Granted, I personally hated last summer’s blockbuster smash Transformers. Regardless, news is still news, and I must report…
For those worried about the forthcoming sequel Revenge of the Fallen being the latest in a line of blockbuster tentpoles filming sequels back-to-back, well director Michael Bay has heard your prayers.
Speaking to Entertainment Weekly recently, Bay revealed:
“When we were writing the script, I said to the writers, “‘ hate sequels that try to make it to the third movie. Pretend like we’re never having a third movie, so let’s go for broke on the second one. I hate those cliffhangers! Let’s just make this movie stand on its own.’ I really feel this movie is not a forced sequel.”
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I gotta admit I’m relieved to hear this myself. I was by no means a fan of the Matrix and Pirates of the Carribbean sequels which relied heavily on said gimmick. Moving on…
Besides being told to “look hot,” Megan Fox confessed to Fox News she was ordered by Bay to put on weight for the sequel because “Michael doesn’t like skinny girls.”
The actress also adds that “at this point Shia and I have been dating for two years so we’re at the bickering stage, like an old married couple.” I’m sure audiences will be riveted by that plot-thread instead of the giant fighting robots next summer.
And lastly what’s any article pertaining to Transformers 2 without a word from… Seth Rogen? On the cover of this month’s GQ magazine, the Pineapple Express star admits to playing a role in why his buddy and Superbad co-star Jonah Hill turned down a supporting role in the forthcoming sequel.
“I can see if Steven Spielberg’s calling you, asking you to do something, how that’s hard to turn down,” Rogen says. “But what I said to Jonah was, ‘You want to make a movie about fightin’ robots? Make your own movie about fightin’ robots. You can do that. That’s on the table now.’”
Artwork from TimFlattery.com
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen will be released in theatres on June 26, 2009.
Sources: Entertainment Weekly, Fox News, and GQ
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20 Comments
Looking forward to more robots and less humans in the tragedy know as BAYSformers 2. Anyone read the script that Bays wrote for “The Dark Knight”. It’s horribly hilarious! Thank GOD Nolans respects the Batman and his world.
hmmm…The seth Rogan thing doesn’t make any sense…or its just stupid. I’m still unsure, heh.
But hate man, you ‘hated’ transformers? That’s such a strong word. Were you not at least entertained by the last 20 minutes of it?
I’m right there with ya, I hated this film as well. Like Uwe Boll, Micheal Bay needs to stop making movies.
@Ash Ali
You wouldn’t believe the number of people who’ve become regular readers of Screen Rant due to my negative review of Transformers, lol.
That’s the test writers have to pass before they can join here.
Vic
Hmmm, I must be in the minority here, because I am looking forward to the sequel. I enjoyed the first movie quite a bit, but then again I wasn’t a Transformers nerd in the 80’s. There was lots of action and it kept me entertained. MUCH MUCH more entertained than the supposedly great “American Gangster” did….
I enjoyed the first film, I think its because I realized, at the end of the day, it was something I was a fan of as a child and I got to see it live on screen. I understand there were comics and the animated series, but they did just start as Hasbro Toys and that’s that.
As for Jonah Hill turning down a supporting role, that’s just retarded…I’m sorry, Stephen Spielberg asks you to do something you say YES….
“But hate man, you ‘hated’ transformers? That’s such a strong word. Were you not at least entertained by the last 20 minutes of it?”
In my case, I don’t believe “hate” is a strong enough word to describe how I feel about Bay’s mockery of Transformers. There was nothing I found even remotely entertaining about it. I hated it so much that not even the hint the title provides regarding who might make an appearance in the sequel is enough to make me want to see it.
You guys are beyond exaggerating, and to say Bay should stop making movies is absurd. You can’t possibly be familiar with the industry and say something like that.
and what is there to hate? There were plot holes with regard to barricade, and some of the characters (the sector 7 guy, hot aussi analyst, the comp. nerd) that were awful.
But with that aside, the acting from the prime characters was spot on, the shots and cinematography was perfect, its the best special effects ever, the actual transformers, their look, movements voices were amazing. the only bad part was the screenplay.
I think too many people expect a recreation of the 80s show which is retarded. Go back and watch any 5 episodes of that series, or better yet check out the original animated feature and its terrible. Absolutely terrible now watching it. Also, people expect, like the originals for the movie to be from the transformers perspective, with a big cast and being focused purely on them. This again, would be impossible with the budget and introductions. Instead its from our perspective, getting introduced to them and the sequel will be focused on them. We saw very little conversing between the robots in this and alot of shots go to show that its from OUR perspective seeing this.
Anyway, this post is pointless, I won’t be able to sway any of you. But apply the exact details you ‘hate’ to the biggest movies of this year and the previous 4 and I sense elements of hypocrisy
Rob, you REALLY do not want to challenge me to compare any five episode of the cartoon to the movie. I have the entire series on DVD, and I can easily pick 5 episodes which would leave Bayformers in the dust in terms of story quality and character development, and those are the only criteria that have any weight where I’m concerned. If I were to throw in other TF TV series and comics, I would have an even easier time.
As for what I hated about it, the Transformers movie completely abandoned a visual aesthetic that has remained consistent for 20+ years. The story was extremely bad, the characters were not who they were promised/said to be, the camera movement, combined with the horror movie reject designs for the robots, made it impossible to follow the action, and the movie committed the same sins the production team, and admittedly some long time fans, repeatedly criticized the 80’s cartoon for committing.
I had no problems with them updating some elements for the new movie, and in fact, I argued on Don Murphy’s message boards that updated did need to be made. I have no problems with adapting the perspective to a human viewpoint to make the movie workable. I have no problems cutting some of the characters to make the robot cast manageable. I had no problems with updating the vehicle modes, or the character list or anything of that nature.
What I did have a problem with was the look of the robots, which I could have managed to accept if the rest of the movie had been any good at all. I had a major problem with the Autobots being useless, serving as nothing more than a distraction so the human army can save the day. I did have serious problems with the Decepticons being nothing more than mindless destructive machines, especially since many of them are fan favorite characters, and some of them got killed before they could get any character development at all. I had critical problem with the human characters and the disgustingly crude “humor” that pervaded the movie. I also hated the racist stereotypes that I kept seeing throughout the movie. On top of all of that were the glaring inconsistencies with scientific reality that proved to be major plot points. Still, the area where I had my BIGGEST problem was the wasted opportunity to show Transformers as being something more that what it’s perceived as being, which really amounts to being little more than a joke.
For all of those reasons, I consider this movie so unforgivably bad that it’s poisoned the entire live action Transformers franchise for me to the point where only a Batman Begins or Casino Royale style reboot of the franchise will get me into a theater to watch them. I will not give any future sequels a chance, regardless of who writes or directs them. It’s made me unwilling to give any of the writers other work a chance, including the new Star Trek movie, and it’s caused Steven Spielberg to lose all credibility with me.
Well, I’ve tried posting this once before, but it doesn’t seen to have taken, so I’m trying again
“I think too many people expect a recreation of the 80s show which is retarded. Go back and watch any 5 episodes of that series, or better yet check out the original animated feature and its terrible.”
Rob, I may be the wrong person to make that challenge to, especially since, the way you’ve worded it, I would get to pick the 5 episodes to use in the comparison. I have the entire series on DVD, and I can easily pick 5 episodes which would leave Bayformers in the dust in terms of story quality and character development, and those are the only criteria that have any serious weight where I’m concerned. If I were able to throw in other TF TV series and comics, I would have an even easier time. As for the original animated movie, I’ll agree it’s got some serious problems, the biggest of which was that it was basically a convenient way to clear the slate so Hasbro could market new characters, but it’s still far better than Michael Bay’s movie was. Of course, that was geared towards kids, not to adults and non-fans.
As for what I hated about last years movie, the Bayformers movie completely abandoned a visual aesthetic that has remained consistent for 20+ years. The story was, to be exceedingly generous, extremely bad, the characters were not who they were promised/said to be, the camera movement, combined with the horror movie reject designs for the robots, made it impossible to follow the action, and the movie committed the same sins the production team, and admittedly some long time fans, repeatedly criticized the 80’s cartoon for committing.
I had no problems with them updating some elements for the new movie, and in fact, I argued on Don Murphy’s message boards that updated did need to be made. I have no problems with adapting the perspective to a human viewpoint to make the movie workable. I have no problems cutting some of the characters to make the robot cast manageable. I had no problems with updating the vehicle modes, or the character list or anything of that nature.
What I did have a problem with was the look of the robots, which I could have managed to accept if the rest of the movie had been any good at all. I had a major problem with the Autobots being useless, serving as nothing more than a distraction so the human army can save the day. I did have serious problems with the Decepticons being nothing more than mindless destructive machines, especially since many of them are fan favorite characters, and some of them got killed before they could get any character development at all. I had critical problem with the human characters and the disgustingly crude “humor” that pervaded the movie. I also hated the racist stereotypes that I kept seeing throughout the movie. On top of all of that were the glaring inconsistencies with scientific reality that proved to be major plot points. Still, the area where I had my BIGGEST problem was the wasted opportunity to show Transformers as being something more that what it’s perceived as being, which really amounts to being little more than a joke.
For all of those reasons, I consider this movie so unforgivably bad that it’s poisoned the entire live action Transformers franchise for me to the point where only a Batman Begins or Casino Royale style reboot of the franchise will get me into a theater to watch them. I will not give any future sequels a chance, regardless of who writes or directs them. It’s made me unwilling to give any of the writers other work a chance, including the new Star Trek movie, and it’s caused Steven Spielberg to lose all credibility with me.
I watched all the old episodes last year. They were damn good fun. Silly, yes, and some had real weak plots, but others were really good, and as for all 80s cartoons - we’re not talking 24 and the Sopranos. Most were very simple and moral. Bit much to judge them by today’s standards, as with other tv shows.
Who wants to see a transformers’ movie from our view anyway? Sod the bloody humans. The old cartoons had the same issue, some kid getting involved, and that annoyed me then.
Also, the transformers then had real character. I loved the Decepticons and it is only in later life I realised how much my opinion of villains was affected - whiney, conniving cowards like Starscream are just great to hate!
‘the only bad part was the screenplay’
I don’t care who makes the movie, or what it is about, but bad writing in it always puts me off.
Also, beyond exaggerating is, itself, beyond exaggerating.
Rob, I hope I’m not alone here when I say I beg to differ! The animated movie was and still is a hell of alot better than the live action movie. ( all except the first 10 min of the live action movie which was awesome!.. then it went to crap)I still enjoy watching the animated movie… and still cringe at the new one… oh just to prove I’m not alone here… I see the new movie everywhere for like 10 bucks.. and the old one for like 24……….
yeah the animated movie was way better than this live action movie. there was a story that made the personified the transformers in this movie the transformers take a supporting role to the people optimus prime dosen’t seem like the leader i remember from the show and movie. and when he said my bad i almost left the theater
Wow. I mean, just…wow.
I am a HUGE fan of the original Transformers cartoon. Being in my young 30’s now, I was at the prime age that the series/toys were marketed to back then. I loved them then and I love them now. I have a 5-year-old boy who is also now in love with Transformers.
Change is necessary. Change is inevitable. And the changes they brought to Transformers for the live-action movie just amazed me to the core. For the first time in my life, I had the opportunity to see my life-long favorite fiction brought to “real life.” Did I care that Optimus Prime wasn’t a cab-over with a transforming trailer? NO! The iteration that Bay et al came up with was perfect! Did I care that Megatron wasn’t a silly size-changing pistol? NO! He was made into something a little more believable. Just listen to the writers commentary on the SE DVD: They say they didn’t want to create “morphing” machines - they wanted to create “transforming” machines. So the designs/transformations of some of the original iterations would have been lousy in this type of movie without some serious modern updates.
I was a little disappointed at some of the casting, sure. I mean Spike and his dad were much more solid and somewhat macho characters. But the roles that were created for this movie still served their purpose. And the role of Captain Lennox as played by Josh Duhamel was just great. I’m hoping he’ll be back for the sequel. He and Ironhide would make a GREAT pair.
So this is my un-solicited opinion: Bring on Transformers II!!! I’m sure I’ll get flamed and told that I couldn’t have possibly been a true TF fan if I liked this movie, etc, but you know what they say about opinions….
The only thing the Transformer’s movie had going for it was,Meagan Foxx!!!!
“Did I care that Optimus Prime wasn’t a cab-over with a transforming trailer? NO! The iteration that Bay et al came up with was perfect!”
I can only partially agree with you. This version of Optimus Prime was far from perfect. The Rodimus Prime paint-job was out of character, in my opinion. I also wasn’t too pleased with the skeletal, barely-armored, please-admire-my-internal-systems design. The fact that he had that pathetic mouth design was another thing that never sat right with me. Beyond that, the vehicle mode was fine and all the elements that define the established Optimus Prime style were there in some way, shape, or form. Too bad the character was off.
“Did I care that Megatron wasn’t a silly size-changing pistol? NO! He was made into something a little more believable.”
The fact that he wasn’t a gun was never an issue for me. He’s been a jet, a tank, a sports car, and, depending on how you which Megatron you talk about, also a T-Rex, a Dragon, an elephant, a boat, a bat, and a giant hand. Not being a gun didn’t even register for me. Being hideously ugly, though, did annoy me.
Then, of course, there was Starscream, which was a whole other set of problems.
“Just listen to the writers commentary on the SE DVD:”
Oh, why? I heard all their lies before the movie came out. I don’t need to hear them again.
“They say they didn’t want to create “morphing” machines - they wanted to create “transforming” machines. So the designs/transformations of some of the original iterations would have been lousy in this type of movie without some serious modern updates.”
Yet, they broke their own rule on that score. The robots had more mass than the vehicle modes did. This violates their rule of no mass shifting, which in and of itself would require some form of “morphing.”
I can accept updating the characters into new vehicle modes, and consequently new robot modes. The problem comes in with throwing out EVERYTHING that made Transformers recognizable for over 20 years. The problem came from a horrible screenplay with no story to speak of, no character development at all, and nothing that made it possible for me to even try to enjoy the movie.
As far as I’m concerned, the knock-off movie Transmorphers was better than Bayformers. Not that that’s really saying much.
“I’m sure I’ll get flamed and told that I couldn’t have possibly been a true TF fan if I liked this movie,”
Anyone making that kind of argument immediately loses the argument as far as I’m concerned. That kind of argument has long since been discredited as far as I’m concerned, and I have no respect for those that employ it.
Totally agree with you Flamestrike.
your points validate your opinion very well.
this film will b amazing (fact) the first was just outa this worls so the next shud b just as good, cant wait. bring on the formers……..
hey, aren’t they going to bring back jazz? I think i read something to that effect, though not with direct words.
Sopilers ehad.
I heard that what’s left of Jazz is now in the form of a yellow IPhone2.0.
Rumors are that he’s constantly running low on power, and Shia keeps losing, and or damaging the charger…
I’ve heard during some of the battles you can hear his low battery signal beeping and flashing…
(Its played out for laughs, like a bad running gag throughout the entire film.)
Also,,,
Rumor is that Jazz also transforms into a Hybrid BluRay Wii console during some of the battle scenes… But again only when he’s fully charged.
The film is just gonna be horrible.
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