“Predacons Rising” – Movie Review

 

 

(Image via TFWiki.net)

Should you buy the DVD and watch it? No.

Should you watch it for free? Yes.

Running time: 70 minutes (~ 1 hour)

“Predacons Rising” serves as the conclusive finale to “Transformers: Prime.” The return of the dark god of the Transformers, Unicron, forces an alliance between Autobots, Decepticons, and Predacons (beast Transformers) to save the newly restored planet of Cybertron from destruction.

Now, I’m a Transformers fan. And I watched all 65 episodes of “Transformers: Prime.” And the problem with this TV movie is… it didn’t really have to exist. The series ended pretty conclusively. All the characters’ story arcs were resolved up, the series-spanning conflict came to a head, and the good guys achieved their ultimate goal.

So, do I like “Predacons Rising?” I’m not quite sure.

But let’s run through the highlights of it first.

(Image via Entertainment Weekly)

Cybertron

The whole movie takes place on Cybertron. Given that most of the time in the series, Cybertron is a withered metal husk, I enjoyed the change of scenery. Also, there is day and night on Cybertron. Woo hoo! I don’t think any other rendition of Cybertron has ever showed it in the day before – it’s always night on Cybertron, for some reason.

(Image via TFW2005)

The AllSpark

It really is a MacGuffin here – you don’t quite see it. But I like how they remembered there’s an AllSpark out there, and retrieving it seems to come full circle for the “Aligned” continuity – in War for Cybertron, the whole Autobot-Decepticon conflict begins with the AllSpark being shunted into the far reaches of space. To bring it back to Cybertron ties the whole mythology of the continuity together, giving it a nice sort of closure that “Transformers: Prime” alone wouldn’t have been able to.

(Image via TFW2005)

Characters

Ratchet gets to show his leadership chops for abit here. I always felt Ratchet was underwritten (except for the excellent two-parter, “Operation: Bumblebee”) and it was nice to see him step up to the plate in the absence of Optimus Prime and his second-in-command.

And of course, a Unicron-possessed Megatron. The dynamics between Unicron and Megatron are… quirky, to say the least. But poor Megatron finally gets an upgrade (not just a redeco), and it bears some level of homage to the Unicron toy (rocky arms, anyone?).

Music

There’s new music. It’s not hugely better than the usual score, but I appreciate the effort put into making this as much of a new production as possible.

(Image via Top Ten Poetry)

That being said, there are a lot of things I disliked about “Predacons Rising.” Perhaps it’s not fair to judge it as part of “Transformers: Prime,” but the fact is that you wouldn’t be watching this TV movie if not for “Transformers: Prime.” Hence, I think it’s justified to count its contextual flaws as being part of the whole package.

In other words, I judge this movie not just as a stand alone, but as the finale to an entire series.

Cybertron is empty

It looks like Earth in Season 1. That is, incredibly empty. I know there’s not technically anybody else there besides the Autobots and Predacons and Vehicons and Decepticon Miners, but… weren’t there some Insecticons when they visited earlier? Aren’t there any Transformers left on Cybertron at all? What happened to all the refugees they keep talking about?

(Image via TFW2005)

Unicron

He sounds whiny. I’m not sure if this is performance or script related. John Noble just sounded like he was complaining of a stomach ache rather than exacting a revenge plot eons in the making.

Also, we don’t get to see Unicron transform. Or fight Primus. I never expected to see him fight Primus, but I did except him to live up to his species of Transformers and, well, transform.

The Autobots

Perhaps it’s due to the roiling expanse of Cybertron, but somehow the Autobots look so… few. Paltry. Like there’s just a handful of them. In the series proper it looked like they were a formidable team, but here they just look like a bunch of stragglers. Is it the camera angle? The direction?

And they give up so easily after failing to convince Predaking to aid them in the first act! I’m like – wait, aren’t the Autobots going to even try a little harder? What happened to their determination? Why are they letting Predaking boss them around?

(Image via TFW2005)

The human story

It is not present. Not that I think it’s crucial, but the way “Transformers: Prime” ended with the human story, I expected to see them reappear in a larger capacity here.

Mass shifting

Of which the Predacons are the prime offender here (see what I did there) in this movie. I don’t understand why the Predacons can’t just be larger Transformers in both robot and alternate modes. Wouldn’t that make them more fearsome? It strains my suspension of disbelief to see a gigantic dragon shrink 75% when it becomes a humanoid robot.

(Image via TFW2005)

The fights

The fights weren’t terrible. It just wasn’t… fantastic. Ultra Magnus falls far too easily – come on, isn’t he a powerful commander for a reason? There’s no Optimus Prime – Predaking fight, but it’s emblazoned on the DVD cover. And there is no full length Optimus Prime – Megatron throwdown at the end. I can’t be the only one who wanted to see an upgraded Megatron fight a similarly upgraded Optimus Prime, right?

And why didn’t the Decepticons get to fight?

(Image via Seibertron)

There’s so much unfulfilled potential in this movie. Perhaps it’s because of expectations, the hype that we Transfans generated, or the general excitement of a film. It’s not a matter of budget – as we’ve seen, they really didn’t spare much expense in creating the lavish Transformers: Prime experience that we’ve come to except.

It just wasn’t epic enough.

And with this in mind, I will begin Project: Predacon.