Rise of the Beasts – The Reel World

More (And Less!) Than Meets The Eye – Episode 13: Transformers: Rise of the Beasts

TRUK NOT MONKEE! The movie part of our journey is finally at an end as we discuss the awkward fit of the Maximals into what is clearly a soft Transformers reboot… or should that be the awkward fit of the Transformers into what is clearly a Beast Wars movie?

Plus mileage on Pete Davidson as Mirage, some sad Peter Cullen truths, the return of blah human protagonists, and the future of a Hasbro Cinematic Universe.

More (And Less!) Than Meets the Eye – Episode 8: MTMTE Issues 34-44

In which we discuss The Ethics of Withholding Medical Treatment, The Ethics of Killing Baby Robot Hitler, The Ethics of Charisma Parasites, The Ethics of Dated Sitcoms, and the Ethics of War (As Expressed Through Flowers)

Plus Ben tries to break Matt by mentioning too many characters from books we aren’t reading, and it works better than he could have imagined at the time!

More (And Less!) Than Meets the Eye – Episode 7: Transformers: Age of Extinction

Time to dust off one of our favourite debates on this podcast network: Is it worse to be Boring or Bad?

Michael Bay submits his evidence to the latest hearing, Age of Extinction, which literally has another movie tacked onto the back of it. Hard to believe a movie could be Bad OR Boring when it features Dinobots, Bounty Hunters and Stanley Tucci, but here we are!

More (And Less!) Than Meets the Eye – Episode 6: MTMTE Issues 17-33

Be not afraid of the huge number of issues covered in this episode, as a big chunk of it belongs to Dark Cybertron, the mostly irrelevant crossover event we break down in under 10 minutes.

On either side of that we discuss Huge Secrets about Magnus & Skids, Pharma’s horrifying antics, a mockery of a trial, the Lost Light’s new crew members, and the curious case of a vanishing starship.

More (And Less!) Than Meets the Eye – Episode 5: Transformers: Dark of the Moon

In which we discuss Shockwave’s cool pet drill, the height of 3D filmmaking, the courting of major name supporting actors, gay panic with Dr Ken, juggling villains, and the ups and downs of The Battle of Chicago

More (And Less!) Than Meets the Eye – Episode 4: MTMTE Issues 9-16 & 2012 Annual

We continue our adventures aboard the Lost Light with some Big Name Cameos, history lessons, dramatic countdowns (and ups), an ill-advised night on the town and the monster in the basement finally gets loose.

More (And Less!) Than Meets the Eye – Episode 3: Revenge of the Fallen

In which we discuss embarrassing reviews from our younger selves, the 2008 writers strike’s impact on one of the worst major movies ever released, Michael Bay Unchained, giant robot balls and of course a Magic Sock Full of Matrix Dust.

More (And Less!) Than Meets the Eye – Episode 2: MTMTE Issues 1-8

It’s our first episode covering the acclaimed IDW Transformers series, More Than Meets the Eye, by James Roberts. We discuss the core cast, pacing difficulties, horror movie monsters, Star Trek away missions, the Worst Decepticons in the World and what Ben believes to be the book’s greatest triumph.

More (And Less!) Than Meets the Eye – Episode 1: Transformers (2007)

In which we discuss the seeming improbability of Michael Bay agreeing to helm this franchise, everything revolving around a horny teenager, characters arriving in pairs, deploying Megatron so late and Matt’s potentially controversial take on the best handling of a Transformer in a Michael Bay movie.

More (And Less!) Than Meets the Eye – Episode 0: Introductions

In this introductory mini-episode, Ben & Matt talk through their mission statement for the podcast as well as their history with the Transformers franchise.

If you’d like to watch and read along with us then you need to watch Transformers (2007) before the next episode, and read More Than Meets the Eye Issues 1-8 before Episode 2.