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I just watched Transformers: The Last Knight

So, I finally watched the most recent Transformers movie. If you want to know my opinions on the movie franchise, and this movie in particular, it can be summarized thusly: The first Transformers movie was a fun, stupid action movie, but pretty good, each sequel I have progressively lowered my expectations, and been disappointed every time.

I could write two separate posts on the movie series. One detailing what's stupid about them, and the other talking about how it's just not for fans of any of the toys or fiction. This is not either of those, this is a post about Megatron's arm cannon.

Before we get into the movies, Megatron has transformed into a lot of things throughout the years, and had a lot of looks. The one thing that's been almost completely constant is that he always has a big ass gun on his arm, or occasionally his shoulder, and even more constant than where the gun is placed, is how the gun fires. In a way, it's been more consistent than any other facet of his identity. When Megatron fires his cannon, it starts as a purple pin light in the barrel, before swelling into a mass of purple energy, and then it bursts in a straight line out of the barrel. Wow, before describing it like that, I wouldn't have associated with male reproduction, but there you go. Get your yucks out.

How does this relate to Last Knight? Well, Megatron's in it. Unlock some of the movies, he does have an arm cannon in this one, but how he shoots was very disappointing. When we're given our first full look at him, we see him sitting on a throne of junk, and angrily shooting flames out of his arm cannon. Not traditional, but it's bold and intimidating, which is what Megatron should be. In every scene involving his arm gun after that, it's shown to shoot small, sometimes very rapid fire projectiles. Sure, maybe it's practical, or more realistic, but as I'm fond of saying, we're talking about giant, magical, alien robots! Who's looking for realism or pragmatism? Megatron is a tyrant, and the kind of strategist and warrior who could keep a war going for literally millions of years. His weapon of choice reflects his philosophy, it is not a precision weapon, the only reason he can shoot it straight, and not have it rip his arm off is because he's equally strong and determined. They've waged a war for longer than most civilizations have existed, those that are still alive, by necessity, are the most battle hardened badasses that the galaxy has ever seen, and Megatron keeps control of the more ruthless faction by being the biggest, most ruthless, and definitely most determined monster among monsters. When Megatron's gun gets shot, it shouldn't be lost in the chaos of all the peons fighting, everyone on the battlefield should know that Megatron has entered the fray, and the casualty rate is going to start rising sharply.

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