by o.supreme » Tue Jun 27, 2017 12:39 pm
- Motto: "Quis custodiet ipsos custodes"
Well thanks to my wife, and some rearranging of my personal schedule we were able to see this late yesterday afternoon.…where do I begin? I’m just not sure even how to react to this film, is it the worst thing ever? I don’t think so…is it a good story? No, not at all. Some things I enjoyed…Dragonstorm looked cool for what little time he was onscreen, same with Infernocus. Cogman oddly enough was probably the most enjoyable new character in the whole film, although, as was referred to one time, he never showed off his ability as a Headmaster onscreen.
Now there are literally dozens of nitpicks, and some very big problems I could point out for this film, but this does not stem from any hatred of Michael Bay, or *lazy writers*, or poor acting, it stems from my enjoyment of Transformers in general. You see I have been a Transformers fan since day 1 (May 1984). The first film in 2007 I genuinely enjoyed, I saw it in the theater 4 times. Many people say each sequel has gotten worse, where I tend to see an up-and-down effect, but TLK is definitely on the downward side of things. Here we are five films in, and continuity has basically been thrown out the window. Some fans may feel that occurred long ago, but for me at least, I could, in my own head, make sense of all of it up until now. There were just too many things that happened in this film that made no sense. I’ll just try to list a few of them…
1. If Sir Edmund Burton (Anthony Hopkins) was the last of the last surviving member of the "Witwiccan" order, what happened to Sam and his father?
2. There was literally no explanation as to how Megatorn came to be in his present form (previously was reborn as Galvatron manufactured by KSI) * one fan online says there was a line of dialogue providing a vague reference but I did not hear it
3. This *may* have been the first Transformers film with no significant Autobot deaths (a couple of generics and knights die, but none of the main characters)
4. Unfortunately aside form Megatron and Barricade, the rest of the Decepticons have very little character development, a few have a funny little shtick, then are quickly dispensed with.
5. Quintessa looks nothing like the organic “creators” as seen at the beginning of AoE
6. In reality I know this is just a case of lack of forward thinking, but one wonders…If Quintessa had always been around why did she not prevent the destruction of Cybertron in the first place? What would be her relationship to characters such as The Fallen, Sentinel Prime etc… Also if, The Fallen was a worshipper of Unicron, it’s likely he would have known Earth was Unicron in dormant form, why would he have tried to destroy it?
I have many more questions, but basically my takeaway is…I see a lot of hate for the franchise in general at this point, from fans and non-fans alike. I’ll admit, I don’t really like where its headed, all the news we heard about a collaboration and a room full of writings outlining a whole “Hasbro” shared universe wasn’t really set up. I’m not sure if further Transformers sequels, or spin-offs as well as MASK, GI Joe, ROM, Action Man etc… will all translate well on film. Honestly, I don’t even like how it’s being handled in the IDW comics. I hear fans calling for a *reboot* to make it more like the original animated series, and I honestly don’t think that’s the answer. I think the franchise just needs to go away from the silver screen for a while. Jurassic park took a 15 year hiatus after the lukewarm reception of the 3rd film, And came back in a blaze of glory (if you don’t agree critically, you can’t argue financially). I think Transformers should do the same. The only part about this that saddens me is that staples of the characters such as Peter Cullen and Frank Welker aren’t getting any younger. I would rather continue to hear them lend their talents to the characters in animated form, but that’s just me. I still think that Hasbro should look to Warner /DC as an example. They have been producing 3 animated films per year for the past decade that for the most part are quite enjoyable. Transformers has a 30+ history from numerous comic book series, and animated series to draw from, investing in direct-to-home lower budget animated films would be a great direction to go in IMHO.
As it stands now my personal series ranking is:
1.TF
2.AoE
3.RotF
4.DotM
5.TLK
Bucket/Want List: Botcon 2016 Customization Class Ratchet (G2 Deco), or Customization Class Ratchet (Marvel Comics Deco) **would also be willing to pay for an Unpainted Botcon 2016 Ratchet, TT Legends Fortress Head (only) with working Electronics
Wish List of Modern Combiners: Road Caesar, Monstructor & Dinoking (proper size to fiction), Landcross, Guard City, Battle Gaia, & G2 Defensor. Wish List of Titans:Metrotitan,Majin Zarak