Transformers: Prime - One Shall Stand

Note: This review contains spoilers for Transformers: Prime - One Shall Stand and the Transformers: Prime cartoon.

Even 10 years after its debut, Transformers: Prime remains one of my favorite Transformers cartoons, if not one of my favorite animated series in general. In light of the show’s 10^th anniversary, I decided to revisit one of the two feature-length edits of the show released by Shout! Factory, Transformers: Prime - One Shall Stand, which combines seven episodes of the series from the end of the first Season and the beginning of the second, removing commercial breaks and repeated scenes. While I have previously viewed the seven episodes both individually as they aired and in combined form, I had not previously reviewed the combined version. After giving it another look, I thought it worked very well for what it set out to accomplish and served to remind me why I loved the show in the first place.

Transformers Prime Beast Hunters: Predacons Rising

I have already made evident on this blog that I am a big fan of the Transformers franchise, as well as mentioned multiple times that the Transformers: Prime cartoon on The Hub network is good. However, after 3 seasons and a total of 65 episodes, the inevitable time has come for the show to end. Not only did the show have some very solid writing, it had a very interesting take on the Transformers mythos and became an excellent centerpiece to the Aligned continuity. While the finale episode, “Deadlock”, did provide a good conclusion to the series, it didn’t have enough closure as certain plot points had not yet been resolved, including ones from the concurrently-running Beast Hunters comic from IDW (at issue #5 at the time of this writing). Thus, the creative team behind Prime came up with the idea of a TV movie, Predacons Rising, that would not only wrap things up, but also provide a good conclusion to the cartoon as a whole (if the San Diego Comic-Con 2013 panel I went to is to be believed, the team came up with it out of a need for an extra 66th episode that ties up all the loose ends). With this feature’s recent premier on The Hub, I decided it would be a good idea to watch the episode “Deadlock” again, which re-aired before Predacons Rising, to remind myself of what happened due to the amount of time between the finale episode and movie. Having recently seen the TV movie, it seemed to be a worthy sendoff of the Prime cartoon.

Spoiler Note: This movie takes place after the Transformers: Prime Season 3 (subtitled Beast Hunters) finale “Deadlock”, so there will be unmarked spoilers regarding the movie’s placement in the continuity. If you do not wish to be spoiled of any events in Prime, turn back now. You have been warned.

After Cybertron’s reformatting at the end of Beast Hunters, as Optimus Prime (Peter Cullen) congratulates his fellow Autobots on a job well done, Megatron (Frank Welker), having been offline and at the bottom of one of Earth’s oceans, is given a new lease on life thanks to Unicron (John Noble), who uses Megatron’s body as a vessel to get back to Cybertron and fulfill a desire he had not yet been able to carry out. Back on Cybertron, after Optimus promotes Bumblebee (Will Friedle) from an Autobot scout to an Autobot warrior, Prime gives the team orders on what to do regarding the rebuilding of Cybertron before leaving with Wheeljack (James Horan) to retrieve the AllSpark, which he had shot into space to keep it away from Decepticon hands (sound familiar?), which would help to ensure Cybertron’s future. As the Autobots make efforts to rebuild, Smokescreen (Nolan North) and Ultra Magnus (Michael Ironside) explore the now-inaccurately-named Sea of Rust, where they encounter two bots that are not what they expected: Predacons.

The story of Predacons Rising is actually very compelling, with a multitude of plots going on that come together one way or another. These plots wrap up rather nicely at the end, with a hint of more to come by the end of it all. The characterization is very consistent with that of the Prime cartoon, with some additional bits of character development seen amongst the characters as the events unfold. Though there are a couple of new characters introduced (mainly to sell toys), they are introduced in such a way that they don’t seem out of place in the grand scheme of things and actually manage to contribute to the overall plot without feeling out of place. Overall, the story has great execution and is enough to keep you watching until the emotional climax.

However, it doesn’t wrap up everything in the overall Prime continuity, though it mainly comes down to a couple of tidbits. In the events of Season 3 of Prime, the Decepticon Airachnid ends up becoming, for lack of a better term, a robotic vampire in space, residing on the moon with an army of loyal subjects last time she was seen. This does not get any resolution in the movie, though admittedly the plot was already fairly packed to begin with, so whether this is a good thing might depend on the viewer. As for the other thing, I had some expectations that the Dinobots, last seen on Cybertron in the Beast Hunters comic, would somehow show up in the movie, though I had my doubts that they would even show up in the first place. Hopefully, the Beast Hunters comic will resolve their side of the story and provide some sort of closure for them. These details might be nitpicking, but they were things I had in mind before going in.

The ongoing Beast Hunters comic is at issue 5 at
the time of this review.

The animation is very spectacular, showing the pinnacle of quality in the Prime cartoon. I’ve commented on how good the animation was in the Darkness Rising feature, but the motions of the characters are much more fluid here, displaying three seasons worth of experience on behalf of the animation team to great effect. As with the show itself, I sometimes almost got lost in the detail of some the character designs, including minor things such as reflections and tiny scratches on metal, most especially during close-up shots where these were much more visible. There were also times where, due to the complexity of some of the character designs, I began to wonder how difficult things must have been to animate.

The voice acting is as great as always, with special note going to John Noble returning as Unicron from Season 2 of the Prime cartoon. Everyone delivers a solid performance, including (relative) newcomer Will Friedle as Bumblebee (with him and Nolan North making two Deadpool voice actors appearing at the same time), which help sell the characters they voice well as it shows the actors really gave it their all for one last hurrah. And as usual, Brian Tyler’s music is very good for the movie, though like with his other works, the music totally works when it’s happening, but it isn’t very memorable afterwards, the main exception being the main theme for the series that plays at least once or twice for 65 episodes and the movie (a good handful of times with a special remix), which really sticks with you for a good while.

Transformers Prime Beast Hunters: Predacons Rising is a great example of Transformers animation and is a well-produced movie in its own right. However, this is a movie that should not be viewed on its own, as it contains several callbacks to episodes of the show and in general is part of a show that is heavily driven by continuity. If you want to see this movie, I would suggest, if you haven’t already, watching all 3 seasons of the Prime cartoon before watching this so that you have a better understanding of what’s going on. However, this is still something that any Transformers fan, especially one of Prime, should definitely see. To put it simply, it does not disappoint.

Transformers: Prime - Darkness Rising

As some of my previous reviews can tell you, I like Transformers. If you have read any reviews taking place in the current Transformers continuity (known by fans as the Aligned continuity for lack of an official term), you would know that I am a big fan of the Transformers: Prime cartoon on The Hub network, which is going into its third season as of this writing. When this show first premiered, it was in the form of a 5-part mini-series called Darkness Rising (this isn't the first time Transformers has had a five-parter, though the season one finale and season two premier for this show would form an arc lasting seven episodes). In the early stages of this show, Shout! Factory released a DVD that takes this mini-series and combines it into a feature, minus episode breaks and scene repeats. Since this technically makes it count as a movie (the back of the DVD even says it is), let's take a look at Transformers: Prime - Darkness Rising.

The Autobots Arcee (Sumalee Montano) and Cliffjumper (Dwayne Johnson) are on patrol on Earth in vehicle form when Cliffjumper gets a signal of Decepticon activity. He pursues it himself, insisting he doesn't need any back-up. He comes across a group of Decepticon troopers (called Vehicons in outside material) mining for Energon and transforms to take care of them. However, he is outnumbered and gets captured by the Decepticons Starscream (Steve Blum) and Soundwave, prompting the other Autobots, Arcee, Bumblebee, Ratchet (Jeffrey Combs), Bulkhead (Kevin Michael Richardson) and Optimus Prime (Peter Cullen) to investigate, coming to a rather unfortunate conclusion about Cliffjumper's fate. On another patrol, Arcee, Bumblebee, and Bulkhead take on a few Vehicons while trying to protect a couple of humans, Jack Darby (Josh Keaton) and Rafael Esquivel (Andy Pessoa); since these two kids know of the Autobots' existence, they are now under Autobot protection, though Arcee accidentally gets another, Miko Nakadai (Tania Gunadi) involved. Meanwhile, things get ugly when Megatron (Frank Welker) returns to lead the Decepticons on Earth. And this is only the beginning.

Though the description above is only one portion of the plot, what follows is rather suspenseful and intriguing. The writing is impressive, feeling like a movie more than a TV series (then again, Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman are two of the show runners, so it's no surprise). The robots themselves are written well, including Bumblebee and Soundwave, who don't really have any lines, as are the human characters, who stand above much of the human characters in previous Transformers cartoons (though admittedly Miko is a bit of a handful). Due to it being five episodes put together, there's five episodes' worth of twists and turns that will keep you watching until the very end. As for the story flow, it moves very nicely and at a good pace, better than when viewed in five parts.

One praise I can give this feature, animated by Polygon Pictures, is the animation quality. Every movement from a character on screen, including side characters and especially on the robots, is done extremely well, to where it feels very fluid and natural. I especially love all the subtleties in the animation, from the movements in a human characters' hair (when allowed) to the reflections of light and intricate scratches on the robots' bodies. It's worth watching this feature once just to catch the detail on the robots (I sometimes get lost in the down-shots of Optimus Prime's neck and shoulders for this reason). Emotions are another important element that the studio gets right, with humans and even the robots displaying all right feelings at the right times (this extends to Soundwave, who, despite not having a face, manages to be intimidating with his silence and body language). Overall, the animation work is very solid and it really shows that a lot of effort went into it, including inanimate objects and backgrounds.

The Autobots (from left to right): Bulkhead, Arcee,
Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, Ratchet

Another praise is the voice acting. With so many big names involved in Darkness Rising, including Peter Cullen, Frank Welker, Steve Blum, Dwayne Johnson and even Ernie Hudson (as Agent William Fowler) among others, what could possibly go wrong? Fortunately, while not on as epic a scale as another animated Transformers feature, everyone delivers a solid performance that enhances the quality of the movie (including the human cast, which also includes Miko). The most interesting aspect of the cast, however, is the return of Peter Cullen and Frank Welker, reprising their roles as Optimus Prime and Megatron respectively from all the way back to the 80's cartoon. For this alone, Generation 1 fans are sure to be delighted. In any case, the voice actors give a really good sense of each characters' personalities and emotions, which is something you can expect from having one of the best high-profile ensembles to hit Transformers or any other cartoon on this scale.

Then there's the soundtrack, orchestrated by Brian Tyler (who also worked on the 2009 Star Trek reboot and most recently John Dies at the End). His work creating the score is pulled off well, giving the film a very cinematic feel that only adds to the suspense and action on display. Alongside Vince DiCola's work in the '86 Transformers movie and the scores for recent installments to the Tron franchise, I would consider the music for Darkness Rising a real masterpiece, and one I am only too willing to purchase on CD (one is available, but it is definitely on my "want" list).

As this is part of a new continuity in the increasingly-confusing ever-expanding Transformers multiverse, it should be noted that this game takes place after the events of High Moon Studios' game, Transformers: War for Cybertron (there's also the Fall of Cybertron material, but War for Cybertron was the only other media at the time of the original broadcast aside from a book and a graphic novel later released as individual comics). The game features the element of Dark Energon as a central item, and while it shows up here, it is explained for those who have not played the game. However, if you play War for Cybertron before viewing this film, it comes across as a little jarring to see the Decepticons act as if they have never encountered it before. While War for Cybertron is an important part of the current continuity, which does get mentioned by Optimus Prime in his explanation to the human kids, it is not required to play in order to view Darkness Rising.

Transformers: Prime - Darkness Rising is an excellent introduction to the Transformers: Prime cartoon and a great way to jump into Transformers in general. On its own, the story is solid and everything comes together excellently, though it borders on a stand-alone movie and 5 episodes strung together. I would say that the quality surpasses that of the live-action movies in some areas, especially how it pulls off its human cast, although it's still very much a (subtle) toy commercial. I wouldn't go so far as to call Darkness Rising the greatest thing ever made, but it's certainly up there with other higher-quality Transformers productions. If you are a long-time Transformers fan, this is a good way to get acquainted with Transformers: Prime to see whether or not you think the new show is worth it (if you like it, the first and second seasons are available on DVD/Blu-ray). If you are a newcomer to the Transformers franchise, this is a perfect jumping-on point for you.