Cartoon Review - Prime Wars Trilogy (Machinima)

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27th April 2018, 04:14 PM
BigTransformerTrev

Cartoon Review - Prime Wars Trilogy (Machinima)

Just finished watching them all on youtube so wanted to share a few thoughts but didn't wanna give out any spoilers.

So since this is a review thread:

SPOILERS
. SPOILERS!
. SPOILERS AHEAD! BEWARE!

http://i67.tinypic.com/2mnhhu1.jpg

Rather than break down the plot (I'll leave that for others) I'm just going to list a few of my personal pro's and cons:

PRO'S:
*Watching Trypticon fight Metroplex is always great
*Starscream is a ghost again and like the G1 cartoon inhabits Trypticon for a time
*I really liked the characterization of Megatron from the first cartoon and it is continued here
*Perceptor (yay!)
*Hotlink (wow - cant believe he got an outing!)
*Overlord is portrayed as a murdering smiling psychopath as he should be - very IDW'esque
*Delved into a lot of the TF lore such as Primus and the original 13
*Peter Cullen is Optimus this time around which always sits well
*Fortress Maximus is actually Titan-sized rather than just a big bot and is portrayed as someone who primarily wants non-violence
*Rodimus Prime is done very like the G1 cartoon as in he doubts himself and would rather not have the matrix and ends up (briefly) being much happier going back to being Hot Rod.
*The set up has been done for the evil version of Hot Rod/Rodimus to make an appearance
*Lots of characters actually transform (unlike IDW)
*Megatronus/The Fallen makes a suitably dramatic appearance at the end

Con's
*The animation quality is no better than the first cartoon
*The city is all but deserted before the fights even start
*They keep talking about needing to 'rally every Autobot' but besides the main cast already in play this consists of four Decepticon Seekers. Where the hell is everyone?!
*Except at the very start with the individual Constructions cleaning up and one scene where one of the copter Torchbearers drops Rodimus off, the four gestalts never uncombine, even when it would make sense for them to like when they need to distract and harass Trypticon.
*Menasor and Devestator are too willing to take orders from Victorion
*Optimus dies for like, what, the 50th time?!
*The Titan fight between Trypticon and Metroplex drags on too long and it pretty much is just them taking turns giving each other a bash.
*Windblade is cool, but takes too much of the spotlight so you get kinda tired of her by the end
*Sentinel Prime is mentioned as one of the 'Original 13' going against all previous lore
*The lore regarding the Titans that Metroplex talks of is contradicted by Fortress Maximus apparently having been built for the war and then decomissioned
*The whole thing could have been sped up a bit, this could have been done over eight episodes rather than 10. Maybe if Trypticon was able to get the lead out and walk a bit faster it would have been good for all concerned (except his enemies of course)

So overall I quite enjoyed sitting and watching it with my son today, but wont feel the need to see it again until it turns up as a likely extra when the Bumblebee movie gets released on Blu Ray, much like the Combiner Wars cartoon was on the TF5 Blu Ray.
28th April 2018, 03:10 PM
griffin

Watched it all this morning, from the youtube link that Ultra Marginal posted up in the news topic, and was rather bored throughout almost all of it, and disappointed that it wasn't an improvement over their unexciting Combiner Wars mini-series.

If this had been released a year earlier, it would make more sense dragging out the Trypticon plot device.... which just dragged on and on and on and on... I ended up spending time on the computer, as I would have otherwise fallen asleep.

I understand the budget restraints when it comes to cast numbers, but this was a Titans Return cartoon, and we only had one Titanmaster. And if it wasn't for Hotrod/Rodimus and Windblade already carrying over from the last series, it would have just been four TR toys being featured (Trypticon, Fort Max, Perceptor, Overlord).
The least they could have done is have Optimus and Megatron in their TR forms, just to advertise their toys... if they were still available at retail.
4th May 2018, 07:10 PM
BigTransformerTrev

Quote:

Originally Posted by griffin

Watched it all this morning and was rather bored throughout almost all of it, and disappointed that it wasn't an improvement over their unexciting Combiner Wars mini-series.

My 5-year old got bored by the end of ep 8. That was 90 minutes which is a long time for a kid that age, but he will usually watch TF for hours so thats rather telling

Quote:

Originally Posted by griffin

If this had been released a year earlier, it would make more sense dragging out the Trypticon plot device.... which just dragged on and on and on and on... I ended up spending time on the computer, as I would have otherwise fallen asleep.

Yeah, if Trypticon was actually doing more, rather than walking down the same road sloooowwwly and only reacting when being attacked it would have been a lot better.

Quote:

Originally Posted by griffin

I understand the budget restraints when it comes to cast numbers, but this was a Titans Return cartoon, and we only had one Titanmaster. And if it wasn't for Hotrod/Rodimus and Windblade already carrying over from the last series, it would have just been four TR toys being featured (Trypticon, Fort Max, Perceptor, Overlord).

I was pretty impressed with my son when he saw the back of Perceptors head and asked 'So he has a Titan master?' because of the two obvious folded up legs on the back of his skull.
4th May 2018, 07:23 PM
griffin

Quote:

Originally Posted by BigTransformerTrev

I was pretty impressed with my son when he saw the back of Perceptors head and asked 'So he has a Titan master?' because of the two obvious folded up legs on the back of his skull.

That I missed. (but then, I wasn't paying a lot of attention when there wasn't any action happening)
I will have to go back and have another look.... eventually.
11th July 2018, 10:22 AM
BigTransformerTrev

Just thought I'd share my thoughts overall regarding the POTP cartoon which has just wrapped up :)

So if you haven't watched it yet and intend on doing so SPOILER ALERT! Do not read on!

Like when discussing the TR cartoon, I'm just gonna do a list of my personal pro's and cons

PRO'S
*A greater range of characters showed up in the cartoon as compared to the last one.
*Optimus stayed dead (for most of it anyway)
*Megatron was once again done extremely well, I've really liked how he has been portrayed in these three cartoons. I enjoyed how Overlord was presented as well.
*Get to see a few different locals of Cybertron
*Lots of mythos such as The Well of Allsparks and The Requiem Blaster
*Delved further into the original 13 Primes, including Megatronus accidentally killing his beloved Solus Prime with a weapon of her own creation
*Grimlocks original voice actor and Grimlock was pretty G1-cartoon accurate (if you prefer that to how he is in the comics that is, which I don't)
*Dinobots, Predacons.
*Optimal being the emissary of Primus and Rodimus being the emissary of Unicron and them throwing down
*There were a few battles that weren't too bad (Megs vs Overlord, Megatronus vs Optimal vs Unicronus)
*Mild coarse language (Megs says "Now you've p*ssed me off" and "Oh sh*t") for the first time in a TF cartoon since 1986!
*Shout out to the 86' movie when Unicron tries to control Megatron, with references to how he was once his herald as Galvatron and Megatron spouting lines such as "I belong to nobody"

CON'S
*Watching Predaking and Volcanicus chasing the others through a Cyber-forest was as boring as watching Trypticon slowly walk down the road in the last cartoon.
*Basically nothing happened in Episode 8
*I wish the TF Universe would make up its mind what Megatronus/The Fallen looks like! Is he on fire? Does he have 4 arms? Does he have a big spear? Personally I thinhk he should look like either how he did in Dreamwave or, perhaps even better, how he looked in RID. I didn't like how he looked in this at all, and while Mark Hamill usually rocks my world as a voice actor, I don't think he suited Megatronus.
*While Megatron was great, I didn't like his final line "It's the least I can do, for my team". A bit sappy for him to go out on.
*Sludge dies from one punch to the throat of his alt mode?
*Slow pacing
*Windblade is becoming for me like Optimus and Bumblebee - does she have to be in everything?
*The Gestalts are too underpowered. I know thats supposed to make other characters like Nemisis Hot Rod appear super tough, but seriously. Devestator and Menasor just get their butts kicked and Predaking gets his head ripped off. Whats the point of being a super powerful combiner if you go down like a sack of crap with minimal effort?

Quote:

Originally Posted by griffin

I understand the budget restraints when it comes to cast numbers, but this was a Titans Return cartoon, and we only had one Titanmaster. And if it wasn't for Hotrod/Rodimus and Windblade already carrying over from the last series, it would have just been four TR toys being featured (Trypticon, Fort Max, Perceptor, Overlord).
The least they could have done is have Optimus and Megatron in their TR forms, just to advertise their toys... if they were still available at retail.

At least they seem to have rectified this somewhat in this cartoon, with characters whose toys are just hitting the shelves now. It was kinda cool to get Optimal and Unicronus at the Big W toy sale and then a few days later see them fight each other in a cartoon :D
16th July 2018, 08:10 PM
King Atlas

Watching this show at normal speed is unbearable for me. At x1.25 speed, it's not too bad actually.