
After the first live action movie, Peter Cullen and Frank Welker made their long-awaited return to Transformers on the small screen in Transformers Prime. Notable for its use of CGI and having a similar visual style to the movies, it had a lot of promise. Opening with an epic five part story to set the scene – a throwback to G1 – many had high hopes. But was “Darkness Rising” going to live up to expectations?
Darkness Rising, Part 1 – Summary
The episode opens up on the open road, Cliffjumper and Arcee are on patrol, reminising about some of their escapades on Earth. With little to activity from the Decepticons, it’s revealed that there are just a few Autobots on Earth headed by Optimus Prime in hiding, keeping a low profile while maintaining their all-important search for energon.
Picking up an energon signature, Cliffjumper goes to investigate. Discovering a group of Decepticons mining for energon, he calls for backup but is attacked before anyone else can arrive. Arcee calls Optimus who quickly rallies the rest of the Autobots who are on patrol around the world – himself, Ratchet, Bulkhead and Bumblebee. But despite putting up a brave fight, and destroying the energon in the process, Cliffjumper is defeated, and taken to Starscream.
Fallen Comrade
Eventually the Autobots arrive on the scene, only to find it deserted. Arcee finds evidence of a fight and debris from Cliffjumper, while Optimus Prime is more concerned that the Decepticons may be preparing to make a return, three years after they last saw anything from them. Turning their attention back to Cliffjumper, Ratchet tries to trace him, only to find that his life signal had gone offline…
Megatron No More?
With the loss of Cliffjumper, the Autobot numbers are reduced to just five on Earth making their mission to protect the planet even tougher. But they’re not the only ones with reduced numbers… In an unusual twist, Starscream is leading the Deceptions at the start of the series as there is no sign of Megatron after he was lost in space several years earlier.
The Human Factor
As with most Transformers shows, it’s not all about the robots, and early on we’re introduced to the human characters who accidentally stumble across the Autobots, starting with Jack Darby who finding himself flung into the middle of a high speed chase while admiring Arcee’s vehicle mode. Eventually we’re introduced to his friends Raf and Miko and soon after they all encounter the Autobots properly and are taken under their protection.
While some fans, understandably, resent the inclusion of humans in the shows and movies, they do have an important part to play. With a show like Transformers, all of the characters tend to look at the Earth as outsiders and as much as they may want to protect the planet theey have no real connection to it. They have a need for that human contact to not only teach them about life on Earth, but to help build that emotional bond to the planet or at least have a greater understanding of it.
While we see Cybertron near to the end of the series and we can experience the emotional ties the Autobots have there, there’s nothing like that for them on Earth so that connection is vital. While we have seen a pattern in previous shows that it tends to be human children rather than adults, that’s also more of a way to connect with the viewers as well (after all, this is meant as a kids TV show!) but I for one don’t mind them being there.
A Visual Delight
What really impressed me with Transformers Prime was the high standards when it came to the CGI in the show. Things have certainly come a long way since Beast Wars and while we’ve had animated shows and animation/CGI hybrid shows, this series really showcases what was possible on a weekly basis. More importantly, while it was technically superb, it didn’t detract from the story at any point – instead the quality of the animation complimented it.
When you’re watching a show and don’t notice the animation – good or bad – then the writers have definitely got that part of the show right, but here everything comes together as a complete package, with great character design, lighting, direction making it a joy to watch.
An Impressive Cast
I’ve talked before about Beast Wars having an impressive voice cast, but I’d say Transformers Prime has taken the voice cast to the next level. Words aren’t needed when it comes to Peter Cullen and Optimus Prime, but the rest of the cast are all superb. While we’re only introduced to a handful of key characters to start off with, it’s an impressive lineup. Sumalee Montano (Arcee) probably has the most to do in Darkness Rising not only through her connection to Cliffjumper, but Jack as well and does so superbly.
We don’t really get to hear a great deal from Jeffrey Combs with his portrayal of Ratchet in this first episode and Steve Blum’s Starscream doesn’t really come into his own until later on in the series, but both do well with what they have in the script to start them off.
Hitting Rock Bottom
Apart from the returning leads, a lot of the early hype about the show surrounded the guest appearance of Dwayne Johnson as Cliffjumper. Having a major celebrity appearing in any animated show or movie can give it a boost in terms of its audience (or box office takings for movies), it’s also a move that can infuriate a lot of voice actors. There are thousands of talented voice actors who are pushed out of roles in favour of “big names” who often take on roles and then do little with the characters other than simply play themselves.
And sadly that’s the case here with Cliffjumper. It’s often been said that Dwayne Johnson only plays Dwayne Johnson in all of his movies, and it feels exactly the same in Darkness Rising. Take the wheels away, replace the setting with a typical action movie and you truly wouldn’t know the difference. Even the design for Cliffjumper took inspiration from his time in WWE as The Rock and surely an established voice actor would have been more suitable?
Don’t get me wrong, he wasn’t particularly bad in the role, but he didn’t add anything to the part either.
Overall
My first love for Transformers will always be Beast Wars. While I watched G1 when it first aired, it was Beast Wars that actually got me interested in Transformers as a fan so it’s always going to have a special place for me. But when it comes to Transformers Prime, I was hooked within the first couple of minutes of this first episode. It manages to introduce all the main characters without feeling as it’s there’s too much crammed into the episode which can be a flaw sometimes with first episodes, helped by the limited cast line-up.
With a fantastic script, gripping story, great mix of characters and a stunning cliffhanger, I can’t wait to see what Darkness Rising Part 2 has in store…
Facebook Comments