What They Say:
Darkness Rising: Part 5 – The return of the Decepticons.
The Review:
The events of this storyline have been quite a lot of fun as we’ve seen the main cast of human characters make their ties to the the Autobots and we’ve gotten a look at what the new war with Megatron could be about as he has the shard of Dark Energon that can bring dead Transformers back to life as savage and mindless creatures. And that threat is enough to scare away some after what’s happened as Jack has basically turned his back on the group as all the action and adventure is much more than he can handle as an ordinary day. Sadly, this was just a minor matter of dramatics as Jack is back with the gang within the first couple of minutes of this episode, something that drains some of the energy from it since it’s dealt with so quickly and without any repercussions.
Because of the scale of events at hand, with Megatron readying his plan to return to Cybertron to raise his arm, there’s a mild bit of goofiness as the Autobots make their way into space in order to protect the star bridge mechanism. With the Decepticon ship not being a a hundred percent, it all comes down to some hand to hand action between the two sides while Raf and the humans make their way into a secure facility on Earth that allows him to gain access to the Decepticon starship system in order to try and stymie their pans to return home. It’s a bit of an awkward plan that the kids are willing to risk since the planet will be in ruins otherwise, but it’s a nice piece of visual theater with them making their contribituion to events.
Naturally, as epic as the storyline progresses with the large chunk of Dark Energon being sent through the portal and reviving the dead planet a lot of it comes down to quick thinking by the humans and the hand to hand attacks between Prime and Megatron. The feud between the two is much more personal this time around and that adds a lot to the impact of the scenes as they play out. The action is very well done here as we get the larger fight at first and then the more personal one and it’s all set against an appropriately epic storyline. Because of what we see happen on the other side, and the fact there’s another twenty-one episodes after this, it’s not quite as predictable as it could be since it leaves a big issue very much open.
In Summary:
The opening arc to Transformers: Prime was a lot more enjoyable than I thought it could be. I have fond memories of the original animated series but I know that the reality won’t mesh up to my memories. The design of this show offers a lot of potential and it has a decidedly darker approach with a fair bit of real violence and endings of characters which adds to its unpredictable nature. There are areas where you know they won’t go until key moments but beyond that it has a lot going for it. In fact, what I loved the most here at the end is that Megatron acts largely smartly, Prime does the same and the human characters definitely help but they don’t save the day. It’s a team effort overall and there’s plenty of closure here at the end of the arc but also a lot more possibility there as well. It’s hard to imagine enjoying Transformers again after all these years but this series starts off very good and it has my curious as to the rest with some rather high but realistic hopes.
Grade: B+
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