RocShemp

^ Finally some work for Solid Snake PAC that doesn't involve mowing lawns!

E Unit

I'm throwing him non-lawn opportunities left and right. I posted the extras casting announcement for Machete, but I didn't see him in the trailer (movie trailer, not lawn trailer).

hanshotfirst1138

Yeah, well, either is about as likely, especially given that Bay's movies lean more towards G1, so they'd have no reason to put out Animated anyway. I wonder who does have the rights now? I think Beast Machines is actually OOP now?

Solid Snake

Fuck. I'd love to have beast wars on BD. We'll never get it but I can dream. I didn't lik Beast Machines till the end.

RocShemp

I loved Beast Wars. Beast Machines was underrated but did take some getting used to.

Solid Snake

Just didn't jive with the beginning of it all. It wasn't as exotic to me. At some point though I eased up to it. How did megatron Fuck up Cybertron?

hanshotfirst1138

Well, that would be just prime. I believe it got rereleased by the folks at Shout Factory after the Rhino DVDs went OOP. They released ReBoot too. You know, my feelings about what Dan DiDio has done at DC Comics not withstanding, he's also the one who told the crew of Beast Machines to ignore everything that had come before because it was too "continuity heavy." We saw how well that worked. He's also apparently the one who cancelled ReBoot. You know, I can accept that the crew are scattered to the four winds. I can accept that they can never finish ReBoot. I can except that, not counting the webcomic, it's unlikely that it'll ever get a comic book continuation like Gargoyles did. But it is it seriously too much to ask that we get told about how it was planned to end?

It's very, very, very, very controversial among Transfans, even today. Though it is gorgeous looking. Beast Wars CGI looks pretty dated now, but what makes it hold up is that Mainframe focused on what was important, making the character gesture and emote in detail and using cool camera stuff, plus the top-notch voice-acting. They focused on the characters, and the rest followed. Beast Machines, though, looks gorgeous even today in places. The Diagnostic Drone is expressive, and it doesn't even have a face.

Apparently the so-called Unicron Trilogy (Armada, Energon, Cybertron) which followed it was hideously bad (Incidentally, did that ever get season set DVD releases?), and that's made some fan reevaluate Beast Machines. I think the fundamental problem with it is that it's a direct followup to Beast Wars, but many of the characters have radically different personalities, characterizations, and motivations. It's way different tonally, dark and somber, lacking the fun and humor that Beast Wars had. It tries to be dark and philosophical, though how successfully depends on who you ask. Apparently Bob Skir received death threats, which made him cancel a convention appearance, and amazingly sad reflection on the fandom. What's BotCon like? I've always wanted to go to a fan convention of some kind, maybe actually meet someone like-minded.

Tangentially, the omnibus of Beast Wars comics is now OOP as well. Damn you, IDW. I wonder what rhyme or reason they've been using to rerelease the old Marvel and Marvel UK stuff, the Titan trades appear to be OOP, did G2 ever come out again?

The whole thing about Cyberton being organic has really rubbed a lot of fans the wrong way. It brings the G1 continuity to a pretty conclusive ending, for better or worse. Beast Wars took place in the past, when the Maximals won, they strapped Megatron to the back of the old Autobot shuttle with a new Transwarp drive to travel back to their present. The explanation given in Beast Machines is that at some point during the time warp, Megatron broke free of his restraints and when they landed in the present, Megatron had had an unspecified amount of time, presumably man years, to do what he did to Cyberton, taking over the planet, creating the transformation-lock virus that erased the Maximals memories, create the Vehicons, steal sparks, etc.

As to how the hell Waspinator got back to Cybertron, even over the course of four million years, is a great mystery to me.

Rhino released Beast Machines on DVD, but it's OOP now (Are Rhino out of business?)? I don't know anything about the Unicron Trilogy on DVD, The pilot of Transformers: Animated and the first two season both got released on DVD, though I'm not sure by whom, but they're both OOP now, the third season never came out. And I don't think any of the releases had the proper widescreen versions

mikehunt

it also sucks that the robots aren't as recognizable in the movies as in those clips
most of the decepticons looked indistinguishable from each other in robot mode

mikehunt

the original may be 80s cheese (offset by childhood nostalgia), but that version is just horrible

dex14

hanshotfirst1138

Bay has had some bad luck with the shooting of these movies, first the injured stunt man, now a fire.

Troy Stiffler

And that women who got messed up by a snapped cable.

There's so much going on in these movies that there's not much you can do. Beats doing everything against a green screen.

RocShemp

Bay doesn't dick around when it comes to his Baysplotions®.

RocShemp

Bumblebee Gets a 2014 Upgrade in New Transformers 4




I'm kind of mixed on this. I sort of like it but I miss the more angular look of the previous models.

dan30oly

Can't wait!!!!!!!!!1!!!!

islandclaws

The movie is a goddamn car commercial already, who cares?

RocShemp

Oh, no doubt about it. Michael Bay cut his teeth on car commercials and he's obsessed with shooting them right. Officially, it's GMC that insists that the cars remain pristine despite their robot counterparts being all scratched up and caked in mud. However, I have a funny feeling the edict was already in place by Bay himself before GMC ever said anything.

Given he's such a car nut, I wish there was footage of his reaction when they crashed the Maybach used in Transformers: Dark of the Moon. He was supposedly furious and I'm betting his ranting (if any) would have made Christian Bale seem like a sweet young choir boy.

hanshotfirst1138

It's the ultimate franchise movie product, based on toys to sell cars!

Bay is pretty notorious for his temper at the best of times, from the stories I've heard. In the special features on the DVD of the first movie, even taking into account how much editing of the interviews with him and others talking about him must have been done, he still comes across as a pretty abrasive and confrontational person.

dex14

RocShemp

Since Bay has gone on record that he hates the Dinobots (and rumour has it that he viewed the Wreckers in TF: DOTM as the sane thing as the Dinobots), I fear how badly he intentionally fucks them up.

dex14

<iframe width="640" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/fhdLvbuUQv0?feature=player_embedded" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

<iframe width="640" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/DLKtmC7KvBg?feature=player_embedded" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

dan30oly

Can't wait!!!1!!

Why So Blu?

You're just picking up on how bad he's going to fuck something up in a TF film? Where you been at?

RocShemp

No. Not just picking it up. However, he has particular disdain for the Dinobots and has been very vocal against them. I think it'll be a point of pride for him to "make them cool" or "relevant". In other words, I fear everything else he's done to the TF franchise will look reverential by comparison.

Save Ferris

Had a chance to work on this movie over the summer (marketing)
As much as some of us thought the plot was silly it should be a fun ride for families...