Welcome to the world of the Transformers. It is a world that is more, much, much more than meets the eye. It is a world where heroic Autobots battle evil Decepticons for the fate of the entire universe. It is beyond good, beyond evil, and beyond our wildest expectations. Will the Autobots light our darkest hour or will the Decepticons conquer it all? Find out by experiencing Transformers: More than Meets the eye!!

Summary | Review

More than Meets the Eye (pt. I) – summary

Many millions years ago on the planet Cybertron, life existed. But not life as we know it today. Intelligent robots inhabited the cities. They were called the Transformers. This race was composed of 2 races: the Autobots & Decepticons. While the Autobots were a peace-loving race, the Decepticons were brutal and malicious, driven by a single goal: total domination of the universe, their rightful destiny in their eyes. They sought to destroy the one threat to their superiority: the Autobots. And so a war between the forces of good and evil rages across Cybertron, destroying all in it’s path and draining the planet of it’s once-rich sources of energy. On the verge of extinction, the Autobots battled valiantly to survive. This is where our story begins. At this point, Cybertron is no longer capable of sustaining the fight. Unless a new source of energy is found, no one will win the war.

Optimus Prime, commandeer of the Autobots, selects a group of the Autobots finest heroes to lead a search mission for a new source of energy. Through the covert of actions of Laserbeak & Soundwave, Decepticon leader Megatron is kept aware of all Autobot activity. The plan: follow the Autobots to a source of enery and take it for themselves. Before launch prepartions, Megatron entrusts Cybertron to Shockwave, Decepticon military operations commandeer. As the Autobots launch in their newly built ship, the Ark, the Decepticons pursue in their ship, the Nemesis, the most powerful Decepticon warship in history. It isn’t long before the Autobots learn of this. Using a tractor beam, the Decepticons board the Ark and begin their attack. But neither side is able to gain the upper hand as both ships are pulled down by the strong gravity of a small blue planet. The Nemesis decends into the Atlantic ocean, while the Ark crashes into the base of a volcano. 4 million years later, this volcano has come to be known as Mt. St. Hilary. An eruption occurs, reactivating the Ark’s computer, Teletran-1. Immediately assessing the situation, Teletran launches a Sky Spy to begin scanning of local forms to initiate repairs. The first Transformer Teletran scans happens to be a Decepticon, Skywarp. After being modified to transform into an F-15, he proceeds to get all the Decepticons repaired. It’s easy for the Decepticons to tell that this planet Earth is rich in sources of energy, enough energy for them to destroy the Autobots and conquer the universe. The Autobots would have remained in emergency stasis, but Starscream inadvertently causes a chain reaction that results in Prime being repaired.

While the Decepticons are off setting up a new base of operations and construction platform for a new space cruiser, the Autobots are busy assessing their situation. Prime sends Hound & Cliffjumper out to find them, and it doesn’t take long. They learn the Decepticon’s plan, but an attack by Cliffjumper gives away their position and results in a blitz by Laserbeak. Hound is damaged, but no worse for wear, and returns to inform Prime of the situation. Prime decides it’s time to engage the Decepticons. Jazz selects a battle party. Meanwhile, Laserbeak returns from a scouting patrol and locates their first target, an oil refinery. Once they arrive, the Decepticons easily dominate the human crew. Using a new technology developed by Soundwave, they use these energon cubes to convert their oil to convert it into energon, their energy source. The Autobots arrive, but aren’t able to pursue the Decepticons when they leave.

Before departing, Megatron blows the oil rig to pieces, and sets the oil on fire, leaving the Autobots to try and save the human crew.

More than Meets the Eye (pt. I) - review

So this is how it all started. The greatest anime/toy franchise begins right here. Already, the power of it all is easy to see. For starters, it’s made clear that the Transformers are truly more than meets the eye. They think and feel for themselves, the very definition of sentience, of life itself. Now granted, wanting to conquer isn’t such a grand, new concept. The number of characters who’ve tried only goes around the block only a few hundred thousand times or so. The difference here: The Decepticons don’t just want Earth or even the galaxy. They want the entire universe. What’s more is that they honestly believe it’s their rightful destiny. And can you blame them? When you’re a walking, living weapon, the most powerful weapon in the universe, wouldn’t you want to run it all? This is especially so when there’s only thing, just one thing that can stand in their way: the Autobots, peace-loving Transformers. And at this moment, it looks like the Decepticons are pretty close. The price was high, but they’ve almost driven their good counter-parts into extinction.

But it seems Earth is a real x-factor when to comes to pretty much anything. And there in lies the heart of it all. As far as why it’s cool, these Transformers are more than just giant robots. They’re living beings that can transform into all kinds of alternate modes. It allows for versatility that simply wouldn’t be there without it. These big, bad battling bots would lay the smackdown on anything and everything in the way of competition. It’s what makes a lack of human limits so great. As far as characters go, you’ve got the whole spectrum. So far, we’ve gotten a taste on both sides here and there. You really shouldn’t expect too much. In a war with lots of soldiers, you’re never going to get to know everyone really well. But they manage to do it just right here, and just so real.

On the Autobot side, we’ve got Optimus Prime, an exceptional leader & warrior who will do everything in their power to stop the Decepticons and defend life & freedom wherever they may find it. Hound is a scout who appreciates the down-time he gets fulfilling his duty. Cliffjumper is one of the more gung-ho Autobots. He doesn’t crave the fight, but if it’s there, he’s ready to throw down in a second. Jazz is Prime’s right hand man, a special operations saboteur at heart. He can be serious, but cool and hip and happening all at once. On the Decepticon side, it’s the darker side. Megatron is very smart, but just as powerful and dangerous. Soundwave is communications, and he does it with perfectly. At his disposal is his cassette force, of which we see lots of Laserbeak. Hard to understand since his robot mode is a condor, but he gets points for being excellent at reconnaissance and battle at the same time. Finally, there’s Skywarp & Starscream. Skywarp is about as ideal a soldier you could want seeing as they’re Decepticons. But the same can’t be said for Starscream.

While second only to Megatron with the ranks in most respects, his ego will be the end of him. He’s already made it clear his desire to lead the Decepticons, mistake #1 as I like to call it. He’s got potential, but his ego won’t let any great good come of it. Overtime, you’ll see this traitorous fool is the back-stabber that stabbed the back. When you look up words like treachery, his picture should be right next to it. A strong cast indeed, combined with great action, an excellent soundtrack, and great animation that’s still better than most today, you can’t go wrong with Transformers: More than Meets the Eye.