"Pet da evil kitty."
I can see problems arising where having an uncut version would prompt some people to say more outrageous things simply because it's not going to be censored, making the task of editing down the regular version very difficult, but it's just a suggestion.
On to my thoughts about the subject, and my two cents about some of the debates:
Prime's questionable command to the Autobots
I gotta disagree with Ryan about the "Kill them all" line. I know how passionate about the franchise and the characters you are, I fully understand your reasoning behind your opinion, I understand the purity of the character of Optimus Prime, and understand that in most circumstances any competent heroic leader character, even movie Prime with his sometimes brutal tactics (when needed, or called for) would not issue an order such as that to his troops. But in my view, by the end battle of this movie, he's just finally fed up with all the sh*t that the Decepticons are pulling on this innocent (by their war's standards) planet. The cons have made it abundantly clear that as long as they live, innocents will die, carnage and destruction will reign, and more friends will be lost. Having been killed once himself, and just escaping from another attempt by the Decepticons to wipe out the remaining Autobots, I think he finally realizes the decision that must be made,and communicates it to his men in the clearest way possible. To be perfectly honest, thinking back to when I was watching it, when he said it I thought to myself "About time, man." and then paid it no mind. Until I heard you all mentioning it, I had completely forgotten the line had even been said. It just didn't affect me that much as it sounded to me very much like something he would have said in the circumstances he was in. Just my opinion, mind you. My take on that one.
Starscream's portrayal
In the films alone (not counting supplemental material) he always came across to me as the guy waiting for the right time to take the top spot. Sure he was a sniveling whiny b*tch most of the time he was on screen, but Megatron's bigger and meaner, and will beat the crap outta him. I never took his subservience to be sincere. When the 'Cons first arrived on the scene in the '07 movie, sans Megatron, Starscream was calling the shots (he was an incompetent leader, but that's another story) but as soon as the big bad Megatron was revived, Starscream fell back into his role of lackey, knowing full well that if he were to attempt to rise above his station, get too big for his robo-britches, Megatron would probably kill him, or at least smack him around. Megatron's death led to Starscream's retreat. This is not necessarily an act of cowardice, but possibly a survival tactic as Starscream suggests a similar strategy to Megs at the end of ROTF after the Fallen gets thrashed. While Megatron was dead, Starscream continued his rule, only to have Megatron revive, and return to the Nemesis with a flair for domestic violence. Some could argue that it was Starscream's command that Megatron be rebuilt, but I sincerely doubt he'd put that much effort into it. More plausible that Soundwave coordinated the rescue op, possibly even under commands given to him before Megatron died (as a plan B) but this is just speculation. The third movie, as previously stated in the podcast itself, sees Starscream come to the realization that Megatron has a plan, a very long standing plan, a plan that hinged on an alliance between Megatron and Sentinel, and may be a useful leader after all... too bad a lowly human blew his head up. To be honest I actually think he kinda deserved that, and hey, Sam got a confirmed Decepticon kill (with Lennox getting the assist), score one for humanity!
The Wreckers
I was so glad, along with everyone else I've heard from, to hear the Wreckers NOT sound like Nascar fan redneck stereotypes. I'm not a Nascar fan myself, but I know a few people that are and those stereotypes do not make them happy, man. That decision, to me, made a potentially dangerous repeat of the twins fiasco a lot less of an issue. Additionally, anyone else think that their UK accents were a tribute to the fact that the Wreckers, as a team, started in the UK Marvel comics? I also liked the nod to the Wreckers of G1 (specifically IDW's continuity)with the ship they were tending being called Xantium. All in all they impressed me as new characters, enough so that I may actually shell out the cash for their deluxe class toys, and I was glad to see they didn't follow the example of every other Wreckers team, and die.
Shockwave
Was not pleased at all with his Darth Maul Syndrome (for those unaware of the meaning, Darth Maul from Star Wars Episode 1 was supremely hyped, such a big deal was made about the character, he even made it onto the cover of Time magazine. Come film time, he was on screen maybe fifteen minutes tops, said one or two lines, and got killed by one of the heroes, never to be heard from again, disregarded by time) For how much press Shockwave was given, I really expected him to do more than show up twice, dig around, walk around, shoot some stuff, say one real line (not counting unsubtitled Cybertronian speak) and then get offed. Truly a waste of a character, he might as well have not even been there. It coulda been anyone operating the driller thingy or whatever he was doing. He felt so superfluous and useless which, for such a cool design and awesome character model, felt really meaningless.
I've probably got more, but I'm way beyond tired and need to hit the sack, final thoughts from me on DOTM, though. Good movie. I went in expecting more of what we've gotten for the last two movies, and was pleasantly surprised by the scope and feel of the movie. It's not gonna be a big award winner, no best actors or anything here (though it should definitely get an effects nod for the awesome job they did with everything, especially the destruction in Chicago) but it was definitely fun and entertaining, and looked amazing! Sad to see the movie franchise come to a close (myself from 2006-2007 would never believe I just said that
) but glad that they ended it on such a high note!Keep up the awesome podcasting, and hope to hear from you guys again in a week or two!
