Well, I've just got back from seeing this (I don't like to see things at release, too crowded for my liking) and I'm going to side with the 'best of the lot' group. In short, it was awesome.
Spoiler tags here for a reason guys, don't click if you don't want to know
Spoiler tags here for a reason guys, don't click if you don't want to know
Sentinel Prime's change of sides was done brilliantly. I never saw it coming, and I always expect films such as these to have massively obvious twists. I expected him and Optimus to have some sort of dynamic going on, maybe the former second guessing him or questioning his decisions, but not to be a traitor.
The thing is though, I can still empathise with the character. Well, in a way I can. He saw his world fail as the side he led was fighting a war that could only end in a nil-nil draw at best. He did what he thought was right for his people, and stuck with it. All the while, he had some awesome voice work showing his intentions.
But having said all that, there are limits. His brutal execution of Ironhide for one. The poor guy/robot transforms and says something about it being an honour for him to protect Sentinel, who replies by shooting him in the chest and causing him to turn to rust. It was a powerful visual effect, and I can honestly say that my eyes widened in shock. His treatment of the humans was a bit iffy as well. Prime even says at the end that he was the one that taught him how freedom was the right of all sentient beings, but he was willing to enslave an entire race to see his own flourish.
The way Optimus dealt with him at the end was also very good, the simple shot highlighting his belief that he was no longer an autobot.
The other death in the film - Que, who I take to be Wheeljack in all but name - was a shocker to me. He'd only just been introduced, and we saw him killed. Didn't help that his last word was 'why...', inquisitive to the last that one.
New girl Carly was good, and lived up to her namesake in G1 in my opinion. Treatmant of Mikaela/Sam relationship was a bit odd, a simple 'she dumped me'. Now admittedly it was probably best if there wasn't too much depth on this point, but she had gone through two end of the world scenarios with him with a strong relationship, but something between two and three causes her to be rid of him? The only thing I can think of is due to the distance involved with him being at uni' and her still at home. Even with that though, he had to be single when he received his medal due to flirting with Karli.
That means, in a nutshell, that Mikaela went 'I love you Sam, you saved the world, you nearly died *blah, blah*" to "I'm leaving you" in the time it took the place to get him back from Egypt and get a medal. Now, I'm not American - and have never received a medal - but I'm sure the time it takes to award them isn't that long. Or is it a yearly thing? Like the New Years Honours List.
The plot I thought was a nice reference to an old G1 episode. Name escapes me, but it involved bringing Cybertron to Earth to rebuild it. Shame no one mentioned how much havoc that would wreak on both planets. A friend of mine also pointed out that no one seemed pretty upset (on the autobot side) that their home planet had had half of it turned into a black hole near earth, and the rest of it likely suffered a similar fate. Personally, I just took that as another way of saying that Earth was their home now.
All in all, 8/10. Starting at five, breaks down as follows:
+ Much darker and better script
+ Awesome CG
+ 3D was 'okay'. Counting this as a plus as I'm not a fan of the new trend, but it was good here, and didn't look out of place.
+ Sentinel Prime was a character that I wanted to see despite hating the very guts (gears?) of. Haven't felt as ambivalent about a character since the Sheriff of Nottingham in the recent BBC adaptation of Robin Hood.
+ Prime's trailer. First time I saw that, I sighed. I remember being a kid and having the die-cast G1 prime with a trailer just like it.
+ Human/Decepticon alliances. Nice to see humans not being all 'good' and aligned with the good aliens. I think all of know that some would try to side with the likes of Megatron.
- Death of Ironhide. Powerful stuff, and it's a selfish reason for putting it here. I liked Ironhide
- Ending was, as Aerilon has said, rather abrupt. Needed something more, especially if this is - as intended -the last film. Maybe the autobots and humans at a service for everyone who lost their lives? Or them helping to rebuild Chicago? While the credits were rolling, they could have had them cleaning up the Decepticons around the world. There were loads that came down through the space bridge, and they're still there.
- Megatron. Just like in the first and second film, I felt as if there wasn't much done with him. There was a lot of potential, especially with the alliance with Sentinel, but it was lost in a sudden rage that caused him to up and fight. On that point, it felt out of character that he didn't kill Karli. Sure, he wanted to take Sentinel out - and probably do it at the same time as Prime was fighting - but there was plenty of time to crush her...
The thing is though, I can still empathise with the character. Well, in a way I can. He saw his world fail as the side he led was fighting a war that could only end in a nil-nil draw at best. He did what he thought was right for his people, and stuck with it. All the while, he had some awesome voice work showing his intentions.
But having said all that, there are limits. His brutal execution of Ironhide for one. The poor guy/robot transforms and says something about it being an honour for him to protect Sentinel, who replies by shooting him in the chest and causing him to turn to rust. It was a powerful visual effect, and I can honestly say that my eyes widened in shock. His treatment of the humans was a bit iffy as well. Prime even says at the end that he was the one that taught him how freedom was the right of all sentient beings, but he was willing to enslave an entire race to see his own flourish.
The way Optimus dealt with him at the end was also very good, the simple shot highlighting his belief that he was no longer an autobot.
The other death in the film - Que, who I take to be Wheeljack in all but name - was a shocker to me. He'd only just been introduced, and we saw him killed. Didn't help that his last word was 'why...', inquisitive to the last that one.
New girl Carly was good, and lived up to her namesake in G1 in my opinion. Treatmant of Mikaela/Sam relationship was a bit odd, a simple 'she dumped me'. Now admittedly it was probably best if there wasn't too much depth on this point, but she had gone through two end of the world scenarios with him with a strong relationship, but something between two and three causes her to be rid of him? The only thing I can think of is due to the distance involved with him being at uni' and her still at home. Even with that though, he had to be single when he received his medal due to flirting with Karli.
That means, in a nutshell, that Mikaela went 'I love you Sam, you saved the world, you nearly died *blah, blah*" to "I'm leaving you" in the time it took the place to get him back from Egypt and get a medal. Now, I'm not American - and have never received a medal - but I'm sure the time it takes to award them isn't that long. Or is it a yearly thing? Like the New Years Honours List.
The plot I thought was a nice reference to an old G1 episode. Name escapes me, but it involved bringing Cybertron to Earth to rebuild it. Shame no one mentioned how much havoc that would wreak on both planets. A friend of mine also pointed out that no one seemed pretty upset (on the autobot side) that their home planet had had half of it turned into a black hole near earth, and the rest of it likely suffered a similar fate. Personally, I just took that as another way of saying that Earth was their home now.
All in all, 8/10. Starting at five, breaks down as follows:
+ Much darker and better script
+ Awesome CG
+ 3D was 'okay'. Counting this as a plus as I'm not a fan of the new trend, but it was good here, and didn't look out of place.
+ Sentinel Prime was a character that I wanted to see despite hating the very guts (gears?) of. Haven't felt as ambivalent about a character since the Sheriff of Nottingham in the recent BBC adaptation of Robin Hood.
+ Prime's trailer. First time I saw that, I sighed. I remember being a kid and having the die-cast G1 prime with a trailer just like it.
+ Human/Decepticon alliances. Nice to see humans not being all 'good' and aligned with the good aliens. I think all of know that some would try to side with the likes of Megatron.
- Death of Ironhide. Powerful stuff, and it's a selfish reason for putting it here. I liked Ironhide
- Ending was, as Aerilon has said, rather abrupt. Needed something more, especially if this is - as intended -the last film. Maybe the autobots and humans at a service for everyone who lost their lives? Or them helping to rebuild Chicago? While the credits were rolling, they could have had them cleaning up the Decepticons around the world. There were loads that came down through the space bridge, and they're still there.
- Megatron. Just like in the first and second film, I felt as if there wasn't much done with him. There was a lot of potential, especially with the alliance with Sentinel, but it was lost in a sudden rage that caused him to up and fight. On that point, it felt out of character that he didn't kill Karli. Sure, he wanted to take Sentinel out - and probably do it at the same time as Prime was fighting - but there was plenty of time to crush her...
Yay, awesome. Is it this year? I think this will definitely be one I buy.
