SPOILER WARNING: This thread contains movie spoilers
Photos from the Sydney premiere
Overall: Really enjoyable movie. You can tell that, much like Travis Knight, Steve Caple Jr. cares about the Transformers and wanted to make a good film. In terms of film literature, I would still rate Bumblebee above Rise of the Beasts, but as a Transformers movie, I would agree that Rise of the Beasts is the best yet.
Quick random thoughts before I head off the bed...
- When Bumblebee says that he considers humans to be friends, Optimus Prime tells him to stop hanging out at the drive-in cinema. This is a nod to #1 of the Transformers Marvel Comics, 1984, where Bumblebee meets Buster Witwicky (Jesse and O) at a drive-in theatre.
- When Noah stabs Scourge in the back of the knee; this is a nod to Beast Wars, where Cheetor taught the proto-human children how to fight Predacons by attacking their joints.
- It is suggested that the Maximals are the Autobots' future descendants who've travelled back in time, with Optimus Primal outright saying that he was named after Optimus Prime and how the Maximals saw him as a great historic figure.
- Useful humans whose screen time contribute to the story! And they are the most actively constructive human allies too; not just MacGuffin bearers. No gratuitious fan-service shots, no romance story.
- While none of the Terrorcons really had any character development, it was neat that they explained that they were slaves of Unicron. Unicron torturing Scourge when he was displeased was a nice callback to G1 Unicron.
- I want a Noah action figure, damnit.
- Wheeljack, being stationed in Peru, speaks with a Peruvian accent. Sure beats TLK Hot Rod's random stereotyped cartoony French accent.
- Some neat moments of comic relief. The audience that I watched it with laughed the hardest at Mirage's line of, "You were inside me." I personally liked, "I'm not following you, I'm escaping in the same direction as you."
- When Elena was looking at archaeological images on her Windows 3.0 computer, one web site/article was called "Asahi Takara" ('morning treasure' in Japanese)
- I liked Optimus Prime and Noah's parallel character journeys.
- I really liked how the central theme to the story, and the key to its resolution, was "Till All Are One."
- Really love how Mirage's ability is fairly accurate his original G1 bio. Not becoming invisible, but being able to project illusions; and they can only last for a short time.
- Optimus Primal being forced to euthanise Airazor, and Airazor consenting to her euthanasia was really freaking heavy. It also felt very Beast Wars-esque, as the BW cartoon never shyed away from difficult topics. It reminded me of the episode Transmutate.
Minor nitpicky gripes:
- Airazor never transforms. I can understand Apelinq and Unicron not transforming, but I would've loved to see Airazor transforming; even if it was at the end when she was fighting Primal or something.
- So... if G.I. Joe exists in this universe... where the bloody hell were they when the excrement was hitting the fan?
- I know why Bumblebee and Mirage came back to life, but from a storytelling POV, I kinda wish that they didn't. It makes the war seem inconsequential and cheapens their sacrifice if death for these characters just means an extended nap.