The Energon Pub

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wat

(EDIT)

Ok, I suppose I should elaborate. First off though, I know that better people have already reviewed this movie, and most likely do a better job at it. However, I just like typing.

SPOILERS! (if you havn't seen it yet)













So I finally watched it today. I was planning on watching it last week with friends, but those plans fell through and I decided to watch it myself. In the mean time, I had gotten rather excited at the prospect of a Transformers movie based on the current series rather than an explosion fest in live action. Sadly, it fell far short of the mark.

I didn't hate the movie, but I didn't like it either. I mean, I liked the characters in it, I liked that the humans were left out (they would have muddled it up). However, there was no closure to anything, everything was just left as unresolved as the series did, if not more so. Why in the hell was it called "Predacons Rising" when the Predacons barely did anything in it? Why not call it "Unicron Rising" instead? Yeah I know there were dead Predacons walking around, but it wasn't even about them either, it would be like if the Darkness Rising episodes were called Terrorcons Rising instead. Speaking of Predacons walking...

Why in the hell were all the Predacon corpses *WALKING* to Cybertron's conveniently placed hole when they could effing FLY? Unicron didn't even fly to the hole, he rode on one of the dead pred's back! He can fly faster than light, why would he choose to travel at half the speed of smell? Does he even need to be there with the Preda-Deadites army? Couldn't he just FLY down to the core of Cybertron by himself and rip it open? Waiting billions of years for this moment, rides in sllooooowwwwwwwly on zombie back.

Why didn't they kill Shockwave? I mean, I'm glad they didn't, I like Shockwave, but there's no reason and no way he could have survived being ganged up on by that many zombies with only a few smudges to show for it. Yeah he's a badass, but enough of these things could overwhelm Optimus. He should be dead for sticking around like a dumbass to watch the terrorcons advance on him. Why did he back away so slowly anyway? He goes much faster than that, does his reverse function not work properly?

Why wasn't the other wave there? Soundwave could easily get out of the shadow zone. If a cell phone signal can make it through (garbled, but still), then I'm sure Soundwave could easily access the warship's space bridge control and get himself out of there.

I can continue going on and on about the characters. What happened to Airachnid? What was the point of taking Ultra Magnus out of the picture? Where in the eff was the Apex Armor? Why bring Ratchet to Cybertron and not just send Ultra Magnus to Earth? Did they kill ALL of the Vehicons?

Argh.

I also drew issue with the feel of the movie, in as much as I feel confused about it. I mean, I watch the 1986 movie and I get the sense of nostalgia, I watch the 2007 movie and I get a sense of awe (yes, despite it's many flaws, I have to say I enjoyed the 2007 Transformers movie), I watch this and I feel nothing. No joy in watching the fights, no satisfaction in seeing (or in this case, not seeing) the fate of Starscream, and I feel lots of confusion when I think back about watching it. I liked the characters, but the movie just didn't grab me, it felt unfinished, and it felt like they were doing way too much at one time, and then slapped some generic name on it. I guess it's hard to put to words really.

I guess I hated it? I dunno, some one tell me what you thought, quick.

Pretty good review.

Some comments:

Fires_Of_Inferno wrote:However, there was no closure to anything, everything was just left as unresolved as the series did, if not more so.

Indeed. Further evidence that this movie was made as an afterthought.

Fires_Of_Inferno wrote:Why in the hell was it called "Predacons Rising" when the Predacons barely did anything in it?

Probably a request by Hasbro in an attempt to tie it in with the Target exclusive line of the same name.

Fires_Of_Inferno wrote:Why not call it "Unicron Rising" instead?

Interestingly enough, back before the movie aired, TVGuide.com had the movie listed as three split episodes titled "Chaos Rising - Part 1", "Part 2", and "Part 3". A much more appropriate name, IMO.

Fires_Of_Inferno wrote:Yeah I know there were dead Predacons walking around, but it wasn't even about them either, it would be like if the Darkness Rising episodes were called Terrorcons Rising instead.

Technically, that wouldn't be so unfitting since there was indeed a greater emphasis on the Terrorcons in that mini-series than of the Predacons in this movie. But, I do see your point.

Fires_Of_Inferno wrote:Speaking of Predacons walking...

Why in the hell were all the Predacon corpses *WALKING* to Cybertron's conveniently placed hole when they could effing FLY? Unicron didn't even fly to the hole, he rode on one of the dead pred's back! He can fly faster than light, why would he choose to travel at half the speed of smell? Does he even need to be there with the Preda-Deadites army? Couldn't he just FLY down to the core of Cybertron by himself and rip it open? Waiting billions of years for this moment, rides in sllooooowwwwwwwly on zombie back.

Based on both this and other parts in this movie, as well as parts in the "One Shall Rise" season 1 finale, I've theorized that this is a very green, overconfident Unicron who hasn't had much experience in accomplishing anything outside of his battling Primus and the Thirteen, the season 1 finale, and this movie. Unlike past portrayals of Unicron, he's still inexperienced and uncalculating, having spent most of his life sound asleep and unaware of how to properly handle things. Like how Animated gave us a noobish Optimus Prime, this series gave us a noobish Unicron, and I mean that with no disrespect to either character.

And in a way, that's a bit more interesting than the typical all powerful, all knowing, almighty Unicron we usually get, since it's like the old Unicron could do no wrong, was completely flawless in his plans, being only defeated by sheer miracles. Now we get a Unicron that is instead a very flawed individual who is out of practice and out of his element, in spite of his godlike nature.

Fires_Of_Inferno wrote:Why didn't they kill Shockwave? I mean, I'm glad they didn't, I like Shockwave, but there's no reason and no way he could have survived being ganged up on by that many zombies with only a few smudges to show for it. Yeah he's a badass, but enough of these things could overwhelm Optimus. He should be dead for sticking around like a dumbass to watch the terrorcons advance on him. Why did he back away so slowly anyway? He goes much faster than that, does his reverse function not work properly?

My guess is that they might have wanted to kill off Shockwave in that scene, but Hasbro vetoed it.

Fires_Of_Inferno wrote:Why wasn't the other wave there? Soundwave could easily get out of the shadow zone. If a cell phone signal can make it through (garbled, but still), then I'm sure Soundwave could easily access the warship's space bridge control and get himself out of there.

Another guess: Perhaps they felt that Soundwave was too flawless a character that bringing him back might have made things seem less intense for our heroes. That is, if they weren't gonna kill him off too.

Or, maybe they're saving Soundwave for future use in an upcoming project.

Fires_Of_Inferno wrote:I can continue going on and on about the characters. What happened to Airachnid?

Maybe still on the moon.

Fires_Of_Inferno wrote:What was the point of taking Ultra Magnus out of the picture?

To give more focus to the non-major players. Take out the leader characters to give Bee some attention.

Fires_Of_Inferno wrote:Where in the eff was the Apex Armor?

Back on Earth with Unit:E, I guess.

Fires_Of_Inferno wrote:Why bring Ratchet to Cybertron and not just send Ultra Magnus to Earth?

It might have been easier for the doctor to come to the patient, and Cybertron might have better medical resources for Cybertronians than Earth does.

Fires_Of_Inferno wrote:Did they kill ALL of the Vehicons?

A lot of good those useless guys would have done.

Fires_Of_Inferno wrote:I also drew issue with the feel of the movie, in as much as I feel confused about it. I mean, I watch the 1986 movie and I get the sense of nostalgia, I watch the 2007 movie and I get a sense of awe (yes, despite it's many flaws, I have to say I enjoyed the 2007 Transformers movie), I watch this and I feel nothing. No joy in watching the fights, no satisfaction in seeing (or in this case, not seeing) the fate of Starscream, and I feel lots of confusion when I think back about watching it. I liked the characters, but the movie just didn't grab me, it felt unfinished, and it felt like they were doing way too much at one time, and then slapped some generic name on it. I guess it's hard to put to words really.

I guess I hated it? I dunno, some one tell me what you thought, quick.

I wrote these thought back when I first finished watching the film:

That was very cool. A lot happened in this movie, and it all felt pretty good. Except for one little thing: The title. This movie was less "Predacons Rising" and more "Unicron Rising (plus a couple of Preds)". It really shows how much the Preds felt forced in to a story that otherwise did not need them. Darksteel and Skylynx were generic brutes who served as mostly background extras who only existed to breath fire and do tough stuff. The Terrorcon Predacon army could have easily been replaced by ordinary Terrorcons with little alteration to the story. Unicron stole this movie, but at least his awakening here, due to Primus's reactivation, made a lot more sense than some random, poorly-written planetary alignment. Bumblebee also stole this movie, being practically the star of it on the Autobots' side and taking center stage in a role of command. Will Friedle can really carry his own weight, and it shows. It was also interesting to see this being entirely Cybertron-centric, with no bits on Earth outside of a few quick shots, and no human characters at all. But, I still feel Optimus's finding the AllSpark was handled a little too easily, with it being found as though it were hardly a challenge to find it. Really, Optimus really couldn't have done this already back when he had the Ark all those years ago? I mean, he had the Matrix back then, which is all that he indicates as necessary to find it now, so what was the problem back then? And then there's Megatron, who's now no longer a warmongering tyrant. Will his change of heart be reflected in future fiction? Or will Hasbro force some way to throw him back into the ways of villainy? And what of Starscream? Did the Preds kill him? Did they not?

And what of the Dinobots? Or Rescue Force Sigma-17? While I don't expect the latter to get any resolution anytime soon, the former has their own comic storyline going on, so hopefully their fate is given in there. Same with Airachnid, who's another open book.

And Soundwave. Holy smoke, Soundwave was completely missing from this movie!

Though, as fun as it was, I'm actually kinda glad that it's all over. TF: Prime was an interesting series, but now that it's run its course, I feel that I'm ready for something new. The Go! cartoon has been entertaining enough, but it's become tough to watch it, so that's a slow going process. Rescue Bots season 2 comes this Winter, but that's still a way's off. Then there's Age of Extinction coming next year, but I need something other than another Movieverse flick to keep me vested. Here's hoping that whatever comes next to replace TF: Prime turns out to be good.

The more I think about it, the more this movie feels, to me, like a sort of response to all the fanboy wishes for future live action movies.

I mean, how often have we seen posts from people wanting the next TF movie to have any of the following:

• Unicron
• A story set entirely on Cybertron
• No humans
• Full focus on the robots
• Less Optimus Prime
• Less Megatron
• More characterization for the non-Optimus/non-Megatron robots
• Megatron being upgraded into a form that's not still named "Megatron"
• Bumblebee to talk permanently
• No toilet humor
• No excessive crudeness in general
• No Michael Bay

We hear these kinds of fan wishes all the time, and this movie has delivered in just 65 minutes all of what three 2 and a half hour long feature films failed to deliver (not that we should have been expecting any of that for the live action films, mind you).

I think the only things missing from this movie that fans kept asking for are the Dinobots (which Age of Extinction will be giving us), Megatron's upgraded form being named "Galvatron", and for a movie that would have all of this to be one that would be released in theaters (which really doesn't matter in the long run since both theatrical movies and TV/DVD movies all eventually just end up as commercial home video media anyway).

And finally, with this movie, I at last know what it means to be a Prime: Doing the best of whatever one can do for the sake of Cybertron, the Cybertronian race, and life itself. Optimus at long last fulfilled his lifelong responsibility with that final act of his, sacrificing his own life so that many others may come to live. And it was all made much more clear in just 65 minutes than it ever was in 65 episodes.

Good review, but I have a lot of counterarguments

Fires_Of_Inferno wrote:Sadly, it fell far short of the mark.

I'm tempting not to be sarcastic for once. I'll withhold my comment here.

I didn't hate the movie, but I didn't like it either. I mean, I liked the characters in it, I liked that the humans were left out (they would have muddled it up). However, there was no closure to anything, everything was just left as unresolved as the series did, if not more so.

If not for Airachnid's story arc, what was there to wrap up that the movie did not already?

Why in the hell was it called "Predacons Rising" when the Predacons barely did anything in it? Why not call it "Unicron Rising" instead?

I don't see why the name of the movie should sway your opinion of it, if it is. If the story follows the storytelling pattern (exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution), tells it well, develops its characters, and in this case, works with presented material swimmingly, why should its name be a nitpick.

I've got you're answer though. Hasbro put the toyline first instead of the show, and the writers wanted to stick with their "cartoon first" status quo, so they came up with a compromise.

Why in the hell were all the Predacon corpses *WALKING* to Cybertron's conveniently placed hole when they could effing FLY? Unicron didn't even fly to the hole, he rode on one of the dead pred's back! He can fly faster than light, why would he choose to travel at half the speed of smell? Does he even need to be there with the Preda-Deadites army? Couldn't he just FLY down to the core of Cybertron by himself and rip it open? Waiting billions of years for this moment, rides in sllooooowwwwwwwly on zombie back.

Falling Action. Needed to stretch it out long enough for the story to move along. Though, I believe the same time frame would have been reached in-flight if the boneyard were theoretically farther away from the core.

Why didn't they kill Shockwave?

Character development.

Shockwave's mannerisms before this movie and during the movie's climax proposes that Shockwave did not believe in Primus & Unicron. He's of logic and science, and religious figures are not logical nor scientific. Everything he believed in, or disbelieved in, was turned against him when he met Unicron. Feeling hopeless, his survival was to encourage the Predacons to aid the Autobots in stopping Unicron, especially with the internal emotion behind it.

That's what I got out of it, at least.

Yeah he's a badass, but enough of these things could overwhelm Optimus.

How "awesome" any character is in battle should not outweigh his or her character development in the story. Killing him would have made his character, especially with all of his importance, utterly useless.

Why did he back away so slowly anyway?

Again, he was shocked by the appearance of theological figures and their ability to revive dead creatures.

Why wasn't the other wave there? Soundwave could easily get out of the shadow zone.

What was Soundwave going to do? What service would Soundwave be doing to the plot? Soundwave's appearance would have been about as significant as the Predacons in this movie.

What was the point of taking Ultra Magnus out of the picture?

To develop Bumblebee's character as being a capable leader.

Where in the eff was the Apex Armor?

Miko has it, I think.

Why bring Ratchet to Cybertron and not just send Ultra Magnus to Earth?

Really? You're nitpicking about which of the two was sent to which planet? Cheese and crackers, dude! Why does it matter?!

Did they kill ALL of the Vehicons?

PrymeStriker wrote:Cheese and crackers, dude! Why does it matter?!

I guess I hated it? I dunno, some one tell me what you thought, quick.

I choose to embark in a story in order to analyze the storytelling and character development.

Now, it's my turn to address somethings in full...

Closure:

* Predaking got his army.
* Every Autobot in the roster, at some point in the series, acted selflessly and heroically, like a true Prime. Reason for the title explained...
* Megatron disbanded the Decepticons. It's about time a modern Transformers movie got rid of the 'cons without killing all of them.
* Bumblebee's arc as being more capable than the rank he beholds is told in full.
* Smokescreen has completely matured and humbled from being a reckless rookie who's full of himself and his "destiny" to being able to accept that he's not the center of the universe.


Questions Unanswered:

* Airachnid's arc
* Shockwave's whereabouts

See my point?

Don't pull the Starscream card. We all know the Predacons kicked his ass.

Also, the movie developed their characters thoroughly:

* Bumblebee
* Smokescreen
* Megatron
* Knock Out
* Predaking
* Shockwave (who's character development was more obscure and requires some extra analyzing)

So, that's how I disagree with your points. I mean no offence by anything I may have said in advance.