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Post by Omegastoopreme on Jul 6, 2008 23:29:38 GMT
Plot Oversights (38)
Ever wondered how far away the Planet of Junk is from Earth? We've been broadcasting TV signals since the 1940's, but the Junkion culture seems to include a large number of 1960's-era catch phrases in their vocabulary. (This is reasonably consistent with their dialogue in later episodes, too.) So, let's say that by the year 2005, the transmissions they're receiving are 45 years old. That places the Planet of Junk at least 45 light years away from Earth, well within our own galaxy (and therefore at 160,000 light years away from Cybertron's galaxy of origin!).
The opening narration makes a reference to "secret staging grounds on two of Cybertron's moons. This is an interesting choice of wording, since most of the indications are that Cybertron only has two moons. (This would be like saying that two of your eyes are bloodshot. It implies you've got a third eyeball that's not suffering from this malady.) Shouldn't this be "both of Cybertron's moons," then? (For more on this, see Animation and Continuity below.) I also need to mention here that this is something of a changed premise, since Cybertron was never shown to have moons in any episode that came previous to the movie.
Of course, there's also the little matter of these secret moon bases not really being a secret at all. Laserbeak obviously knew exactly where they were. Also, Starscream later recognizes them as a threat. Who do the Autobots think they're fooling, anyway?
In the first scene with the Autobots, Optimus Prime tells Ironhide that they "don't have enough energon cubes to power a full-scale assault." This is a major upheaval, since there are numerous episodes previous to the movie that indicate that Autobots don't use energon cubes. In "More Than Meets the Eye" part 1, Hound identified them only as "some kind of cube," suggesting that the Autobots had never heard of them before Soundwave invented them in that episode. Later in "Traitor," Cliffjumper reports that Mirage has been sighted carrying energon cubes, and Ratchet balks, "But where would Mirage get energon cubes?" In fact, Autobots refuel by using their recharging chambers, as seen in "Attack of the Autobots." (Yes, the movie does take place 20 years after these episodes, so it's possible the Autobots have begun using energon cubes in the interim. It's still a whopper of a changed premise, though.)
In the next scene, Prime calls up Jazz on his monitor to have him check for Decepticon activity. After Ironhide's shuttle launches, however, there's a scene with Jazz and Cliffjumper standing right next to Prime. Why did Prime bother to bring up Jazz on the monitor when they were obviously in the same room? Isn't this a bit like talking to someone on a car phone who's in the parking space right next to you?
The mightiest warriors in the Autobot ranks manage to somehow drop like flies in this movie. Let's take Brawn, since he's a popular example. Brawn, as we all know, is a Very Tough Autobotâ„¢. He's taken hits from Megatron's weapons before ("Fire in the Sky"; "Fire on the Mountain") and he pulled through just fine. Suddenly, though, one shot from gun-mode Megatron is all it takes to put Brawn permanently out of commission. (There's also the fact that he's hit in the shoulder, and the laser blast makes a fairly clean exit. It's not like his vital internal circuitry was completely demolished. I guess it beats getting blasted clean in half, though, which is what happened in the original script.)
You've also got to question the Autobots' battle tactics during the shuttle attack. When Brawn first realizes the shuttle is being boarded, he immediately leaps up, abandoning the cover of his navigation chair, brandishing no weapons, and stands there right out in the open and paints a big, red target on his chest. Well, not really, but he may as well have. At least Prowl, Ironhide, and Ratchet have the brains to whip out their guns, but they still all make the huge mistake of running right out into the middle of the control room.
After the Decepticons blow a hole in the side of the shuttle, all the air inside should have been forced out into space. Of course, the Autobots are robots and don't need oxygen to breathe, so it's possible that there wasn't any air in the shuttle to begin with. If that's the case, though, how can the characters hear each other when they're speaking in a vacuum? Are the Autobots extending the courtesy of opening a radio transmission to the Decepticons while they're in the middle of a battle? (Speaking of holes in the shuttle, the final shot Megatron delivered to Ironhide should have taken out the floor, too.)
Several key Autobots are mysteriously absent from the movie. Obviously, it would have been impossible to include every character from the series, but their absence still bears scrutiny. If Autobot City is being slammed that hard, why aren't warriors like the Aerialbots, Protectobots, and Omega Supreme being called to the forefront? Likewise, if this battle means so much to Megatron, why didn't he bring Bruticus and Menasor to ensure his victory? (Of course, the real reasons for these characters being absent was because they didn't exist yet when the movie was being written. The newest characters available were the likes of Perceptor, Blaster, and the Triple Changers. However, it wouldn't have been too hard for somebody in post-production to add a single throwaway line to reconcile why so many of these second-season characters appear to inexplicably vanish. A simple line over the Autobot City intercom like, "All available Autobots, to your battle stations!" would have at least suggested that the others were on missions somewhere else.)
When Ultra Magnus first appears, he orders Blurr to help him alert the others. Alert them to what? The Decepticon attack? Given the crippling of the Autobot shuttle overheard, the destruction of Lookout Mountain nearby, and at least five explosions within city limits, not to mention Starscream's aerial strafe over the city, you'd think the attack would be pretty hard to miss.
As Blaster begins broadcasting his distress call to Optimus Prime, Megatron gives Soundwave the order to jam the transmission. This is a good call, since we've seen in episodes like "The Autobot Run" that Soundwave is capable of disruption communication signals. Instead of doing this himself, though, Soundwave wastes valuable time ejecting four of his cassettes, who fly through the air and land on the crow's nest before finally uprooting the satellite transmitter. (I guess it's possible the satellite dish amplifies the signal, making it too powerful for Soundwave to jam on his own. If that's the case, though, why didn't Megatron just knock it out with his fusion cannon in the first place?)
When Optimus Prime's shuttle arrives at Autobot City, the Dinobots all leap out, flying through the air in robot mode before they transform to dinosaur mode and land. In episodes like "War of the Dinobots" and "Dinobot Island" parts 1 and 2, though, none of them could fly without the aid of rocket packs.
Speaking of the Dinobots, Snarl is absent from the group for almost the entire movie. (See Animation and Continuity below.) What's interesting is that the movie script actually makes a reference to "the four Dinobots" at one point. Could it be that the writer simply didn't realize there were five of these guys?
After the Dinobots land, Slag charges Devastator, crashing into his legs and pushing him into a city wall. When the scene changes, though, Slag is suddenly head-butting Devastator in the stomach. (I also think it's hysterical how Slag just walks off afterwards, as if he'd done his part and just didn't feel like fighting any longer.)
After Prime drives into the mob of attacking Decepticons, he returns to robot mode and flies through the air for several seconds before finally landing. There are many episodes that make a big deal out of the fact that the Autobots can't fly, and yet here's Prime, doing his Superman impression. (Upon closer inspection, Prime seems to use some kind of undercarriage booster rockets to get into the air, so maybe he's not really flying per se. This is still a changed premise, though.)
When Starscream gets his foot caught during Autobot City's transformation, he has to shoot his own foot to get it free. Only a few minutes later, after Megatron is defeated, Starscream walks over to him and kicks him with the same foot. Shouldn't that have hurt?
I'd just like to throw in here that I'm surprised Rumble was able to locate Megatron's fusion cannon and carry it off during the Decepticon retreat, given that Megatron was knocked down two city levels from the point that he actually lost the cannon during his battle with Prime.
Suddenly, Optimus Prime carries this really important thingy called the Matrix of Leadership, something we've never heard about at any point previously. Why haven't we heard of this Matrix at any point before? Why didn't Huffer claim the Matrix when he assumed command in place of the ailing Prime in "Divide and Conquer"? Why didn't the Matrix show up in Teletraan I's scan of Prime's chest during "A Prime Problem"? For that matter, when Prime's evil clone showed up in that episode, why didn't the Autobots just check to see which Prime had the Matrix to confirm his true identity? (It's worth mentioning here that the writers actually were going to mention the Matrix in an early draft of "Cosmic Rust," but the reference was deleted. Also, I find it interesting that the Matrix of Leadership is very similar to the Creation Matrix, as previously seen in the Transformers stories from Marvel Comics. The comic book and cartoon both started around the same time, each guided by Hasbro in their early stages. My guess is that Hasbro wanted their Optimus Prime character to carry this powerful talisman, but Marvel Comics got around to introducing it in their stories much earlier than the cartoon writers did.)
Also, Megatron obviously knew of the existence of the Matrix, since he doesn't seem the least bit surprised when Unicron mentions it to him. Why, then, did he never try to claim it in previous episodes? He could have taken it when he had Optimus Prime's body in his possession in "City of Steel," for example. It can't be that he knows a Decepticon wouldn't be able to use it, since Galvatron tries to use it against Unicron later in the movie.
After the duel with Megatron, when the Autobots are gathered around the wounded Prime, Springer is completely absent from this scene. I guess he and Prime just weren't all that close.
During the Decepticon exodus back to Cybertron, Astrotrain asks to "jettison some weight, or we'll never make it to Cybertron!" Everything is weightless in space, though, so Astrotrain would have continued at his current speed regardless of how many Decepticons were dumped. (This should have been an issue back at Autobot City, when Astrotrain would have consumed less fuel for takeoff if there had been fewer Decepticons on board.) Many fans have attempted to explain away this error by claiming that what Astrotrain really meant was that he wouldn't be able to decelerate safely once he entered Cybertron orbit, but that still meets the prerequisite of "making it to Cybertron," so that can't be right.
I have to question the choice of "wounded" Decepticons who were thrown overboard. Dirge, Ramjet, and Soundwave were all gunned down by Optimus Prime during the Autobot City battle, and yet they were allowed to stay aboard. Prime plowed into Thrust at full speed, sending him flying into the air uncontrollably, and yet he emerged unscathed. Meanwhile, Bombshell doesn't even appear to have been present during the battle, and yet he was so banged up that the others chucked him into space. (See Animation and Continuity below.)
Also, why is it that the ever-so-loyal Soundwave volunteers to carry the wounded Megatron on board Astrotrain, but then he votes to get rid of the wounded Decepticons? Did he think that Megatron wasn't really that badly hurt, and that Megs just wanted a piggyback ride?
I'm kind of surprised that there's enough room for the Constructicons to combine into Devastator while they're inside Astrotrain. (Compare this to episodes like "Cosmic Rust," in which Astrotrain's interior is shown to be only big enough for normal-sized Decepticons.) Also, I'm surprised Astrotrain doesn't complain, or even seem to notice, when Rumble and Frenzy start using their pile driver arms on the deck floor of his shuttle mode!
There has been much debate over whether Galvatron and Megatron are "really" the same character. One thing that seems inconsistent is that Galvatron is the only one of Unicron's creations who seems to be aware of his former existence. Galvatron uses some of the same speech mannerisms ("I will crush you with my bare hands!") and memories ("I, Galvatron, will crush you just as Megatron crushed Prime!"), but neither Cyclonus or Scourge exhibit any characteristics of their former identities as Skywarp/Bombshell or Thundercracker. If Unicron could simply wipe their minds clean, then why didn't he do the same with Megatron? Wouldn't that have been a lot more effective than having to keep a constant eye on Galvatron and torture him until he agreed to obey every time he went against Unicron's wishes?
Jazz and Cliffjumper don't seem to notice Unicron approaching Moon Base One until he's right on top of them. Jazz asks where "that thing" came from, and an instant later, Unicron is sinking his pincers into the surface of the moon base. Don't they have early warning sensors for this sort of thing? ("No sign of Decepticon shenanigans here, Prime! Oh, wait. Cliffjumper just got blown away. Yeah, I guess they're here.") Even if they didn't have sensors, wouldn't they be at least a little concerned at the sight of a large, alien planet with giant fangs looming over the horizon?
Speaking of the moon bases, are Spike and Bumblebee the only ones manning Moon Base Two? If they were, that seems like a a major strategic flaw, since a flesh creature and a single puny Autobot could never defend the moon from a Decepticon attack. If there were others on the moon base, though, they were killed when Unicron had the moon for lunch, since Spike and Bumblebee were the only ones to escape its destruction.
How is it that Autobot City got nearly demolished during Megatron's attack, but after Galvatron arrives, the Autobots just happen to have two perfectly good shuttles sitting right outside that are completely unscathed? One of them could have been Prime's shuttle, perhaps, but where did the other one come from? (In the original script, the Autobots were busy building these shuttles, which makes a little more sense. That part made it into the comic book adaptation.)
Cyclonus asks Galvatron, "You want me to gut Ultra Magnus?" and Galvatron responds, "There are plenty of Autobots for you. Ultra Magnus is mine!" Why is Galvatron arguing with Cyclonus over who gets to attack whom, when Galvatron is piloting Cyclonus? (For what it's worth, a lot of people seem to think this is actually Scourge he's speaking to.) In any event, if Galvatron is so insistent about destroying Ultra Magnus himself, why is it that Galvatron proceeds to attack Hot Rod and Arcee, and then starts shooting at the Dinobots?
When Ultra Magnus' shuttle begins to take off and Arcee runs after it, why is the shuttle door still open? If Magnus had left Arcee behind on purpose (i.e., she was going to stay with Blaster and continue repairs to the city), then the door would have been closed. If he didn't know that she hadn't made it on board, though, then the door would still be closed. The only possible explanation I can think of is that she was supposed to have boarded, but didn't, but Ultra Magnus decided to take off anyway. (Optimus Prime he ain't, folks.)
The movie marks the first appearance of the Sharkticons, executioners for the Quintessons who transform into robotic piranhas. There's nothing wrong with that, if the movie were a stand-alone story. (And let's face it, everything transforms in the movie. The Autobots, their city, their human friends, the fish-monsters they encounter, the giant planet that wants to eat them... even Kranix and Arblus of planet Lithone were designed to transform into spaceship modes until this facet of the characters was mercifully eliminated.) The problem here is a retroactive one when "Five Faces of Darkness" part 4 explains that the Quintessons created the Autobots and Decepticons, who kicked the Quintessons off Cybertron and then went on to pioneer transforming technology on their own. If that's the case, then why do the Sharkticons transform? The Quintessons created the Sharkticons after their exile from Cybertron, before transforming was invented there. Also, when the Quintessons created their robots, they called them consumer goods and military hardware, groups who later went on to adopt the names Autobots and Decepticons. Why, then, did the Quintessons name their creations Sharkticons, as in Decepticons, a term not coined by the Quintessons?)
Another concept introduced in the movie is the universal greeting. Apparently, every language-using species in the universe knows what "bah wheep graaagnah weep nini bong" means and is able to correctly deduce that anyone who uses this greeting is a friend. Kind of makes you wonder why the Autobots never used it at any point during the many, many instances, both before and after the movie, during which they met an alien species for the first time.
Apparently, Daniel has inherited the Witwicky family trait of being completely indestructible. When the life pod from Ultra Magnus' shuttle crash lands on the Planet of Junk, Arcee is carrying Daniel in her arm, and is thrown into a wall with enough force that she bounces off of it. By all rights, this should have killed the boy, or at least cracked a few ribs, but he walks away from the crash remarkably unscathed.
The movie introduces the Junkions, who are described in the third season as a tribe of Autobots who dwell on the Planet of Junk. (They may have been one of the lost Autobot colonies who fled Cybertron during the second and third war, like the Antillans from "Cosmic Rust.") If Perceptor is aware of the existence of the Planet of Junk, though, then shouldn't he also know that there are Junkions living there? Why doesn't he bother to pass this information along to Ultra Magnus?
How, exactly, did Hot Rod and Kup know that Ultra Magnus' shuttle had crashed on the Planet of Junk? (The comic book adaptation explains that they followed the trail of debris left by the life pod, for whatever that's worth.)
After Hot Rod lands on the Planet of Junk, he steps forward and offers Wreck-Gar an energon goodie as a gesture of friendship. Earlier, though, he said he had run out while feeding the creatures on Quintessa.
Kranix, the scientist from planet Lithone, knows that Unicron is a planet which has previously consumed other worlds, and passes this information along to Hot Rod and Kup. How is it possible, then, that when Kup finally gets a glimpse of Unicron, he doesn't have the faintest clue what he's looking at? (Even Wreck-Gar knew who Unicron was. Kup obviously needs to get out of the house more often.)
Unicron obviously has his own center of gravity. Galvatron tumbles into Unicron's insides after Unicron swallows him; the robots on the conveyor fall into the processing vat; the Autobots are able to transform and roll out while inside Unicron. If this is the case, though, then considering how much Unicron is moving about during his assault on Cybertron, why aren't the Transformers inside of him experiencing the equivalent of a constant earthquake?
This is a retroactive blooper, but in the movie, Hot Rod transforms into Rodimus Prime after he opens the Matrix. He remains in his new form even after Galvatron knocks the Matrix out of his hands and it rolls to the floor. In the third season, however, Rodimus Prime instantly reverts back to Hot Rod any time the Matrix is removed from his chest. (It's also worth mentioning here that the Matrix makes Hot Rod grow several feet in height when he changes to Rodimus Prime, and he also sponanteously generates a trailer. Where does all this physical matter actually come from?)
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Post by Omegastoopreme on Jul 6, 2008 23:30:09 GMT
Dialogue and Sound Effects (25)
The robotic flanging effect applied to the voices of the actors in the movie is distinctly less pronounced than compared to the television series. This is particularly noticeable with Megatron, Ultra Magnus, and Galvatron. My guess is that the producers didn't want to heavily mask the voices of the celebrity actors to ensure they were still recognizable. Also, in the movie, the new Decepticon characters Galvatron, Cyclonus, and Scourge do not share the metallic resonance that is typical of most other Decepticon characters, but this effect will be applied to the voices of the characters in subsequent episodes. Also, while Unicron never moves his mouth when he speaks, I don't consider this an error since the movie is consistent about this fact. It suggests that he communicates by other means than through the vacuum of space.
During the attack on planet Lithone, it sounds like Kranix says to his buddy, "Orbulus, look! It's Unicron!" The character Kranix is speaking to is actually named Arblus.
When Blitzwing arrives at Lookout Mountain and beckons Hot Rod to "come on down, Auto-brat!" he isn't moving his mouth when he speaks.
Likewise, Ultra Magnus isn't moving his mouth when he calls Springer's name following Perceptor's status report.
When Optimus Prime transforms into his truck mode, he takes an inordinately long time to complete the transformation. He's still completing his transformation long after the transforming sound effect is heard. (It's also worth mentioning here that the transforming sound effect was remixed for the movie. The new sound also snuck its way into some late second-season episodes like "Kremzeek!")
When the Insecticons are gnawing on the door to Autobot City, it sounds like Kickback is saying to Shrapnel, "Delicious... eh, Shrap-nay?"
After Optimus Prime plows through the group of Decepticons in truck mode, there's no transforming sound effect when he changes back to robot mode.
During the voting process to keep the wounded on board Astrotrain or dump them into space, he voices of the Decepticons chanting "Aye!" and "Nay!" don't match any of the Decepticon characters present. This is because it's actually one single generic voice that's been layered several times to create the illusion of more than one voice speaking.
Also, when the injured Decepticons are being pushed out of Astrotrain, the dialogue is difficult to distinguish because several Decepticons are speaking at once. Ramjet can be clearly heard saying, "Get! Make room for others!" and it sounds like one of the Decepticons responds, "No, don't!" or possibly "Brothers, don't!" In any event, the voice of this poor soul doesn't match any of the Decepticons aboard the ship. In fact, it's the same generic voice given to the Reflector component who was forced to pilot the experimental space bridge vehicle in "Divide and Conquer."
After Rumble and Frenzy shake Devastator apart, Devastator's components transform back into the Constructicons. We don't hear any transforming sound effects when this happens, though, even though we see Devastator's shoulders fall and transform back into Hook, who pops up onto the screen an instant later.
Once the moon bases are consumed, and Unicron has tortured Galvatron for his impudence, Galvatron doesn't move his mouth when he gives the order, "Decepticons, to Earth!"
As Arcee is running alongside the shuttle and Springer is reaching his hand out to her through the open doorway, he yells "Jump!" without moving his mouth.
Scourge's voice fluctuates a bit during the course of the movie. His first line of dialogue to Galvatron, when he reminds his leader, "But remember, we belong to him!" is delivered in a much higher pitch than his next line, when he reports, "The Autobots have been terminated." (This second line is much closer to the sound of Scourge's voice throughout the third season.)
When Hot Rod suggests that Kup has better things to do than tell stories to the Dinobots, the Dinobots begin protesting. One of them says, "Quiet! We wanna hear story!" It looks like Sludge's mouth is moving here, but this definitely isn't Sludge's voice. It almost sounds like Michael Bell is doing a generic Dinobot voice, actually.
On planet Quintessa, after Hot Rod discovers Kup underwater, his mouth doesn't move when he yells out Kup's name.
After Ultra Magnus' shuttle crew disembarks on the Planet of Junk, Daniel lets out a low whistle. His mouth isn't in the right shape to make a whistling sound, though. His lips are slightly parted and his top teeth are visible.
The first time we see Wreck-Gar, his mouth doesn't move when he delivers the line, "Offer expires while you wait. Operators are standing by."
After Hot Rod and Kup are thrown into the prison cell on Quintessa, Hot Rod asks, "What is this place?" but his mouth doesn't move when he delivers the last two words of dialogue.
As the Quintesson guards are dragging Kranix off to his trial, Kranix pleads, "No, please! I'm the last survivor of Lipton!" Well, that's what it sounds like, anyway. (The actual name of his planet is Lithone.)
After the Decepticons land on the Planet of Junk and confront Daniel in his exo-suit, Daniel commands his suit to transform without moving his mouth.
It sounds like the Quintesson leader keeps asking, "Guilty, or invocent?" How do you prove someone's invocence, exactly?
In the original version of the movie, Arcee's voice is very heavily flanged after they discover the remains of Ultra Magnus and she says, "First Prime, now Ultra Magnus. What'll we do?" It sounds like this was tweaked a little by Rhino for the 2006 DVD release.
As Wreck-Gar activates the Junkion ship, he begins a sing-song chant: "Yes, friends, act now! Destroy Unicron! Kill the Grand Pooh-Bah! Eliminate even the toughest stains!" The other Junkions chime in as well and begin repeating the same chant. What's strange about this is that the Junkions actually finish chanting before Wreck-Gar does. How did they know what he was going to say? Did they all get together beforehand and memorize a "Destroy Unicron" chant for just such an occasion? (I'd also just like to add here that Wreck-Gar's dialogue suffers from being almost completely indecipherable because it's so heavily amplified. If I didn't have a copy of the script as a guide, I would have no idea what this guy was saying most of the time.)
Unicron's transformation sequence borrows a sound effect from Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back. Specifically, it's the sound of the leg motors of the Imperial AT-AT Walkers. Listen for it when one of the large orange structures retracts into Unicron's planetary surface. It's a very distinctive sound.
Just as Hot Rod is preparing to crash the Quintesson cruiser into Unicron's eye, the background music switches to the instrumental sequence from the middle of the song "Dare." It's not a very clean edit, though, and you can still hear the end of the line, "You can win if you dare!" from the lyrics that preceded the instrumental part.
As Unicron's internal defenses are trying to capture the Autobots, Arcee yells, "Quick! This way!" and her voice isn't flanged. Her voice is also missing the robotic flanging during the scene where Daniel is swept away by the torrent and Arcee yells out Daniel's name.
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Post by Omega Steve on Jul 27, 2008 21:22:23 GMT
Brilliant cartoon! But yeah I remember buying the first instalment of Target 2006 and thinking it was an impossibly far off year when I'd be 32!! Yikes.
However I was still sceptical when Galvatron mentioned (in that issue) weather control technology in the future. Yeah right. Back to the Future Part II is worse though, as according to the film there'll be flying cars by 2015. Can you imagine what would happen every time there was a crash? Also I think September 11 put paid to anyone ever inventing a flying car.
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