playing for it. It's like the literally took the first movie and turned it up to 11, especially on the major problems of the movie. I enjoyed the third one the best, and I think it was the closest to being a 'good' movie, but still with one dimensional, boring characters. Don't get me wrong, they were still an improvement over how they were characterized in the previous movies and I appreciated the jokes. My wife and I were the only ones laughing in the theater when Sam's mom pulled out the book "She Comes First", probably because we were the only ones aware of what the book was about.

They need a director with standards, and one that won't allow the bad humor and stereotypical characters to be thrown in there. I don't mind Michael Bay being involved, but make him a choreographer of the fight scenes, don't let him direct. Don't let the same writers make the same mistake. They always focus too much on the humans in the story. Yes, they are important to 'ground' the story, to make it relateable to the average movie-goer, and yes, it's cheaper to film people than making too much special effects, but it hurts the movie when it's not really supposed to be about them. For a character to be really fleshed out, they need to have screen time, and whenever they introduce a new transformer character, they fail to let them have any characterization.

I love Transformers, but I feel like the franchise gets the least amount of respect. They need a strong writer to write it like a novel, and then to adapt it into a movie. That seems like the best luck they've had in making movies based on a property (as long as it's not Stephanie Meyer... shudder). They don't need to release the novel to the public, but just to get the story and characterization down.

Marcdachamp wrote:
I see this plea at least once a week on this website. You guys DO realize that a Transformers movie with no Earth and no humans would literally kill this franchise, right?

Do you honestly think your casual movie-goer wants to see that? No, they don't. They want to see high-stakes action that makes them gasp and think "Oh my God, what if that did happen here?" The second you take away that human element, we're back to praying for the next Beast Wars to pull the franchise out of the fire.

You want movie-verse prequels and sequels with no humans that take place on Cybertron? Go buy IDW's Movie Prequel and Reign of Starscream comics. They're fun, and they have a majority of robot action.

And as for Statham and Bay? Yeah, I'd be down for that. That would probably be amazing, actually. I would like to see Shia cameo, though.

Yes, because movies that are filmed in a location other than earth such as Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Avatar, or other such no named movies were such a flop. Hell, even animated movies such as Toy Story had very little human elements in there but people enjoyed them because they were well written and not just giant explosions and lots of car chases. People are able to relate to a decent story line even if the characters are not human but display basic human traits. You see this is shown slightly with the movie Transformers and more with some of the animated stuff.

I am an avid fan. I read the comics, read the books, play the games, have the comics and the figures. Chances are if you are seeing this "plea" once a week then there is a very good chance that people actually want to see it and not just spend money watching a guy play with his toys and get paid to blow them up.

Evil_the_Nub wrote:That's an excellent point. It's exactly why I didn't like the game Bioshock, the entire thing took place in a city under the ocean and there was no chance of it getting out. I found myself not really giving a crap about it because of that and I got bored with it really fast. The same thing would happen if they made a Transformers movie that took place on Cybertron, especially if it's a prequel. We already know the war went so there's nothing to tell there. Plus the general audience wouldn't care because they can't identify with it.

Even though I've loved the movies I think they should give it a rest for a few years. I don't want to see the market reach a saturation which will cause people to lose interest in it. Focus on Prime for now then get back to the movies in maybe 5 years.

Did you ever play the game War for Cybertron? Listen, I respect your opinion even though I don't agree with it. You may be bored with learning a little back story about the characters and are happy to know that there was a war that took place, but you can't say there is nothing to tell. Hell Xmen First Class is a perfect example of that. We know that there are Xmen so why show the story of how they became? Do you know what started the war or lead up to it in this Universe? Do you know why the Primes left? Why are Megatron and Prime Brothers in the first Movie, but thats forgotten in the Second and Third?

But I do agree that they should hold off on the movies for a few years.

_Anshin_ wrote:

Evil_the_Nub wrote:That's an excellent point. It's exactly why I didn't like the game Bioshock, the entire thing took place in a city under the ocean and there was no chance of it getting out. I found myself not really giving a crap about it because of that and I got bored with it really fast. The same thing would happen if they made a Transformers movie that took place on Cybertron, especially if it's a prequel. We already know the war went so there's nothing to tell there. Plus the general audience wouldn't care because they can't identify with it.

Even though I've loved the movies I think they should give it a rest for a few years. I don't want to see the market reach a saturation which will cause people to lose interest in it. Focus on Prime for now then get back to the movies in maybe 5 years.

Did you ever play the game War for Cybertron? Listen, I respect your opinion even though I don't agree with it. You may be bored with learning a little back story about the characters and are happy to know that there was a war that took place, but you can't say there is nothing to tell. Hell Xmen First Class is a perfect example of that. We know that there are Xmen so why show the story of how they became? Do you know what started the war or lead up to it in this Universe? Do you know why the Primes left? Why are Megatron and Prime Brothers in the first Movie, but thats forgotten in the Second and Third?

But I do agree that they should hold off on the movies for a few years.

I did play WfC and I didn't like it either. The environments were boring, the different characters all played the same except the fliers, and the controls were clunky and awkward.

I think they've already told enough back story on the war that making a movie about it would be redundant. We already know the Autobots were outnumbered and losing, we already know Sentinel made a deal with Megatron to enslave Earth, we already know they launched the Allspark into space and Megatron went after it, we already know about the Fallen and the harvester. There's not much left to tell after that.

Personally I think Transformers is best on Earth. Having Earth based alt modes gives them more character and adds variety. If it were on Cybertron they'd all be various alien vehicles that would all blend together. People are already complaining that they all look the same that would just make it worse. Put them on a planet that's entirely made of metal and it would be like looking at static on a TV.

Marcdachamp wrote:

_Anshin_ wrote:Lets do everyone a favor. We know you are going to make more movies. But instead of doing more stories with no continuity and plot holes large enough to drive a Transformer though lets try something different. Get rid of the humans. Get rid of Earth. Do 3 prequels on Cybertron. Lets learn some of the back story to some of the characters you have already established. Bah, what am I saying our only hope is that the Mayan calendar is right.

I see this plea at least once a week on this website. You guys DO realize that a Transformers movie with no Earth and no humans would literally kill this franchise, right?

Do you honestly think your casual movie-goer wants to see that? No, they don't. They want to see high-stakes action that makes them gasp and think "Oh my God, what if that did happen here?" The second you take away that human element, we're back to praying for the next Beast Wars to pull the franchise out of the fire.

You want movie-verse prequels and sequels with no humans that take place on Cybertron? Go buy IDW's Movie Prequel and Reign of Starscream comics. They're fun, and they have a majority of robot action.

And as for Statham and Bay? Yeah, I'd be down for that. That would probably be amazing, actually. I would like to see Shia cameo, though.

How would it kill the franchise? There are sci-fi movies released all the time that have very little human involvement, don't take place on earth, and have a rich story going on that do well. Just cuz we were given mindless action with a thin plot doesn't mean we have to settle. If wanna see a Transformers movie that is actually about the Transformers and not about the love life adventures about some kid set to the back drop of an eons old intergalactic civil war, I shouldn't have to look else where. I liked the first one and DOTM, but they coulda been much better if they actually focused on the Transformers and not Shia the Beef's antics and love life. Is that too much to ask for?

Jason Statham? Thats f*ckin awesome. Don't even need autobots, just throw him at the decepticons

Evil_the_Nub wrote:I think they've already told enough back story on the war that making a movie about it would be redundant. We already know the Autobots were outnumbered and losing, we already know Sentinel made a deal with Megatron to enslave Earth, we already know they launched the Allspark into space and Megatron went after it, we already know about the Fallen and the harvester. There's not much left to tell after that.

Personally I think Transformers is best on Earth. Having Earth based alt modes gives them more character and adds variety. If it were on Cybertron they'd all be various alien vehicles that would all blend together. People are already complaining that they all look the same that would just make it worse. Put them on a planet that's entirely made of metal and it would be like looking at static on a TV.

See I figure this is where we can agree to disagree. We learned that the Autobots were outnumbered, but what lead up to the factions forming and why were the Autobots really outnumbered? What caused a Prime to turn really and what was said. We also don't know how Prime became Prime, what lead Megatron to become the leader of the Decepticons, there are a myriad of sub-stories going on that we just don't know. I can understand you not wanting to know, but for some of us we just want more than a simple "I'm bad things go boom, good guy kills bad guy. Bad guy no more. More Explosions!" story line.

As for another Cybertron looking like static on TV, thats your opinion. Have you ever been to Dubai or China or Australia and seen the different architecture? You can make Cybertron the same way you can make any vehicle on this planet. For example not all structures would have a shine, or be silver. There are tons of other materials you can use. I am not saying it would be all Green or organic like Pandora was in Avatar, but imagine a Cybertron that is powered, with oceans of Energon or plasma. Structures that were of both glass and metal as well as structures of carbon fiber and each when powered had a different light, glow, no effect at all.

Saying that it would all look alike is like saying you have been to New Jersey and that means that you don't need to see Paris, London, Hong Kong, and Moscow since it all looks alike because we are all humans and think or act the same way.

D-340 wrote: How would it kill the franchise? There are sci-fi movies released all the time that have very little human involvement, don't take place on earth, and have a rich story going on that do well. Just cuz we were given mindless action with a thin plot doesn't mean we have to settle.

The thing with TF, is that for the most part people (meaning general public, and even the casual fans) reconise them as cars, trucks, airplanes etc. Basicly earth vehicles that transform into giant robots. "Robots in disguise", not Robots on their home planet. And unfortunutly, i'd have to agree with this. I don't want to see a bunch of protoforms or cybertronion vehicles running around. I love seeing hopped up vehicles that i'm familuar with driving down the freeway, transform and tear shit up. Ask anyone about TF and ask them what they remeber Optimus Prime as. I bet you know one will say anyhing but a red/blue semi truck. Protoform Optimus toy from 07' was one of the worst selling toys of the movie line. So while yes, other movies have proven succesfull taking place on other planets, they were also always based on other planets and based around that setting.

As far as the story goes, we had a great story with DOTM. I truely don't see how anyone (this isn't directed at you D-340, as you did state you liked DOTM) can aurgue otherwise. If you didn't like it then fine, but you can't say that it wasn't a good story.

Bay and Co. seem to improve every movie with the story and even characters. No, not every character is developed, and no matter who takes the riegn as director, not every character is going to get the same treatment. people need to learn to deal with the fact that not everyone can be the star. (I'm not saying ther isn't room for improvment though)

I really don't know about Jason Statham... Say what you will about LaBeouf, I think his presence grounds the franchise a little bit, prevents it from becoming even more of an overblown testosterone-fest than it already is. That's pretty much what Statham is all about. I personally don't think we need 'Crank' with robots.