a mixed bag

velcrohead

I'm not sure how to rate this series. If you put it up against the silliness of some of the American G1 series, it seems more mature. However, if you put it up against some of the subsequent (and better) Japanese G1/G2 series, it seems almost sophomoric.

I understood the need to move past or do away with some of the older characters, but it seemed so contrived to just have them just all of a sudden walk away just for no real reason at all. The whole Prime-gets-killed-for-no-reason-at-all thing seemed extremely cheap. Rodimus and the guys just walking away after Cybertron is destroyed just seemed contrived. Some of it was well done. The death of Ultra Magnus was almost (but not quite) as gut-wrenching as the death of Optimus Prime in the movie. The destruction of Galvatron was okay.

But then you have a bunch of largely unsympathetic characters left, and no strong presence of a Prime or Megatron to lead them and make them make sense. Fortress Maximus is a pathetic Prime substitute to say the least. Scorponok seems cheap. And you get the feeling that the whole reason they're leaders is simply that they're large bots.

And of all the G1 characters we get to keep, why Wheelie and Daniel?? Why???? Couldn't we trade them both for Bumblebee or something? This is not really to say that this is a horrible series, though, because it does have merit. It's just not as good as the next couple of series.

score /10

velcrohead 18 September 2005

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw1174991/