Optimus Prime will indeed have a mouth under his "battle" shield

This really pisses me off. It's Optimus-f'in-Prime for crying out loud. Can we at least have ONE thing in this movie not be changed for the sake of changing? I can't believe how passive so many people are being about this decision. And don't bring up the whole Optimus Primal thing. I would have been fine if they did the Beast Wars or Cybertron approach with movie Prime. This just looks ridiculous. How anyone at ILM or Dreamworks or even at Hasbro thought this looked even remotely good or "cool" seriously needs to get their eyes checked.

Please keep the entire design staff as far away as possible from G.I.Joe and any future Super Hero movies. Next thing you know we'll have a yellow Spider-Man with a visor and pinchers on his face as well as the Blue Lantern, a red Batman, a green Superman and a pink Wolverine. After seeing Spider-Man tonight and seeing how faithful they are to his costume, it helped me realize how disappointed I am to this day in the robot designs in this movie. I don't care what the reasons are for it, these design changes were poor decisions from the get-go and are completely unnecessary regardless of what mumbo-jumbo they want to make up to spin these changes to the public.

Don't get me wrong ... I'm extremely excited about the movie. But I feel a strong sense of Deja Vu. Beast Machines comes to mind. Great story. Absolutely horrible designs.

Fireblast wrote:Plus I've notices Hasbro is slacking off in the quality of toys especially with the protoforms...

Hasbro's QC has been getting worse but my protoforms were in perfect condition. In fact, I marveled at the awesome, non f'ed up paint jobs - especially on Op. I hoped that meant that their QC was finally getting better. Maybe I'm wrong. What was wrong with the protoforms?

While I'd prefer he didn't have a mouth, I think it's a pretty minor point to get worked up about. The essence of the character really isn't based on the fact that we can't see his mouth.
But having said that- yeah- that picture... his face is ugly with a capital Ug.

Is anybody else worried that this big budgetted film will become, say, Peter Jackson's King Kong? I'm optimistic but there's a part of me that just says....

I like that: "Could we stop and relax on the whining?" Whether Optimus has a 'mouth' or a 'battle shield' shouldn't matter. We are seeing our childhood heroes on the big screen and that is enough to be elated about. I can't wait to see it.

It's true, Prime is ICONIC as a Transformer. It really can't be said better than that. Although not everyone cares about Transformers the way we fans do, those who are even somewhat familiar with the brand know who Optimus Prime is, and would recognize him in no time. Not to say this movie Prime isn't recognizable as Prime, but if they didn't at least give him his trademark antennae and colors, I'm not even sure I'd know who I was looking at, and he's my all-time favorite character! It might seem small and strange to some, but Prime's faceplate does give him a certain character. I'm not even sure how I can put it to words, but it gives him a certain strength and authority, and it augments his position as leader. Actually, I'd say it gives him a certain powerful humility, like he is that caring and compassionate friend of man, but piss him off, and he'll bowl through Decepticons like they were nothing (see original Transformers animated movie). And even worse than taking away his faceplate, what they've left him with underneath is barely even recognizeable as a mouth. I hate to say anything negative about my beloved Autobot leader, but his lips make him look ape-like, and if I'm not mistaken, one of the things that makes the Transformers so likeable is there relative similarities to humans, despite being "alien". (Yeah, that's a card the guys behind this movie are playing WAY too much) Yes, the Transformers are alien, but if you want to make an alien lovable, give it a certain human quality. If you make it completely foreign, it's just plain scary, not interesting.

Sorry, Prime, I'll still support you, but I hope to God somehow the guys behind these live-action movies get some sense and rework you properly a little for the sequels.

this sucks balls, critics gonna ask themself if Ttransformers makes love with lips now, there is NO logical use for metal lips for a machine damed! this is just stupid, MB can no officially suck my G1 balls!

oyeah, btw, i actually HOPE it wont come an sequal if this is the final desicion, cause i dont want to se other cool G1 heroes get blammed up as monsters, damed, megatron aint megatron, hes a fricking warhammer character!

Stop being such whiny little bitches. who cares? i mean seriously. it's a film about giant transforming robots destroying things and eachother, that's the concept we all know and love and that hasn't changed. just be thankful you're getting a movie based on a toy franchise. and by-the-by spidey has more exposure than transformers so it'd be harder to change anything like that. plus a battle shield over the face tends to make it hard for a cgi character to emote...stupid funking fanboys...

Nelson remains a prick to the end