The Less-than-grand Finale: Machinima Transformers Power of the Primes Episode 10 REVIEW

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!!!