Transformers: Rise of the Beasts
- Thread starter SHIELD Agent 47
- Start date
Read the article and whoever wrote it, while makes a couple of vaid points, but on the other hand, it feels like its written by someone who has only seen the 86 movie and not seen anything else related to TF, thou one thing in that strikes a cord, it talks about the Mcguffin of the movie and says its a magical device, despite the fact the movie says that its techonlgy, thou to them, it might as well be magic and the Transformers gods desended from heaven!
If there were any toys that demonstrate my continued…frustrations…with the collector segment, it’s those two.
It’s disappointing/baffling/frustrating that the “lesser” Deluxe and Voyager figures “hit their notes” (so to speak) BETTER that the premium/collector segment.
With Mirage, we’ve finally gotten good looks at the Core Deluxe iteration (though, who knows when THAT will be available outside of the Target multipack)...and it’s not a flattering comparison. For the same price, I think Core Deluxe (CD) is actually more reflective of the film’s “vibe” for the design. Even with obvious compromises in parts/sprue counts, articulation and deco, CD captured the lanky look of the character better. Studio Series mostly wins out in a (more than CD) accurate head, the vastly improved deco, and more articulation. But I can see the articulation is resulting in a bulky, likely overly complex, design. At a comparative price point, the CD gets you a better, less hassle-laden, robot mode, but Studio Series nails the Porsche mode.
Frankly, I’m hoping to get a Weaponizer version to have something with some fun in the final product. The biggest boon to me is that the Studio Series feels “un-Mirage” enough I could roll with him as a separate character. But so could the CD version, which may well end up cheaper in the long run.
Optimus Primal ended up being what I was spitballing months ago: a roughly Voyager sized figure bumped to Leader by virtue of complexity and accessories. Which I wouldn’t be too ruffled over…except Hasbro dropped the ball at the finish line. They indicated a darker deco on the final figure, that bumps it up to being better than the Voyager figure (still sad the black and gold deco won’t happen on that). But for all the parts and complexity added…I’m not sure the figure itself ends up appreciably better than the other two options. I give props for the added articulation, especially the hands and opening mouth in beast mode. It’s also nice to see the extra accessories like the Transwarp key, Prime’s ax, and the ability to link the swords (which was seen more in the trailers more than the final film).
But, again, for all the extra parts, extra articulation, how did Hasbro fumble the head? Not once does Primal open his face plate, and even with the excuse of “the film wasn’t done”, at this price point, why isn’t there some sort of option to change it? In trying to make the conversion from ape to robot more distinctive, it just feels like a jumbled mess in the arms and the back of the ape mode is just a Complete cluster. And in robot mode, none really address the foot situation well, but I’m not sure the Studio Series option was the best choice they could have made.
The Voyager, aside from its poor deco choices, would have been MORE than “good enough” for most.
At the $60 price point, we’re comparing the Ultimate figure against the Studio Series. The Ultimate doesn’t have as complicated of an articulation suite, it is basically an up working of the Voyager figure, it does deliver a decent deco, decent accuracy, decent articulation, face options, and some play features which, I feel, has some really value. Whatever accuracy details the Studio Series figure delivers is marred by its own jumbled mess of parts and fumbling on the head. The biggest boon to the Studio Series figure is the extra accessories.
By and large, both Studio Series figures just seem over engineered to placate collectors who EXPECT a Masterpiece level experience for mass retail prices. I’m quite impressed with what the “secondary teams” that had to make do with fewer part counts and deco on the Core Deluxe and Voyager offerings. Again, some tweaks to the sculpts (likely due to needing to be done sooner than Studio Series) some extra deco, and BOTH the Core Mirage and Optimus Primal would be MORE than “good enough”.
It’s disappointing/baffling/frustrating that the “lesser” Deluxe and Voyager figures “hit their notes” (so to speak) BETTER that the premium/collector segment.
With Mirage, we’ve finally gotten good looks at the Core Deluxe iteration (though, who knows when THAT will be available outside of the Target multipack)...and it’s not a flattering comparison. For the same price, I think Core Deluxe (CD) is actually more reflective of the film’s “vibe” for the design. Even with obvious compromises in parts/sprue counts, articulation and deco, CD captured the lanky look of the character better. Studio Series mostly wins out in a (more than CD) accurate head, the vastly improved deco, and more articulation. But I can see the articulation is resulting in a bulky, likely overly complex, design. At a comparative price point, the CD gets you a better, less hassle-laden, robot mode, but Studio Series nails the Porsche mode.
Frankly, I’m hoping to get a Weaponizer version to have something with some fun in the final product. The biggest boon to me is that the Studio Series feels “un-Mirage” enough I could roll with him as a separate character. But so could the CD version, which may well end up cheaper in the long run.
Optimus Primal ended up being what I was spitballing months ago: a roughly Voyager sized figure bumped to Leader by virtue of complexity and accessories. Which I wouldn’t be too ruffled over…except Hasbro dropped the ball at the finish line. They indicated a darker deco on the final figure, that bumps it up to being better than the Voyager figure (still sad the black and gold deco won’t happen on that). But for all the parts and complexity added…I’m not sure the figure itself ends up appreciably better than the other two options. I give props for the added articulation, especially the hands and opening mouth in beast mode. It’s also nice to see the extra accessories like the Transwarp key, Prime’s ax, and the ability to link the swords (which was seen more in the trailers more than the final film).
But, again, for all the extra parts, extra articulation, how did Hasbro fumble the head? Not once does Primal open his face plate, and even with the excuse of “the film wasn’t done”, at this price point, why isn’t there some sort of option to change it? In trying to make the conversion from ape to robot more distinctive, it just feels like a jumbled mess in the arms and the back of the ape mode is just a Complete cluster. And in robot mode, none really address the foot situation well, but I’m not sure the Studio Series option was the best choice they could have made.
The Voyager, aside from its poor deco choices, would have been MORE than “good enough” for most.
At the $60 price point, we’re comparing the Ultimate figure against the Studio Series. The Ultimate doesn’t have as complicated of an articulation suite, it is basically an up working of the Voyager figure, it does deliver a decent deco, decent accuracy, decent articulation, face options, and some play features which, I feel, has some really value. Whatever accuracy details the Studio Series figure delivers is marred by its own jumbled mess of parts and fumbling on the head. The biggest boon to the Studio Series figure is the extra accessories.
By and large, both Studio Series figures just seem over engineered to placate collectors who EXPECT a Masterpiece level experience for mass retail prices. I’m quite impressed with what the “secondary teams” that had to make do with fewer part counts and deco on the Core Deluxe and Voyager offerings. Again, some tweaks to the sculpts (likely due to needing to be done sooner than Studio Series) some extra deco, and BOTH the Core Mirage and Optimus Primal would be MORE than “good enough”.
I read somewhere that Scourge's face reveal was suppose to be a major thing, like it was suppose to be Megatron behind that mask or something. I didn't get that at all, if that's what they were going for.
Aside from looking like a zombie Transformer, the final film seemed to make a deal out of it…but I’m not sure to what end. Like a number of areas of the film, it feels like there was something lost between the concept and final execution.
I still think Scourge started his existence as some sort of corrupted version of Optimus Prime from the future. I still maintain there is a potential arc there that was left unexplored, not even counting the lost angle of Primal’s beef with Scourge (which ended up going nowhere).
Wait, there was supposed to be more to that than, "Damn, you ugly"?
Again, maybe at one point, and it kind of ”feels” that way…but obviously not in the final product.
I think we need an extended cut of the film to explain the plot holes
Considering the film carries forward Unicron and focuses on an evil truck guy, both things that were focused on (among 10,000 other things) in the Last Knight, and the fact they went and called the truck guy, Scourge, a named thats been connected to an evil optimus clone for twenty plus years, I've always been on board with this interpretation.
And like, we don't *really* know what happened in the "future" or if the Bay movies are some pseudo connected alternate, parallel timeline, which also makes me fine with it. Considering how brutal Bay Optimus is, it would have been nice, especially with ROTB Optimus still being a rage monster, for Optimus to see a psychotic version of himself and chill out because he didn't want to be that.
But alas.
And like, we don't *really* know what happened in the "future" or if the Bay movies are some pseudo connected alternate, parallel timeline, which also makes me fine with it. Considering how brutal Bay Optimus is, it would have been nice, especially with ROTB Optimus still being a rage monster, for Optimus to see a psychotic version of himself and chill out because he didn't want to be that.
But alas.
According to this report, among the many revisions made to the final version of the film, apparently Scourge was originally supposed to be a much more sympathetic villain being forced to serve Unicron.
www.seibertron.com
Comparing the Original Test Screening of Rise of the Beasts to the Final Film
To those who watched Transformers Rise of the Beasts, you may be curious about what was cut and how the movie changed during production. We will have 3 articles detailing different aspects such as a cut character, scenes we saw in the trailers and from th
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Scourge could have been an evil Optimus Prime? I mean, it ties with the ending of Last Knight, sorta. Prime did get turned evil for a while and he was flying off to confront Unicron. Maybe he got enslaved again then time travel happened and Scourge really is an evil truck Prime. Dang.
Would also be funny if Scourge was Bayverae Thundercracker Skywarp or one of the Insecticons, to follow the TFTM.
The idea of Scourge being an evil Optimus from a dark future stems mostly from how that was the case for Nemesis Prime in the Kingdom season of the Netflix cartoon.
It sounds like they bit off more than they could chew with this plot and couldn't cram it all into a reasonable running time (as expected, really), so they hacked it down in the editing room and didn't care if the cuts left other things dangling.
Yeah, the film doesn't suffer for not including it, but if any extended cut included the extra scenes it would make me the nerd in me very happy. Like, Scourge doesn't *need* to be explored more, I'm just happy they intended to make him a more well rounded character.
This creative team has its heads and hearts in the right spots.
This creative team has its heads and hearts in the right spots.
Finally got around to seeing this (had left on vacation the day it came out). And I found it to be just exceedingly... meh? Tepid? There's nothing bad about it (except in the sense that being boring can be worse than 'bad'), but not much memorably good either. A lot of scenes that felt like they should've or could've been dramatic and awesome just felt a bit leeched of impact. The dialogue especially just feels exceptionally dull, and a lot of the voice acting is kinda uninspired too. Between that and all the apparently cut content, I almost get the sense the creators played it a bit safe, worried about being too dramatic and going overly hammy.
I do really wish they had done more with the time travel stuff too - in the final product, the Maximals being from the future almost just feels like a throwaway explanation for the Optimus Prime/Optimus Primal name bit. Scourge being a corrupted future Optimus would've been awesome and made a lot of sense (his 'face reveal' scene feels pointless as-is), and I don't think would've been confusing or taken up too much time at all. And the Maximals in general feel a bit unnecessary in their own movie - you could've cut them entirely and the movie largely could've followed the same major plot points (quest for the spacekey macguffin, just long abandoned/hidden) just without exposition from Airazor and Primal. The only real important bit is them changing Prime's viewpoint about teaming up with humans by seeing they've had a long-standing alliance with the tribe, but he could've taken away the same lesson just by seeing their team-up with Noah and Elena work.
I do think the Autobot-human team-up was handled well though (though the Mirage exo-suit was a bit silly). Mirage was surprisingly likeable, and seeing giant metal munkee swing around was fun. 6/10 for me, below the 2007 movie and Bumblebee, but probably ahead of 2-5.
(Also, was definitely not expecting Apelinq lol)
I do really wish they had done more with the time travel stuff too - in the final product, the Maximals being from the future almost just feels like a throwaway explanation for the Optimus Prime/Optimus Primal name bit. Scourge being a corrupted future Optimus would've been awesome and made a lot of sense (his 'face reveal' scene feels pointless as-is), and I don't think would've been confusing or taken up too much time at all. And the Maximals in general feel a bit unnecessary in their own movie - you could've cut them entirely and the movie largely could've followed the same major plot points (quest for the spacekey macguffin, just long abandoned/hidden) just without exposition from Airazor and Primal. The only real important bit is them changing Prime's viewpoint about teaming up with humans by seeing they've had a long-standing alliance with the tribe, but he could've taken away the same lesson just by seeing their team-up with Noah and Elena work.
I do think the Autobot-human team-up was handled well though (though the Mirage exo-suit was a bit silly). Mirage was surprisingly likeable, and seeing giant metal munkee swing around was fun. 6/10 for me, below the 2007 movie and Bumblebee, but probably ahead of 2-5.
(Also, was definitely not expecting Apelinq lol)
It reminds me a bit of GI Joe Retaliation and its Extended Action Cut. The film was clearly cut down to fit a time limit (unnecessary for Joe, but I think the trim running time ultimately benefited RotB), but was done enough that an extended cut could be possible.
A lot of what I’m reading is stuff that could still be slipped in without adversely effecting the flow of the final product. The character moments are probably the most compelling additions to “smoothen the edges” of the film, but I don’t think it’s going to drastically improve the overall quality of the film. Like GI Joe’s Extended Cut, it will probably end up a “slightly better” version of the film we got.