Wow.
It didn't totally suck. After Armada, Cybertron, and a bunch of others whose names I can't recall, a Transformers series which might be actually watchable is astounding. Not that this is Great Art -- or even on par with
Justice League Unlimited -- but it doesn't make me want to rip out my eyeballs.
What can I say? My standards have been lowered.
The first half hour, IMO, had the least suck I've seen in TFs in a while -- mostly because it was almost pure homage to the classic 1985 series. (Much like Shakespeare, crap pandering to the LCD becomes 'classic' when the kids who grew up on it...er...grow up.) As is often the case with Transformers, once humans entered the picture, the suck-o-meter started to climb.
Some random points, in no particular order:
Animation: Still not sold on the style, but on the plus side, it IS a style, and no, it's not "anime", except for those who classify anything which doesn't look like Disney or 1980s GI Joe as "anime". The highly expressive and flexible bodies and faces make for better storytelling, but undermine the nature of the characters as robots.
Backstory: I love the clips from the 1985 show as "history files". Optimus Prime as an apparent failure, assigned to grunt detail, was also nice; it gives the character some room to grow. Indeed, by starting with a small set of characters, each actually got a 1-note personality. Those who would consider this a harsh criticism haven't seen enough Young Boy Television, where most of the characters have a NO note personality. Not really sure about the near-future (or is it alternate present?) timeframe, however. Part of the appeal of the series has always been an alien war fought on present-day Earth, and every time that changes, the series suffers (Beast Wars being an extraordinary exception.)
The Annoying Humans: I am really torn on Sari or Sarry or whatever. On the one hand, she's carefully engineered to push lots of "Awwww" buttons and add some 'girl appeal' in a way which won't scare off boys. On the other hand, a hyperactive prepubescent (East) Indian girl is at least more interesting than a dumb jock straight white male teen. On the gripping hand, the
Rule 34 implications are terrifying.
Decepticons: Where the frack WERE they? We got Starscream and some cameos! It's an interesting assortment they've picked, and I know
Black Arachnia was chosen for pure fanboy appeal (and, perhaps, some girl appeal? There's worse role models...) On the good side, Megatron (and even Starscream) were actually effective and powerful. Of course, as episode after episode wears on with them (inevitably) losing, this will be minimalized.
It will be interesting to see how the series develops. I've Tivo'ed it for now.
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