Transformers: Age of Extinction - New Plot Details Revealed (Spoilers)

Anyone who speaks Mandarin, please let us know if anything else comes out of Li Bingbing's video!

So am I the only one who is taking from this that they are focusing on the parallel between Prime and Cade, and by extension, really exploring some aspects of Prime's character? That is actually promising.

Lots of human details. Hopefully at least a few TFs get some really good character development.

I was going to say that the idea of a Transformer who speaks (only?) Mandarin is a really interesting choice and that it would be nice to have the series take cultural cues from places other than the US and Japan. And then I realized that this is a Bay movie and that such a character can be safely expected to have a metal Paddy Hat and prominent robo buckteeth.

The E-jet Chinese car is an Autobot ?

Va'al wrote:Anyone who speaks Mandarin, please let us know if anything else comes out of Li Bingbing's video!

My Mandarin's pretty rusty (not a native speaker, mind you) but here's the gist of it.

She plays a strong female character (who she adds, is similar to previous female leads in the TF movies as being strong and capable characters). Her character was hired by Stanley Tucci's character because only she could "make it happen" (probably referring to the "Mother of TF's" thing.)

Trivia: She says Bay either commented or complimented on her ability to do high kungfu kicks, as seen when she did promo photo shoots for AOE or something.

Bay also asked if she was comfortable doing stunts and fight scenes, to which she replied, yes. And so, the bike chase scene was either added to the movie, or she was allowed to do her own stunts.

She comments that "foreign" stunt coordinators are much more attentive when it comes to the safety of the actors.

She says that the most difficult part is trying to understand what Bay was saying to her. She admits her command of English isn't great, and had to concentrate very hard to understand Bay's every word, as he did not speak any slower or try to enunciate his words just because she wasn't American.

She says Bay has a penchant for getting his female actors to run around in high heels.

To the question of what she thinks of Bay, she says he's a bit of a "super intelligent, mad genius." He never wastes resources, and does only what he needs to do to get a scene shot.

There was some other stuff, but some of the terms were very "local", slangs that only a native of China or Beijing would understand. Either way, it doesn't seem to involve TF's.

Diem wrote:I was going to say that the idea of a Transformer who speaks (only?) Mandarin is a really interesting choice and that it would be nice to have the series take cultural cues from places other than the US and Japan. And then I realized that this is a Bay movie and that such a character can be safely expected to have a metal Paddy Hat and prominent robo buckteeth.

Not likely, IMO. Not sure if it's the producers that are reigning Bay in, or if Bay's trying to avoid any further controversy, but ever since the Twins appeared in ROTF, there haven't really been any "racially offensive" TF's in the movies. NOTE: Whether they are racially offensive or not is a matter of opinion, though.

In DOTM, the Twins themselves were removed, and the Wreckers who everyone predicted would be stereotypical rednecks turned out to have British accents.

In AOE, what with China being such a big investor in the film, I doubt Bay would do anything to offend the Chinese. Even if he does, Paramount would almost certainly put a stop to it.

...probably.

Oh Primus, when I first read it I took it as Tessa and Cade were secretly dating. That would have been, well, I don't even know what to say.
Anyways, getting off of the creepy topic, a Mandarin speaking Transformer sounds interesting, although I think I remember (I think it was from the novel, though, which may not technically count) that the Autobots learned English so quickly from the internet. If that's true, then, shouldn't the mystery bot be able to speak English as well, as should the rest of the Autobots be able to speak Mandarin? Never the less, I'm excited for it, although I hope it isn't simply a stereotypical character.

I don't like hearing that a TRANSFORMER speaks only a specific Earth language. It's not the same as only speaking Cybertronian. Unless of course it came to life in that part of the world. But still, Optimus and the other Autobots seemed to learn a new language quite easily. Even the twins had to learn a new language. The idea of an alien robot being restricted like that seems stupid and unnecessary.

ILL-Star wrote:I don't like hearing that a TRANSFORMER speaks only a specific Earth language. It's not the same as only speaking Cybertronian. Unless of course it came to life in that part of the world. But still, Optimus and the other Autobots seemed to learn a new language quite easily. Even the twins had to learn a new language. The idea of an alien robot being restricted like that seems stupid and unnecessary.

Whoa!

Restricted?? At what point does it mention that he's restricted by this? As far as I'm concerned and until I learn otherwise, this Autobot speaks only Mandarin BY CHOICE! And THAT is a decision that I happen to applaud.
And saying that you don't like hearing that they speak only a specific language... WTF do you think they were doing in the first 3 films??? Speaking SPECIFICALLY ENGLISH, that's what! Fine, some Cybertronian too but Megatron came right out of cold storage speaking English and he crashed and froze long before spoken language even existed on the planet.
Screw the arrogant, elitist, western culture. Make all the damn Yanks have to read sub-titles in this film and actually have to put some conscious thought into the experience instead of sitting on their ever-widening western asses letting their brains atrophy as they watch explosions, scant cleavage and crude bodily function humor. (and yes, I am an American and I am proudly slamming my own culture and country. Suck it! You all KNOW the rest of the world sees us as dumb, fat, gun toting hill-billies and yet we do nothing to counter that image and in fact create reality shows glorifying the stereotype)
Their may yet be some hope for this film after all if it actually has the slightest hint of intellectual influence and manages to piss off a portion of the fandom just because it makes them have to think for once. Whoever this 'Bot is, I'm picking up every incarnation, every action figure of his character and building a shrine to him.

I hope they keep at least the teen drama to a minimum, with the whole "no dating rule" angle.

The only-Mandarin-speaking TF? I think it is a positive to have a little diversity, whether it's by choice or not.

And having to read subtitles throughout the whole movie? Probably not a good idea, considering Bay's erratic and ADD-fueled editing. It's already hard enough to figure out what goes on during action scenes, if the audience has to read a subtitle that might be on screen for 1 second or less, it might take away from the experience of a movie that looks to be actually better than the 1st 3. If you want to read subtitles throughout, see it in another country that shows the film with them.

Rodimus Prime wrote:I hope they keep at least the teen drama to a minimum, with the whole "no dating rule" angle.

The only-Mandarin-speaking TF? I think it is a positive to have a little diversity, whether it's by choice or not.

And having to read subtitles throughout the whole movie? Probably not a good idea, considering Bay's erratic and ADD-fueled editing. It's already hard enough to figure out what goes on during action scenes, if the audience has to read a subtitle that might be on screen for 1 second or less, it might take away from the experience of a movie that looks to be actually better than the 1st 3. If you want to read subtitles throughout, see it in another country that shows the film with them.

There were subtitles in the first movie and ROTF. They were on the screen long enough.

SlyTF1 wrote:There were subtitles in the first movie and ROTF. They were on the screen long enough.

Yeah, but they were single lines during slow scenes. Can you imagine having to read an entire conversation between characters while giant robots shoot it out around them? With a conversation, the lines might not be on the screen long enough in order to keep up with the actors talking, and combining that with explosions and quick edits would be distracting.

I'd imagine that the Mandarin-only bot will probably not be a major character with big blocks of dialogue, instead just being a secondary character who only speaks some lines here and there. Like as much as Ratchet spoke in the first three films.

ILL-Star wrote:I don't like hearing that a TRANSFORMER speaks only a specific Earth language. It's not the same as only speaking Cybertronian. Unless of course it came to life in that part of the world. But still, Optimus and the other Autobots seemed to learn a new language quite easily. Even the twins had to learn a new language. The idea of an alien robot being restricted like that seems stupid and unnecessary.

Well this gets into a deeper argument (and maybe proves we think too hard about children's cartoons), which is:

When the Autobots are chatting in American English in the Ark back in 1984 when no humans around, is the situation

a) They're actually speaking Cybertronian, and it's being "translated" for us, the viewer.

b) They're speaking American English for some in-universe reason (ie practice, English being more useful for describing situations on Earth in the Eighties than a millions-of-years old language from another planet, psychological attempts to fit in)

c) They're speaking American English for an out-of-universe reason (ie. the writers and expected viewers are both English speakers, casual American Exceptionalism)

Oddly these questions only come to mind if the character is speaking English in an English language production. There's no objective reason why an Autobot speaking only Mandarin should be any stranger than one speaking only English.

But I'm sorry to say that there's a very unfortunate undertone in your comment. "But still, Optimus and the other Autobots seemed to learn a new language quite easily. Even the twins had to learn a new language." The implication of your comment is that all Autobots SHOULD learn English, regardless of their origins. That speaking a non-English language only is something that needs to be fixed but speaking only English is a-okay. Given that the movie looks to be set in China that's hard to swallow.

I personally salute this choice to include a Mandarin-speaking Autobot for several reasons:

a) It brings more cultural opportunities to the table for storytelling and characterization reasons. And why not? As long as we can avoid sterotypes or flat characterization it would be great to see more of an international effort.

b) It's good for non-American, English or Japanese fans too. Japanese fans got their own regional TFs for Cybertron Satellite so why shouldn't different nations get theirs?

c) The fact that there's conversation about which language an Autobot speaks at least means that an Autobot will be speaking in a Bay movie!

T-Macksimus wrote:

ILL-Star wrote:I don't like hearing that a TRANSFORMER speaks only a specific Earth language. It's not the same as only speaking Cybertronian. Unless of course it came to life in that part of the world. But still, Optimus and the other Autobots seemed to learn a new language quite easily. Even the twins had to learn a new language. The idea of an alien robot being restricted like that seems stupid and unnecessary.

Whoa!

Restricted?? At what point does it mention that he's restricted by this? As far as I'm concerned and until I learn otherwise, this Autobot speaks only Mandarin BY CHOICE! And THAT is a decision that I happen to applaud.
And saying that you don't like hearing that they speak only a specific language... WTF do you think they were doing in the first 3 films??? Speaking SPECIFICALLY ENGLISH, that's what! Fine, some Cybertronian too but Megatron came right out of cold storage speaking English and he crashed and froze long before spoken language even existed on the planet.
Screw the arrogant, elitist, western culture. Make all the damn Yanks have to read sub-titles in this film and actually have to put some conscious thought into the experience instead of sitting on their ever-widening western asses letting their brains atrophy as they watch explosions, scant cleavage and crude bodily function humor. (and yes, I am an American and I am proudly slamming my own culture and country. Suck it! You all KNOW the rest of the world sees us as dumb, fat, gun toting hill-billies and yet we do nothing to counter that image and in fact create reality shows glorifying the stereotype)
Their may yet be some hope for this film after all if it actually has the slightest hint of intellectual influence and manages to piss off a portion of the fandom just because it makes them have to think for once. Whoever this 'Bot is, I'm picking up every incarnation, every action figure of his character and building a shrine to him.

I could be wrong, but maybe he meant restricted in terms that, as his point makes, these are alien robots with the tech to learn new languages in an instant, so, when the need arises, why only speak one language? Movie 1 states they learned Earth's languages via the internet-this was in direct response to Jazz's speech pattern, not particularly that they spoke English. It's fair to assume any cybertronian would not be restricted to one language. And yes, I DO see only knowing one language a restriction. I'll get back to that.
I'm guessing he speaks Mandarin because he has lived in China. But, when he comes in contact with our Autobots and possibly the human characters (was Wahlberg's character in China?) why not learn to speak the English they speak? I think that is the point of view some people have-HOWEVER why doesn't Op and the others just learn Mandarin, if this is the case?

For me, if I had a robot brain, and could download languages from the internet, I'd do it in a flash the minute the need presented itself. I'm British, thus I only knew English. Until I met foreign people I had no need to know another language. This isn't ignorance, it's life. We all need a first reason or experience of some sort to want to break out of our native language. I got interested in Japanese culture (please don't laugh, but it first happened when I was 8 with the Ninja Turtles ) As I grew up I loved anime and then to toku and movies and dramas, and finally met some Japanese people, and now have many friends from both Japan and China. Seriously If I had the capabilities as a Cybertronian, I'd learn FAST! Sadly, I don't so I'm doing it the old fashioned way.

Please note above I make the argument that either side could do the same. Op and the others could switch to Mandarin when in China just as easily. This won't happen because we are watching a western movie. Without inciting race rows...an american movie isn't going to shift to Mandarin for 3/4 of a film. For various reasons, and many of them have nothing to do with cultural ignorance. I hate racism and cultural ignorance, but I'd like to think I am objective enough to not see it everywhere.
Given they can do what they can, as we know from movie 1, it's a pretty fair question to ask; why does he only know one language? Why do ANY of the TFs only know one language?
Simplest answer is, like Jetfire's Cane and the wreckers speaking with British accents-it's nothing more than a way of bringing individuality and character to each robot. A lot of people ripped apart Jetfire being old and rusty because TF's can repair easily being robots and all, but that was before we saw the film. He was old and rusty because he had been away from any and all cybertronian life and activity for years, so then in context it made sense, as I am sure this mandarin speaking fellow will, if indeed you need it to make sense at all
I get some people are instinctively defensive to this issue, but I'm not sure we need to accuse everyone who questions why one lone bot speaks Mandarin only in a predominantly English movie. Yes, really it only takes few seconds to think on it-'Oh yeah, a large portion of this movie takes place in China-that's why' But...y'know not everyone does that. If anything it gets people talking about it, so consider this the eye opener to some, because honestly, do any of us know what's outside our own walls until something else shows us?

To go off topic slightly, the movie that annoyed me as a lover of foreign culture-The Wolverine! Coincidentaly all the people Logan meets magically know perfect English. Nice But again, that's not strictly racism or ignorance. it's for audience convenience. Does that pander to and feed cultural ignorance, yes. Is that the full intention of the movie studio...no, I don't believe it is. I don't want to be that cynical yet And to be fair, how many Chinese and Japanese movies purposefully film a good chunk of the movie in America, and involve American citizens, just to broaden the minds of their target audience?

I'm fairly certain after watching ROTF I posted on these boards asking why Jetfire was British (or Scotish...it was one or the other, and another poster corrected me) It did seem out of place when it happened. I wasn't being negative, I was just curious. If in G1 or Prime a new bot turned up and suddenly had a French accent, would you not question it? You're not a bad person if you do. Judging a character negatively for their accent or language is a bad thing, but naturally being inquisitive and curious about it is good, because we learn that way
That's my thoughts.
Hopefully this bot won't be handled in a negatively stereotypical way. However, given the trilogy's track record...I remain skeptical.

Just as I thought, another movie centered mostly on human characters...
Also, this is gonna be a really boring

Through the course of the Bay films I've always rationalized the Cybertronians having choose their own languages and accents based on their own desires and likes, or the make and model of their chosen vehicular forms national origin. Like Dino speaking with an Italian accent, and Ironhide using an almost 80's action movie tough guy catch phrase style, Jazz took a more middle aged african american man style speak I assumed based on Jazz music stereotypically being associated with that demographic in pop culture.

The twins were just ridiculous, but another good example of this idea. Even Q (Wheeljack) had an old British inventor style very much obviously like Q from the old Bond films.

Basically I always just figured it was by the 'Bots choice how they crafted their style and style of speech. Another of those unspoken Bay'isms he expects everyone to just understand in his films based on his perceived notions of stereotypical roles certain demographics have always played in western popular culture.

As I type this and think about it more, the same could be said for the old G1 cartoon. Scatman Crothers doing Jazz's voice, Powerglide's sort of obnoxious slang, Warpath as well, Brawn being a sort of bluecollar everyman with a limited view on his fellow bots social roles, Soundwave so absorbed in the gathering of information and intelligence that his personality near non existant, Rumble also another rough everyman almost bar brawler-ish.

Don't fall for it - just stop!

Personally, I'm not reading the spoilers, accuracy being part of the issue, but also because, sometimes, what is given away can give the wrong impression, these spoilers could make us all angry, only for us to learn on viewing of the film, that in the film it works & the movie is great. The opposite can happen as well, & this has been the norm for the TF sequels.

I've since learned, ignore the strategically planted "leaks", & judge for myself.

You should all do the same. Make no judgments, have no expectations of any kind, see the film & YOU decide if you enjoy it or not.

If you have fun & a positive experience, that's all that matters. Don't worry about "is it a critically acclaimed - quality piece?" Film critics are jaded snobs - and appreciate far too much that is boring, as well as hate far too much that IS good.

"...I can write songs that entertain or please the critics & starve..."

TurboMMaster wrote:Just as I thought, another movie centered mostly on human characters...
Also, this is gonna be a really boring

This is going to be the foutrh movie. My guess is that you are familiar with the gist of a Bay movie. You will not be surprised in any way by this one. Why do you even bother to comment in these threads? It doesn't seem like you're doing yourself any favors by posting here.

RhA wrote:

TurboMMaster wrote:Just as I thought, another movie centered mostly on human characters...
Also, this is gonna be a really boring

This is going to be the foutrh movie. My guess is that you are familiar with the gist of a Bay movie. You will not be surprised in any way by this one. Why do you even bother to comment in these threads? It doesn't seem like you're doing yourself any favors by posting here.

Because (s)he has a crystal ball and knows how everything will happen exactly. Or maybe (s)he really is bored by giant robots fighting and huge explosions.

For those who prefer to read info instead of watching videos, here's what I gleaned from these interviews (potential spoilers below):

Lorenzo di Bonaventura interview:

• Because the way it physically works as an island, and because it has the tall mountains, Hong Kong was perfect for how they wanted the action in the movie to go. In the last movie, Michael chose Chicago because he wanted a city that had very wide boulevards, while for this movie he wanted a city that had "that kind of dramatic mountain-landscape-ocean coming in" which Hong Kong has.
• Their shooting has not been that hard because the people and film commission have been so helpful. It's a little different than shooting in the U.S. since one of the reasons they did some things in Chicago and Detroit was because they wanted to blow things up, and trying to do that in Hong Kong was not gonna be well received by the people there. So it's a little complicated, but they've pick particular locations that are a bit easier to manage than others.
• They wanted to get as many of the flavors and diversity of Hong Kong in this movie, so they've chosen locations all over the city to give it as much of a sense of the whole of the city that they could.
• They show just about everything of Hong Kong in this movie. New, old, residential, commercial, government, the tunnels; they're basically trying to show as much of Hong Kong as they can in this movie in a two-week period of time.
• The local authorities have been really helpful in making sure that the crew can control the set since they're sometimes doing stunts that can be dangerous and the police making sure civilians don't come onto the set or walk into the middle of a sequence, and it's very similar to how they were shooting in the U.S. where they had a lot of policemen around to help them there too.
• The geography of Hong Kong is spectacular and unbelievable. When they were looking at pictures of places to shoot in China, they saw Hong Kong and were impressed by it enough to want to go shoot there. It's gonna be an adventure for them to go down into the valley carrying all their equipment down the mountain with them and all the way back up.
• The giant video screens on the Olympic building next to the hotel play a part of the story.
• Without revealing too many details about the story, in Beijing, there's a conference going on where Hong Kong is under attack. There are military and government personnel that are there for a particular conference, so they're called in to hear about the problem, and they come in to assist Hong Kong.
• They do not have the Chinese Army, but they will have some military officials.
• Without revealing too much of the plot, there is a factory in mainland China that plays a part in the film's story, and they're trying to show as much of China as they can in this movie as well.
• For them, one of the fun things in making this movie is getting to work with all these actors they've never worked with before. So in that respect, sometimes they may have an actor who's bigger than the role that they're in, and it's so much fun for everyone to be a part of this movie that they let these talented people come in and have these small roles even if they'd like a bigger role but it's all they have. But the story takes place partly in mainland China and partly in Hong Kong, so they don't have to inject anything since it's there.
• This has been a learning experience for some of the younger actors as they get a chance to see what it's like to work on these bigger film productions and how they fit in. And that's what was wanted for them by the crew since they worked so hard to get here and now have the experience of working on a movie like this.
• There's a scene in the movie where one of the characters is driving as things are moving faster and he's not driving fast enough for another of the characters, and so the second character tells the first "Get out of the car! I'm going to drive!" And it's funny.
• One of the characters just started the day before and he's here to save people and to protect people and to be brave in the face of very scary things going on.
• The contest with the Chinese actors went very well and the people who put it together have been very helpful to the crew in showing them how to do things in China.
• He would love to work with these people again, but first he would have to find a film with a story that involves China, but it would be great since they've become friends and learned things from each other.

Jack Reynor interview:

• His character's name is Shane, he's a race car driver that we see quite early on in the movie, and he's the boyfriend of Tessa (Nicola Peltz's character), who is the daughter of Mark Wahlberg's character. Early on in the film, he saves the characters of Mark Wahlberg and Nicola Peltz, and becomes wrapped up in the whole thing that happens with them.
• Like him, this is Nicola's really first big blockbuster, she's very professional, she's a lot of fun to be around on set, and she and him work very well collaboratively so. He's a big fan of her.
• His character Shane is basically a race car driver who's come over from Ireland, and has fallen for this girl who is Mark Wahlberg's character's daughter, and the father has this no dating policy in his head because the father's wife died and he finds it difficult to get past that. Nicola's character Tessa finds it difficult to go through school without being able to date anybody and so secretly dates this Irish race car driver, for which in America would not be seen as a particularly great thing to do in a lot of ways. So, that's the situation we see when we come into the film initially. And the dynamic between him, Mark, and Nicola changes throughout the film. That's one of the really nice points of the film in that they have this really nice triangle of characters and it makes it a little bit more human than the previous films were.
• He's driven some really cool cars in this movie. His favorite was the 1967 Chevy Camaro SS, which is a really nice old muscle car that was souped up and customized and it was a lot of fun to drive. And he had a rally car that was a lot of fun too.
• He does a lot of his own stunts in the film, and pretty much everything on set is nonstop explosions and helicopters flying around and people running and screaming everywhere. So it's kind of intense and he does a lot of his own stunts. Michael Bay is fond of his actors doing that themselves, so he's in the thick of it pretty much everyday.
• When speaking of performing with all the pyrotechnics, he says it's a lot easier to react to a huge explosion that's right there instead of one that isn't, so to that end it's really great that they have the opportunity to be involved in all that. It's kind of crazy and not a lot of actors do it, but for them it's really helpful and in terms of their performances it brings a lot more at them because it's so real. Michael shoots everything very practically, he doesn't like to use a lot of CGI, and so for that reason it's very healthy for their performance and a lot easier.
• Most of what Reynor says for this bullet point isn't relevant to the film, as he mostly just praises Michael Bay for his working on these films and talks about how he really enjoys working with him.
• And for this one, he talks about how he likes Hong Kong and how it's a really nice place.
• This is his first real Hollywood blockbuster film and to be playing a kind of lead role is an amazing experience.
• The last question seemed to be about his future in film acting, which he can't speak of with certainty but looks forward to see what the future holds.

Michael Bay/Mark Wahlberg interview:

• It wasn't just China but Asia as all of Asia has been a huge fan of these movies, and some people think that they just put China in, but from the very beginning of the writing, it was always planned to go to Asia for the third act of the movie. There are certain American movies that only put China in as a footnote, but China is so big and huge that it just factored in.
• The third act of the movie takes place in Hong Kong. They shoot in China for China, where there's a very sophisticated factory that is run by Li Bingbing's character.
• There is one Autobot that only speaks Mandarin.
• Li Bingbing is great and funny to work with. She's like "Michael, do you know I can kick a**?" Bay saw some of her moves and they actually added a scene with her doing just that.
• Mark has had to try to learn to speak other languages in a movie before. It is extremely difficult, but Li Bingbing's English in the movie has been flawless and she's done such a great job. Americans tend to take for granted that we're expected to speak English, but to speak another language, well, Mark had to do another movie with Chow Yung at back in the 90s where he had to speak a little bit of Chinese and it was nerve-racking. But for Li Bingbing to have the confidence and the courage to go in and speak English flawlessly was a remarkable job. And she's able to show enough of her personality to see that it is tough for her at times, but she does a great job.
• Michael worked with Mark on Pain & Gain. Mark embodies pretty much the "everyday guy", and is believable enough to be a young father who would do anything he could to protect his daughter. He very much has the kind of "hero" inside him, but he doesn't show it until he has to, to protect his family.
• Mark plays an ordinary guy who is put into something extraordinary and has to rise to the occasion, willing to do anything to protect his daughter and his family and fight for what he thinks is right, and that's why he and Optimus connect so much. These are guys who have very specific beliefs and are willing to sacrifice anything to fight for what they believe in and stand for. And that's why they connect and there's a mutual bond. There's a scene in the movie where Mark has an opportunity to save himself and save his daughter, and Optimus had the same opportunity to save himself but he wants to do the right thing and stand for good. Mark kind of becomes a guy who is able to do extraordinary things, but it's only because of his willingness to fight for what's right.
• There are so many funny moments in the movie but they don't say "Okay, I think it would be interesting to do a prat fall here" and fall through table or something. It comes from committing to the moment and the fact that the very funny moments in the beginning like when Mark sees his daughter is growing up and she's starting to dress more sexy and be more provocative, those are things that make him very uncomfortable and those are all things that are very relatable for everybody whether you're a father or a daughter or whatever. Those things are understandable. So Mark thinks there are many many funny moments all withing the kind of serious tone of the movie, so there are lighter moments throughout.
• Mark feels that his character has created a relationship and a bond with Optimus, kind of like a best friend. Dealing with Bumblebee is almost like having a teenage son because he's a bit more unpredictable. And there's several dynamics Mark's character goes through that are like those in his own life, like how he really has a daughter who getting at that age and already has pictures of One Direction on her wall and those are big issues for him. So he had no problem connecting to both relationships. The father-daughter relationship and the relationship with Optimus.
• Michael isn't quite sure if they're confident in the movie since they really don't know what the movie's going to be like until they put it together. The started out as not confident, but having gone through six months of this it seems like it's going pretty well. There's a difference between "confident" and "cocky". To be confident you have to have faith in your abilities and have to know what your good at, you put your best foot forward and make sure you do everything in you power to be as good as possible. You have to be confident to do what they're doing.
• It's always fun to do a lot of different types of movies. Transformers has been an amazing ride, Bay thought it was only going to be three movies, but it all came when he was standing in live for two and half hours for the Transformers ride at Universal Studios, and when he saw a two and half hour line of families and kids wanting to see this ride, he decided that he can't give this up just so fast. To get new life, he had to get rid of the cast and recreate everything that's been designed thus far. He was fortunate enough to work with Mark on a small movie, and it kinda came together that they were gonna kinda put them together on this movie. Bay still had a fantastic time on working on the fourth movie and is excited to see it.

Thanks Sab for the Lowdown on the Human Characters I like how they are doing them lets just hope that this will be a nice & easy transition from the Shia Trilogy to a Brand new Cast.

Think like with Mass Effect Shepard into the next new ME game a game without Shepard but set in that same Universe. That is basically how Mr. Bay is doing AOE being in that same Universe-Timeline yet it is a Brand new Story with a new Characters such as Mass Effect 4 will do.

I just hope it isnt going to be entirely a Human Focused deal as all talk has been non-stop on the Humans there has been no talks what so ever on the Transformers themselves.

We still are not clear rather this is Galvatron or Megatron, We still havent seen Cyclonus, we havent seen any other Decepticons but there have been rumors of Lockdown or Motormaster coule be Nemesis Prime keep in mind if you remember Transformers RID that Scourge was also a Black Semi.

Also there have been no mentions to rather or not NEST is in the movie or if NEST has been de-activated by the Goverment since the Transformers have been gone for 3 to 4 years since the Chicago Deal.

Leaving me to believe NEST is Disbanded these will be Random Miltary People & will not be NEST.

Ther hasnt been much on Kelsey Grammar other than he is interested in Reverse Egineering Cybertronian Tech could be similar towards MECH in Transformers Prime & their Goals. But I doubt this is MECH.

Just whish more was revealed on the Transformers rather than the Humans such as Cyclonus, Megatron/Galvatron, others.

Enough on the human Elemenats where is the Transformers cause I thought I this was Transformers not Falling Skies.

T-Macksimus wrote:(and yes, I am an American and I am proudly slamming my own culture and country. Suck it! You all KNOW the rest of the world sees us as dumb, fat, gun toting hill-billies and yet we do nothing to counter that image and in fact create reality shows glorifying the stereotype)

People love to talk crap about the U.S., but yet it is still to this day one of (if not thee most) imigrated country in the world. And while you say screw pop western culture, i say screw the rest of the world. We are who we are and personally i could give to shits what anyone says about me. I really don't owe anyone anything.

As far as the hole english speaking thing, i think many of you are looking way to much into this. They speak english because they landed in the U.S. This new bot speak Manderian because he landed in china. Case closed.

to me it makes perfect sense as to why he Speaks 1 specific Language. Also you have to take into the account that most of AOE will be set in Hong Kong or China.

The Bot probably Scaned the Language to be able to fit in with the Locals there. Or Li Bings being the CEO her people probably reveresed enginered him to only Speak in thier Native Language.

It will most Likely be English Sub sort of like when they speak in Cybertron Language such as Starscream did a Lot showed his Words in English SUB. It will be the same with the Mandarian Bot.

Also you are all complaining about the Generic Names that are in AOE being Drift or Slingshot those are not that diffrent from my Character names such as Thunderslicer, Train Wreck, NightRazor, also Mr. Bay probably didnt even chose those names that is from Hasbro's Toy Line they want new Characters specifically for the film.

The more I hear on AOE the more I am getting a The Avengers kinda of vibe from it. Being a Teaser from Unicron sort of how Thanos did in The Avengers towards the end of the credits. I am betting Unicron does this in AOE.

I keep on hearing that Lockdown is in the movie, & that this is Galvatron being the Upgraded Megatron Deal similar towards TF Cybertron or the 1986 Movie deal did but Unicron Upgraded Megatron.

In Cybertron he Used his Fury & The Giant Planet Key to upgrade to Galvatron so I bet in AOE Megatron uses a Similar deal to become Galvatron.

Keep in mind that in TF RID that Scourge was a Black Semi so maybe the black semi could be Scourge but my money is on could be Megatron/Galvatrons ALT MODE or even Cyclonus could be Lockdown.

Still willing to bet that NEST isnt in AOE.

to me it makes perfect sense as to why he Speaks 1 specific Language. Also you have to take into the account that most of AOE will be set in Hong Kong or China.

The Bot probably Scaned the Language to be able to fit in with the Locals there. Or Li Bings being the CEO her people probably reveresed enginered him to only Speak in thier Native Language.

It will most Likely be English Sub sort of like when they speak in Cybertron Language such as Starscream did a Lot showed his Words in English SUB. It will be the same with the Mandarian Bot.

Also you are all complaining about the Generic Names that are in AOE being Drift or Slingshot those are not that diffrent from my Character names such as Thunderslicer, Train Wreck, NightRazor, also Mr. Bay probably didnt even chose those names that is from Hasbro's Toy Line they want new Characters specifically for the film.

The more I hear on AOE the more I am getting a The Avengers kinda of vibe from it. Being a Teaser from Unicron sort of how Thanos did in The Avengers towards the end of the credits. I am betting Unicron does this in AOE.

I keep on hearing that Lockdown is in the movie, & that this is Galvatron being the Upgraded Megatron Deal similar towards TF Cybertron or the 1986 Movie deal did but Unicron Upgraded Megatron.

In Cybertron he Used his Fury & The Giant Planet Key to upgrade to Galvatron so I bet in AOE Megatron uses a Similar deal to become Galvatron.

Keep in mind that in TF RID that Scourge was a Black Semi so maybe the black semi could be Scourge but my money is on could be Megatron/Galvatrons ALT MODE or even Cyclonus could be Lockdown.

Still willing to bet that NEST isnt in AOE.

Actually, i think Transformers speaking chinese can be good and quite funny, but only if they done it well. So it's kinda Wild Quess right now, prety much like anything else...

I don't like idea of Unicron in Baformers at all, yet another giant to beign killed in humiliating way? No thanks...

TurboMMaster wrote:I don't like idea of Unicron in Baformers at all, yet another giant to beign killed in humiliating way? No thanks...

Good thing there's been no hints of Unicron in anything official.

You are letting past experiences such as Fantastic Four such as they screwed up Galaticus sorry if I misspelled his name, Ruin what could be something that could be an awesome deal with Unicron.

Transformers Prime showed us that Unicron can work in new & exciting new ways besides the Giant Planet eater such as in Beast Wars Unicron was also diffrent.

Keep in mind Technology has vastly improved since Fantastic Four so I am willing to bet good money that Unicron Bayformer could & would work if done well & fit in the movieverse to make it believeable.

You just cant say Here is Unicron. You have to build that up. leading up to the reveal of Unicron. Think like in the X-Men Movies while we have not seen much of the Sentinels in action but in Days of Future Past they will play a Big role cause of Trask Industries thus setting up for X Men Apocalypse. Lets hope they Bring in the 4 Horseman. If you dont know why they are I suggest catching up on your X Men history.

I think it would be awesome to do a Transformers Prime version of Unicron being the Earth itself being the Core of our Planet. If Unicron ever Re-Activated then all life on Earth would be Extinguished. The only way to seal Unicron would be either the power of Primus, could be the Cyber Planet Keys done in a new way, all kinds of ideas roaming in my head.

Unicron Can work, You people arent thinking out of the box like I am. You are thinking he must always be the Giant Planet Killer or it would be some messed up deal like in FF 4 with the Nano Clouds.

I am working on new ideas such as a Bayformer Unicron to me it could & would Work. They are other ways to do a Unicron also the same could be done regarding Primus which I am also brainstorming new ideas on Primus also.

Also trying to re-boot the Cyber Planet keys & other Plot Elements from the past such as Prime did with the Immobilizer, or Key to Vector Sigma using them in new ways.

The beauty of being with TF for 30 years you get a lot of new ideas sometimes they fit sometimes they dont.

Me, My biggest concern is will this movie be a nice & easy transistion from Old to new Being a Brand new Cast, New Locations, New Transformers. Lets hope Mr. Bay & company Makes this a easy Transistion.

Think Mass Effect Shepard into Mass Effect 4 without Shepard.

You know what? Transformers doesn't need to borrow from the lores of other franchises. It has its own lore, and here's a shocking thought, maybe they might actually do something completely different for the movies!

I for one would love to see something new and original in the movies, I detest the idea of Unicron showing up as much as I detest the idea of Megatron being turned into Galvatron (more so given that in recent years they've been separate characters)

I also like the idea of a Cybertronian speaking a language other than English, if they happened to have landed in a non-English speaking part of the world then it's perfectly logical that they would learn the native language. I also think it's a good way to add a bit of character to the bot.

Even though at the end of the day it's just there to market to the Asian audiences. But then again, this is a franchise that started out as a 30 minute toy commercial.

Didn't Optimus say in the first movie that they learned English from the Internet? If that's true they should be able to speak quite a few languages, so I take that to mean this Transformer chooses to speak Chinese. I don't understand why that's a big deal

njb902 wrote:Didn't Optimus say in the first movie that they learned English from the Internet? If that's true they should be able to speak quite a few languages, so I take that to mean this Transformer chooses to speak Chinese. I don't understand why that's a big deal

It's not. Just remember what part of the site you're in though.

Burn wrote:

njb902 wrote:Didn't Optimus say in the first movie that they learned English from the Internet? If that's true they should be able to speak quite a few languages, so I take that to mean this Transformer chooses to speak Chinese. I don't understand why that's a big deal

It's not. Just remember what part of the site you're in though.

I don't think it's limited to this part of the forums.