- Title: Transformers Prime: Beast Hunters – Predacons Rising
- wiki: link
As an epilogue to the show which went of the year earlier this year, Transformers Prime: Beast Hunters – Predacons Rising returns the Autobots and Decepticons to the restored planet of Cybertron to face the new threat of Unicron (John Noble) who has assumed control of Megatron‘s (Frank Welker) fallen body and returned to Cybertron to destroy the planet once and for all. Sadly, like the series which proceeded it, the Beast Hunters movie closes without and appearance (or mention) of Grimlock and the Dinobots.
For a TV-movie with a running time of just over an hour, Predacons Rising includes quite a few storylines including Optimus Prime (Peter Cullen) and Wheeljack (James Horan) heading into deep space to recover the AllSpark, Predaking (John Noble) meeting two more of Shockwave‘s (David Sobolov) Predacon clones who nearly kill Ultra Mangus (Michael Ironside), Unicron creating a zombie army of Terrorcons out of the fossils of the original Predacons, and Autobots, Decepticons, and Predacons coming together to save Cybertron.
With no Dinobots (or a proper version of Galvatron) and a melancholy ending, Predacons Rising is a bit of a mixed bag. Yes, the movie wraps up various storylines including bringing an end to the Autobot/Decepticon war, but large elements of the series aren’t touched on at all (such as the human element as none of the Autobots’ friends from Earth earn even a mention). That said, the movie does make sure to give several of the Transformers their own moments including Knock Out (Daran Norris), Starscream (Steve Blum), Arcee (Sumalee Montano), Bumblebee (Will Friedle), Smokescreen (Nolan North), and Shockwave (David Sobolov).
The only extra included with either the DVD or the Blu-ray/DVD combo pack is a single featurette on the partnership between the show’s creative team and Japanese 3D animation studio Polygon Pictures. As a final note to the three-year series neither the so-so feature nor its lack of extras provide much incentive for anyone outside the show’s fan base to seek it out.
[Shout! Factory, DVD $16.97 / Blu-ray $24.97]
I find it seriously odd that you point out lack of elements from the show as negatives yet you lament the lack of Gavlatron or Dinobots, two elements that would be very out of place in an epilogue and act as nothing but fanwank. Bad review.
Those are three separate points, so let me address them in turn.
1) I thought it odd that none of the friendships with the various Autobots that the show centered on were mentioned or included. I’m not saying they needed to be, but the Autobtos did call Ratchet back from Earth certainly opening up a way to introduce, or at least discuss, the Autobots’ missing friends.
2) If you are going to do a Unicron-controlled Megatron, and even go so far as to have Unicron alter his form (thus directly referencing the 1986 movie) why not go ahead and give us a Transformers Prime version of Galvatron rather than just add clumps of colored rock to Megatron? Since the entire plot hinges on a new version of Megatron brought back to life, I simply can’t agree with you that Galvatron would be “very out of place.”
3) The point I made about the Dinobots is more a complaint I have with the entire third season promoting it as “Beast Hunters” but failing to introduce, by far, the most interesting beasts in all of the Transformers canon – the Dinobots. Given the Autobots needed something new and powerful to fight off the zombie horde, again, it seemed an obvious choice to finally give us some version of the characters (who have made appearances in the Beast Wars comics).
That said, none of these observations largely altered my very mixed reaction to the film (zombie robot horde, really?). These are more suggestions of either 1) Things I expected to see or 2) Characters that I’m suggesting might have helped sell the story.
This post couldn’t be written much better! I agree with all your points. Sorry Dogmaster, but I expected to see Galvatron as well when Unicron grabbed the dying Megatron and began to transform him. I was disappointed the movie didn’t have the balls to completely transform him.
I think this review is too kind. The movie wasn’t very good.