If you'll allow me, I want to take a small break from reviews for a few weeks, not to go on leave again, but to write down something that has been clawing at my mind for some time. It should probably not come as a shock to anyone who's been here for a while, I am a Transformers fan. I've watched all the shows (including the Machinima stuff everyone hates, those are for another time), read some of the comics (before I get hate from that, comic books in general are something I've been trying to get myself into), seen the movies, been collecting the toys recently and used to collect them when I was a kid. If there was one franchise that defined my childhood... it would probably be Lego, then Pokemon, and then Transformers though mostly because when I was growing up I was really into robots and machines, its why Thunderbirds also makes that list. However, its pretty safe to say that the live action movies have not gotten a good reputation both in the fandom, and in the film analysis community, with general audiences overall not caring about the details. It's a shame because, like many, I know the IP has potential. As to what kind of potential, well that's something I'd like to test for myself (heck I need to use some of that self taught game design knowledge for something other then a DMCA waiting to happen as a thing for fun).
Inspired by Movie Bob's series, which in turn was inspired by the Whatculture team (almost certain that's right, correct me if I'm wrong), I'm going to try my hand at a "How would I fix" series. What comes out of it going forward? I'm not sure, it'll really depend on any feedback I get from this. At the moment, this is planned for three parts:
- Part 1: How would I handle this series in its current state (if I was, for some reason, brought on to direct Transformers 6 and 7, yes this part is two movies)
- Part 2: How would I have handled it if I was in charge from the beginning/ how would I reboot it (ignore the fact that when movie 1 came out in cinemas, I was 11)
- Part 3: Movie ideas that would work in either timeline
While this is going to come into play more next week, I will set one ground rule, while creating new ideas is on the table, if an idea is being borrowed from the source material, it has to have existed at the time (for example, no Windblade in Movie 1). What is however in play is visual style. These are being designed with Live Action and Live Action CGI in mind, none of these would be fully animated, though considering the subject matters later on, there might need to be a lot of Live Action CGI. With that out of the way, let's begin.
So with this following on from The Last Knight, let's first establish what is in play, and who can be in play. The last movie teased that Unicron would play a big role in the movie, which means that by the end of this post, Unicron has to have been dealt with in some form. A lot of major Decepticons are dead, though thankfully there's still room to grow. For this though, I am assuming that all the Autobots in The Last Knight survived, because to be honest I don't care enough to rewatch that movie to find out, and that the only two survivors on the Decepticons were Megatron and Barricade. To get the ball rolling, every movie needs a plot, and what I've come up with is as follows.
Earth is right now in a state of chaos. Government bodies have stood down their Anti-Transformer policies and defense divisions due to the looming nature of what is below their feet. With the cities in chaos, the Autobots have begun preparations for a planetary evacuation, using their technology to rapidly increase the nations' individual space programs. With the assistance of the Knights of Cybertron, Cade, Viviane and Cogman believe they may have found structures on Cybertron that could have survived the chaos the planet has gone through in recent years, and have traveled to the dead planet to look for them.
Meanwhile, on a defensive front, Optimus Prime and Megatron have agreed to unite their forces, including recent arrivals to Earth, to counter the threat. Taking a team made up of the strongest Autobots and Decepticons available to them, Optimus Prime and Megatron travel to the planet's core to try and stop Unicron from awakening. Before departure though, Megatron orders a Decepticon flier to travel with Barricade to the old Decepticon base on Mars and prepare it for the fight should they fail (something we won't see until the post credits of the movie).
The idea for movie 6 is to give more of a build up to Unicron's arrival, adding weight to it by showing how unprepaied everyone was, splitting the teams up to each prepare for the chaos. But, I hear you ask, what are those teams? Well:
- Team to Cybertron: Cade, Viviane, Cogman, Bumblebee, Drift, Hound and Crosshairs. Their goal, to awaken the dormant Cybertronian cities, the Titans, along with any usable ships, to help with evacuation and (eventually), heavy fire power against Unicron
- Team on Earth: Perceptor, Hot Spot, Blades, Streetwise, Rook, First Aid, along with several, unnamed Transformers. Tasked with the evacuation of the continents
- Team in the core: Optimus Prime, Hot Rod, Megatron, Silverbolt and the Arialbots (which would be unnamed in this movie), Motormaster and the Stunticons (which would be unnamed), Six Shot, Quick Switch and Springer. Tasked with trying to stop Unicron from awakening, and would be fighting constructs of Unicron the further they traveled
- Team on Mars: Skywarp and Barricade: Tasked with reactivating the ship, which is in reality Trypticon. Yes, the post credits scene is dedicated to awakening the first Decepticon Titan (that anyone actually cares about).
Now transformers fans would know I named three combiner teams there, the Aerialbots, the Stunticons, and the Protectorbots, and yes its because some of those are going where you think they're going. Superion and Menasor would form in this movie, though I wouldn't form Defensor, simply due to the nature of the missions. Granted this is very Autobot heavy, mostly due to the fact that its almost a given there will be Decepticon drones of some form, a lot of the Decepticons I had in mind for this would work better later on, so expect some of those stories in movie 3. As for the Dinobots, sadly to many, the movies don't care enough about them which is why I've ignored them here. However, doing some research, I have something in mind related to them for part 3.
So, onto Movie 7. With the assumption that the events of Last Knight and Movie 6 have happened several months apart, and Movie 7 directly following on from Movie 6, the transformers have managed to evacuate the human population from Earth. I know that sounds like several leaps in logic, but I have to ask you, has anything in these movies made any logical sense? At least this one you could use the arguement of the Governments actually doing something with all that Transformer knowledge accumulated over a decade and a bit. Moving on, the humans are on Mars, Metroplex, Fortress Maximus and Trypticon, each in their battle modes, have moved into position outside of Earth's orbit. Cade, Viviane, Cogman, Bumblebee, Drift, Hound and Crosshairs. are onboard Metroplex alongside Six Gun, Slammer, Scamper, a small team of Autobots tasked with the protection of Metroplex. Onboard Fortress Maximus is the Earth Evacuation team along with Cerebros and Cog, two (though secretly four) Autobots tasked with the protection of Fortress Maximus. Skywarp and Barricade pilot Trypticon along with Wipe-Out, Full-Tilt, Necro (who wouldn't be a headmaster this time) and Brunt, who were the guards of the Decepticon Base, due to the fact that it was still making Protoforms.
As for the team in the planet's core, they are currently trapped inside Unicron and must find four ancient Cybertronian Weapons inside of it as it is transforming. Yes, the reason why I held him back, is because I want to do something I doubt the movies will actually do, and transform Unicron into his robot mode. As for the weapons they need to find, because I personally need to squeeze some post G1 in here somewhere, the Energon Saber and Chaos Saber (I want to save the name Star Saber for, we Star Saber), the Requium Blaster, and the Skyboom shield, four weapons said to have been placed onto Unicron by Primus should he ever be awakened again, though due to the transformation, are now inside him. From there the movie becomes one half space battle, one half land battle/ Scavenger Hunt as the Autobots and Decepticons battle to defeat Unicron. The day is eventually won, Unicron's body returns to planet mode as his spark is believed destroyed. The reconstruction begins once the humans return to the planet, now having to remake the world due to the changes caused from Unicron (I'm leaning towards continent mass changing in some way), the weapons break to reveal themselves as Mini Cons before scattering themselves to the universe. Credits roll, mid credits scene, Fortress Maximus and Metroplex are in city form acting as a centralized point to help with the rebuilding efforts. Some Autobots depart earth now that the mission is done to return to tasks they were doing before, including Springer and Perceptor, who say they are gathering a team to handle a situation on Garrus-9 (hint hint for part 3). Post credits scene: Unicron's spark finds its way to a dead planet, fusing itself with it, the planet begins to cyberform into a far more familiar planet look. Drained of Energon, the new planet breaks free of its orbit, and begins to travel the universe for planets to feed on.
While I'm not one for handling casting, as that would depend on what happens to the pitch, those would be the story ideas I'd put forward as a semi course correction, and better set up other movies going forward. For next week, we go back in time to see what I'd have done if I was in charge from day 1.
