(SPOILER WARNING!! (kind of))
Welcome to part two of my rewrite of "Age Of Extinction". Here's part one if you need a refresh. Now that I've gone over my changes to the human cast and the Autobots, I think that it's fair that I start with the villains.
In the original film, we had the bounty hunter Lockdown, who was working with the humans to hunt down Optimus Prime in exchange for the Seed that turns entire cities into "transformium" (which is the dumbest name for a fictional element I have ever heard). In concept, I have nothing wrong with Lockdown as the main antagonist; he originally appeared in "Transformers: Animated" as a breakout character and most of the traits associated with him are carried through to the movie. My problem, however, is that the alliance he has with the humans is not interesting, as it basically robs him of any agency as the main robot antagonist.
As for Galvatron, he was pretty much completely wasted. He appears once or twice throughout the film before he suddenly just takes over KSI's surplus of drones and wants the Seed because he's evil. And just like what happened with Megatron in the previous films, he's completely brushed off to the side by literally everything else going on as to focus on the humans instead of the title characters. It wasn't even worth it having Frank Welker reprise the role as so little was actually done with him.
As such, after much consideration, I've decided to excise both Lockdown and Galvatron from the rewrite. Both of these characters deserve much more respect than what was shown in the film, as there isn't really enough room for both. We can just save them for future movies; Galvatron, as far as I'm concerned, should be saved for a story involving Unicron, whilst Lockdown can be a self-serving antagonist in a different story.
Still, do you remember how I said that the info that Blackrock uses to create the Dinobots came primarily from Sentinel's head with Starscream as a secondary source? This is where that comes into play as we ask a big question for this rewrite:
Who are the villains?
Something that has been sorely missing from these films is any sense of personality for the Decepticons. There are a few standouts, of course; Starscream being a snivelling coward and Soundwave being a merciless manipulator come to mind. But aside from that, most of them are either slobbering monsters or generic cannon fodder. The Decepticons in other Transformers stories usually have larger personalities than the Autobots, so we really could've done with a group of Decepticons who can be a challenging threat to the Autobots while having distinct identities.
As brought up before, Blackrock primarily created the Dinobots to be marketed towards the public; dinosaurs are super popular, so making a group of robots based on dinosaurs makes the most sense for popularity. But as I also established, Blackrock's company also has contracts with the military, thus mainly created drones that are more utilitarian in design and function. With Chumley being a CIA operative in my rewrite, most of his backing goes to these military drones so that they can be used to hunt down other Transformers. Blackrock has five prototype drones that transform into some type of military vehicle; the line-up includes a surface-to-air missile truck, an Apache helicopter, a fighter jet, an Abrams tank, and a standard military Humvee. Because of Chumley having a say in what they would be called, these drones are filed under "Project: Combatrons".
And instantly, this should tip off any Transformers fan as to who the villains are. I think the perfect antagonists to have for this movie should've been one of the original Decepticon sub-groups:
The Combaticons.
For those reading who have no idea who these guys are; the Combaticons debuted in the original cartoon series episode "Starscream's Brigade". After another failed attempt at leadership, Starscream ended up abandoned on an island that just happened to have a bunch of scrapped military vehicles, inspiring the traitor to create his own team of Decepticons, which he named the Combaticons, to take leadership from Megatron. It naturally backfired, but the Combaticons were eventually seized by Megatron after they tried tossing the Earth into the sun using a Space Bridge.
The group normally consists of these five characters:
Onslaught, team leader and tactician. He has a near unrivalled strategic mind, which is a contrast to how much of an easily offended perfectionist he is. The instant that his plans go wrong or someone on his team is not doing as ordered, he gets infuriated, which in turn makes him a tougher enemy to deal with.
Vortex, interrogator. He is a sociopath and a sadist, taking pleasure in seeing the people he tortures suffer before killing them once he has the information he's looking for. As far as he's concerned, everything exists to satisfy his own twisted needs.
Blast Off, surveillance and aerial combatant. He has a very high opinion of himself, looking down on literally everyone, even those on his own team. Otherwise, he tends to be apathetic to anyone who tries to bring him down to Earth (so to speak) and likes doing things by choice, as opposed to command.
He'll also be a fighter jet in this rewrite instead of a shuttle to fit into the military aesthetic of the Combaticons.
Brawl, heavy combat specialist. He's loud, violent, and stupid. The gears in his head may not all be in the right spot, but he is certainly a proficient fighter. All Onslaught has to do is point him in the right direction and Brawl will leave a trail of destruction in his path
Also; yes, I know that he was killed in the first movie. But we kept seeing his character model used in the other movies, so him coming back in my rewrite isn't a stretch. Besides, this can be addressed in the film by Blackrock saying that the board of directors really liked the name "Brawl" for the robot that turns into a tank, so that's the name they went with.
Swindle, munitions expert. As the name implies, he can't be trusted by anyone. If he wanted to, he could probably sell his teammates motherboards for a profit. And yet, despite his opportunistic nature, he has the charismatic silver tongue to trick anybody into buying the cheapest gear for the highest price.
I think having the Combaticons would make a good change of pace for the antagonists. Firstly, each one has their own distinct personality; I know I harp on this a lot in this rewrite, but one of the reasons that people enjoy the franchise so much is because the characters have unique identities that you wouldn't mistake for anyone else. You aren't exactly going to confuse the loud and destructive Brawl with the sly, cunning Swindle, are you? Secondly, this creates more visual variety; in almost every single film, the Decepticons are just big grey monsters who blow stuff up. If every Decepticon was like that in the original cartoon or any other incarnation, it's going to make the product go stale in the short run. It's one of the reasons why I appreciate Shatter and Dropkick as the main villains of "Bumblebee"; they are visually distinctive from each other as well as every other main antagonist in the movies.
As for the third reason, this also allows to build a rivalry between the Combaticons and the Dinobots. Unlike the Dinobots, who have a limited A.I to make them easier to control before they develop their own sentience in a manner similar to Robert Di Niro as Frankenstein's monster, the Combaticons are given military grade A.I as to make them more sophisticated. As part of their scheme, Onslaught can have Swindle trick the Dinobots into thinking that they don't belong or that the humans just see them as tools. Here's an exchange I've written between Swindle and Grimlock to give an idea:
S: If you ask me, Grim, these humans really deserve bots like you.
G: What you, Swindle, saying?
S: Better face facts, pal; this Blackrock guy, he's a businessman. And the main concern on ANY businessman's mind is how to use whatever asset they have to make a profit; they exploit anything they see to get higher in the proverbial food-chain.
G: You think him, Blackrock, is using Dinobots? But why? Blackrock nice to us, him give us Dinobots life.
S: Oh sure, it seems like he cares; but I know better, Grimlock. Blackrock, Chumley, those other humans? They talk smack about you behind your backs. They think you're just tools to be used. And the second a tool isn't useful to them, they throw it away for another one. They did it to the Autobots; they'll do it to you, next.
This, as a result, causes Grimlock to lose his cool and distrust the humans, and the Dinobots are loyal to Grimlock so they'll follow him when they break out. This break out can show Grimlock being hostile towards Blackrock, thinking that he sees his creations as just pawns on a chess board, and the inevitable escape will show the defence systems at the facility being completely destroyed. Onslaught, who is pretending to be in stasis lock (essentially a robot equivalent to a medically induced coma), will look on with intrigue, and we can then cut to his perspective as he then brings up a file named "Project: Scramble", which he was able to download from Blackrock's files thanks to the Dinobots providing the ample distraction needed. It was Onslaught who ordered Swindle to lie to Grimlock about Blackrock's intentions, as he had overheard Blackrock talking to his scientists about a secret project that Chumley had requested be made specifically for the Combaticons.
And for anyone familiar with the basic concept of "scramble" in the Transformers mythos, you probably have an idea of what exactly that secret project is. But this will be revealed another time.
Firstly, I want to thank everyone who took the time to read both this and the first part of this rewrite. I apologise that it took so long, but I wanted to make sure that I had a clear idea of what direction I was taking it in. Secondly, I think I'll be able to wrap up this rewrite in at least two more parts, as I'm already working on what will happen. Those will probably be the longest of the parts primarily because that's where I'll delve more into how the story progresses, so please look forward to that.
But once again, thank you for reading. If you enjoyed, I would appreciate it if you shared this on social media; such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc. Speaking of, I'd also appreciate it if you follow me on Twitter; my handle is @MediaHood23. I've also made an Instagram account in-between the rewrites, so be sure to check me out on there as well; once again, the account is @mediahood23. And I'm also getting back into the groove of making videos, so be sure to check out Media Hood Reviews on YouTube. Maybe leave a like on the videos, or subscribe if you so wish. And of course, leave a comment on this post letting me know what you thought of the rewrite thus far; any and all feedback from you guys gives me more incentive to keep going with these as well as my reviews.
But until next time; this is Callum Lewis, the Media Hood, signing off!
(special credit to Simon Wong for the fan art on the Combaticons; his Twitter handle is @SimonWongArt and his Instagram account is @sw_illustration_)
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