Transformers: Rise Of The Beasts Cut A Much Darker Introduction To Optimus Prime

Say what you will about Michael Bay's five "Transformers" movies, it takes a certain kind of skill and temperament to make some of the most mean-spirited all-ages entertainment in film history. Fans of the toy line and the unremarkable 1980s cartoons that dazzled easy-to-please kids with their subpar animation and infantile storylines unleashed howls of outrage over Bay's irreverent treatment of robots that turn into cars and vice versa.

In the fans' defense, the second installment, "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen," is narratively and visually incomprehensible, due in large part to a screenplay that was slapped together on either end of the 2007-08 Writers Guild of America strike. But the other films in the series, especially the shockingly violent (in tone) "Transformers: Dark of the Moon," are models of Bayhem; they're loud, entertaining, and utterly exhausting. The master of wretched blockbuster excess treats the franchise with the lack of respect it deserves and always gives the audience their money's worth.

When Bay handed the "Transformers" reins over to Travis Knight for the tissue-soft reboot of "Bumblebee," the edict from Paramount was clear: no more films where Optimus Prime tears the bad guy's head and spinal cord out of his mechanical body like a "Mortal Kombat" finishing move (especially when the villain is voiced by Leonard Nimoy, arguably the most beloved sci-fi actor of all time). Let's try not to traumatize the kiddies if possible.

"Bumblebee" accomplished this, but also wound up being the lowest-grossing "Transformers" movie to date. The Autobot v. Decepticon saga needed a little more muscle. "Creed II" director Steven Caple Jr. recaptured some of Bay's brawl-happy bravado with "Transformers: Rise of the Beasts" (to the apparent delight of moviegoers), but he was tempted to go a little darker.

In an interview with Collider, Steven Caple Jr. discussed how his prequel-sequel to "Bumblebee" initially opened with a prologue that would've been right at home in one of Michael Bay's dark-hearted "Transformers" movies. This involved a fight scene between Optimus Prime and the Decepticon Transit. As Caple told Collider:

"[O]ptimus Prime fights Transit at the beginning of the movie, or at least he used to, and you find out that Optimus Prime wants to go home — that's all he wants to do — and that Cybertron is in deep trouble. And this guy, Transit, was telling him that like, 'We're just here to kill you, a.k.a. Cybertron is already ours.' It was a really epic fight scene, and then you saw Optimus Prime dump his body in the Hudson River, and all these Decepticons were dead and you saw that he's been hunting for the last few years."

I actually really like this, but it was a wise excision if only because it makes Optimus look like a rank amateur. Dead bodies, robotic or otherwise, go in the East River, my man.

But now that you've heard Caple's idea, you kinda want to see it, right? Well, he's got good news and bad news for you on this count.

Some of the visual effects were pretty far along, if not finished, for the original opening to "Transformers: Rise of the Beasts" before things changed. Steven Caple Jr. told Collider he'd love to release some of this footage for the Blu-ray, but if you're hoping to see Optimus Prime tap his inner Sammy the Bull, it doesn't sound good:

"I wanna release it. I won't release the Hudson River, him dropping the bodies, because that wasn't far along because that was totally CG, even the world, so we had a mixture of boards and a mixture of [pre-visualization] for that one. But the other stuff with him fighting the Decepticons, we had render shots. It was a really tough call, like the studio and us, it took us a couple of weeks to figure that one out because we all loved the scene and we were trying to make it work, but [it was] just slowing down the film. People already understood that he wanted to go back home, they didn't need that extra piece this movie had."

"Transformers: Rise of the Beasts" appears to be the way of the future for this nerdball franchise, which is probably for the best. Michael Bay, meanwhile, seems to be lightening up a tad if last year's "Ambulance" is any indication. No more humvees tearing through Cuban shanty towns. Now is the time to be the heavy-demolition shepherd.