Movie influences on the rest of TFs

Money, violence, sex, computer graphics, scatalogical humor, racism, robots designed to be rednecks but given European accents, and maybe another sequel to the saga... what's not to love? TF m1, Revenge of the Fallen, Dark of the Moon and now Age of Extinction.
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Mako Crab
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Movie influences on the rest of TFs

Post by Mako Crab »

There's no denying that Michael Bay's TF movies have really propelled the franchise to heights not seen since the days of G1. And seeing as how they are so popular, I guess it was bound to happen that other TF stories started adopting movie elements into their own universe. This thread is more or less to discuss the pros and cons of those borrowed elements. What works and what's either unnecessary or unwanted. For starters:

IDW G1 comic- Bumblebee now transforms into an older model Camaro, just like BB did in TF '07. I get the in-story reasons for making him more formidable looking, but of all the cars in the world, they had to borrow the one from TF '07? I know Volkswagon won't let their vehicles be used as Transformers, so the new Beetle is out. But really, the exact same Camaro? Complete with black racing stripes just like the movie whereas BB in G1 has never had racing stripes. I'm still iffy on this one. I still haven't gotten used to his new look, and the fact that they're borrowing so heavily from '07 BB for his new look is uninspired too. And as of issue 12
Spoiler
BB may have lost the ability to speak (maybe), making him even more like his movie counterpart.
TF: Prime- Bumblebee speaks in blips and beeps. Granted, BB in TF '07 spoke through the radio using clips from songs and movies to do the talking for him, but it was explained that he had to do that since his vocal processor was damaged. Same story for BB in Prime. I'll admit that using the radio to talk was pretty cool the first time around. I don't know as though Bumblebee being a mute is a character trait that I'd like to see them continue using though. If he kept using the radio, it could become a played out gimmick. If he beeps and blips like R2-D2, well... then he's R2-D2... or a Mini-Con.
... not to mention how closely he resembles movie Bee.

IDW TF Ongoing- The art. Yeah, we all know about the art. Heavily inspired by the movies, though it does seem to have been dialed back in the most recent issues. Perhaps this is already a non-issue. I know there was a huge backlash against the movie-esque G1 faces, and now it seems everyone's being drawn with their old faces back, so that's good. Anything else though?
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Re: Movie influences on the rest of TFs

Post by Dominic »

Skywatch and NEST have some parallels. Granted, there is precedent for humans and TFs working together from some of the old crossovers with "GI Joe" and the EDC in the old cartoons. But, the Bayformers brought this idea front and center.

The idea of TFs changing the world simply by being around has not been shown prominently since "Beast Wars". The UT was clumsy and stilted on this front. And, Dreamwave's G1 was cancelled before the idea could be fully realized.

Good catch about BB's possible fate in the comics.


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Re: Movie influences on the rest of TFs

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That'd be interesting if this "No talking for Bumblebee" became a regular feature for the character. That WfC 'Bee certainly looks like G1/Classics 'Bee in a Cybertron mode, and his bio says something about "...before he was the silent warrior he is today..", so that might add some weight to this theory.
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Re: Movie influences on the rest of TFs

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138 Scourge wrote:That'd be interesting if this "No talking for Bumblebee" became a regular feature for the character. That WfC 'Bee certainly looks like G1/Classics 'Bee in a Cybertron mode, and his bio says something about "...before he was the silent warrior he is today..", so that might add some weight to this theory.
You're right! I forgot about that!
Good catch with Skywatch and NEST too. Rarely have the Autobots ever been showing working alongside the human militaries of Earth. Yet after the Bay movies, suddenly the Autobots are feeling very cooperative with the U.S. government.
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Re: Movie influences on the rest of TFs

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Mako Crab wrote:There's no denying that Michael Bay's TF movies have really propelled the franchise to heights not seen since the days of G1.
Agreed. Though I think that was more true of the first film than the second one. The sheer amount and variety of product and merchandise for the first film was the most I've seen since the line first came out. Transformers were on everything back then, and for awhile that seemed to be the case again with the live action film.
And seeing as how they are so popular, I guess it was bound to happen that other TF stories started adopting movie elements into their own universe. This thread is more or less to discuss the pros and cons of those borrowed elements. What works and what's either unnecessary or unwanted. For starters:

IDW G1 comic- Bumblebee now transforms into an older model Camaro, just like BB did in TF '07. I get the in-story reasons for making him more formidable looking, but of all the cars in the world, they had to borrow the one from TF '07? I know Volkswagon won't let their vehicles be used as Transformers, so the new Beetle is out. But really, the exact same Camaro? Complete with black racing stripes just like the movie whereas BB in G1 has never had racing stripes. I'm still iffy on this one. I still haven't gotten used to his new look, and the fact that they're borrowing so heavily from '07 BB for his new look is uninspired too. And as of issue 12 BB may have lost the ability to speak (maybe), making him even more like his movie counterpart.
I didn't get the impression that he had lost his ability to speak, but that it was up in the air as to whether he was alive or not. Regardless, I hope we're not moving towards a mute Bumblebee in every continuity. I'm tired of it in the movies at this point, and I sure don't want G1 'Bee bereft of his ability to speak.
IDW TF Ongoing- The art. Yeah, we all know about the art. Heavily inspired by the movies, though it does seem to have been dialed back in the most recent issues. Perhaps this is already a non-issue. I know there was a huge backlash against the movie-esque G1 faces, and now it seems everyone's being drawn with their old faces back, so that's good. Anything else though?
Don's new art style appeals to me quite a bit. I don't mind some extra details being added to the old familiar characters. It's nice to see a different style applied to the G1 cast. And the new faces didn't bother me.

Turn this topic around and come from the opposite angle as well. How have 25 years of the franchise influenced the movies? I'm still impressed that the Fallen, a comic-only character from a six-issue mini-series became the main antagonist of the second film. Or the way in which Prime and Jetfire combined, as they did in Armada. Really, the movie is just the latest in a long line of variations on the Transformers franchise that has influenced the product that follows. And I think that's fairly healthy.
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Re: Movie influences on the rest of TFs

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I was thinking of it in terms of the 1st X-Men movie. Along comes that movie and suddenly all the X-Men in the comics are wearing black costumes just like their movie counterparts. A case of an established franchise cashing in on the most popular, most mainstream version to come along. That's not to say it's a bad thing all the time- just an unavoidable side effect of having a hit movie.

And the whole thing with G1 Bee possibly becoming
Spoiler
mute- I think people were speculating about this simply because he got shot in the face.
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Re: Movie influences on the rest of TFs

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Mako Crab wrote:I was thinking of it in terms of the 1st X-Men movie. Along comes that movie and suddenly all the X-Men in the comics are wearing black costumes just like their movie counterparts. A case of an established franchise cashing in on the most popular, most mainstream version to come along. That's not to say it's a bad thing all the time- just an unavoidable side effect of having a hit movie.

And the whole thing with G1 Bee possibly becoming
Spoiler
mute- I think people were speculating about this simply because he got shot in the face.
I'm pretty sure
Spoiler
he got shot in the chest, not the face. There was light coming from his mouth and eyes though
, so maybe that's where the confusion comes from.
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Re: Movie influences on the rest of TFs

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138 Scourge wrote:That'd be interesting if this "No talking for Bumblebee" became a regular feature for the character. That WfC 'Bee certainly looks like G1/Classics 'Bee in a Cybertron mode, and his bio says something about "...before he was the silent warrior he is today..", so that might add some weight to this theory.
That's bullshit; that's Hasbro trying to shoehorn WfC and Prime together.
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Re: Movie influences on the rest of TFs

Post by Dominic »

The problem with mute BB in the movies is that he is annoying and an excuse to play song snippets. It was mostly forgivable in the first movie, as his silence was necessary to the plot. But, in the second movie, BB's silence was idiotic.


The movies took some telegenic elements from previous iterations, (the Fallen, merge teams and the like), but little else. Bay and co looked at some pictures and called what they came away with ideas. 86 and I were talking about this. He was bemoaning the damage the movie is arguable doing to the franchise. I disagree about the damage. But, it movies are certainly vapid and do little to call attention to the good things to be found in TF.


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-the movies refuted the Gee-Wunner ethic pretty soundly.
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Re: Movie influences on the rest of TFs

Post by Mako Crab »

I understand why they kept BB silent in the 2nd movie though. It became his little gimmick. People that were fans of the 1st movie liked it. And did you hear his voice at the end of part 1??! Yuck! They even gave some throw-away excuse in the movie as to why BB was still using the radio to talk. Something like, "he's just faking it," which I never quite understood. Why would BB want to fake being mute? Why not communicate with Sam like a normal 'bot like every other Autobot? They could still have him use the radio for instances when Sam is around other people and BB can't expose himself, but for times when he's around people in the know he should talk like a normal bot.

But it's his gimmick. So... okay, whatever. That's cool. But to then take that one gimmick and apply it to WFC Bumblebee, Prime Bumblebee, and now possibly even IDW Bumblebee? I don't like it. I haven't had the chance to read IDW #12 yet, I was just going on what I'd heard, so... maybe he'll still be able to talk. I'd been told he got shot in the face. :p Do I have to put spoiler tags up about that? It's pretty common knowledge now, right?

And in regards to the Fallen; I think it's cute that they make a big deal about how they took this character from the comics and made him the big baddy for their movie. I also think it's cute how he bears absolutely no resemblance physically or biographically to the character he's based on. Far from being the founder of the Decepticons, he was an outcast hated by both sides. Someone who worked for Unicron in order to keep the factions at war with each other in a grandiose scheme to weaken Cybertron and make it easy prey for Unicron. That's not even close to what ROTF Fallen is all about. And I do think it's amusing that the Fallen and Sideways, two characters associated with Unicron, were in RotF together yet never got a scene together let alone ever mentioned Uni.

Anyway, uh... what were we talking about?
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