Transformers
Prime: Beast Hunters – Predacons Rising
(2013/Hasbro/Shout! Factory Blu-ray + DVD)
Picture:
A- & B- Sound: B- & C+ Extras: C Main Program: A-
The
saga of Transformer
Prime
comes to an epic end, picking up last season (this is the end of
Season
Three)
with Cybertron restored and Megatron defeated, the Autobots now seek
to rebuild their home planet, but Unicron resurrects and takes over
the lifeless body of Megatron and raises an undead Predacon army to
destroy the newly revitalized Cybertron. Now, Autobots, Deceptacons,
and Predacons must unite or fall forever under Unicron's chaos.
The
Autobots have returned to Cybertron and sent out the call for all the
cybertronians to return and Optimus Prime goes into deep space to
retrieve the Allspark while the Autobots begin taraforming Cybertron
and dealing with the remnants of the Deceptacon and Predacon army.
Soon, they all realized there is a much greater threat when Unicron's
undead horde arrives, they must all fight together. While this is
cool looking animation, the film lacked the human characters,
character development and just seemed to go from one battle to
another. It could of been a bit more epic if they were to raise an
army (or more cybertronians return to join) in the final fight (but
that would require a whole lot more new character designs) and it
leaves it opened end at the end, where the end was the start of a new
beginning (we can always hope they will make more in the future). I
still liked it for visual reasons and pace, but it could have had
more impact in the end.
The
1080p 1.78 X 1 digital High Definition image is fine throughout with
great color, depth, detail and brings the animation home, while the
anamorphically enhanced DVD is much weaker and disappointing, only
here for convenience.
The
DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) lossless 5.1 mix is solid, though I wished
for a little more of a consistent soundfield, it is a decent mix and
better than the lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 sound mix on the DVD version
which is passable for that format, but a bit weaker than expected.
Extras include the DVD version and behind the scenes footage.
-
Ricky Chiang
