Transformers Prime

Just watched the first two episodes of Transformers Prime. The one thing I have to give it significant praise for is the overall tone, it has a cinematic quality while setting it up for a series format. Even the use of the title screen is much like how a movie would introduce itself. Cliffjumper getting attacked by the Nemesis and the footsoldiers gathering on the hillside: cut to- title screen. Very nice.

There are things here and there that I wasn't too fond of: Prime's mouth doesn't look quite right and the CG was iffy at times, in particular the initial battle in the energon mines looked rather bland. I can see the kids getting annoying after a while (particularly Miko and Ralph, Jack was alright), but at least here they serve the role of a Naïve Newcomer and their presence didn't dominate the immediate story. Not only that, but Jack probably got the best line of the first episode "Hey, I understand. The first rule of robot fight club is no one talks about robot fight club!"

And as far as spoiler stuff: I am absolutely shocked at Cliffjumpers' fate. Talk about a Sacrificial Lion! My mouth was open in shock when Starscream stabbed his hand into his chest, before then I wasn't sure exactly how mature this series was going to be. And it zig zagged around the typical Death Is Cheap in Transformers. When Starscream mentioned Dark Energon's properties to revive the dead I started to groan, but what actually happened was nightmare fuel!

All in all, I'm quite impressed and looking forward to the following episodes.

On a different but related note, I enjoyed Transformers Animated but I feel it just sabotaged itself with the funky designs and overall comedic overtones. Dedicated fans loved the G1 references but I'm not aware of many newcomers who liked it all that much. The best episodes were the ones that focused exclusively on the Autobot versus Decepticon arc, but almost everything in between wasn't all that compelling. I can see that this series is trying to distance itself from Animated by diving right into the meat of the story.

I was a newcomer (from the movies, and having seen the G1 movie for Trek Leonard Nimoy cred mind you) and I loved Animated.

Prime is good so far. Actually, when I saw the DE, I thought they'd reconfigure Cliffjumper into a Decepticon. The moment Megatron called it "Blood of Unicron" though, it made even more sense.

The continuity snarl was pretty off-putting, though. After all, Scream's supposed to know about DE already, Megatron even moreso.

I see no notable flaws with Animated, save the dangling plot lines which have not been resolved.

Crap, it already started coming on!?

Where were you on Friday? Check youtube as well.

I like it. I see they're going all the way back to the G1 cartoon-type mouths. CGI is decent.

I also like that they're taking the IDW idea of altmodes actually being an important part of the war, and having fights in vehicle mode.

edited 28th Nov '10 8:58:36 AM by VampireBuddha

Okay saw it online yeah it's pretty good very Beast Wars like but this version of TF is just not my cup of tea and the weird thing I don't see any huge flaws it just didn't bring me into it's plot.

Where were you on Friday?

Watching Young Justice and Avengers.

Anyway, I'll check and see if I can find it online now.

They're starting from the beginning on Monday, so don't be in too big a panic.

^Too late! lol

Anyway, I loved it. Hell, if they keep up at this rate, this will end up being the best Transformers series since Beast Wars.

I found Prime (or at least the first two episodes) to be rather blah. I liked the animation, but I didn't get into the story or characters. It felt like I missed a part that properly introduced the Autobot and Decepticon characters. Animated and Beast Wars did this well, somewhat infodump-y introduction scenes for the main Transformer characters.

I'll watch the rest of the five-parter and then see if I want to watch any more.

Also, Cliffjumper. Ouch.

I believe the proper reaction is... Wow.

I saw this and While Starscream is in the show he's so far averted to a degree being The Starscream. Towards the end of part five he even warns Megatron to save himself. While it's clear he wants to be leader, he not trying to stab Megatron in the back to do it.

^Give it time. It'll happen sooner or later.

True but this version has is one of the few with a legitimate reason for it. This Megatron is crossing into Galvatron levels of sanity here, with Starscream keeping his priorities straight: first the Autobots, then Megatron.

A competent Starscream, whaddya know.

Well, it DOES take place after War For Cybertron. He was fairly competent in that, too, and had his reasons for switching sides in the end.

edited 4th Dec '10 6:50:59 PM by nomuru2d

I put about as much stock in the claim that this and War For Cybertron are in the same continuity as I do in Takara's claim that all TF series are in the same timeline. Far too many inconsistencies that go beyond mere cases of the plot being taken in Broad Strokes.

Gah! I'm already starting to have dreams about this series!

In the dream, Megatron comes back, and he's pissed off at Starscream. Starscream, cowering in fear, tries to get on Meg's good side by showing him a group of very human-looking robots that the Decepticons built in Megatron's absence. Starscream explains that since the Autobots now have human allies, he came up with the idea to use these robots to befriend the Autobots and to infiltrate their base.

Megatron responds to the plan by going into a rage and destroying all of the robots. Afterwards, he, completely calmly, turns to Starscream and says, "Good idea!"

And then I woke up.

edited 5th Dec '10 12:59:11 AM by Nexus

In-character! Spectacular!

Oh, Starscream's still the manipulative backstabber here, he's just more subtle about it.

From what I know of WFC, Prime does take place in the same continuity family, in the same way that Beast Wars takes place in the same continuity as G1  ^*

I must admit though Starcream thinking Megatron is gone is not unfounded. Iif not for the Dark Energon it would be unlikely even Megatron would come back from that. Even Optimus admits there's no way even Megatron could survive being at ground zero of the Space Bridge explosion.

Finally watched the remaining episodes and I have to say that this is probably the strongest opening to any Transformers series ever. All the other series took a while before finally showing their chops by Growing the Beard, there are so many strong points in this series and so few problems I don't see much of a need for it to grow the beard. The only real problems I can see is that Miko can be both absolutely annoying and adorably quirky at different times (telling Jack to smear himself with fake blood while forming their "band" was admittedly very funny). It's also very derivative of the movies in designs, music, action and story beats (they replicated Optimus' introduction of himself to the humans and the final space broadcast almost verbatim), but what they chose to emulate was probably the better things to copy anyway.

I liked a lot of the more subtle moments, Bulkhead taking the scolding from Optimus even though Miko was the one responsible reminded me of the line in The Sum Of All Fears "Better to look guilty than incompetant." Arcee has the perfect balance of "female emotion" and "grizzled warrior," she's not as compassionate towards the humans as Optimus but she isn't as imposing as a leader-figure either.

And the climactic fight between Megatron and Optimus is probably one of the best structured fights between the two.

As far as where this fits in with Transformers War For Cybertron, it seems to use the exact same backstory as the springboard to their story while depicting different time frames and slightly different interpretations. We don't know how long the Autobots have been on Earth or what has transpired since they left Cybertron, a lot could have happened (I'm wondering where the Ark is). But while the characters look different, Optimus is very much the same noble and reluctant leader and Megatron has the exact same callous disregard of any sort of morals or ethics.

edited 8th Dec '10 6:14:23 PM by KJMackley

A couple of minor points:

1. Hasbro held a contest for freelance designers to come up with Transformers designs, and picked the ones they liked best for the series. They deliberately went with designs reminiscent of the movie in order to make it more familiar to the young uns, and also because they seem to be intent on smooshing the concept of the multiverse into oblivion.
2. I'm pretty sure Optimus mentions that they've been on Earth for three years.

I don't recall three years being stated as when they arrived on Earth, only that it had been three years since they last encountered the Decepticon.

edited 13th Dec '10 11:09:47 PM by KJMackley