RIP Jim Shooter

Legendary - or perhaps infamous - comics writer and editor Jim Shooter has sadly passed away at the age of 73. Shooter was best-known for his divisive stewardship of Marvel Comic as editor-in-chief from the late 1970s through the mid-1980s, and his involvement in the creation of the Transformers franchise.

Born in Pittsburgh in 1951, Shooter started reading comics at age eight, but fell off quickly, feeling the stories were uninteresting. Whilst recovering from surgery at the age of twelve, he started reading Marvel Comics and became a huge fan. He realised that DC Comics were looking boring in comparison, and resolved to "help." Shooter started writing stories for DC characters and teams and sent them in sight unseen. To his surprise, DC replied positively and hired him as a freelance writer at the mind-boggling age of fourteen. Shooter created a variety of minor characters (including the Superman villain Parasite) and set up the idea of Superman and the Flash having occasional races to see who was faster. Shooter briefly worked for Marvel in 1969 but found the renumeration did not cover the cost of living in New York and returned to Pittsburgh. A brief second stint at DC led to an editorial job at Marvel in 1975, this time on a more reasonable salary.

High turnover in Marvel's top ranks saw Shooter rise rapidly through the ranks, becoming Marvel's new editor-in-chief in 1978. He oversaw such projects as Chris Claremont's run on X-Men (though that was already underway), Frank Miller's take on Daredevil and John Byrne's work on Fantastic Four.

Shooter developed a mixed reputation. On the one hand, he stringently imposed deadlines and made writers and artists work to them, sometimes ruthlessly pruning those unable to do so. Marvel's reputation for missing deadlines and sometimes skipping entire months had become quite acute in the mid-1970s, but this ended under Shooter's reign and predictability returned. Shooter initially won over artists and readers by insisting that artists be treated with more respect, paying for them to travel in better conditions to conventions, and giving them a wide leash of creativity. However, after a few years Shooter developed a more restrictive attitude, insisting that comics be written and draw according to his design. Some of the biggest-selling books were left alone, but middling ones saw greater editorial oversight or intervention.

Many writers and artists at Marvel claimed that Shooter's downfall was caused by the runaway success of his Secret Wars storyline in 1985, which he ascribed to his own writing and planning rather than the massive commercial appeal of seeing almost every Marvel character combined into one mega-saga. Shooter became less tolerant of other writers' ideas after this point. With grumbling about Shooter's policies reaching fever pitch, despite his commercial success (Marvel's market share grew to an estimated 80% under his watch)w, he was fired in 1987. He subsequently founded Valiant Comics in 1989, Defiant Comics in 1993 and Broadway Comics in 1995. He returned to work for DC in 2007, and then Dark Horse Comics in 2009.

Shooter also played a key role in the development of Transformers. Hasbro struck a deal with Takara Toys in mid-1983 to bring their Diaclone and Microchange lines of transforming robots to the international market, but found that the Japanese toy lines had little or no expository fiction about what these robots were or what they doing. Some of the toys appeared to be mecha (complete with little pilots), but others did not. Hasbro themselves came up with the names "Transformers" (after some minor controversy worrying about if kids would confuse the name with real-life electrical transformers and somehow fry themselves), "Autobots" and "Decepticons," but realised they didn't have time or storytelling expertise to develop more ideas. They contacted Marvel, noting their successful toy-comic-cartoon collaboration on GI Joe several years earlier.

Shooter looked for a Marvel writer to work on the project, but an early collaboration with Denny O'Neill resulted in little more than the name of the Autobot leader, "Optimus Prime." Shooter himself then briefly took over, developing a design document that contains the first mention of the name "Cybertron" (Shooter himself is often credited with creating the name). Shooter also developed the basic idea of the Autobots and Decepticons fighting a war over resources, particularly energy, and coming to Earth to find more energy, only to crash into Mount St. Hillary (originally Mount St. Helens, until he realised the real-life recent eruption might make that in poor taste) and lie dormant for four million years. Shooter's treatment also features the first appearances of the name "the Ark" for the Autobot ship, and "Aunty" for its computer (Aunty was originally the name of the ship itself but moved to the computer when Shooter decided it was too whimsical). Shooter himself didn't claim to have created all of these ideas, noting some came from conversations he'd been having with O'Neill, and maybe some early conversations with Bob Budiansky. Budiansky then took over the day-to-day work on the franchise, coming with the names of almost all the other Transformers from Shockwave, Megatron and Mirage, right through the 1989 line of Micromasters and Pretenders. Budiansky also became the main writer on the Transformers Marvel comic, which began publication in May 1984, with Shooter editing.

Shooter was something of a divisive figure, respected for his practical trouble-solving skills, his recognition of talent, and fighting for better recognition of Marvel Comics within the wider industry (noting a screaming match with one of the people involved in the Transformers animated series who was trying to pass off Shooter's original design document as his own, since he thought nobody would care about the comics people) but derided for his top-down and sometimes micro-management approach to editing. Secret Wars was enormously popular - and is serving as the primary inspiration for the upcoming next two Avengers films - and may have firmly cemented the idea of the "big crossover mega-event" which would go on to dominate the comics industry (for good and ill).

Transformers: War for Cybertron - Earthrise

The battle for Cybertron has ended with Optimus Prime hurling the Allspark, the key to his dying world's salvation, through a space bridge portal and into deep space. He pursues in the Autobot starship, the Ark. Back on Cybertron the last remnants of the Autobot Resistance mount what seem like increasingly futile attacks on Deception bases, with Megatron finally victorious in his goal to conquer the planet, only to find it on the brink of destruction.

War for Cybertron is a new, cross-media instalment of the venerable Transformers franchise, consisting of a toyline and a three-part Netflix TV show, consisting of the sub-series Siege, Earthrise and Kingdom. One of the goals of this series has been to create a "greatest hits" of the Transformers franchise, packaged into an easy-to-digest single storyline spanning a modest eighteen episodes in total. Given the sheer expanse of the Transformers universe - more than 300 individual characters appeared over seven years in the first generation period alone with numerous takes on the basic premise stretching back almost forty years - this is theoretically a good way of making the property approachable for newcomers.

That said, I'm not sure War for Cybertron entirely works as a stepping-on point for newcomers in practice. This second season in particular seems obsessed with fanservice, so we get nods to the Creation Matrix, the Quintessons, Galvatron, Unicron and other elements that aren't actually the focus of the series, so probably shouldn't have been brought in at all. As a result, a streamlined and focused narrative, one of the key benefits of the first season, gets bogged down in mostly irrelevant trivia.

There's also the fact that not very much happens in the second season. Prime and his Autobots pursue the Allspark through space and find a space bridge portal that might help speed them to their destination. However, the portal is jammed by a space station that's gotten stuck in it. This leads to some very cool imagery but also fairly interminable scenes as the Autobots get bogged down fighting Scorponok (whose presence in the story is fairly random). A subplot revolving around mercenaries led by Doubledealer but in the employ of a deranged five-times-schizophrenic Quintesson is also potentially entertaining but under-serviced.

Instead we get more of what Siege handled awkwardly: lots of introspection. Optimus Prime second-guessing his decisions is a common trait of the character, but appearing indecisive and audibly doubting himself is not. The Prime of Siege is less of a confident military commander and more of an awkward politician who can't seem to make a single decision without having an existential crisis. This is a mistake writers have made before with the character, but never in such a high-profile instalment of the franchise. It's hard to see why anyone would follow this guy into battle when he can't seem to get up in the morning without pangs of self-doubt.

Much better-handled is War for Cybertron's best idea (so far), namely that Megatron began the war because of class struggle. The Decepticons arose from Cybertron's downtrodden worker underclass, who were tired of being exploited, under-paid and under-appreciated. Megatron, himself a low-class bruiser with unusual intelligence who came to fame and fortune in the fighting arena, helped lead them in a revolution against the Autobot intelligentsia and nobility. This idea - on the surface somewhat barmy (Megatron as a version of Lenin) - is actually rather interesting and explains some of the oddities of the Transformers backstory, like how the majority of the population rallied to his banner and why the Autobots are such a tiny minority. Earthrise expands on this in a sequence where Megatron visits a district due to be shut down so its power can be diverted elsewhere and encounters a band of true believers in the Decepticon cause as a just one against elitist tyranny. This leads to some brief character introspection for Megatron as he has to consider whether he has been corrupted by power. This story works well, especially as it is handled relatively concisely and Megatron emerges from it more confident and surer of his motivations (unlike Prime).

In six relatively short episodes the show covers a lot of ground but not much of it seems to propel the story forward in any meaningful way. In fact, a lot of it feels like filler designed to keep things in a holding pattern until we finally get to Earth, where the third and concluding season (due later in 2021) will take place.

Earthrise (***½) eschews the first season's focus and better (though imperfect) pacing to deliver a lot of side-quests and filler, but for the most part it is entertaining. A more thoughtful and meaningfully-motivated Megatron is the show's greatest success in characterisation, but a much more hesitant and tremulous Optimus Prime is its biggest weakness. Overall, the show is watchable, if a bit too obviously treading water. It is available to watch on Netflix now. The final season should follow later in 2021.

Transformers: War for Cybertron - Siege

The planet Cybertron is wracked by war between its sentient, robotic inhabitants. The Decepticons, a former indentured underclass fighting a guerrilla war against the noble class, the Autobots, have won their struggle, but have become a militaristic, authoritarian force under the command of the dictatorial Megatron. The Autobots have been reduced to a few resistance cells fighting for "freedom," but perhaps not having fully taken on board the problems that led to the war. Caught in between are a whole ton of neutrals, civilians trying to survive by trading with both sides, or medics treating anyone in need of help regardless of allegiance. When Megatron declares his intent to weaponise one of Cybertron's greatest treasures to wipe out the Autobots, he forces his enemies into a last-ditch, desperate battle for survival and causes some of his allies to question their own loyalties.

Transformers started life as a kid's toyline, comic book and cartoon series in 1984. Since then it has experienced lulls of obscurity and, since 2007, the highs of being a world-famous mega-franchise, albeit one resting on the shoulders of some pretty shoddy live-action movies (and the surprisingly great Bumblebee spin-off film). This new TV series from Netflix marks arguably the highest-profile Transformers project since the movie series began and clearly one that's going to get a ton of new viewers, so it's interesting to see how the production studio has approached it.

The answer is that they've taken a lot of influence and input from the 1980s comics, particularly Simon Furman's UK (and later US) Marvel run which introduced a lot of detailed, moral complexity to the franchise. Fans of Furman's epic Target: 2006 storyline will be well-catered here, particularly in the depiction of life on war-torn Cybertron, with neutral "Cybertronians" trying to survive in the crossfire of the two warring sides. Fan-favourite character Impactor even shows up from that storyline. There's also a lot of influence from Furman's later War Within storyline for Dreamwave and the superb War for Cybertron and Fall of Cybertron video games of a decade ago.

All of that said, Netflix's War for Cybertron is a wholly original story that does not require any familiarity with the existing franchise. It's also the first TV series in the franchise which seems to be aimed at a more adult audience. Given the sheer size of the thirty and forty-something Transformers fanbase (the kind of fans willing to drop £500 on a Unicron toy and £200 on the Jetfire toy for this show), it's surprising it's taken this long. That's not to say that kids won't also enjoy the show, but the more morally murky reasons for the war and the large number of talking heads scenes may make them tap out.

War for Cybertron is a trilogy of seasons - subtitled Siege, Earthrise and Kingdom - which will retell the classic Transformers narrative as a limited series spanning the three distinct eras of the original Transformers storyline (Cybertron, Earth and Beast Wars). As such it's a good way of getting across the "complete" Transformers experience in a very short timeframe; the entire saga is only supposed to span 18 25-minute episodes (barely a third the length of the original cartoon's second season alone). This first season of six episodes shows the strengths of this idea, as you can watch the whole thing in barely more time than it takes to watch a Michael Bay movie and get a pretty good and mostly complete experience. However, some problems do turn up.

One of these is that the pacing feels rather off. The last three episodes have so much going on that they trip over themselves by throwing in ideas and not really explaining them. Soundwave's clone Soundblaster seems ripe for greater exploration, but it's nothing more than a cameo from a fairly obscure character from the mythos (and extremely confusing for more casual fans, who were wondering if he was supposed to be the far better-known Blaster), and the stuff with the Guardians is cool but a little confusing: why does Omega Supreme decide to join forces with Prime? He has pretty much zero explanation or exploration of his storyline or character. The first three episodes, by contrast, have a much more relaxed, talky pace with it taking a long time for the plot to get going. It feels like some of the later story points would have made more sense if they'd been set up further in advance rather than getting tons of shots of characters arguing with one another over minor plot points.

Still, the characters are a lot better defined this time around. Some characters have pretty different characterisation to their more familiar incarnations, with Bumblebee as a hard-bitten loner mercenary being particularly tough to swallow (as well as raising questions about why Outback, who has exactly Bumblebee's personality in this show, was not used for that role instead), but Ratchet as a healer who helps everyone brought to him in need of help, regardless of allegiance, being a particularly solid change. A less confident Optimus Prime, unwilling to explain his decisions and more brittle in the face of adversity before finding his courage, is another change, although not without precedent. Fans of the franchise will also know that Jetfire and Impactor are not destined to remain Decepticons forever, but the reasons for them changing sides are extremely well set-up and provide some solid drama.

Some fans will also have their arguments over which characters appear and which don't, particularly as some prominent G1 characters are missing altogether (Jazz, Sunstreaker, Trailbreaker), some are present but having almost nothing to do (Ironhide, Hound) and some show up only to die almost immediately. Siege also does a solid job of bringing in the female Transformers early and giving them prominent roles - particularly Alita - but this plays into one of the show's more irksome elements. Having set itself up as a story newcomers can enjoy, it then leaves out a ton of backstory revolving around Prime, Megatron, Ultra Magnus, Alita and Alpha Trion but then refers to it consistently. It feels like there should really be a prequel season exploring these elements to remove the need to talk about it vaguely in the show, particularly as the show's biggest innovation to the franchise - that the Autobots may have caused the war and the Decepticons were justified in their rebellion - is left a bit flat without it (since Megatron is already in full-on dictator mode when the show begins).

Still, if the Siege season of War for Cybertron (****) has some pacing and premise issues, they are mostly overcome by the excellent animation, strong characterisation and deeper look at some of the underlying premise behind the entire franchise. The show is available to stream on Netflix now, with two more seasons to follow.

Netflix release first trailer for TRANSFORMERS: WAR FOR CYBERTRON

Netflix have released the first trailer for their collaboration with Hasbro on the Transformers franchise. War for Cybertron is a fresh take on the venerable property (which turns 36 this year), although it draws on the 2010 video game of the same name for inspiration.

War for Cybertron will consist of three arcs, united by the quest for a mcguffin known as the Allspark. It is unclear if these will be distinct seasons, or several seasons will be grouped to form one arc. The first arc, Siege, takes place on Cybertron and chronicles the beginning of the war between the Autobots and Decepticons. The storyline seems to follow the initial Decepticon attack and the determination of Autobot leader Optimus Prime to win the war, despite the advice of his own lieutenants to consider abandoning the conflict once it becomes clear that Cybertron itself is in danger.

The second arc, Earthrise, is in the planning stages and will see the war move from Cybertron to Earth.

The series is being produced by Rooster Teeth for Netflix and the first season will air later in 2020.

TRANSFORMERS finally gets a movie-accurate Unicron toy

It's taken thirty-three years, but finally a movie-accurate Transformers toy of Unicron, the Chaos-Bringer, is set for release...if Hasbro can drum up enough interest.

Introduced in Transformers: The Movie (1986) and improbably voiced by Orson Welles (in his last cinematic appearance), Unicron is a planet-sized robot which consumes entire worlds for fuel. Destroyed in the film but brought back numerous times in different continuities, Unicron is one of the most popular characters in the Transformers mythology. In 1988 his backstory was expanded upon by writer Simon Furman to make him a key part of the origin myth for the entire franchise.

A prototype Unicron toy made in the late 1980s for release as part of the original toyline. Rather fortunately, "Beer Belly Unicron" never made it to the shelves.

The only problem with Unicron is that his size, bulk and shape has made it extremely difficult to base actual toys on him...which for a franchise originally built around selling toys is a bit of a problem. A toy was prototyped to tie in with the release of the original movie, but it ended up looking a bit ridiculous and was shelved.

The first Unicron you could actually buy with real Earth money.

In 2003 Unicron finally did get a toy, albeit one based on his considerably more toy-friendly redesign from the Transformers: Armada animated series. This was re-released with a new colour scheme a year later for the sequel series, Transformers: Energon. This toy has subsequently been re-released several times with a colour scheme and different head design to be more reminiscent of the original Unicron design.

Apart from these, there have been a few non-transforming statues of the character, but never before has anyone attempted an actual, original movie-accurate, transforming Unicron toy. Until now.

"I have summoned you here for a purpose."

Takara and Hasbro have joined forces and created a monster of a toy. This new Unicron, released as part of the War for Cybertron range, is 27" tall in robot mode and 30" in diameter, making him comfortably the largest Transformers toy ever created in the entire history of the franchise. He features over 50 points of articulation and comes mounted on a large stand in planet-killer mode (a necessity given that mode's spherical shape). The toy weighs a whopping 19 pounds (8.61kg).

"Destroy the Matrix. And your bank balance."

If this sounds expensive, you would not be wrong. Hasbro are not mass-producing this toy for the mass market. Instead they are seeking funding it through their Hasbro Pulse initiative. To make the toy practical, they require 8,000 backers to pledge $574.99 apiece (that's about £463) by the end of August. Even given the fanaticism of the Transformers collectors' market, that may be a big ask but we'll see how it gets on.

If funded, the toy would be released in 2021.

Happy 35th Birthday to TRANSFORMERS

The mighty Transformers franchise turned 35 years young this month. The original Transformers toys and comic books hit shelves in May 1984 and began a run that has continued with only brief interruptions ever since.

Transformers began life at the 1983 Tokyo Toy Fair (held in June). Representatives from Hasbro in the United States were checking out what was hot in Japan and saw a big boom in transforming robots and mecha (human-piloted transformable vehicles). Takara was one of the most prolific toy companies in this space, working on two separate lines: Diaclone Car-Robots, which consisted of (very roughly) 1/60th scale recreations of contemporary cars and jet fighters which could transform into robots, and Micro-Change, which consisted of 1/1 scale mini-robots that could disguise themselves as household objects, such as tape decks, cassettes, a handgun, a camera, a microscope and deformed toy cars.

Hasbro purchased the licensing rights to both lines and brought them back to the USA to combine into one new toy range. The name Transformers came up early on (despite concerns that people might get confused with electrical transformers) and stuck, as did the taglines "More Than Meets the Eye" and "Robots in Disguise." Hasbro had benefited from a strong working relationship with Marvel Comics on their G.I. Joe relaunch a couple of years earlier and brought them on board to help develop a comic adaptation.

Hasbro also realised it might be better for actual writers to work on the franchise's premise and backstory. Senior editor Jim Shooter came up with the faction names (Autobots and Decepticons) and the idea that the Transformers were sentient alien robots from the mechanical planet Cybertron who had come to Earth in search of resources. Shooter then assigned Dennis "Denny" O'Neil, who'd had a hit run on Wonder Woman and Justice League of America for DC before moving to Marvel, to work on the property. O'Neil wasn't too keen on working on a "toy comic" and decided to move on, although he did come up with the name of Optimus Prime for the Autobot leader before quitting. A slightly desperate Shooter found a new collaborator in the form of Bob Budiansky, an artist-editor who'd wanted to branch into writing. Budiansky created the names and personalities for almost all of the other launch Transformers (starting with Megatron and Starscream) in a single weekend, before plotting out the first four-issue comic storyline in the next few days.

Battle Convoy from Takara's 1982 Diaclone Car-Robots line. With a slight redesign, he became Optimus Prime, leader of the heroic Autobots, in Hasbro's Transformers franchise.

With Budiansky's basic work in hand, work proceeded in tandem on both the comic and also a cartoon series, to be produced by Sunbow Studios (owned by Hasbro's advertising arm). Hasbro wanted a full-scale, multi-media launch consisting of the toys themselves (backed up by a huge TV ad campaign), the Marvel comic and the cartoon series, so that kids and their parents couldn't turn around without seeing the word Transformers somewhere.

Unfortunately, this multi-pronged approach meant a bit of a delay before all the pieces were ready, which allowed Tonka Toys to steal a march on Hasbro. Tonka had also been at the same toy fair and seen the explosion in popularity and quality of transforming robots. They teamed up with Takara's arch-rivals, Bandai, who were producing their own transforming robot range under the name Machine Robo. Tonka launched the range in the US and Europe under the name GoBots in late 1983, a full six months before Transformers got to market, and initially achieved a significant level of success.

Tonka's gazumping of the idea caused discontent at Hasbro but, having spent a fortune on the project, they decided to continue. Transformers launched with a blaze of publicity in May 1984 and was an immediate huge success. The launch was helped by the Transformers comic - a media form which GoBots had unwisely ignored - launching at the same time, getting the story out there as well as the toys. GoBots also had an accompanying animated series, but for various reasons this was delayed until September 1984, launching at the same time as Transformers' and immediately suffering from being apparently pitched at a younger audience. There was also the matter of the quality of the toys: GoBots were at a much smaller scale than the Transformers and although this made them significantly cheaper, they were also considerably lacking in build quality, not really withstanding the punishment of play from young children (whilst Transformers could take comparably greater damage and keep trucking). Bandai were also unable to provide Tonka with new product, whilst Takara were churning out designs by the dozen that Hasbro could pick up. After two years or so, Transformers comfortably outpaced GoBots, with the latter line being discontinued in 1987 after a failed attempt to relaunch it with the Rock Lords spin-off line.

The first release line of Autobots. From left to right: (back row) Sideswipe, Sunstreaker, Ratchet, Optimus Prime, Ironhide, Trailbreaker; (middle row) Bluestreak, Wheeljack, Jazz, Prowl, Hound, Mirage; (bottom row) Gears, Brawn, Bumblebee, Windcharger, Cliffjumper and Huffer.

The initial Transformers run - now referred to as "Generation One" - lasted a startling seven years, reaching its end only in 1991 after steadily dropping sales. The Transformers comic also run for this entire time period and was still selling over 100,000 copies a month (outclassing many Marvel original lines) when it was cancelled, to the annoyance of both fans and creators. After an aborted 1993 relaunch as Transformers: Generation Two (which was merely a revamp of the existing toys with a few new ones), a considerably more thorough rethink was required. This resulted in Transformers: Beast Wars, a toy, comic and TV line which ran from 1996 to 1998 and was a huge success. It was followed by Beast Machines (1999-2000) and then, in 2001 and 2002, a relaunch of the more familiar concept with the Transformers: Robots in Disguise line and new comics focusing on the Generation One characters from Dreamwave.

Between 2002 and 2007 Transformers underwent a resurgence in popularity, propelled by both nostalgia for the original run and also by a trilogy of successful toylines and animated series: Armada, Energon and Cyberton. Just as these were winding up, Paramount Pictures released the first-ever live-action Transformers movie in 2007. Produced by Steven Spielberg and directed by Michael Bay, the movie was a smash hit financial success, despite a patchy critical reception. It was followed by no less than four sequels and a prequel: Revenge of the Fallen (2009), Dark is the Moon (2011), Age of Extinction (2014), The Last Knight (2017) and Bumblebee (2018). Notably, only Bumblebee (the first film in the series not directed by Michael Bay) was well-received critically. Further movies are planned, although plans appear varied over where they will serve as a reboot of the series or a continuation of the "Bayverse".

The first release line of Decepticons. From left to right: (back row) Megatron, Soundwave; (middle row) Starscream, Thundercracker, Skywarp; (front row) Rumble, Frenzy (or vice versa), Buzzsaw, Ravage and Laserbeak.

In addition to the franchise's long history on screen, in print and on toy shelves, Netflix recently celebrated the franchise in their original series, The Toys That Made Us, which is well worth a look for insights into the origin of the phenomenon.

Netflix are also developing War for Cybertron, a fresh animated series which will serve as a prequel to the story so far and will, apparently, be the first Transformers project to be aimed primarily at the adult fans of the franchise. This is expected to debut in late 2020.

So Happy Birthday to the Robots in Disguise, and here's to the very strong possibility they will still be around in another 35 years.

Hasbro hinting that a reboot of the TRANSFORMERS movies may be imminent

Hasbro and Paramount have released a curious statement that suggests that a full reboot/rethink of the Transformers movie universe could be incoming.

The current iteration of the Transformers movie universe began in 2007 with the release of Michael Bay's Transformers. It then continued with Revenge of the Fallen (2009), Dark is the Moon (2011), Age of Extinction (2014) and The Last Knight (2017), all of them excruciating. The next film in the series is Travis Knight's Transformers: Bumblebee (2018), which is the first movie in the series not to be directed by Michael Bay. It's also the first film in the series to pick up some positive vibes, mainly due to the revelation that the movie will be set (at least partially) in the 1980s and will feature Bumblebee in his original Volkswagen Beetle form from the original toys, comics and cartoon series.

Paramount had previously slated another full Transformers movie for 2019 and had also assembled a writer's room to discuss options for other movies, including a movie set on Cybertron at the start of the Autobot-Decepticon War and another one set in Ancient Rome, where the Transformers would have presumably transformed into chariots, triremes and giant war elephants.

As of today's announcement it sounds like this idea has been cancelled. Many of the writers in the collective assembled by Paramount have decamped to other projects - Akiva Goldsman to Star Trek: Discovery, Lindsey Beer to the Kingkiller Chronicle movie and TV series, and Robert Kirkman to an exclusive development deal with Amazon - and the 2019 Transformers VI movie no longer appears on Paramount's development slate, suggesting it has also been canned.

This may be down to the disappointing box office of The Last Knight. It made $600 million worldwide, only slightly more than half of the previous two movies' $1.1 billion. With a production budget of $220 million and marketing to match, The Last Knight certainly still turned a profit, but that 50% audience drop seriously surprised Paramount and clearly has them pondering the future of the franchise.

Hasbro's plans now include a rebooted G.I. Joe movie for 2020, which will ignore the previous two films and will be a return to the franchise's roots. They will also be releasing a Micronauts movie in 2020 and the long-gestating Dungeons and Dragons movie (more on that soon) will launch in 2021. More intriguingly a "Hasbro/Paramount Event Movie" will be released in 2021 as well. This may be a Transformers reboot, but it may also be the long-mooted G.I. Joe vs. Transformers crossover movie. The two properties have crossed over many times previously in comic books and there was a hint that the two 1980s cartoon series took place in the same universe (with a character showing up in Transformers who was almost certainly Cobra Commander in disguise), but this would be the first on-screen, large-scaled team-up of the two brands.

Unlike many franchises, many Transformers fans have been praying for a reboot of the movie franchise almost since it started, with many of Michael Bay's decisions (particularly his awful direction, incompetent action scenes, poor scripts and the genuinely terrible production design of the Transformers themselves) roundly criticised and rejected. Here's hoping if there is a reboot, the next creative team will do a better job.

TRANSFORMERS: THE MOVIE is 30 years old

Back in the autumn of 1986, when I was seven years old, I was addicted to Transformers. These were the original toy releases, Optimus Prime, Megatron, Starscream, Prowl, the Dinobots and so forth. As well as putting up with me playing with the toys all day and the watching the cartoon series, my long-suffering parents also bought me the UK Transformers comic every week. It was the comic that taught me how to spot the differences between writing styles: Bob Budiansky's American-written stories were (mostly) terrible and Simon Furman's British-written stories were totally awesome.

"One shall stand, one shall fall."

In the summer the comic started previewing an upcoming "big event" series. This was surprising, as the comic had just done a big series of event stories unveiling the combiner teams: the Aerialbots, Stunticons, Protectobots and Combaticons, four teams of five Transformers who could combine to form much bigger robots. But what was coming up was bigger still, a single story spanning eleven issues, roughly equal to six-and-a-half monthly American comic book issues. Target: 2006 was a huge time travel epic tying in with the upcoming Transformers: The Movie, and it was awesome.

Wait, there was a Transformers movie coming out? Back in the the mid-1980s kids toy franchises didn't get movies. You got a bunch of toys, a comic and maybe a badly-written, even more badly-animated TV show that lasted one or two seasons at best. But Transformers had become a worldwide phenomenon, successful in the United States, South America, right across Europe and in Japan as well. Saying it was the "Pokemon of 1984" (as one superfan claimed on a DVD special feature) was perhaps a slight exaggeration, but not by a huge amount. Hasbro felt it was more than worthwhile to take the story to the big screen in an animated feature film.

They organised a big, multimedia event to sell the film. New toys were released - of course! - including Hot Rod, Kup, Blurr, Ultra Magnus, Galvatron, Cyclonus, Scourge and Wreck-Gar (although not, to much irritation, of Arcee, the first-ever female Transformer, or the film's villain Unicron) and Simon Furman wrote what is sometimes still regarded as the greatest Transformers story ever. Slightly embarrassingly, Target: 2006 was, if we're being honest, a much better story than Transformers: The Movie itself (#UKreprezent), partially because it didn't brutally murder all of the audience's favourite toys (only Skywarp, and he kind of got better later on), but mainly because it didn't talk down to its audience and resolved the story by discussing temporal paradoxes in a surprisingly mature and well-thought-out way.

There's an extremely self-aware comic strip in which the Autobots, responding to feminist criticism, build Arcee. Unfortunately, they forgot to get any design input from actual women and ended up receiving further criticism for building a pink robot with a "differing upper chassis design". In fact, the whole thing was ripping on the very daft design of the character in the first place.

But the effort Hasbro's partner studio, Sunbow, put into the movie was impressive. The movie got a surprisingly raucous rock and roll soundtrack courtesy of artists like Lion (whose heavy metal-leaning version of the theme tune may be definitive), Weird Al Yankovic and the mighty Stan Bush, whose "The Touch" is sadly ubiquitous ("Dare" is actually a much better track). The voice cast is pretty bonkers: Judd Nelson, hot off The Breakfast Club, along with Eric Idle and Leonard Nimoy? But what was really crazy was the studio getting Orson Welles to play Unicron. It turned out to be his last role, with the venerable actor passing away a few days after finishing audio work on the film.

Transformers: The Movie was released on 8 August 1986 in the United States, but we had to wait until December before it came out in the UK. I made my long-suffering parents take me to the cinema to see it and I loved it: it was much stronger than the cartoon series (which I liked, but considered vastly inferior to the comics) and was stuffed full of quotable lines, as well as confirming that, for all the new characters, the greatest Transformer remained Grimlock.

Grimlock reviews Transformers: The Movie in an issue of the UK Transformers comic. Metafictional awareness in 1986!

The Transformers cartoon series has really not aged very well (as this NSFW sweary video attests, the storylines are very dumb), although the UK comics have fared quite a lot better. But the movie has aged quite well, being perfectly watchable (on the level of an entertaining kid's action movie) today. Although a healthy dose of nostalgia helps this, it is also reinforced by contrasting it to the utterly horrific Michael Bay movies we've seen over the last decade which lacked any sense of strong characterisation, clearly-defined storyline or emotional investment. Transformers: The Movie knocks the likes of Revenge of the Fallen or Age of Extinction into a cocked hat in these departments.

There's also the craziness of the movie, in which Optimus Prime dies for no real reason fifteen minutes into the picture and stays dead (the cartoon series would later bring him back in a half-arsed kind of way) and most of the original cast of toys is brutally wiped out so Hasbro can sell some new ones. But this ruthlessness heightens the stakes very well and Galvatron's entrance as a tremendously powerful, amoral and utterly ruthless being (he kills fan-favourite villain Starscream within a minute of meeting him) is tremendously effective.

"Such heroic nonsense." Megatron brutally executing fan-favourite Autobot Ironhide with a fusion cannon blast to the face. This movie is basically what would happen if you got George R.R. Martin to write Transformers.

The film also has little truck with cliche, with Galvatron's attempts to join forces with the Autobots to defeat Unicron (the traditional ending to such a story) being undone almost immediately. There's a very nice line in gallows humour throughout the film, such as Springer's world weary exclamation of, "I've got better things to do tonight than die," and pretty much absolutely everything Kup says ("I'm trying to remember what happened, there were an awful lot of casualties that day"). Clearly the writers relished the fact that they didn't have to abide by the quite strict codes of conduct that governed what they could put on screen at 8am on a Saturday morning and instead dialled up the violence quite a bit. For the first time on screen, the much-vaunted war of four million years actually felt like, well, a war. People died, getting shot by a massive laser blast actually hurt (in the cartoon series they tended to just shrug it off) and these guys really hated one another, rather than just indulging in wrestling-style trash talking. It's all very mild stuff for an adult, but for a kid it was a transformative (pun intended) experience.

Is it an objectively good movie? I have no idea, I'm way too close to tell but I suspect not. The animation veers between brilliant and awful (sometimes in the same scene), the soundtrack is ridiculously 1980s and it relies on pre-existing knowledge of the franchise (otherwise at least half the deaths mean nothing). But it's one of the stories (alongside the comics) that had the biggest effect on me as a kid, and to see it getting an expensive, elaborate 4K/HD remaster for its 30th anniversary raises a smile.

Transformers: Fall of Cybertron

The war between the Autobots and Decepticons for control of their homeworld, Cybertron, has resulted in the near-ruination of the planet. Its energon stores are almost gone, with the last few scraps being fought over at tremendous cost. The Autobots realise they have no choice but to abandon their home and search for a new refuge amongst the stars. To this end they have built the Ark, an immense starship, but it is under the threat of Decepticon attack. The Autobots have to power up the ship, protect it from attack and escape, whilst the Decepticons try to stop them and engage in their own internal conflict.

Fall of Cybertron is the sequel to the enjoyable-but-lightweight War for Cybertron and is an improvement over that game in almost every way. Like its forebear, it's a linear third-person shooter which tells a large-scale story involving many characters, with you playing different Autobots or Decepticons on different levels. Unlike its forebear, it's a bit more generous and smarter in differentiating the characters and allowing you to use their full range of abilities.

Part of Fall of Cybertron's appeal is that it takes what is usually the starting point for the Transformers mythos - the launch of the Ark from Cybertron, the subsequent Decepticon ambush and the crash of the starship on prehistoric Earth - and turns it into the grand finale. The build-up to this event is depicted through a series of missions where the Autobots try to get the ship ready for take-off, secure new fuel supplies and fend off Deception attacks, with a series of side-missions depicting the search for the missing Grimlock and his team (the future Dinobots, who get probably their most logical-ever origin story in this game). From the Deception POV, there are a series of missions about trying to defeat the Autobots whilst - as usual - there are internal conflicts and attempts by the treacherous Starscream to supplant Megatron as leader.

The game is heavily focused around combat, although some of the characters (Cliffjumper and Starscream) have more stealthy options available to them. A lot of the time you are fighting in robot mode, diving in and out of cover to exchange fire with enemies, but the game also provides many larger areas where you can switch to vehicle mode for a more mobile experience. The first game was guilty of neglecting the Transforming mechanic (which is a bit stupid), but the sequel makes full and vigorous use of it. Indeed, the one level where you command Grimlock has you limited in being able to transform only when Grimlock gets mad enough (represented by filling a bar by defeating enemies) and then giving you a ridiculous number of overpowered abilities in dinosaur mode. Another sequence has you controlling the gigantic Decepticon Bruticus and smashing your way to victory.

The game also maintains interest by providing a series of massive set-pieces. The game is limited in the freedom it gives you to change or alter the storyline (you get two slightly different endings depending on whether the Autobots or Decepticons get the upper hand in the battle for the Ark but that's about it), so it makes up for that by making the combat fun and by making the levels as memorable as possible. One sequence has you alternating between the Combaticons as they work together to take down a bridge to block an Autobot transport. Another features you as Cliffjumper infiltrating a ruined party of Cybertron and taking down enemies through stealth attacks. Jazz takes part in a combat mission using a physics-based energy grapple, whilst Optimus Prime has to fight his way through enemy lines by lighting up targets for the massive Autobot Metroplex to destroy. The designers work hard to provide big, epic moments at every point of the story (some shamelessly cribbed from the comics, TV series or, especially, the 1986 animated movie) and generally pull it off. Long-term Transformers fans will likely play through most of the game with a big grin on their faces.

The game's biggest success is the depiction of the battle for the Ark. Ususally depicted as a one-sided massacre, the game turns it into a furious battle in space, on the hull of the ship and inside its decks. The POV switches rapidly from Soundwave boarding the ship with his cassette warriors to take down its main guns to Jetfire shooting down grappling hooks outside to Bruticus smashing his way along the hull to Jazz trying to take him down, and finally to a brutal slug-fight between Optimus Prime and Megatron. As final missions go, it's exceptionally good, despite the massive cliffhanger ending.

The game still has some drawbacks. Whilst the stealth sequences and the sequences where you play as overpowered killing machines break up the third-person shooter scenes, you still spend a lot of the game exchanging fire with distantly-glimpsed enemies down corridors. It's also highly unclear what half the weapons in the game actually do (due to some uselessly non-descriptive names). There's also an upgrade system which never really feels that necessary to use.

The drawbacks are fairly minor, however. The game is fun, makes much more interesting use of the licence than its predecessor and has a great, pulpy storyline. More recent fans of the franchise may miss a whole host of Easter Eggs, but old-school Transformers fans will enjoy the tons of references to the many different incarnations of the franchise. If there is a major problem, it's that the game ends on a cliffhanger which is not likely to be resolved any time soon: the planned third game in the series has been turned into a tie-in with the upcoming new Michael Bay movie and won't resolve the story at all.

Transformers: Fall of Cybertron (****½) is available now in the UK (PC, PlayStation 3, X-Box 360) and USA (PC, PlayStation 3, X-Box 360).

RIP Campbell Lane

Canadian actor Campbell Lane passed away on 30 January at the age of 79. SFF fans may not recognise the name, but they'll be familiar with some of his work.

Homeworld's classic opening cinematic, narrated by Campbell Lane.

Lane is best-known as the narrator of the Homeworld series of games. He also played the voice of the Bentusi species and appeared in all three games released to date (Homeworld, Homeworld: Cataclysm and Homeworld 2). Fans were hoping he would return for the upcoming prequel, Homeworld: Shipbreakers but clearly this will not now happen.

Lane's other genre credits include playing the First Hybrid in the Battlestar Galactica TV movie Razor and playing the voice of Rampage on the Transformers: Beast Wars animated series. He played three different roles on The X-Files (including the recurring role of the Committee Chairman) and also appeared on First Wave.

Campbell Lane as the First Hybrid on BSG. He was the go-to actor for distinctive and foreboding voice-overs.

His other voice work included playing the English-language narrator for Gundam Wing, Mastermind on X-Men: Evolution and Skeletor on The New Adventures of He-Man.

Lane had a highly distinctive, gravelly voice which was immediately recognisable. An accomplished voice actor, his tones will be missed from Homeworld: Shipbreaker and other potential projects.

Greatest music video ever

There is only one possible note on which we can leave 2012:

Peace out.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

What Prime said.

Transformers: War for Cybertron

War has gripped the planet Cybertron. Megatron and his Decepticons do battle against the Autobots under the command of Zeta Prime. Using a substance known as Dark Energon, Megatron launches a devastating assault upon Zeta Prime and the Autobots' greatest defender, Omega Supreme. It falls to a young and untested warrior named Optimus to lead the fight back against Megatron and his troops.

Transformers computer games have been a hit and miss affair over the decades, with the misses outnumbering the hits by quite some margin. For this latest computer game, Hasbro and developers High Moon Studios took a different tack. They decided to develop a backstory and canon exclusive to the game (Hasbro later tried to tie it into their new Prime continuity, but not entirely successfully) and which would not rely on tying in with any other continuity whilst being able to cherry-pick the best ideas and characters from them. This approach - similar to that taken by the recent Batman Arkham games - would hopefully deliver the hit game that fans were waiting for.

They were, to a certain degree, successful. War for Cybertron is easily the best Transformers computer game released to date. It's a tight, focused third-person shooter featuring multiplayer and campaign co-op. The emphasis is firmly on established, fan-favourite characters and on the G1 continuity family, even though the game is not directly linked to any of the established G1 storylines. Peter Cullen has been recruited as the voice of Optimus and, as usual, does great voice work throughout the game. Lines from the cartoon series and movie pop up at unexpected intervals, whilst elements of characterisation and backstory from the comics and animated series are included to delight hardcore fans. When Air Raid mentions Silverbolt being afraid of heights (despite being an aerial assault squad commander) or when it's revealed that Jetfire is a former Decepticon who defected to the Autobots, old-school Transformers fans will no doubt crack grins of appreciation. This extends to a hands-down brilliant boss fight with Soundwave, who disgorges his various minions from his chest to keep you busy and requiring you to defeat them (and their well-established special attacks, like creating earthquakes or sonic waves) in turn before taking him down.

This is all good stuff, showing a keen awareness of the franchise and its history which is laudable. The gameplay is also solid. War for Cybertron sees you controlling a robot and shooting other robots (a lot of other robots) with guns and sometimes missiles (but oddly, no lasers). Sometimes you need to transform into another mode to traverse scenery or to bring more firepower to bear on a situation. The game occasionally interrupts the shooting to have you push a button to open a gate to proceed. Rinse and repeat.

The gameplay is repetitive, but fortunately the developers seem aware of this danger. The levels are fairly short and the different characters and the different weapons available combine to provide some variety in how to deal with situations (although these are more variations on the theme of shooting and blowing things up). The writing is also decent, being of its own ridiculousness, with the likes of Soundwave and Omega Supreme getting some gloriously OTT dialogue in keeping with the spirit of things. There is a nice line in humour ticking through the game as well which keeps things entertaining.

Graphically, the game is no great shakes with some fairly low-res textures. However, the environmental design is great (if a little bit over-used by the end of the game) and the character design is solid. The traditional G1 designs have been altered to create something roughly halfway between the bright, primary-colour-driven original cartoon characters and Michael Bay's grittier, spikier designs (though, unlike the Bay movies, the characters are all easily identifiable from one another), which works well. The game's insistence that all the Transformers fire bullets is a bit odd - I wouldn't mind seeing a return to the lasers of the original G1 comics and cartoons - but can be borne.

Whilst all of this stuff is good, the game still suffers from some issues. It's not the longest game in the world (though this prevents things getting over-used and too stale) and it struggles a bit to accommodate the transforming mechanic. Transforming is often used to get from one combat area to the next or as a way of using more weapons when your robot-mode guns run out of ammo. The game really explodes into life in certain boss fights and large areas when you can use both robot and vehicle abilities to their fullest. However, these areas are fairly rare. Sequences where you are exchanging fire with enemies down long, tight corridors like any other third-person shooter do feel like a waste of the licence. One can't help but wonder if a Far Cry-like approach - giving you an objective an a large open world area with lots of options to accomplish it in - would result in a stronger game.

War for Cybertron (***½) is a solid, entertaining shooter which intermittently achieves brilliance. It's a bit lightweight and under-uses the central Transforming mechanic, but it's a lot of fun. It's available now in the UK (PC, X-Box 360, PlayStation 3) and USA (PC, X-Box 360, PlayStation 3).

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

According to common wisdom, the plot of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is incomprehensible. Which is odd, as it actually seemed reasonably straightforward to me. Essentially it goes like this:

Thousands of years ago - and apparently without anyone noticing - the Decepticons placed a device inside the Great Pyramid of Giza that can blow up the Sun and harvest it for energon, which they can use to fuel themselves and possibly restore their dying homeworld of Cybertron. The Fallen - the Decepticons' supreme commander, senior even to Megatron - wants to activate the device, but he fears setting foot on Earth due to the threat posed by Optimus Prime (apparently only 'a Prime' can kill him). Also, the device's starting key, the 'Matrix of Leadership', has been missing for millennia. The Autobots and their human allies end up getting involved in the Decepticon plan to find the key and start the machine and the whole matter is resolved in a string of unlikely plot coincidences and stupendous explosions (spoiler: the good guys win).


What confuses the matter is Michael Bay's total inability to selectively self-edit. The problem with Revenge of the Fallen - aside from those inherent to the franchise established in the opening movie which it is far too late to do anything about - isn't that the ingredients are wrong or that you couldn't make an entertaining movie with them, but that Bay and the writers throw every single half-baked idea they have into the mix, regardless of whether it makes sense or if they have the screentime to do it justice. In isolation, ideas like Devastator (a massive robot made up of seven lesser ones), the Pretender (a Terminator-esque Decepticon assassin that can pass as human) or Jetfire (an elderly Decepticon who switched sides to join the Autobots, got bored with the war and has spent decades disguised as an exhibit in the Smithsonian) could have made for interesting scenes or story points. Thrown on top of one another, they decohere the story and make it increasingly hard work to follow what's going on amidst the ridiculous number of fireballs being hurled around.

Matters aren't helped by the human cast: Shia LeBouf was blandly inoffensive in the first movie, but doesn't have the acting chops to sell Sam Witwicky's plot-inspired descent into temporary insanity, which reduces the middle third of the movie into barely-bearable tedium, though things are briefly livened up by the arrival of the Pretender assassin, a cool idea which is underdeveloped. In fact, most of the human performances are uninspired and uninteresting. There's also a bizarre lack of emotional response to events in the film. At one point a US aircraft carrier is destroyed and sinks, taking with it thousands of lives and an appreciable fraction of the USA's military power, but this garners almost no response whatsoever from anyone. No-one seems to be particularly concerned about the partial destruction of the Great Pyramid of Giza, either.

The Transformers themselves also suffer from the problems of plot overload. Compared to the dozen or so in the first movie, there are about forty in the second, and very few have any development or interesting character traits. Those that do get more screentime tend to be lazily-written and based on human racial stereotypes and caricatures which are inappropriate and moronic. Still, from the carnage Jetfire emerges as a more interesting character that not enough is done with, whilst Optimus Prime and Bumblebee develop well over their roles in the first movie. Indeed, Peter Cullen's dignified voice performance does seem to have come in from a completely different and considerably better film altogether. The Decepticons are mostly lacking in any kind of development whatsoever with the Fallen being a colossal disappointment and Devastator being a let-down after an impressive first appearance. The film's lack of memorable villains is a key problem (though hardly the greatest in the picture).

What really damages the film beyond all possible repair, however, is its severe pacing problem. The climactic battle sequence in the Egyptian desert (written by someone who's never looked at a map of the Middle East, but let's not go there) goes on for far too long, eating away at screentime that could have been better-used earlier in the movie to flesh out more interesting concepts and ideas, or simply could have been removed: two and a half hours is probably way too long for a brainless popcorn action movie in the first place.

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (*) is a spectacular failure of a movie, being incoherent, badly-paced, badly-acted and ill-conceived. The special effects are genuinely impressive and there are glimpses of concepts that could have made for a great film, but these are left underdeveloped in favour of atrocious attempts at comedy or pathos. It's certainly not the worst movie of all time, as some have labelled it, and it's almost worth watching as a masterclass in how not to make a big-budget action film. A tremendous let-down considering some promising ideas and also the inoffensively entertaining first movie in the franchise.

Original TRANSFORMERS storyline to resume

For a laugh, I recently went through the original run of Transformers comics on the Westeros.org forum. This incorporated all 80 issues of the original US comic published Marvel between 1984 and 1991, as well as the British comic stories that were interwoven with them. It was therefore a very surprising, but appropriate, coincidence that IDW (the current license-holders for Transformers comics) then announced that they would be picking up the original storyline left truncated by the comic's unexpected conclusion in June 1991.


The original creative team - writer Simon Furman and artist Andrew Wildman - are returning and the new comic will pick up storylines left dangling back in 1991. Apparently they are ignoring the Generation 2 sequel mini-series that ran in 1993-94, since they feel it hasn't aged as well as the original comics.

Transformers #81 will be released in 2012. The current plan is for a 19-issue arc taking the comic up to #100 and a grand conclusion to the original story begun way back in 1984. Depending on when the exact dates, that could carry them through to the franchise's 30th anniversary in 2014. Needless to say, old-school Transformers fans who still have all of their old comics in a secure drawer (cough) are very pleased by this news.

Simon Furman on what to expect from the new title:

"It is going to shatter your trousers! Guaranteed!"

Excellent. Though probably not a hint that the first storyline will be called Shattered Trousers.

Happy 25th Birthday, Transformers!

It was twenty-five years ago today that the first issue of the Transformers US Marvel comic, the first product to bear the TF logo, hit the shops. The cartoon series and toys wouldn't arrive for another four months. Originally billed as "#1 in a four-issue limited series", the comic lasted seven years and 80 monthly issues in the USA (and 332 weekly and fortnightly issues in the UK), eventually topping 100,000 sales a month in 1991 when it was inexplicably cancelled by Marvel Comics (possibly out of sheer embarrassment that it was starting to overtake some of their own signature characters).

Not to scale.

Over the next twenty-five years the franchise would go through a lot changes and lean times, such as the early 1990s 'Generation 2' reboot which fell apart, then the revival of fortunes brought about by the arrival of Beast Wars in 1995 to the advent of the blockbuster Michael Bay movie in 2007. With the sequel to that movie due in just two months and a new animated series in its third, successful season, Transformers remains a popular series for children and also for adult fans (either wallowing unhealthily in childhood nostalgia or with an eye for a good story regardless of how superficially daft it is, take your pick :-) ). As mentioned in a previous post, Transformers was the first fictional, SF universe I got invested in as a kid and a lot of it surprisingly stands up well today, such as the quantum/time travel storylines that introduced me to the concepts of parallel universes, alternate timelines and temporal paradoxes long before I started reading Stephen Baxter. As promised/threatened in a previous blog post, look out for some more coverage of the franchise in the coming weeks.

Megatron: still diabolical (but slightly incompetent) after a quarter-century.

Shortpacked! webcomic has a bit of a tribute to the franchise here. More information can be found on TFWiki. There's an interview with the early US comic writer/editor Bob Budiansky here.

Meanwhile, Megatron and Optimus Prime bask in the glow of post-movie success whilst their mid-80s robot competitors are faring less well.

Transformers (2007)

This is a hard film to write a review of, as the story is fairly confusing (buried as it is under several tonnes of heavy metal, explosions and attractive young women) and somewhat lacking in logical coherence. That's right, it's a Michael Bay movie. Sticking on one of his movies and expecting a masterpiece of scriptwriting and subtlety is clearly a doomed venture. When Bay's in the zone, he can pull off a spectacularly entertaining but brainless piece of hokum like The Rock or Bad Boys. When he isn't, he just creates a horrific mess like Armageddon and The Island, movie which are so stupid and inane they actually drain your intelligence from just looking at them.


Fortunately, Transformers (2007) falls into the former category. Everyone concerned, from producer Stephen Spielberg down to the extras, seems to be aware that they are making a movie based on giant robots that turn into cars and jets and fight one another, and as such the important thing here is to have a laugh (because you could take it seriously and be respectful to the original stories, but then no-one would watch it). Hard-core 1980s Transformers fans were upset at the lack of adhesion to the established mythos in the film (although the return of original cartoon voice actor Peter Cullen as Optimus Prime did mollify them a bit). Other fans knew there had been dozens of reboots and fresh continuities for the franchise stretching back to its start and accepted the movie as yet another variation on the story. Casual cinema-goers didn't care and just sat back to enjoy the explosions.

Transformers has several things going for it. It's Michael Bay's best film by some distance (not saying much, it has to be said) and there's a solid sense of humour attached to the picture with some genuinely funny comedic moments sold by a solid lead performance by Shia LeBeouf, who manages to do some good work with some pretty ripe lines. Megan Fox is similarly inoffensive as the female lead Mikaela, whilst there are some good supporting performances from the likes of Jon Voight and Kevin Dunn. But let's be honest here, you don't watch Transformers for the human performances, you watch it for the giant robots throwing one another around, and on that level the movie is a qualified success. There's not that much Transformer carnage in the first half of the movie, probably a result of even this film's insane budget not quite being enough to cover two solid hours of CGI robot mayhem, but what there is okay. In terms of the continued development and advancement of Hollywood special effects, Transformers is probably the biggest step forward since The Return of the King.

There are problems, however. The action is impressive but Bay is paradoxically fond of both unnecessary slow-motion shots and also insane rapid-cuts. These two factors combined make it almost impossible to follow what's going on (especially on the big screen), as least not until a second or third viewing. The design of the Transformers is notable and different, but by going for a 'realistic robot' look rather than the stylised approach that every other iteration has taken to date, the robots lose some of their character and it's often hard to tell them apart from one another. Also, some of their appearances (most notably Frenzy) bring to mind Johnny Five from Short Circuit, which is not so great an association. Solid attempts are made to bring some life to each individual Transformer, but only really Optimus Prime and Bumblebee get any distinctive sense of character given to them. We know Ironhide likes to blow stuff up and Jazz likes rap music but that's about it as far as characterisation for the rest of the Autobots goes. As for the Decepticons, they're pretty much a faceless and featureless bunch, with only Megatron and Frenzy getting any sense of character attached them.

Obviously, again, we need to remember that this is a movie about giant robots blowing one another up. But the lack of decent character scenes to establish a context for the carnage makes the whole movie a pretty shallow experience. When one Transformer - whose 1980s incarnation was a firm favourite for many kids due to his distinctive characterisation in the comics and cartoon series - dies, there isn't really any emotional reaction because he was only introduced half an hour earlier and he didn't really do anything to endear himself to the audience. There's also a severe logic failure at the end of the movie when the Autobots decide to take refuge in a city rather than fight the Decepticons in the open, with the net result that lots of civilians are killed and half the city is trashed. Impressive and fun to watch, yes, convincing or logical, no.

Transformers (***) is mindlessly entertaining with some nice shout-outs to the old-school Transformers fans in the audience (some dialogue from the 1986 movie is recycled; Prime wields his energy axe from the cartoon series in one battle; and an old VW appears in one scene as a nod to Bumblebee's original form). Could it have been a lot more than the sum of its parts? Possibly, but given the constraints of budget and having to reach out to the widest possible audience, what we got wasn't too offensive. There is certainly plenty of scope for improvement in the sequel, however.

The film is available now on DVD (UK, USA) and Blu-Ray (UK, USA). The sequel, Revenge of the Fallen, hits cinemas in July.

Some sad Transformers-related news

Typical that just after my first-ever Transformers post, the second one would have to be a piece of sad news. The slice of Transformers I grew up on was the Marvel comic, which ran for a stonking 332 issues between 1984 and 1992 and contained a tremendous amount of awesome.

The very first Transformers artist was Frank Springer, who sadly passed away from prostate cancer on 2 April at the age of 79. In addition to Transformers he worked on many other Marvel and independent comics, including Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD and The Avengers. He also worked for National Lampoon. He served in the Korean War and had been active in comics work since the late 1950s. In addition to his work on Transformers he also did the art for the Headmasters spin-off mini-series, which gives rise to what David Willis of the Shortpacked! webcomic makes a convincing case to be the greatest piece of TF-related artwork ever, when taken out of context:

Seriously, the real explanation is nowhere near as awesome as what is going through your mind right now.

Sad news indeed.