TF Prime episodes

No noses? No problem! Zombiebots? Sure, why not. A confusing new canon that allows loose and contradictory material? And now a new sequel show with an entirely different art style that takes place way in the future!
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Sparky Prime
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Re: TF Prime episodes

Post by Sparky Prime »

Dominic wrote:Most TF series have worthless human characters. (Useful human characters are not unheard of. But, they are much more rare.)
I dunno that I'd say most series have worthless human characters... Really, Armada is the only that sticks out to me as the only one where the kids where pretty much along for the ride with out being able to contribute anything worthwhile.

Prime has established Raf as a kid genius type at least. Although, like Mako said, I don't find it very believable a kid would instantly be able to understand Bumblebee and fix a computer problem like that in a few seconds...
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Re: TF Prime episodes

Post by JediTricks »

The Hub sent me a screener of the first 2 episodes to review. Unfortunately, the screener arrived the day before Thanksgiving when I was out doing holiday stuff already, so I didn't get to pick it up until yesterday, 3 days after those episodes already aired.


As for TF:Prime, I though that the color palettes were dingy and dull and depressing, and the use of Bumblebee as a mute is completely stupid. Bumblebee being mute makes no sense when all the bots can understand his weird musical language and so can 1 of the 3 human kids despite no explanation - if nearly everybody can understand him, then so should the audience.

TF Prime was just terrible in every way though, ugly CGI that looks way out of date, flappy mouths with nothing behind them, creepy eyes on the heroes, following the movie in tone and design, it was just a flat, pointless exercise in firing red and blue lasers to sell (not-yet-existent) toys. The robot designs looked bad, the transformations looked cheap, the battles looked hollow. Arcee calling everything "'con" and "cliff'" was offputting and felt like a newcomer's take on TF, not a warrior who had been doing battle with these forces for thousands of years. The idea that Starscream and his drones could snatch up Cliffjumper and do what they did makes it curious as to why they haven't done it with more of the VERY SMALL team on Earth - another movie conceit that I feel makes no sense. I hated the voice on Starscream, didn't even understand what Soundwave was saying or how, and of course the kids were entirely junk - the short kid looked like it was ripped off straight from Disney's Up, minus the texture levels and quality. And what's the point of recycling the look of Bulkhead from TF:Animated when the character is so different?!? Drones are exactly what I feared, generic nobodies meant to be cannon-fodder for our heroes.

The voice acting was ok, I think they made Optimus too bombastic though, and Welker's still finding his legs as this Megatron, and ironically the former is over-processed and the latter under-processed. Arcee was ok I guess, not bad, not stand-out great but not bad. The Rock as Cliffjumper was quite decent really, too bad they killed the character, and in such a disturbing manner. The best work though was Jeffery Combs as Ratchet, that was the one true bright spot in TF:P, they gave the character a little extra writing and he put his touch on the material, and despite the fact that Ratchet does ABSOLUTELY NOTHING in these first 2 eps, he was the aspect that got me watching the second ep when I wasn't inclined to.

But as for the show, it looked horrible, was terribly written, and I doubt I'd want toys from it despite loving TF:A toys.
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Re: TF Prime episodes

Post by Shockwave »

I didn't think it was that bad, in fact I actually enjoyed it. Buuuuuuttt... I thought the short kid looked more like he was ripped straight off of Jimmy Neutron and I'm really getting sick of Bumblebee always being mute. If they do that in the comics I may actually drop it. I mean I can kind of tolerate it in Prime because he's obviously MovieBee, but IDW Bee isn't and shouldn't turn into it just for the sake of "universalizing".
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Re: TF Prime episodes

Post by Onslaught Six »

I watched the first ten minutes of the first episode and didn't bother watching any more.

I just can't get interested in another stylized reboot of TF. Just can't. I give up! It's old hat and I'm tired of it.
BWprowl wrote:The internet having this many different words to describe nerdy folks is akin to the whole eskimos/ice situation, I would presume.
People spend so much time worrying about whether a figure is "mint" or not that they never stop to consider other flavours.
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Re: TF Prime episodes

Post by BWprowl »

Onslaught Six wrote:I just can't get interested in another stylized reboot of TF. Just can't. I give up! It's old hat and I'm tired of it.
They did it...once before.

What would you prefer? Another regular reboot of TF? They've done that a few more times!
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Re: TF Prime episodes

Post by Onslaught Six »

RID arguably counts. ArmEnerTron sorta does, less so. The movie definitely counts. Then Animated. Now Prime.

That, and now everybody's just gonna be on about how goooood the show is for the next two or three fucking years; just like with Animated. I've got news for them: Animated wasn't all that great. Yeah, it wanked the fans off, and yeah maybe it dealt with some heavier stuff, but the third season was a joke--they spent four or five episodes on those damn Twins (which were only marginally funny and should have been kept to one or two episodes) and that stupid Waspinator arc. We get it! He's going to become Waspinator! Ah ha frickin' ha.

I just don't like the tone of Prime so far. And it makes no sense for there to only be six Autobots (counting Cliffy) on Earth, like JT said. I don't mind Starscream's voice (and btw, JT, Soundwave was only playing a scrambling of Arcee's voice--at least in the clip I saw. If anyone can point me to where I can see him talk more, feel free to do so) but Cullen looks way too old for this version of Prime, when he takes the faceplate off. (AAARGH WHY DO THEY HAVE TO DO THAT.)

And I don't want to get invested in yet another TF story like this when I honestly don't think it's going to do anything interesting. They're already mentioning Unicron. Ugh.

Maybe it's time for me to take one of my periodic breaks from the hobby--I did that with the first half of Cybertron. There was literally almost a year where I bought nothing and visited nowhere. And then I realized how much I missed the toys, and well. Now, if I keep buying the toys but ignore the fiction? That's something different.
BWprowl wrote:The internet having this many different words to describe nerdy folks is akin to the whole eskimos/ice situation, I would presume.
People spend so much time worrying about whether a figure is "mint" or not that they never stop to consider other flavours.
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Re: TF Prime episodes

Post by BWprowl »

So do you like any TF cartoons now, Six? I know you hated BW, and now you hate Animated too? I dunno, maybe I'd been softened up too much by the Unicron Trilogy, but I really liked Animated.

I think you're putting too much emphasis on being counter-culture. I know Transfans aren't the greatest group of people on the planet, but that doesn't mean that just because a bunch of them liked something, you should hate it.

And for what it's worth, the majority of the reaction I've seen to Prime has *not* been positive.
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Re: TF Prime episodes

Post by Onslaught Six »

I dunno, I haven't been on the major sites, just here and ATT. From that, opinions range from "It's okay," to "This is awesome."

I didn't hate Animated as a concept, or as a show. I hated its pacing and what it became. Too many episodes focusing on human villain characters who amounted to nothing. Too many episodes focusing on subplots. Too much of Bumblebee being an idiot, over and over again, but it's okay, he doesn't have to learn, he's a sociopath. I'd rather have the fucking deaf kid than that again.

I didn't hate BW, either, I hate what BW has become in the minds of its fanboys and girls--a holy messiah show that cannot be touched or altered, ever, while the rest of the TF universe sees itself reinvented on an almost yearly basis. How many alternate versions of Optimus Prime or Bumblebee do we got? About a million. How many alternate versions of Primal or Cheetor or Tarantulus? Maybe one or two. I hate that we will never get an awesome comic based on the techspecs, with a thirty-foot-tall Primal fighting giant T-Rex Megatron in downtown New York, all because this cartoon was apparently the best cartoon in the world, ever.

I liked RID.

...Maybe it's just that I prefer the way the comics have done things.

But you know what? I'm allowed to dislike it. I'm still buying the toys, at least the ones I think I'll like. Maybe I never liked the cartoons in the first place. (It's telling that my favourite piece of animated TF media is probably TFTM--right up until Starscream dies.)
BWprowl wrote:The internet having this many different words to describe nerdy folks is akin to the whole eskimos/ice situation, I would presume.
People spend so much time worrying about whether a figure is "mint" or not that they never stop to consider other flavours.
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Re: TF Prime episodes

Post by Dominic »

At this point, I am filtering my toy buying based on content.

I was okay with TFA using human enemies and such. But, you are right about it being too focused on keeping fans happy, instead of breaking new ground.
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Re: TF Prime episodes

Post by JediTricks »

Onslaught Six wrote:and btw, JT, Soundwave was only playing a scrambling of Arcee's voice--at least in the clip I saw. If anyone can point me to where I can see him talk more, feel free to do so
Ah, no, that was it, I couldn't really figure out why Soundwave sounded female and made no sense. I played it twice, didn't catch that it was Arcee's voice clip.
but Cullen looks way too old for this version of Prime, when he takes the faceplate off. (AAARGH WHY DO THEY HAVE TO DO THAT.)
I don't like when they do the faceplate removal, but it's to convey emotions, so it makes some sense. That said, the face underneath has no gravitas, it's got a flappy mouth and no nose, even the TFA Optimus' face looked more mature thanks to his serious eyes. TFP Optimus' eyes are just creepy dead blue orbs like everybody else.
And I don't want to get invested in yet another TF story like this when I honestly don't think it's going to do anything interesting. They're already mentioning Unicron. Ugh.
Excellent points.
Maybe it's time for me to take one of my periodic breaks from the hobby--I did that with the first half of Cybertron. There was literally almost a year where I bought nothing and visited nowhere. And then I realized how much I missed the toys, and well. Now, if I keep buying the toys but ignore the fiction? That's something different.
That's where I've been since the middle of TF:Cybertron when it got so repetitive and CN moved its schedule around. And I missed out on TFA due to a weak opening few episodes pushing me away.
I dunno, I haven't been on the major sites, just here and ATT. From that, opinions range from "It's okay," to "This is awesome."
That's what I've been seeing as well.
I didn't hate BW, either, I hate what BW has become in the minds of its fanboys and girls--a holy messiah show that cannot be touched or altered, ever, while the rest of the TF universe sees itself reinvented on an almost yearly basis. How many alternate versions of Optimus Prime or Bumblebee do we got? About a million. How many alternate versions of Primal or Cheetor or Tarantulus? Maybe one or two. I hate that we will never get an awesome comic based on the techspecs, with a thirty-foot-tall Primal fighting giant T-Rex Megatron in downtown New York, all because this cartoon was apparently the best cartoon in the world, ever.
That's an interesting take on it. I see what you mean, it's not "fun" when it's so revered, and it's only so revered because it told stories in a manner that took its audience more seriously while still knowing it was a toy-based cartoon. It's funny, Grimlock could be a giant robo-dino wrecking a city and that'd not bother too many fans, but T-rex Megs and Primal definitely are hallowed ground for no reason. Those are fun-ass toys! Megs shoots water out of his mouth! Why should that be taken seriously???
But you know what? I'm allowed to dislike it. I'm still buying the toys, at least the ones I think I'll like. Maybe I never liked the cartoons in the first place. (It's telling that my favourite piece of animated TF media is probably TFTM--right up until Starscream dies.)
So weird, you and I aren't usually on the same page but here I'm with you, I never loved the cartoons that much, they were just a vessel for my interest in the toys, and I was certainly not slavish to any of them.

Dom wrote:At this point, I am filtering my toy buying based on content.
This makes little sense to me, it's akin to idol worship, the toy could be great but if it comes from content you don't like then it's worthless, while a garbage toy can come from a great source and that's gold to you.
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