Episode Review - 110 Transformers Prime - Deus Ex Machina

[Fonecrusher]

Honestly besides the pilot mini-series, so far TFPrime has just seemed like a glorified, better looking G1 cartoon. It seems to be wandering from episode to episode with these kinda pointless kids adventures, with no over arching-plot (besides Megatron recovering). But I don't necessarily have a problem with that as I loved the G1 cartoon regardless. And I certainly prefer Prime so far, to ROTF at least.

[GoktimusPrime]

I quite liked this ep.

I really dug Knockout.

I didn't listen to Starscream mention his name in the beginning of the ep, so the whole time I thought he was meant to be Dead End... and I was thinking it was interesting how his personality seemed quite the opposite of G1 Dead End (he's confident whereas Dead End's a defeatist). It wasn't until the credits rolled that I realised he was called Knock Out and realised that he's nothing at all like G1 Knock Out. Yeah yeah, I know this isn't G1, but you'd think they'd at least try to make them look similar to their G1 counterparts. <shrug> I'm sure it's my G1 bias that's kicking in here and most kids wouldn't give a hoot.

A nice vain Decepticone. The contempt that Starscream showed to a fellow decepticon because he chose a car mode was interesting.

Makes sense to me. Flight modes offer air superiority. But having said that, having ground forces is important too. Helps to take out anti-air capabilities and when your enemies have considerable ground capabilities, at some point you're going to need to fight them on the ground. Although tactically you'd try your best to scorch them from the skies first.

I notice that Bulkhead is by far the most characterised Autobot. Makes a nice change from Bumblebee.

*nods* It's good to see as I felt Animated Bulkhead wasn't characterised enough.

Despite what they say, they also seem to have a very passing understanding of Transformers kind of like when you meet somebody and they say 'Yeah I used to love Transformers when I was a kid, do you remember the tape guy?' This to me explains why Orci's Prime completely lacks personality and is just a classic quote vending machine who speaks slowly as if he is reading a speech.

I agree with this. Orci and Kurtzman are like text book "Gee Wunners" whose knowledge of Transformers is limited and superficial at best. You watch the movie DVD interviews with them, and they pretty much admit this as they say that their experience of Transformers before the movie was watching the G1 cartoon on Saturday mornings. *sigh*

They need to redeem one of these coupons:


But as far as this particular episode is concerned, I found it enjoyable and outstanding by TF: Prime standards. Also note -- they spell Breakdown correctly! Does this mean Hasbro will follow suit too?!?

...or will the character be called Breakdown in the cartoon but Brakedown as a toy? (this will unfortunately be a more likely scenario IMO )

[Tetsuwan Convoy]

just a classic quote vending machine who speaks slowly as if he is reading a speech.

lol, that is Prime Prime in a nutshell!

[Sharky]

The kids annoy me already.. There isn't enough transformer time....

I wonder if we will see the two new cons again or is they drove off into the sunset to only make a cameo later...

Can we at least see one of the kids get hurt... And ratchet make an exo suit or something


And I wonder how long before we see dinobots or a shockwave type con......

[GoktimusPrime]

just a classic quote vending machine who speaks slowly as if he is reading a speech.
lol, that is Prime Prime in a nutshell!

lol, that is Prime Prime in a nutshell!

Describes the Prime Minister pretty well too (only with hand gestures)

[Hursticon]

Well unlike most others, I'm continuing to absolutely love the show and this episode included!
It was cool to see some further development of Starscream's personality as well as Bulkhead's apparent lament at not being more than 'Just a Wrecker'.
The introduction of the 2 new Decepticons was a much needed boost IMO to their ranks, especially seems Knock Down = Spottswoode!!!

[UltraMarginal]

I finally watched this last night, while I have been enjoying the episodes, this one did feel a little flat.

I did like the disgust/contempt Starscream showed towards choosing a non flight vehicle mode.

The battles were OK, I feel that there is a distinct lack of purpose in the battles though, prime nearly always gets kocked down, and early in the episode, the autobots get a hard time and later on they do well, with the odds being nearly the same.

I loved prime catching the missile, and the cruelty that Starscream shows towards his minions. The discontinuity between the first view of the security monitor with the phone on it and the latter view showing the side of the phone was a bit dissapointing.

As for the series tying together, apart from the episodes feeling really short, I get the feling that there is a bit of long term groundwork being laid for every episode and it will gradually grow into something fairly complex. we are at least getting something a bit meaty in each episode and it's so far so much better than anything we've had in years. certainly the unicron trilogy gets left behind, Animeted, well that's a hard one to beat, but I think it's more serious. It certainly has better production values than G1 and story wise I think it's going to be generally better too. as for Beast Wars/Machines the start of those was slow too, and the show ended up creating the fan favorite inductee into the Hall of Fame.

As for people not being happy with prime, as much as I love my rose coloured glasses, prime has always been fairly preachy, he is the moral backbone of the autobot cause, I look forward to him being tested though, perhaps by megatron or Starscream in a later episode.

I am really keen to see how this developes over the next couple months. Definitely hanging for a Bulkhead toy, and maybe an Arcee.

[Bartrim]

I didn't mind this episode. Thought it was pretty entertaining. Although it just feels like something is missing. I find that I am not hanging for each new episode like I was with animated.

[5FDP]

Although it just feels like something is missing. I find that I am not hanging for each new episode like I was with animated.

^ This

[GoktimusPrime]

I honestly did not like the first season of Animated... just felt too damn childish. Season 2 improved, but it was hit and miss. We had some really good episodes, then some really irksome eps (SUV FTL). I quite enjoyed Season 3 though. But I'm personally enjoying the first season of Prime a lot more than the first season of Animated. Although I found the first season of Beast Wars to be most impressive -- I can still remember sitting in front of my TV after watching "The Probe" and picking my jaw up off the floor... impressed my pants off! (just as well I was living on my own at the time )