chrisl
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I still think its the 1990s - when I joined TMUK
Posts: 1,054
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Post by chrisl on Dec 31, 2008 12:38:09 GMT
"five up, five down, like shooting cyberducks in a barrel"
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Post by Grand Moff Muffin on Jan 17, 2009 9:16:47 GMT
I have now watched both discs. Actually, I lie, The Rebirth is still playing but it has lost me. Quick reviews!
MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE
Lovely. Less grounded in realism than its 4-part comic counterpart, but still chock full of good concepts. A decent, well structured story with a nice twist to the ending with Prime failing and Mirage rising from the ranks to light the darkest hour, to coin a phrase.
SOS DINOBOTS / WAR OF THE DINOBOTS
"Maybe we'll name it Meteorini Chipperoni." Don't you just envy the Autobots - being able to follow up the thought "Wouldn't robot dinosaurs be cool?" with going ahead to actually build them? (Strokes chin. Hmmm. I think I'll have Wheeljack build two more! But why stop there?!)
DINOBOT ISLAND
The treat of the set for me, as I had never seen this two-parter before - hurrah! Thoroughly enjoyed it, but must watch it again to see how it stands up to multiple viewings. Probably well, judging by other present-day Dinobot episodes.
MEGATRON'S MASTER PLAN
A lot of fun, considering the Dinobots aren't in it. Completely ludicrous premise, mind. Probably good for getting drunk to and berating the characters on the TV screen for their stupidity. Trailbreaker is a god.
DESERTION OF THE DINOBOTS
The best episodes of season 2, in both my opinion and the Hub's. Even the non-Dinobot bits are fun, watching the Autobots and Decepticons dancing around as their circuits go haywire. And we actually get some shock-horror CONTINUITY as the Dinobots and Constructicons are both shown to be immune to the affliction because they were created on Earth. Then we go to Cybertron, which is portrayed superbly as a huge, fascinating place. We also get lots of alien-looking robots on Cybertron, and a revelatory history film showing multiple Arks and an ebb and flow of war over the last 4,000,000 years that Shockwave has somehow ridden out. Hurrah!
DARK AWAKENING
Rodimus is a prat. "What will Daniel and I do when the oxygen runs out?" "Well, you'll have two choices - suffocate or smother." Can you imagine Optimus retorting with that line? Ho hum. The story's OK, but not as good as most fans appear to think in my view. Still, nice to see Powerglide and Jetfire again.
CALL OF THE PRIMITIVES
An earlier slot than advertised on the DVD cover! Great animation, mediocre in other respects - and poor by the standards of Dinobot episodes.
THE ULTIMATE WEAPON
A lovely little gem of a story about First Aid trying to escape the war like Skids in the comic, marred by Rodimus Prime whining that the story's not about him, or some such thing. At the end Rodimus suddenly decides he can be a good leader after all...
THE RETURN OF OPTIMUS PRIME
...and at the start of the next episode he's whining again about how crap he is compared to Op. Continuity with Dark Awakening goes out of the window as a smashed-up living Op crashing into a planet morphs into a pristine dead Op crashing into a star, but never mind - at least he's back, that's what matters. And the hate plague story is actually a good one, poorly executed by lazy animation. If the red-glowy effect and instant punch-ups were ditched in favour of gradual behavioural changes, it could have even been scary and chilling. But it's a kid's cartoon, so never mind.
THE REBIRTH
Argh. BUT! Nice opening credits, which didn't make it onto the VHS release. What's their story then? Shame they couldn't quite afford to reanimate the whole credit sequence, as the old bits stand out against the new ones like great standy-out things. The Dinobots have bailed out of the doomed ship Sunbow long before this and now so have I.
With The Rebirth included but such entertaining classics as Heavy Metal War, A Plague of Insecticons, the Jetfire episodes and even the likes of Grimlock's New Brain and the one with Trypticon stealing the Taj Mahal left off, I can't exactly endorse the DVD's tagline, but as a FREE crash course in the essentials and non-essentials of the original TF series, one can't complain. Also - nice Prime Time homage on the cover, Andy.
Martin
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Hero
Fusilateral Quintro Combiner
King of RULES!
Everything Rules
Posts: 7,476
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Post by Hero on Jan 17, 2009 12:00:07 GMT
I am curious as to what the menu screens look like.
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Post by Grand Moff Muffin on Jan 17, 2009 15:30:22 GMT
No menus, it just plays straight through.
Which is fine. No frills, no gimmicks.
Martin
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Hero
Fusilateral Quintro Combiner
King of RULES!
Everything Rules
Posts: 7,476
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Post by Hero on Jan 17, 2009 16:46:01 GMT
No navigation though, but I'm sure it saves a considerable amount of memory space.
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Post by Andy Turnbull on Jan 17, 2009 18:15:41 GMT
Glad you liked it Martin, Dinobot Island is one of those really fun kids cartoon shows that your memory lies to you and tells you all cartoons were like that.
Desertion is a favourite too, I must have had that vhs rented out a dozen times as a kid.
Glad you liked the cover, that was inspired by some back and forth between me and Ralph. If I'd had the time I would have done a second cover with the S3 characters homaging the first GI Joe cover.
Andy
Andy
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Post by The Doctor on Jan 17, 2009 20:09:06 GMT
No navigation though, but I'm sure it saves a considerable amount of memory space. Navigates fine. I just play 'next chapter' and hurray, robots appear and do stuff. -Ralph |
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Hero
Fusilateral Quintro Combiner
King of RULES!
Everything Rules
Posts: 7,476
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Post by Hero on Jan 17, 2009 20:32:32 GMT
Of course they do Ralph. Andy already knows I like cover and enquired about having a non-attendee copy of the DVD.
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Post by grahamthomson on Jan 17, 2009 20:47:46 GMT
DESERTION OF THE DINOBOTS The best episodes of season 2, in both my opinion and the Hub's. Even the non-Dinobot bits are fun, watching the Autobots and Decepticons dancing around as their circuits go haywire. And we actually get some shock-horror CONTINUITY as the Dinobots and Constructicons are both shown to be immune to the affliction because they were created on Earth. Then we go to Cybertron, which is portrayed superbly as a huge, fascinating place. We also get lots of alien-looking robots on Cybertron, and a revelatory history film showing multiple Arks and an ebb and flow of war over the last 4,000,000 years that Shockwave has somehow ridden out. Hurrah! Well since you've mentioned the C-word, you should track down the episode Something something of Omega Supreme which shows not only the Constructicons alive on Cybertron millions of years ago but also them building Megatron. Or something like that. |
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Post by Andy Turnbull on Jan 17, 2009 20:53:58 GMT
The Secret of Omega Supreme - it's shite.
Andy
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Post by The Doctor on Jan 17, 2009 20:59:32 GMT
I always see the robots. They're everywhere. Everywhere!
-Ralph
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Post by The Doctor on Jan 17, 2009 21:00:22 GMT
The Secret of Omega Supreme - it's shite. Andy It's not that bad. But then I have a soft spot for Omega Supreme. TURNBULL: TERMINATED. -Ralph |
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Post by Andy Turnbull on Jan 17, 2009 21:00:51 GMT
MISSION: UNSUCCESSFUL.
RALPH WEAK.
Andy
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Post by The Doctor on Jan 17, 2009 21:18:40 GMT
TARGET: SMALL LITTLE MAN.
OBJECTIVE: SILENCE HIM. OMEGA SUPREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEME!
-Ralph
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Post by Andy Turnbull on Jan 17, 2009 21:50:19 GMT
WEAPONS: INEFFICIENT.
RECOMMEND WITHDRAWAL!
Andy
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Post by grahamthomson on Jan 17, 2009 22:01:48 GMT
WEAPONS: INEFFICIENT. RECOMMEND WITHDRAWAL! Andy Methinks Omega Supreme to be rather vacuous. |
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Post by Andy Turnbull on Jan 17, 2009 22:08:03 GMT
He's got no bottle!
Andy
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Post by The Doctor on Jan 17, 2009 22:08:46 GMT
OMEGA SUPREME GOT BOTTLE!
-Ralph
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Post by Jaymz on Jan 17, 2009 23:41:24 GMT
THE REBIRTH Argh. BUT! Nice opening credits, which didn't make it onto the VHS release. What's their story then? Shame they couldn't quite afford to reanimate the whole credit sequence, as the old bits stand out against the new ones like great standy-out things. They used animation from the toy adverts, so wasn't exactly new. |
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Post by Grand Moff Muffin on Jan 18, 2009 11:42:55 GMT
Yes, I have seen The Secret of Omega Supreme and it is what Andy said.
Ah, toy adverts, that explains it. Thanks, James.
Martin
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