The Final Countdown: Machinima Transformers Power of the Primes Episode 9 REVIEW

Almost caught up now Bronze just one left! Then you're freeeeeeee...

I love these reviews, but this show (and its predecessors) are such a convoluted, nonsensical mess that it's impossible to do anything but laugh, they really deserve more ridicule.
I mean, G1 & even the exalted Beast Wars had their moments with goofy scripts, exposition or plotlines, but the "nostalgia goggles" allow us to ignore all but the most obvious missteps in storytelling... This show, on the other hand, acts as if it *wants* incoherent drivel & craptastic fight sequences to be their defining legacy for future generations lol

Since it has been stated that Verizon is pulling the plug on Go90.com (and supposedly the app) many fans have been wondering where they can watch Power Of The Primes. The answer is that Power Of The Primes is now on Machinima's YouTube Channel. If you would like a playlist of all the current episodes, click here. All 10 episodes are in full HD for your viewing pleasure. Machinima's YouTube also hosts Titans Return while Hasbro's YouTube channel hosts Combiner Wars. It appears that the Prime Wars Tumblr page still works for Power Of The Primes fans that don't want to use YouTube. Enjoy!

Wow! This is good to know thanks!

Not supporting that mess since all they need is are clicks and not our opinions to be able to make this mockery.

Any news on the Geewun Redun version?

Now that first one was entertaining.

So, I just wonder if the Target Exclusive of the BB movie (most likely a March 2019 release)will contain TR & PotP as *extras*, or if Hasbro would be bold enough to release the whole Prime wars Trilogy on its own Blu Ray.

I know one person who marathoned the whole *roghly* 4.5 hour experience. I'm admitting up front, I'm not going to do it, but I wonder if anyone else would take such a dare...


*update* ok for those of you who like "Deep Hurting" (points if you get the reference). As stated above, All of CW is available on Hasbro's Youtube Channel, and all of TR & PotP is available on Machinima's Youtube Channel.

All 8 Chapters of CW total 45 minutes 16 seconds. If you happen to have the Target Exclusive TLK Blu Ray, you can save yourself a minute of precious time, and get a proper movie-like end credit sequence by watching it in this format (44 Minuets 5 seconds)

TR Runs 116 Minutes 55 seconds, and PotP runs 108 minutes 33 seconds (basically a full length movie each).

If you wanted to watch all content in one shot it would be a total of 4 Hours 30 Minuets and 44 seconds. Basically like watching two slightly longer than normal films, or, interestingly enough, like watching 13 episodes of your average-length Transformers series.

Sabr- I think you are going to have fun with the new Youtube CC's I just watched episode 10 of PotP with them on to showyou it was.

They translated Optimal as "Optimum", Rodimus Cron as "Rodimus Crime", and the best one yet, Requiem Blaster as "Red Wheel blaster" ...

Rodimus Crime...so that must be the rodimus of the reality where they are mob bosses who rule over a criminal empire

o.supreme wrote:Sabr- I think you are going to have fun with the new Youtube CC's I just watched episode 10 of PotP with them on to showyou it was.

They translated Optimal as "Optimum", Rodimus Cron as "Rodimus Crime", and the best one yet, Requiem Blaster as "Red Wheel blaster" ...

YouTube CCs are rarely professional quality anyway. They're typically machine-produced, ridden with errors just like that.

"Rodimus Crime"... That's actually pretty catchy.

It wasn't that good, but it wasn't that bad.

How they leave us hanging like that.

Longlive Roddie wrote:How they leave us hanging like that.

I took the liberty of merging your thread and you're incredibly short comment into the main POTP Cartoon discussion.

Please be careful of where you post, and don't make threads for one line comments that can fit into existing threads. I have better things to do with my life than sweep up around here.

After a slight delay through the SDCC madness, we have reached the final episode of the entire Machinima Prime Trilogy of cartoons. It's been over two years in the making, and it's finally come time to take a look at the culmination of all those previous episodes. It's been a wild ride from start to finish, with a few ups and certainly a few downs. We are getting a bit ahead of ourselves, though, because we have one more episode to look at before the entire series draws to a close. Let's do that now, and make sure to read to the very end for more of my final thoughts on the entire trilogy. Join me as I break down, in our final Prime Trilogy review ever, The 10th epsiode:

Saga's End

Strap yourselves in, it's going to be a long one.
(The following review contains spoilers for the Prime Wars trilogy. There are A LOT this week. Proceed...on your way to oblivion.)

The episode picks up where the last left off, with Rodimus, with his newly upgraded form, in a heated battle with Optimal Optimus at the Well of Sparks.
Megatronus turns his attention towards the main cast, and turns the requiem blaster towards Megatron. At the last moment, out of nowhere, as Megatron is about to be blown to bits, Predaking drops from the ceiling on to Megatronus.


Preda-ex-machina

Predaking demands to know where the Engima of Combination is, but he never explains why. Megatronus engages him, and it gives a moment for Windblade and Grimlock to help Optimal Optimus. They hold Rodimus down as Optimal removes the Matrix of Chaos from within him.
As we switch back to watch Megatronus battle Predaking some more, we get a strange point-of-view shot from Predaking's perspective. It's a neat concept, but it doesn't come across very well, as we only see Predaking's arms for a split second, and everything else in the several-second long shot looks like a mistakenly placed empty frame. I even had to watch the scene a few times to make sure that's what they were trying to get at.


Heart Stopping Action!!!

We also get flashbacks to the first episode of the entire trilogy, when Windblade sliced through Menasor like butter, as Megatronus just tears Predaking's head clean off with little to no struggle in the next scene. You know, this giant combiner that was winning in a fight against Volcanicus just a bit ago. Him.


FATALITY

He then chucks Predaking's decapitated head at Megatron, who responds with an "Oh Shit", which is really strange in my opinion, to hear from Megatron's mouth.

I haven't really addressed the swearing that has really more or less suddenly appeared in this portion of the Trilogy, with "Ass"s and "Damn"s scattered all through the past 10 episodes, so I'll share my thoughts now. While I am 100% behind a more adult or mature focused Transformers show, this series seems to think that making Megatron say "You're starting to piss me off" several times is the way to do it, instead of a darker setting or more complex story lines. The words feel even stranger to hear because, as I said, none of the other seasons really had swearing this bad or frequent. It seems like the show runners sprinkled some curse words here and there this season as a cheap and easy way to make the series seem more "Adult".

This isn't to say I'm against swearing at all, either. Far from it. I think it can actually be used to punctuate emotional moments and make a character's personality distinct. But you can understand my suspicion that this series' use of it wasn't exactly for storytelling purposes.


GIVE ME YOUR FACEEEEE

Solus Prime, still flickering into existence using power from the Well of Sparks, makes the projection of herself gigantic, and picks Megatronus up and out of the battle with Megatron. She envelops him, dragging him down into the well, causing a column of new sparks to launch out in to the universe from the well, which Perceptor remarks will create the next generation of Transformers.

The heroes' problems aren't over yet, as the Matrix of Chaos, while having been removed from Hot Rod, is still searching for a new host. It finds Megatron, who was one of it's bearers in the past, and starts to be enchanted by the evil object. As he tried to fight it, he realises that the only way to stop it from just going and finding another host is to destroy it completely - Megatron included. Optimal Optimus readies the Requiem Blaster, and aims it at Megatron. As the realization falls over all of the cast that this is what must be done, they say their final goodbyes and thank yous to the former Decepticon leader.

As Megatron raises the Matrix of Chaos, Optimal Optimus primes the Requiem Blaster, and fires. Megatron is vaporized.


One day I shall come back. Yes, I shall come back. But until then there must be no tears, no regrets. Just go forward in all your beliefs, and prove to me I am not mistaken in mine.

Perceptor analyses the ground in front of him, and confirms that while the Matrix took the majority of the force, no trace of Megatron remained.

But the cast doesn't have much time to morn, as the one and only Optimus Prime crawls out of the Well of Sparks, because this cartoon isn't in the business of breaking new ground. Yes, of course the precious Autobot leader has to come back to life, and, on top of that, of course he has to upstage the death of the character that led the team through the majority of the trilogy. The show had successfully created a touching, emotional, impactful moment with the death of Megatron, and totally ruined it by saving Optimus Prime. Even if he had waited a beat or two longer to crawl out of the Well, it would have not only allowed time for Megatron's death to reach it's full emotional potential, but it would have made Prime's reveal more impactful.


IT'S ALIVE

Prime explains that he was reanimated through some confusingly illogical process regarding his connection to the Matrix of Leadership. But he says that everyone else who was killed by Megatronus can't be brought back to life.

After the dust settled, we see Prime and Optimal in what appears to be the Sanctorum again. Optimal promises Prime that he'll return the Matrix, but Optimus refuses. Instead they wrap up the character arcs in a not-so-tidy fashion. Windblade has become the city speaker for all titans in the universe, along with Emissary, while Hot Rod is still recovering. Grimlock has gone to morn Sludge with his fellow dinobots, and Perceptor is now the guardian of the Enigma and the Requiem Blaster.


EXPOSITIONNNNNNNN

And, as the two Primes continue to walk away, lurking in the shadows is the one who started it all, Starscream.


*Roundabout by Yes plays*

And on that bombshell, it's time to end.

That's it. This over two year long saga has come to a close. Looking back on it, was it really that bad? Was it really that disappointing? Did it deserve the hate it received? Well...I personally think so. This show started and ended with consistent problems, ones I've harped on, sometimes painfully so, before. Blocky, generic mouth movements, stiff animation to the point only one character (in a shot of many) was moving at a time, the occasional bad voice take, editing, etc. And while many, admittedly, were improved upon with each consecutive season, I think they dedicated too much of their increased budget on celebrity cast members than what was needed to fix the flaws, and new ones began to pop up. Continuity problems, notably, were one that severely impacted this season's first half of episodes. Characters being thrown one direction, and waking up in the complete opposite direction, for example. And, as an interesting side note, with the death of this show comes the death of it's host streaming service, Go90, as it's parent company announced it would be shutting down the platform tomorrow.

The plot as a concept was enjoyable, with many characters that we've never seen interact in Transformers media before thrown together. It was a fun thing to see, Overlord fight with the Mistress of Flame, Optimal Optimus fighting basically what was Nemesis Rodimus Prime.
To be fair, the show started with a disadvantage, premiering right as it's "Tie in" toy line was coming off the shelves, with the second season following the same unfortunate pattern. And while this could be written off as another fault of the show runners, or Machinima, I think that was a slight of Hasbro's part. Out of the creators' control.


Art was one of the absolute highlights of the show

Positives for me looking at the entire series as a whole were the art style/color palette, and the score. I've talked about both before, and, aside from the animation at times, it was a very pretty show to look at. It was at it's best when it cuts to a sweeping open shot of the universe, or a building with many colored lights. It felt very futuristic and modern, and I think they nailed the aesthetic they were looking for. I honestly think it's one of my favorite /looking/ Transformers shows of all time. The character models and designs are great, and, if they had been animated better and given better lines, most characters would also be some of the best iterations we've seen. As it sits, only one character from the trilogy holds that title in my mind...


It was that smile. That damned smile.

Megatron. Probably the most universally praised part of the entire three seasons. As such, I won't dwell very long. Perfectly capturing what a post-war Megatron would be, the show runners, character designers, and voice actor, Jason Marnocha, killed it. With a ridiculous amount of personality and wit, he is, hands down, one of the best new interpretations of Megatron we have ever seen.

And, ultimately, I think he's so good, that that's how the show will be remembered. Not for it's terrible pacing, or emotional moments that didn't really land, or Slug disappearing randomly. I think it was a show that started out with a disadvantage and hype it couldn't live up to (what show really could live up to "The Game of Thrones of animation) and, through a series of missteps, became fatally flawed. Despite a few diamonds in the rough here or there, I think, at risk of sounding like a fanboy keyboard warrior, but as a Transformers fan, we should hold ourselves to a higher standard.

And that's it. Thank you so much for not only reading this review of the finale of Power of the Primes, but all of my reviews over the past 2 years. I really can't express enough how thankful I am for your support of them, your memes based off them, or your discourse (whether you agreed or disagreed with me). I hope you enjoyed reading them as much as I enjoyed writing them. They were a lot of fun, and I loved writing comedy-based pieces to share with you guys. Stay tuned for some more Seibertron articles looking back on the Machinima cartoon courtesy of myself and William James 88 in the coming weeks. Thank you again!!!

I wonder what would have happened if HB hired Ron Friedman or Simon Furman to have scripted the trilogy.

Overall, not a gut wrenching your raped my childhood moment. It could have been better is all.

It’s the Energon of our era. Mistakes were made (to the MAX) and hopefully soon we’ll revive more quality content. I feel that everything bad about this shitty trilogy was because of the rushiness and lack of caring from Hasbro, also hiring people completely unfamiliar with TF lore. It’s time to move beyond the concept of the 13. Transformers is strong when it has creative background to go off of, now there’s no new content, just endless homages.

Just an idea; but Hasbro should give us a once-or-twice a year animated film much like DC does. Mature films that hold over adult fans, ACTUAL maturity beyond just saying bad words.

I wonder if the next series will follow old man primal and his grandson cheetor going to defeat Starscream in Egypt...

SW's SilverHammer wrote:I wonder if the next series will follow old man primal and his grandson cheetor going to defeat Starscream in Egypt...

Will Starscream be possessing Optimus Prime's body from the neck down?

Sigma Magnus wrote:

Silverwing wrote:

SW's SilverHammer wrote:I wonder if the next series will follow old man primal and his grandson cheetor going to defeat Starscream in Egypt...

Will Starscream be possessing Optimus Prime's body from the neck down?

And my day has been made!

Jojo references...love them.

Great review Bronze, must be nice to be finally free from reviewing the series. You finished your time in purgatory

Am just here for that First Doctor quote under the pic of Megatron dying.

Well congrats Bronzewolf, you managed to give me enough reason to power through the last four episodes of Power of the Primes! And wow, it was... something.

I'll be checking out your reviews for Eps 7-10 in the morning, when I am less feddap with this worl' thanks to Machinima. But for now, just know that my suffering is your fault, somehow, I'm sure of it.

Honestly I think the whole Prime Wars Trilogy is exactly what a lot of fans demanded for years a more "adult" version of the original series from the 80s the story for the damn thing was pretty much that a more "adult" version of the original series and I found the whole thing as entertaining as the original series because that was what it was.

Fans said that wanted this for years and they gave fans exactly what they wanted. So if you don't like it, my advice is don't blame Hasbro and Machinima for this one, blame the person who you see when you take a good long look in a mirror.

Cyberstrike wrote:Honestly I think the whole Prime Wars Trilogy is exactly what a lot of fans demanded for years a more "adult" version of the original series from the 80s the story for the damn thing was pretty much that a more "adult" version of the original series and I found the whole thing as entertaining as the original series because that was what it was.

Fans said that wanted this for years and they gave fans exactly what they wanted. So if you don't like it, my advice is don't blame Hasbro and Machinima for this one, blame the person who you see when you take a good long look in a mirror.

I dunno, but personally what I want from an "adult" version of Transformers is something more like Prime, or heck, even Animated. A show that has emotional weight and real consequences, but one that also knows how to lighten up sometimes (because being an adult isn't just all grim seriousness all the time, either). Not a show that drops the shit word one time and kills off minor characters left and right with no build up to satisfy some quota of ""mature"" content.

We asked for a certain kind of mature series (and I know I don't speak for everyone, but I'm sure it's more than just me who wanted it that way). What Machinima gave us was a different kind of 'mature', one that's more akin to a fourteen-year-old trying to justify why he's not childish for still playing with his toys. Being mature and adult means knowing that it's okay to have fun, too!

Cyberstrike wrote:Honestly I think the whole Prime Wars Trilogy is exactly what a lot of fans demanded for years a more "adult" version of the original series from the 80s the story for the damn thing was pretty much that a more "adult" version of the original series and I found the whole thing as entertaining as the original series because that was what it was.

Fans said that wanted this for years and they gave fans exactly what they wanted. So if you don't like it, my advice is don't blame Hasbro and Machinima for this one, blame the person who you see when you take a good long look in a mirror.

There's a very very very fine distinction between the kind of thing that the G1 cartoon was and the kind of thing that this trilogy was, and a whole world of difference between the two when one takes into account the time periods in which each was produced/released, the levels of production that were applied to each, the creative mindsets that went into making each show, the varieties of acting talent that each utilized, and so much more.

Not trying to indicate that one was better or worse than the other, just that they were both very very different beasts from one another in the grander scheme of things that to call them so comparably similar seems rather fallacious overall.

Cyberstrike wrote:Honestly I think the whole Prime Wars Trilogy is exactly what a lot of fans demanded for years a more "adult" version of the original series from the 80s the story for the damn thing was pretty much that a more "adult" version of the original series and I found the whole thing as entertaining as the original series because that was what it was.

Fans said that wanted this for years and they gave fans exactly what they wanted. So if you don't like it, my advice is don't blame Hasbro and Machinima for this one, blame the person who you see when you take a good long look in a mirror.

As a fan of the original series, and someone who would love to see a continuation, I can say this is 100% false. There are fan videos on Youtube right now that cobble together footage from the original series, and Japanese series that does a better job of telling a Post-Rebirth story than this did (not that it was trying to), but you get my point.

Burn wrote:

Longlive Roddie wrote:How they leave us hanging like that.

I took the liberty of merging your thread and you're incredibly short comment into the main POTP Cartoon discussion.

Please be careful of where you post, and don't make threads for one line comments that can fit into existing threads. I have better things to do with my life than sweep up around here.

Didn't know that my comment was move here until now. And I won't be making one line comments for threads.

If you happen to be a fan of the Prime Wars Trilogy web series, then we have some unfortunate news. Thanks to Seibertronian ToxicSmoke, better known as TFanPage101 and TOAOFULTIMATEDOOM, has brought our attention to the fact that if you look at the Machinima YouTube page, it'll look, well, pretty dang empty.

Machinima privatized ALL their videos, including the Machinima Prelude to Combiner Wars, Combiner Wars, Titans Return, and Power of the Primes web series'. The Combiner Wars series can still be viewed on a playlist on Hasbro's YouTube channel, as well as a bonus on a Target exclusive version of The Last Knight Blu Ray.

How about Tumblr, you ask? Well, the Prime Wars Trilogy Tumblr blog, housing the episodes for view outside of the US, has been deleted for some time. This means the Prelude to Combiner Wars, Titans Return, and Power of the Primes have no "official" means to view them.

These shows were known for not being liked, so this may not be unfortunate news to many, but it is still worth mentioning. So, thoughts on this news? Tell us in the Pub forums below!

Kinda odd that Hasbro would allow them to privatize even the TF shows, what with them wanting to reach as much of an audience as possible.

Lol I never even finished Titans Return when it was airing.

Not bothered by it I have complete series of trilogy I can watch it any time

Meh, it's not like they can't still be watched elsewhere.

They are doing a favour to those fortunate enough not to have watched it. Truly awful, from every point of view. IMHO, obviously.

Nemesis Maximo wrote:Kinda odd that Hasbro would allow them to privatize even the TF shows, what with them wanting to reach as much of an audience as possible.

It’s a series by machinema. They technically own it. All thier stuff is gone with the purchase

Randomhero wrote:

Nemesis Maximo wrote:Kinda odd that Hasbro would allow them to privatize even the TF shows, what with them wanting to reach as much of an audience as possible.

It’s a seri4s by mashinema. They technically own it. All thier stuff is gone with the purchase

I get that Machinima produced it, but Hasbro owns Transformers. It seems to me that Hasbro could have said “no way Jose” to Machinima privatizing the TF videos. Even if they are God-awful.

Nemesis Maximo wrote:

Randomhero wrote:

Nemesis Maximo wrote:Kinda odd that Hasbro would allow them to privatize even the TF shows, what with them wanting to reach as much of an audience as possible.

It’s a seri4s by mashinema. They technically own it. All thier stuff is gone with the purchase

I get that Machinima produced it, but Hasbro owns Transformers. It seems to me that Hasbro could have said “no way Jose” to Machinima privatizing the TF videos. Even if they are God-awful.

So? Marvel Studios owns the rights to Hulk but they don’t own the rights to make a Hulk sequel. That’s why he’s always a costar in the movies since the first one came out. It’s very possible it’s a situation like that where yes Hasbro owns transformers but they don’t own this show becuase it was licensed out to Machinema.


They own the license but they more than likely don’t own that show as a whole. There’s a reason this trilogy was never released physically except for CW as a bonus feature on Last Knight and no, it’s not because grown men in their 30s and 40s hated it and complained about it on the internet.

This also just happened. It’s very possible it will be uploaded to hasbros channel if they have the series in their library but chances are it was an exclusive in their contract to be a machinema exclusive and while it’s been taken off Machinema isn’t gone as a whole.

Thanks for the news credit!

Yeah, the machinima show isn't great, but I'll miss it.

Not a huge loss in my opinion. They were pretty terrible.

As awful as they were, someone others have used this to point out the value of physical media. I'm hoping at least one version of the BB physical media release will have TR & PotP as extra content. Again, yes they are bad, but they dont deserve to be lost forever IMHO. Sure there are *other places* you can watch them, but having them in some physical format still has merit

You'll recall we recently wrote about Machinima shutting down sources to all of their videos including their series of Prime Wars Trilogy animations. Now after some recent events we seem to have a better understanding as to why. Thanks to various news outlets such as the the Hollywood Reporter and Variety we've learned that Machinima has officially begun closing down as of this month.

Apparently this has been a long time in coming. In 2016 Machinima was bought by Warner Bros. Digital Networks which was in turn bought by AT&T in 2018. This past December AT&T began a restructuring process that reorganized many of their media outlets under their own Otter Media (Crunchyroll, VRV, Rooster Teeth, Fullscreen Media, Gunpowder & Sky, and Hello Sunshine) while Machinima is being absorbed into Fullscreen. As a result 81 of Machinima's 100 employees have been laid off as part of an overall 10% reduction in AT&T staff.

Fullscreen calls their work "high-intensity marketing for the social-first generation" which probably does describe the Transformers Prime Wars animations fairly accurately. Most likely once they've ironed out new license agreements we'll see Machinima's videos return online in one way or another, but for now everything is up in the air. Whether or not we see a War for Cybertron animated trilogy has yet to be seen.

So what do you think? Is this a crushing blow to Transformers animations or no great loss in disposable media? Sound off in the Energon Pub forums below!

Sad to hear about this. Hope those people who lost their jobs are able to find new ones soon.

I figured something like this was coming after they privatized all their YouTube videos.

Good news, everyone!
https://roosterteeth.com/series/transformers the trilogy is back

https://gfycat.com/discreteglisteningdamselfly


seriously though...I am glad, as terrible as this is, i'd rather have it accessible than not. Still holding out hope that one of the special retailer releases of BB will have TR & PotP as an extra feature.

o.supreme wrote:https://gfycat.com/discreteglisteningdamselfly


seriously though...I am glad, as terrible as this is, i'd rather have it accessible than not. Still holding out hope that one of the special retailer releases of BB will have TR & PotP as an extra feature.

Oh good you went with a futurama reference also

o.supreme wrote:seriously though...I am glad, as terrible as this is, i'd rather have it accessible than not.

I mean, as far as online accessibility goes, it's not like all three aren't readily findable and easily watchable on the likes of KimCartoon, WatchCartoonOnline, and others of their ilk. Sure, they're unofficial sources, but the shows are still out there for anyone to find and watch in this Internet day and age.

Sabrblade wrote:

o.supreme wrote:seriously though...I am glad, as terrible as this is, i'd rather have it accessible than not.

I mean, as far as online accessibility goes, it's not like all three aren't readily findable and easily watchable on the likes of KimCartoon, WatchCartoonOnline, and others of their ilk. Sure, they're unofficial sources, but the shows are still out there for anyone to find and watch in this Internet day and age.

I prefer official sources

TrypticonCarne wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:

o.supreme wrote:seriously though...I am glad, as terrible as this is, i'd rather have it accessible than not.

I mean, as far as online accessibility goes, it's not like all three aren't readily findable and easily watchable on the likes of KimCartoon, WatchCartoonOnline, and others of their ilk. Sure, they're unofficial sources, but the shows are still out there for anyone to find and watch in this Internet day and age.

I prefer official sources

Sure, but sometimes one must make do with what's available.