Warning: THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS, SO BE MINDFUL AS YOU READ THIS.
I'm straddling the fence here. On one hand, this is one of the few examples of excellent American NON-DISNEY animation and should be herald as such. On the other hand, this movie singlehandedly destroyed the Transformer Franchise as a whole, and after several relaunch attempts, from Beast Wars, to Beast Machines, to Robots in Disguise, to Armada, they still haven't gotten it back.
First things first, the animation. Marvel/Sunbow put in some serious work during the two years it took to make this movie. From the intricate details in Unicron, to the fight scenes, it took lot of effort to put all this together, and they have done such an awesome job with it.
The writers have done a pretty decent job of letting the audience know that this Autobot/Decepticon Civil War has gone nuclear. For all the arguments over 'cartoon violence', I think it's more valuable to teach kids the consequences of violence as opposed to cand-coating it, and that the good guys don't always win. The death of Optimus Prime was a good example of this.
HOWEVER, killing of major characters is a risky proposition if not handled right. This has to be a gradual process. You have to bring in new characters and gradually let them grow on people before you write old characters off. This is what Hasbro didn't do. They wanted OUT WITH THE OLD-IN WITH THE NEW in one fell swoop, and it didn't work. While Optimus Prime's death was well handled, their attampts at writing in a successor wasn't!
If you are going to ge rid of characters, you have to at least have interesting characters to replace them. So how interesting were these new characters? Let's see...
BLURR: aside from being able to talk fast, his pressence was pretty worthless! KUP: the rambling old robot who loves to bore people with his 'LONG AGO' stories. WHEELIE: a high-pitched robot who speaks in rhymes. This character is right up there with Serpentor (G.I. Joe) and Minmei (Robotech) as one of the most ANNOYING CHARACTERS EVER CREATED!!! ARCEE: the docile, wimpering, token female robot. CYCLONUS: he looked cool. That's it. He served no other purpose than to stand around and look cool. SCOURGE: your typical evil henchman who is a total DUNCE, who leads an army of clones that are dumber then even he is! GALVATRON: a new vrsion of Megatron...and boy, did Megatron lose a lot in the process, as he lost everything that made him cool in the first place, only to become as annoying as Serpentor! ULTRA MAGNUS: Optimus Prime's original successor. Had an opportunity of a lifetime and choked harder than the Knicks! When you are kneedeep in death and destruction, and your leader screams, "I CAN'T DEAL WITH THAT NOW!", you ar in trouble! HOT ROD: A hot-headed idiot who, despite being the one that got Optimus Prime KILLED in the first place, became THE CHOSEN ONE, THE ONE WHO WILL LEAD US IN OUR DARKEST HOUR, BLAH-BLAH-BLAH, to becomethe new Autobot leader, Rodimus Prime. A VERY CRAPPY LEADER!!! His leadership was so inept, he ruined the third season so badly, that not even Optimus' resurrection was enough to save them from cancelation!!! ...and it was worth kilng off IRONHIDE, BRAWN, PROWL, RATCHET, STARSCREAM, THUNDERCRACKER, SKYWARP, THE INSECTICONS, WHEELJACK, WINDCHARGER, AND OPTIMUS PRIME for THAT?!
All you Transformer fans, if you want a much better attempt at portraying war in the Transformer mythos, look for any of the Simon Furman written issues of the Transformer comics. If you want some entertaining Transformer shows, check to firs two seasons. Though this movie is notwithout merit (awesome animation and fight scenes), this movie did driv a nail in the Transformer Franchise, leave a void that still hasn't been filled.
I'm straddling the fence here. On one hand, this is one of the few examples of excellent American NON-DISNEY animation and should be herald as such. On the other hand, this movie singlehandedly destroyed the Transformer Franchise as a whole, and after several relaunch attempts, from Beast Wars, to Beast Machines, to Robots in Disguise, to Armada, they still haven't gotten it back.
First things first, the animation. Marvel/Sunbow put in some serious work during the two years it took to make this movie. From the intricate details in Unicron, to the fight scenes, it took lot of effort to put all this together, and they have done such an awesome job with it.
The writers have done a pretty decent job of letting the audience know that this Autobot/Decepticon Civil War has gone nuclear. For all the arguments over 'cartoon violence', I think it's more valuable to teach kids the consequences of violence as opposed to cand-coating it, and that the good guys don't always win. The death of Optimus Prime was a good example of this.
HOWEVER, killing of major characters is a risky proposition if not handled right. This has to be a gradual process. You have to bring in new characters and gradually let them grow on people before you write old characters off. This is what Hasbro didn't do. They wanted OUT WITH THE OLD-IN WITH THE NEW in one fell swoop, and it didn't work. While Optimus Prime's death was well handled, their attampts at writing in a successor wasn't!
If you are going to ge rid of characters, you have to at least have interesting characters to replace them. So how interesting were these new characters? Let's see...
BLURR: aside from being able to talk fast, his pressence was pretty worthless! KUP: the rambling old robot who loves to bore people with his 'LONG AGO' stories. WHEELIE: a high-pitched robot who speaks in rhymes. This character is right up there with Serpentor (G.I. Joe) and Minmei (Robotech) as one of the most ANNOYING CHARACTERS EVER CREATED!!! ARCEE: the docile, wimpering, token female robot. CYCLONUS: he looked cool. That's it. He served no other purpose than to stand around and look cool. SCOURGE: your typical evil henchman who is a total DUNCE, who leads an army of clones that are dumber then even he is! GALVATRON: a new vrsion of Megatron...and boy, did Megatron lose a lot in the process, as he lost everything that made him cool in the first place, only to become as annoying as Serpentor! ULTRA MAGNUS: Optimus Prime's original successor. Had an opportunity of a lifetime and choked harder than the Knicks! When you are kneedeep in death and destruction, and your leader screams, "I CAN'T DEAL WITH THAT NOW!", you ar in trouble! HOT ROD: A hot-headed idiot who, despite being the one that got Optimus Prime KILLED in the first place, became THE CHOSEN ONE, THE ONE WHO WILL LEAD US IN OUR DARKEST HOUR, BLAH-BLAH-BLAH, to becomethe new Autobot leader, Rodimus Prime. A VERY CRAPPY LEADER!!! His leadership was so inept, he ruined the third season so badly, that not even Optimus' resurrection was enough to save them from cancelation!!! ...and it was worth kilng off IRONHIDE, BRAWN, PROWL, RATCHET, STARSCREAM, THUNDERCRACKER, SKYWARP, THE INSECTICONS, WHEELJACK, WINDCHARGER, AND OPTIMUS PRIME for THAT?!
All you Transformer fans, if you want a much better attempt at portraying war in the Transformer mythos, look for any of the Simon Furman written issues of the Transformer comics. If you want some entertaining Transformer shows, check to firs two seasons. Though this movie is notwithout merit (awesome animation and fight scenes), this movie did driv a nail in the Transformer Franchise, leave a void that still hasn't been filled.