Transformers: Past, Present, and Future

When I was a kid, watching trucks, cars, boats, and airplanes transform from their vehicle mode to robot mode was absolutely mind blowing and awesome.  I would sit and watch for hours, retaining nothing more than the sound effect and the transformation from one form to another.  Then playing with those toys, creating my own little scenarios and making that awesome transformation sound.. It was the life.

Upon growing up to the age where I could actually follow a story-line, understand the universe created, and begin to understand each of the characters abilities/strengths/weaknesses, I fell even more in love with the ever so popular franchise.

After watching the Transformers Movie that was released in 1986, that had set the precedence in my mind as who they were, how things should be, and if anything should ever get remade: this movie should be the template in which to create from.

Being 31 now, and after seeing the new Transformer Movies, I am disappointed.  Now, with that being said, if I had never followed so closely to the 1986 movie, and set my expectations higher, I think that the new movies are great - considering all the time, writing, design, CGI, etc etc..  There has to be a good applause for Bay's vision of the Transformers.

BUT!!  I still don't see the "essence" of the Transformers in his new movies.  The one big fail that I will bring up first is the Matrix of Leadership (outside of the Transformers looking like they are a morphed version of a Transformer and a Bionicle).  I'm not sure what the writers were thinking, but I could only wish that I was involved in the decision making process regarding that piece of the legacy (sha'right).  The Matrix is NOT something that was buried in a ancient tomb, created by other Primes' bodies, and then once obtained, 'stabbed' in to the chest of a transformer to bring it back to life.

In the original story-line, the Matrix of Leadership was stored in Optimus Prime's chest, and was handed over to Ultra Magnus for him to take leadership over the Autobots when Optimus was on his deathbed.  But, during the hand-off, the Matrix slipped out of Prime's hand and before falling to the floor, Hot Rod saved it.  During that split-second moment that he held on to the Matrix, it reacted in such a way that it 'chose' Hot Rod as the next leader.  Hot Rod then continued his rescue of the falling Matrix and handed over to Ultra Magnus.  Ultra opened his chest, and inserted the Matrix for save keeping.  Later, after Megatron became Galvatron by means of Unicron, Galvatron killed Ultra Magnus and stole the Matrix thinking he killed the leader of the Autobots not knowing that the next true leader would be Hot Rod/Rodimus.

I don't understand how the writers could have formed such a convoluted and different model for the Matrix in Revenge of the Fallen.  Considering it's how Rodimus Prime 'came to be'.  It's just a giant hole in the story, and I wish I could have been on the writing team - but we all have our big dreams.

Enough of my rant about the Matrix, there are other rants I could go on-and-on about - but I won't continue to bore you on the subject.

I hope that the 3rd Transformers will bring some elements from the G1 series that helps make up for the disappointment of the Revenge of the Fallen. 

A couple things that I can see in the trailer for Dark of the Moon:

1. The SpaceBridge, which was used often in the G1 series.

2. Though the ship had crash landed in to the moon, the thrusters and shape of the ship look like a good realistic replacement for the ship that crash landed in to the mountain on Earth in the first season of the G1 series.

No doubt, I will be seeing the 3rd Transformers.  But, in the back of my head, I hope there are producers out there that are fans such as I am, that would want to take a shot at a reboot that would be a little more related to how the Autobots and Deceptions really are.