I watched Transformers: Prime on the weekend, as many of you know, I went in somewhat reserved given the recent streak of disappointments from the TF fictional world but I still held enough of an open mind to allow the show to 'convince' me that it's worth following.
Overall, I am impressed by the result. It is certainly much better than the Animated pilot and adds a new story continuity to the franchise rather than expanding on an existing one. There are a few annoyances here are there with one major one that is very frustrating but overall the show hit the right notes.
I am very happy to see that the story is attempting to provide a serious plot and that the humor is generally subtle but appropriate without breaking the flow of the story. The action was also well done and made sense for the most part although there was a bit too much 'theatrics' involved when it comes to poses and pre-battle stances but I can see passed that as it is afterall, a kids cartoon and unlike Bayformers, you can actually see what is happening with the action contributing to the story rather than the other way around.
Some have said that the way the plot moves is reminiscent of Beast Wars and I do agree with this view, at least as far as the first two episodes are concerned. The story has a clear direction and focuses on the Transformer characters, all with unique personalities and drives - Living TF characters which is a core factor of the franchise that the movies were often distracted from.
As mentioned earlier, the humor is subtle and in line with the plot which is a welcome change from recent times but despite the Beast Wars similarities in it's overall story handling, the humor in TF:Prime is so far much more low key. I would go as far as to say that the show is perhaps more similar to Beast Machines than Beast Wars in it's overall mood and characters as it is a much more serious and darker story. However unlike BM, this is clearly in line with the 'familiar' Transformer style story than the left field direction that BM took but despite that, what was positive about BM is certainly present in TF:Prime.
As mentioned before, the action was somewhat exaggerated in a cartoony form (understandable) but was overall well executed and did not break the story flow. Something that did catch my attention was the considerable violence that was present in the fight scenes. Some bits went as far as being 'gory' in a robotic way and I was also pleasantly surprised that the show displayed consequences to the violence as there was real death, something which is normally absent from cartoons. It was also good to see the violence wasn't done with the sole intention to shock or awe audiences but to complement the story to a level of 'realism' that immerses the viewer. In a way this show is more in line with 90s cartoon than contemporary ones which is very good.
The characters in this show are also well executed, as mentioned, all the TF characters have distinct personalities and views of their current situation (similar to BW/M) but unlike Bayformers, everyone here has a purpose...well...except for one but we'll get to that later. Optimus Prime has gone back to being the wise and experienced leader who is focused on his mission to defend the Earth from the Decepticons but unlike the unfortunate late interpretations of him (IDW/Bayformers) he commands his troops with confidence, dignity and direction.
Ratchet - He seems to be the familiar character we have always known but leaning more towards the Animated 'grumpy' personality but not as much. He reminds me a little more of the Marvel Comic Ratchet but older.
Bulkhead - We didn't get to see much of his character but enough to show us that he is certainly different from the Animated version. He seems more gruntish than 'gentle giant' and seems to be much more of a veteran warrior. I would say that he has a somewhat similar personality to Ironhide but we have not seen enough to say that for sure.
Arcee - Now this character was well done but I do have some reservations on how this came about. Arcee seems to have a female version of Bumblebee's G1 personality in the sense of how she befriends the human characters, her brash and somewhat impulsive personality due to inexperience as well as a bit of a 'try hard' nature. I am inclined to think that perhaps this role was intended for Bumblebee but some changes were later made and it was assigned to Arcee instead.
Bumblebee - He is by far the worse character in the whole show and utterly pointless. He is actually more useless than the movie version which is saying a lot. All he does is stand around and beep like R2D2 with the nerdy human kid apparently being the only one who can understand him. He is shown as a capable fighter but apart from that, he contributes nothing aside from a 'familiar' throwback to the movies but executed much worse, at least Movie Bumblebee had a point (as far as TF1 is concerned that is). Every time Bumblebee appeared and 'beeped', my enjoyment of the show halted and turned into annoyance, thankfully once his pointless bits were over, I was able to get back into the show.
The human kids - This was actually done rather good, the human kids are not shown to be messiahs like it was done in Bayformers or ridiculously 'suave' TF killers like it was done in IDW Ongoing. They are actually portrayed as normal human kids who happened to be thrown in the middle of the Decepticon/Autobot guerrilla war by random circumstance. The kids like all previous TF cartoons are there to show a human perspective and for once, they are actually serving that purpose. The kids do not take over the show as it was with the Unicron Trilogy or Bayformers and used in a balanced form as they are not there barking orders to the Transformers not dictating how things should be done. They are there because they are under the protection of the Autobots not to take the lead. Therefore the main human characters do not overwhelm the show and their prominence balances out nicely and not made useless. Their role is to offer a window for the autobots to understand humanity and this seems to have been properly set up. The only human who seems a bit pointless and somewhat annoying, is the hyperactive Japanese girl, she is actually more in line with the annoying and pointless human characters from the past but thankfully she was not a big part of these episodes.
When it comes to the Decepticons, only two Decepticons are seen portraying some character, the rest were 'template' grunts. Starscream despite his odd vampiric looks is somewhat identifiable as Starscream in character although he is portrayed as a more reserved servant to Megatron but it is too early in the series to Judge. Megatron has a typical Megatron personality but much less refined than the Animated one.
In regards to the animation, although some scenes were much smoother and better handled than others, the animation as a whole looks very dated, specially when you compare it to modern CGI cartoon series like Clone Wars. The cost saving desert sceneries and limited color palette as well as 'deserted' towns also highlight the budget nature of the animation. However having said that, the production seems to be doing the best they can with what they got so there is nothing 'half assed' about it and scenes are very well executed with a natural flow to the animation. Some people may have issues with the movie inspired designs with a somewhat 'animated' style thrown in but if the story is good, it's easy for me to see passed those things. The Prime 'kid' face looks better when animated but if you pause the scene, it looks bad so hopefully they will refine that a little in the future.
Overall it was a well constructed episode with a good story despite nothing too epic happening plot wise but that's understandable since this is just the first episode. This is a fine start to a promising series and I am looking forward to more. I hope that the episodes continue to improve but most of all I hope they get rid of JarJar-bee or at least get him to talk normally as his R2 beeps were really teething for me.
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by griffin
