If you've seen AOE you've basically already seen TLK. Replace dinos with dragons, neither set being on screen much, and a slight change in the unfunny/unsympathetic human lineup.
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- Thread starter Undead Scottsman
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So it's every Bay movie, gotcha.
Despite being the worst movie, TLK does have one genuinely good part of it that everyone should see: The first six minutes of the movie, which is the opening scene set in the time of King Arthur with a big battle of knights and a giant dragon Transformer. That scene is legitimately awesome and gives a false sense of hope that the rest of the movie could be just as cool. But right when the movie switches to the present day, it's all downhill from there.
That opening scene felt like an eternity to me. I was already in a trance before it was over.
I still want a Studio Series Steelbane. Forget the movie, I just like dragons and knights.
That's the tragic thing about it. Charlie is a great character, probably the best human protagonist these movies have had, but her story is so self contained that I don't know if you continue it in a productive way.
I hated the GI Joe reveal at the end of RotB, for multiple reasons. This is a pretty big one though. GI Joe is a dead movie brand. They're never going to make "fetch" happen, and so Noah is now stuck tied to this millstone sequel bate. And he's the one who they could have built on, but no.
If they'd just had be Sector 7 instead of GI Joe... sigh
I love the King Arthur stuff. And it fuelled my desire for a whole series based on high fantasy medieval humans and Transformers. Like... I'm totally into this story of King Arthur and his robot buddies and then... the sudden dreaded realization that it's over now and it's time for Marky Mark and Funky Bunch.
I still think Lennox and co are the best human protagonists we've had. Everything about the Bumblebee movie just bores me.
At least it's not cannibalism.Say, what's Sam up to these--
Actor Shia LaBeouf arrested after alleged fight during Mardi Gras in New Orleans
Actor Shia LaBeouf has been arrested after being accused of hitting two men early Tuesday morning during Mardi Gras celebrations in New Orleans, police said.www.cp24.com
...oh.
Steve Jablonksy's score is also pretty top tier. Better than the AoE soundtrack. All things considered, Jablonsky's musical work is probably the one, consistently, good to superb elements of the entire film franchise.
I'll definitely second that. His contribution is consistently one of the best parts of the movies. In AOE and TLK it's all the more notable because there's so much it has to overcome. But even then he manages a couple of noteworthy tracks (I may need to listen to TLK again as I'm having trouble identifying any that stand out).
TF07 definitely would not have had the impact it did without the music.
I would ask, but I don't want to know!
The trick to a good sequel isn't trying to go "bigger," it's about taking a deeper look at the characters. Now (post-RotB) there's not much chance, but if I had the chance to make a direct Bumblebee sequel, I'd just change up the character relationships.
Inciting incident: Charlie finds out about Decepticons infiltrating Earth. She goes searching for her friend Bumblebee to try to help, meanwhile the Autobots start scrambling to build alliances with humans.
We've seen Charlie with Bumblebee, now team her up with Optimus (because Bumblebee's off on a mission). This would also let us get to see another side of Prime, rather than the grizzled fighter or hardened commander we usually get these days --harken back to the "strong enough to be kind" mentor figure from G1.
(Meanwhile I'd have Bee team up with Burns as they both prepare to deal with the coming Decepticon threat; they're both soldiers, but with very different personalities, so they'd have a different relationship dynamic than Bee/Charlie.)
At the time I remember wanting a trilogy of just Transformer/human team-ups that could put a spin on typical movie plots/tropes by replacing part of the equation with giant alien robots, and could feel as cozy or fun as the first one. I'm still fine with letting Charlie have her life and not be the focus, but the door would always be open for her to see Bumblebee again.
We got a girl and her car, we could do with a buddy cop movie (take Optimus and pair him up with CENA and omg why has this not happened yet), or a heist with a mismatched small crew. Even the dynamics they had with Cade/Optimus (them talking about raising "kids" is one of the decent moments in that mess) and Noah/Mirage were good starting points.
"Going bigger" is a very summer-blockbustery direction to go for sequels, so I can see why that's what they wanted to do and why that's people's usual first suggestion. But this should've been a rebuilding arc for the brand, to grow a new audience and a new rep for character depth and emotional connection. Instead they basically went "okay, the coast is clear, back to overstuffed epic spectacle".
We got a girl and her car, we could do with a buddy cop movie (take Optimus and pair him up with CENA and omg why has this not happened yet), or a heist with a mismatched small crew. Even the dynamics they had with Cade/Optimus (them talking about raising "kids" is one of the decent moments in that mess) and Noah/Mirage were good starting points.
"Going bigger" is a very summer-blockbustery direction to go for sequels, so I can see why that's what they wanted to do and why that's people's usual first suggestion. But this should've been a rebuilding arc for the brand, to grow a new audience and a new rep for character depth and emotional connection. Instead they basically went "okay, the coast is clear, back to overstuffed epic spectacle".
All because Paramount is still blinded by the dollar signs of the first four Bay films.
I mean, like I said, I understand this is where the brand has been, and it's supposed to be a summer-blockbustery property. The decision to chase money they knew it could make, I get. (Although given the state of the industry post-streaming and post-pandemic, maybe temper some expectations there.) But there's more than one formula to get that, especially these days.
I still kind of wish we'd gotten a direct Bumblebee sequel back when Hasbro was still pushing Windblade as the The Girl Autobot, just for the potential scene where someone answers the door at the Watson house and just sees this giant jet parked in front of the house, and immediately calls for Charlie in a "your mildly annoying friend is here" tone.
China even gave us a Movieverse Windblade around that time, too.