By Chris Snellgrove | Published
Transformers: The Beast Rises it was a ‘bot buffet’ thing, throwing in a lot of fan favorite characters (Maximals and Predacons and Unicron, oh my!) in an effort to please everyone. The film also ended with a GI Joe reveal that aims to set up a future movie crossover that brings together everyone’s favorite robots and America’s brave, highly trained army. Many fans were excited at the prospect of a team up movie, but I’m here to throw a cold Energon at the idea and warn you that this Transformers/GI Joe movie is already destined to be a Titan-sized failure.
Transformers and GI Joe Go Way Back
These two geniuses have a rich history of meeting each other, though this mostly happened through comics, toys, and an old Transformers G1 episode featuring an aging Cobra Commander (although he goes by the name “Old Cobra”). Both franchises have a very uneven history of live-action films, and the upcoming crossover will be our first chance to see our favorite Joes, Cobras, Autobots, and Decepticons sharing the big screen together. Unfortunately, a Transformers/GI Joe crossover movie has already been ruled out because the movie will be a mess full of fast acting characters and various big names competing for screen time.
Accordingly, many future problems for the future film began Transformers: The Beast Rises. The former A bee the film was a breath of fresh air, and one of its narrative strengths was a series of structured characters, allowing us to focus on our titular ‘bot. Some fans wanted more robots, though, too Animal Awakening delivered, giving us a movie full of more Autobots while introducing new friends (the Maximals), new villains (the Predacons), and a dark god driven by endless hunger (Unicron).
Too Many Characters
That follow-up suffered because it had to introduce new robots like Optimus Primal and new people like Noah Diaz, all while introducing existing characters like Optimus Prime, a character who only appeared briefly. A beeNew continuity (this universe is separate from the Michael Bay films). At least, we can count on the Transformers/GI Joe movie crossover to solve this problem because it will have to balance the list of returning ‘bots and people with a lot of new characters. Keep in mind that this new continuity still needs to introduce heavyweight Deception characters like Megatron and Starcream, all while introducing entirely new GI Joe teams and Cobra forces.
Even in the hands of the best writer and director, it will not be possible to give all these suitable characters on the screen. That means a crossover movie will have to choose between bringing in only a handful of characters from each group or bringing in a large number and only giving the most popular heroes and villains a line or two. Either choice is guaranteed to upset fans of both Transformers and GI Joe, two IPs famous for their large casts of colorful characters.
Big Bad Problem
Additionally, I can’t help but worry that a Transformers/GI Joe movie would have a hard time establishing a convincing Big Bad for our heroes to fight and our potential villains to join. Animal Awakening of course Optimus Prime and his boys are fighting Unicron, a dark god (Galactus style) who devours entire planets. Not only would it be hard to come up with a scarier bad guy than this, but it’s a fair question to ask what the timid folks at GI Joe could do to fight something far more terrifying than Unicron, who was an annihilation-level threat. humanity.
Ultimately, the Transformers/GI Joe movie will suffer when compared to other crossovers between these IPs, including the now-published comics Image. In Image’s Energon Universe, each team’s plans come together perfectly: just as the presence of Energon drives Cobra Commander to build an army powered by deadly weapons, GI Joe is created to stop anyone—human or robot—who might abuse this source of energy. . . The comics are great because they spent a lot of time working up to the crossover, and Image has published some amazing miniseries focusing on fan favorite characters like Cobra Commander.
From a Fan
As you can see, I’m a big fan of both of your IPs… in fact, this is being written in the office where Transformers and GI Joe toys are being invented for me while I work. I love these characters and their complex stories, but their crossovers always work best with longer comic storytelling. The live-action Transformers/GI Joe movie is going to be a dense and dense mess that disappoints critics and audiences alike and leaves us all saying that iconic word to erase grief: “Well, that’s great!”
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