Waves

So I went to the cinema (by myself – no shame in that) and watched this today. There are spoilers, so be warned.

The plot was the best of the three films so far, and while by no means a literary masterclass, it fulfilled it’s role in providing a reason for the giant robots to fight. The special effects were utterly amazing, some of the scenes were spectacular. From the opening battle on Cybertron, the first time we see Shockwave and his giant robotic pet squid at Chernobyl, the freeway chase, the destruction rained down on the city, and the final desperate scenes, it was stunning to watch.

The robots themselves were a bit out of character at times, but they were mostly awesome. Optimus Prime in a strop and refusing to come out of vehicle mode was a misfire. Getting caught in those overhead wires and needing three other Autobots to help him down was a tad lame too. I did like his trailer though, it harked back to the original toy where his trailer was a weapon station, and it was great to see his giant yellow axe again. Megatron was a bit of a disappointment. Think back to the first film – he was pretty much dominating Optimus until Sam pushed the Allspark into his chest. Then in Revenge Of The Fallen, he needed to team up with Starscream and a Blackout-clone to kill Optimus. He barely put up a fight in this one, preferring to sit in the background while Sentinel Prime did the hard work. Oh yes, Sentinel Prime did the hard work. I genuinely didn’t see the betrayal coming, and I actually put my hand to my mouth in disbelief when Ironhide bought the farm. Very entertaining.

Shockwave looked awesome

I liked the attention to detail, and the thought that went into it. Bumblebee semi-transforming in car mode, letting loose some serious firepower. I liked the little moments when Bumblebee transformed into car mode to evade enemies or to rescue Sam (although his last transformation at the very end of the film, from pristine, showroom-shine car to busted up, battle-damaged robot was a bit iffy). First time we saw Soundwave I studied his body quickly, thought “Ah, looks like his alternate form is a white car this time around!”. Then a bit later, as soon as Carly rolled up in a shiny white car I thought “that’s totally Soundwave”. Loved it.

I’m a tiny bit annoyed by the inconsistency of it all, like how plunging the Allspark into a Transformers chest will kill it, but a shard of the same cube will resurrect a Transformer (the same one it killed, no less), and how Megatron had all these plans going on at once, two of which were diametrically opposed (one required there to be no Primes left, as only a Prime can defeat The Fallen, another required Optimus to be alive and open the vault on the spaceship and re-alive Sentinel Prime with the Matrix), but it’s not really appropriate to dwell on them I don’t think. This Transformers franchise is all about big robots smashing each other to bits rather than telling involving stories. It’s Summer blockbuster, not Best Screenplay.

All in all, it was exactly what I want from a Transformers film. Big robots fighting, lots of explosions and some nice little Transformers moments. I’m a bit sad that all the big Decepticons were killed off at the end (Megatron, Starscream, Soundwave, Shockwave… Jees!), as it drastically cut the chances of a fourth film. Short of a reboot, the only plausible way a fourth film could happen now is for Unicron to step in. The Autobots shoot the remains of the Decepticons out into space, Unicron finds their bodies and recreates the bad robots as Galvatron, Cyclonus, Scourge… That would be awesome. The scene showing Cybertron re-materialising next to the Earth was proof that Unicron could be done. There’s even a reason for him to show up – he wants to eat Cybertron, but can’t find it (it’s been destroyed), until it momentarily shows up on his long range sensors then vanishes again…