I just watched the film via a party streaming site. For me, the from was ok. It was slightly better than Bayformers, but it wasn't great.
Good:
- No racist, sexist content (although I didn't get the "speaking Spanish = racism" scene with "Pablo", as I thought one person lived in Peru while the other person was Hispanic themselves?
- The action scenes were slightly more easier to understand than usual. Not a bunch of exploding tinfoil being opened and folded right in front of my eyeballs, etc.
- Most of the dialogue wasn't mumbled or indistinct.
- They mentioned the British sport of "cricket", presumably because the lead female character has roots to the West Indies (although this was never stated, I think)?
- They used "regular" looking male and female leads, making them more identifiable (perhaps) to more people. No college jocks and supermodels. I hope this trend continues.
Bad:
- The CGI looked ok for some scenes and quite bad in others. Frames seemed to drop for some transformations, robots didn't move with the correct weight or gravity, etc. They used a cheaper effects company and it showed. Considering this is a major part of the film (and arguably where the film's "money shots" are), I was not impressed.
- Prime is out of character (again). He's whiney and too aggressive. There really wasn't enough character building (as usual) for the Autobots to validate how they acted in the film.
- The enemies suffered from the trope of being indestructible at the beginning and suddenly made of paper at the end, when the plot demanded it.
- inconsistencies, such as Scourge's "cosmic rust" corrupting some but not others when he directly or indirectly came into contact with them.
- Mirage. As I'm not American, I've no idea who the voice actor is and thus no connection or empathy with him. Ironically, he kept mentioning "ET", which showed how even a latex puppet can gain more empathy simply by the quality of dialogue, plot and scenes between a boy and an alien bonding. Mirage didn't have anything close to those scenes.
- The whole film, like many Bay films, felt like much of the ever-so-important plot and dialogue got cut, leaving unfinished, hastily made scenes and stunted dialogue.
It's not a film I would watch again, and unlike Bumblebee, there weren't any clips that I want to watch again at YouTube (unlike the first 4 minutes of BB and the fight between BB and "not-Starscream" near the start) either.
I spent most of my time on my phone or fiddling with some TF toys while the film was on.
Good:
- No racist, sexist content (although I didn't get the "speaking Spanish = racism" scene with "Pablo", as I thought one person lived in Peru while the other person was Hispanic themselves?
- The action scenes were slightly more easier to understand than usual. Not a bunch of exploding tinfoil being opened and folded right in front of my eyeballs, etc.
- Most of the dialogue wasn't mumbled or indistinct.
- They mentioned the British sport of "cricket", presumably because the lead female character has roots to the West Indies (although this was never stated, I think)?
- They used "regular" looking male and female leads, making them more identifiable (perhaps) to more people. No college jocks and supermodels. I hope this trend continues.
Bad:
- The CGI looked ok for some scenes and quite bad in others. Frames seemed to drop for some transformations, robots didn't move with the correct weight or gravity, etc. They used a cheaper effects company and it showed. Considering this is a major part of the film (and arguably where the film's "money shots" are), I was not impressed.
- Prime is out of character (again). He's whiney and too aggressive. There really wasn't enough character building (as usual) for the Autobots to validate how they acted in the film.
- The enemies suffered from the trope of being indestructible at the beginning and suddenly made of paper at the end, when the plot demanded it.
- inconsistencies, such as Scourge's "cosmic rust" corrupting some but not others when he directly or indirectly came into contact with them.
- Mirage. As I'm not American, I've no idea who the voice actor is and thus no connection or empathy with him. Ironically, he kept mentioning "ET", which showed how even a latex puppet can gain more empathy simply by the quality of dialogue, plot and scenes between a boy and an alien bonding. Mirage didn't have anything close to those scenes.
- The whole film, like many Bay films, felt like much of the ever-so-important plot and dialogue got cut, leaving unfinished, hastily made scenes and stunted dialogue.
It's not a film I would watch again, and unlike Bumblebee, there weren't any clips that I want to watch again at YouTube (unlike the first 4 minutes of BB and the fight between BB and "not-Starscream" near the start) either.
I spent most of my time on my phone or fiddling with some TF toys while the film was on.
