The Trailers Thread III

[classicdrogn]

So, Transformers One.(Don't worry, no spoilers here that weren't explicit in the trailers) It's not without flaws, the presence of Dumbassotron first among them... but it's easily as visually stunning as the 1986 movie with only your preference for cel or 3d animation to give one the lead, and there's no contest that it has the most logical plot progression flat out. Nothing "just happens, why? Who cares, new thing is happening!" or worse yet, interrupting the flow of the narrative to insert some political lecture only relevant to a bunch of fleshie grubs that won't even exist for eleven million years. Sure, there are parallels that you can draw... but it leaves those matters for the audience to make the connections for themselves instead of dropping them like anvils from the sky. It's almost like they had an inkling of respect for the viewer's intelligence, imagine that!

Now, callbacks, quotes, and references to iconic moments in previous TF media, those it goes hard with, but much like the bayformers theatrical soundtrack it does that in a way that finds all the right buttons and pounds on them with big fucking hammers. There's are dozens of "he said the thing!" "and "he did the thing!" moments, and evening huge crowd scenes any bot close enough to the camera to have recognizable features at all has a color layout and detailing that at least suggests an established character in the franchise if not being obviously intended to be them - and everyone who gets names actually matches the name they were given too. Well, it's a new type of Quintesson than we've seen before, more reminiscent of the Executioner at the Sharkticon Pit than anything else from G1, or maybe a bit of Beast Machines Alpha Quintesson, but we already knew that from the trailers and new Quint forms pop up two out of three times they gget used, so whatever.

I do think it ends up with something of a broken Aesop, but come on, this is the origin story of Optimus and Megatton, there's no way the ending could be in doubt any more than Titanic. Less, really, since at least then there was the question of whether the viewpoint characters would survive even if the boat had to sink.

Final score: solid eight out of ten I'd say, maybe higher if the rumors of voice changes for some characters and a better sound level mix in the final edit compared to early access screens are true. I believe them at least to an extent, reports from the even earlier showings say Elita's voice was all but inaudible but she was fine in the one I caught; certainly Soundwave didn't have the voice processing he's famous for, just the Dr. Claw growl it was based on, and Starscream and Shockwave were pretty bad too.


Teal Cyber-deer: If you like Transformers, or sci fi in general, or action movies in general, go ahead and see it. At worst, it's a fun couple hours of hijinks, stunts, and explosions, and if you're inclined to engage with the characters at all they'll get right unser your skin, in the best way.

Well, mostly. Dumbassotron still exists, but the first trailer really played up the jokes and blabbering. It's age-appropriate for any kid old enough to giggle at the near-miss middle finger joke from the second trailer while understanding that it's rude, crude, and unacceptable in polite company, but not so dumbed down you'll long to club yourself unconscious if you take a younger relative to see it.

e: If this is the last movie I can see, I won't regret the time and money spent.