Seems like the more I get done on this blog, the more I still need to do. There are many shows and movies that are now staples of Mecha and Kaiju that I haven’t gotten around to tackle yet. Really wish I had the time to make this my day job. Because I don’t I have no choice but to keep on going. Time to look in on one of my all time favorite franchises with Transformers Prime.

Unknown to the world at large a war is going on between a race of robots from the planet Cybertron. One one side of the fight is the heroic Autobots and on the other is the traitorous Decepticons. A trio of kids named Raleigh, Miko, and Jack discover this war and join the Autobots. Together with Ratchet, Arcee, Bulkhead, Bumblebee, and Optimus Prime, the three kids will work to protect he world from Megatron, leader of the Decepticons.

This series is dark, edgy, and taking the franchise in the way it needed to go with a lot of new twists on  different aspects of the Transformer mythology. Story lines like Dark Energon which causes transformers to become zombies and the new approach to what Unicron is are very intriguing takes on aspects of the history that we have already seen. In the initial five part premiere we watch as fan favorite cliff jumper is killed, Megatron creates a race of zombie robots, and is blown up and presumed dead trying to bring his new army to earth. If that doesn’t entice you nothing will.

One of the aspects I enjoy in this series is how they decided to treat the characters like they were robots. Introduced in the show Beast Wars, the writers and creators of the show actually decided to portray the characters as robots that can actually sustain damage and be repaired afterward. This allows for highly graphic violence to be displayed on a regular basis which makes the tension and stakes feel much more real.

We are also introduced to a few new Decepitcons each with their own unique skills and personality. Knockout the Decepticon scientist/medic who is extremely vain and cunning easily became a fan favorite. We also get actor Steve Blum as Starscream who keeps the character faithful to his Generation One counterpart but adds his own bit of a deceptive nature with the slyness overflowing his voice. People are split on the idea of the now silent Soundwave, who repeats what people say back to them much like the Predator but personally I liked him. He was more mysterious and he unsettling that way. Adding to the fact that his job was to monitor communication frequencies to spy on people and the creepiness of him goes up a bit more.

If this review isn’t clear enough, let me spell it out for you. GO WATCH THIS SHOW. At least the first season which I feel is spot on. How will the seasons that follow fair? You’ll just have to come back for those reviews another time.

RATING: A