Details from Rumoured Test Screenings for Transformers Rise of the Beasts

Well, the note about Arcee's voice actress being the same one from Prime is completely bogus, since her voice actress has already been confirmed to instead be Liza Koshy, not Sumalee Montano.

Wow, this sounds... Just awful.
David Kaye and Garry Chalk don't exist, I guess.
God forbid we have Predacons in our Beast Wars movie.

Sabrblade wrote:

84everfan wrote:Wow, this sounds... Just awful.
David Kaye and Garry Chalk don't exist, I guess.
God forbid we have Predacons in our Beast Wars movie.

But this isn't a Beast Wars movie. A separate Beast Wars movie is coming later.

I thought that was no longer on the radar. Hasbro just includes this film and the animated TF film on their upcoming slate.

Not surprised at all that the roles of Rhinox and original wallflower Airazor have been flipped. The Predacon stuff, if true, isn’t surprising either. Too many factions listed for them all to be given fair dues. At least no silly military presence in this one would be a huge plus.

griftimus prime wrote:bring unicron to earth? i thought unicron IS the earth

Assuming this is real, the I'm guessing they're cutting tlk free...which I can agree with.

It's always been really limiting as a concept. You can't have Unicron transform if it destroys the Earth to do so. Therefore removing the main draw of actually seeing him.

Also wish they wouldn't keep holding out the Unicron carrot all the time. There is a wealth of Transformers lore waiting to make it to Live Action. That has more to do and say than the Chaos Bringer.

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:It's always been really limiting as a concept. You can't have Unicron transform if it destroys the Earth to do so. Therefore removing the main draw of actually seeing him.

Also wish they wouldn't keep holding out the Unicron carrot all the time. There is a wealth of Transformers lore waiting to make it to Live Action. That has more to do and say than the Chaos Bringer.

It's probably because more people are aware of Unicron as a concept, but he is diminishing returns. Problem is if the suits fancy taking a risk on any other branch of lore from the wealth of fiction from the almost 40 years the brand has been going.

Maybe I've been successfully conditioned by the previous live action movies, but hearing that it's a relatively simple plot with lots of bot interaction and fight scenes sounds pretty positive to me.

Could still be terrible if the majority of screentime is cringey comedy and contrived drama for the humans, which is my main concern. I'm surprised there's not much comment on that beyond mentioning lack of military.

Deadput wrote:Anyways if all this is true that leaves me worried about this bit.

-There is an implied past relationship between Arcee and Wheeljack, and there are sexual jokes that are weird and random (If this is true and as bad as I'm imagining, Hasbro you are allowed to put your foot down for the benefit of the children and teens this nonsense isn't necessary and never will be in a Transformers film.)

I'm a bit less worried because this is just dialogue that could be cut if it didn't go over well with the audience. So this could all be real, but it also doesn't mean we'll get it in the end.

Cheesinator wrote:Maybe I've been successfully conditioned by the previous live action movies, but hearing that it's a relatively simple plot with lots of bot interaction and fight scenes sounds pretty positive to me.

Could still be terrible if the majority of screentime is cringey comedy and contrived drama for the humans, which is my main concern. I'm surprised there's not much comment on that beyond mentioning lack of military.

This is exactly where I stand, to a T. Many were worried there would be a lot of emphasis on humans and while I am sure that part will still be there, the bots seem to be at the forefront here. Which would be a first. Low bar, I know, but I don't know what else people would expect from a live action Transformers film at this point.

Brokebot wrote:Yeah . . . looks like I'll be watching this movie by way of YouTube highlights.

One day maybe we'll get a movie made by people who actually give a damn about the material and characters, but I suspect I won't live long enough to see it.

Here's a good example. I am curious, Brokebot, what were you expecting in terms of a live action film and what in the description made it a certainty that you wouldn't watch all of it?

And I will agree with everyone that Unicron is a one note plot/character, and that's by design. Even without any of these "leaks", I think there's good evidence to Unicron's peripheral involvement, simply through designs. Though it being peripheral means that element could be cut if audiences don't test well with it.

And the questions as to why Unicron is coming rather than being on Earth are valid, since it seems Hasbro/Paramount is still skirting around the whole "Reboot but still Bayverse, so not a full reboot" idea and will not offer a clean break for fans, let alone casual viewers, to know if this isn't meant to be associated to the past films. I expect more frustration.

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:See, it's exactly that. As great as he was in the '86 Movie (mostly down to Orson Welles). Unicron is a one trick pony. A plot device. The Comics bring him in to end their respective runs. Even UT arguably didn't add anything major to his characterisation either. Ironic, in hindsight.

That's why he should be something esoteric within Transformers lore. Akin to a Lovecraftian Elder God. A name with cult-like/deific worship. He shouldn't be a physical thing in Live Action. Because he can't be fought. Even in animation, as soon as he transforms, he stands still until plot happens.

The Armada cartoon was the closest he ever came to being a Lovecraftian Eldritch entity. He was at his most alien in that series. A seeming force of nature that fed off hated and violence, inner workings that were gross and semi-organic, supernatural abilities that bordered on magical, reality-bending and dimensional-warping powers used to toy with the minds of lesser beings, use of avatars to communicate with said lesser beings, a voice that sounded as emotionless and otherworldly as the original Orson Welles voice (particularly in the Japanese version), creating life from his very cells just to stir up the existing Autobot/Decepticon conflict. Armada cartoon Unicron was truly one of the most frightening depictions of the character. The true monster wasn't the giant moon-sized robot that loomed in Cybertron's orbit, but the horrific monstrosity that lay deep inside that giant outer shell.

And since not many in the West have seen it, not many know about the Beast Wars Neo depiction of Unicron. A vicious creature made of pure energy, this version of Unicron was a nigh-invincible being who, instead of being a giant-sized looming threat all the time, was standard Transformer-sized and got down and dirty from the moment he was resurrected. Instead of only using minions, he would get up close and personal, directly mopping the floor with Big Convoy and his teammates in every episode, decimating all in his path, and LOVING every moment of it. He was very sadistic in this series, cockily and gleefully relishing in all of the pain and destruction he caused in his quest to reacquire all of his Angolmois Energy and get back to Cybertron. And what's more, this version of Unicron made it a point to explicitly note that he was NOT a god, but that he desired to become a god, wanting to do so by merging with Vector Sigma and making Cybertron itself his new body.

There's also Shattered Glass Unicron, but not much has been done with him as a good guy.

And then there's the more recent "End of G1 Universe" manga that provides the newest and most different take on Unicron, in which Dark Amber Leo Prime is presented as a new being born from a fusion of Unicron and Lio Convoy, creating a morally-ambiguous character who is both self-aware of his past as Unicron but also unsure of his place in the world, almost like this version is an actual attempt at trying to reform and rehabilitate the evil Unicron into a not-so-evil character, something that's never been done before.