Posted on August 15th, 2008 by Samuel Walters
DauntlessMedia.net is proud to announce that all reviews for the Transformers G1, Beast Wars and Beast Machines cartoons have been completed! This marks the end of the review phase of the “Transformers Universe” site. And I would like to personally thank each of our loyal readers for sticking with us on this six-month journey.
Of course, that isn’t the end of the work. From here on out, the site will be adding character pages and general analysis and commentary about the three cartoon series, as well as provide updates and news on the upcoming Transformers movie, due in 2009.
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Posted on August 15th, 2008 by Samuel Walters
A new review of a Beast Machines Season 2 episode, “Endgame, Part 3: Seeds of the Future,” is now available:
“Endgame, Part 3: The Seeds of the Future” brings the Beast Era to a triumphant – and sublime – close. Not only does it represent the end of the Beast Machines series, but it also signified the end of the journey for Optimus Primal, and his Maximal comrades. This episode quite deftly justifies two complete television series worth of stories about war, sacrifice, good, evil and, ultimately, balance. It’s difficult to appreciate the full nature of this episode without having been a part of the long journey, but even so, it contains themes and lessons that are universal in nature. What a way to end a series.
Congratulations.
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Posted on August 14th, 2008 by Samuel Walters
A new review of a Beast Machines Season 2 episode, “Endgame, Part 2: When Legends Fall,” is now available:
“Endgame, Part 2: When Legends Fall” significantly ramps up the action, the suspense, and the epic feel of Beast Machines. With this, the penultimate episode of the series, Beast Machines finally hits its full stride in terms of action and narrative. There isn’t a whole lot of depth to the episode, however, the absolute epic feel of the story more than compensates for this shortcoming. Indeed, this episode lives up to its audacious title: When Legends Fall.
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Posted on August 13th, 2008 by Samuel Walters
A new review of a Beast Machines Season 2 episode, “Endgame, Part 1: The Downward Spiral,” is now available:
“Endgame, Part 1: The Downward Spiral” is, literally, the beginning of the end. Events are moving swiftly toward their ultimate conclusion and as such, this episode is charged with plunging the story downward and setting the stage for the final battle between the forces of Optimus Primal and the forces of Megatron. And on all of those levels, the episode is a success. But like previous Beast Machines episodes, this one is unable to pull everything together into a cohesive narrative.
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Posted on August 12th, 2008 by Samuel Walters
A new review of a Beast Machines Season 2 episode, “Spark of Darkness,” is now available:
For much of the episode, “Spark of Darkness” is simply annoying and utterly forgettable. It’s replete with problems that make it almost unbearable. Fortunately, if you’re willing to wait nearly three-fourths of the episode, there is a payoff that is amusing enough to make it worth your while. Indeed, I’d go so far as to say it’s one of the best choices in the entire run of the Transformers cartoons.
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Posted on August 11th, 2008 by Samuel Walters
A new review of a Beast Machines Season 2 episode, “Sparkwar, Part 3: The Seige,” is now available:
“Sparkwar, Part 3: The Siege” is a marginally successful conclusion to the Sparkwar miniseries. The success of the episode rests almost entirely on the utter depravity behind Megatron’s ultimate plan for the sparks. Otherwise, the episode just doesn’t generate the kind of intensity and interest that you’d expect from a concluding chapter – even if the rest of the series is still ongoing.
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Posted on August 10th, 2008 by Samuel Walters
A new review of a Beast Machines Season 2 episode, “Sparkwar, Part 2: The Search,” is now available:
“Sparkwar, Part 2: The Search” is all about moving the plot forward, and putting the pieces in the right place for the final installment of this three episode set. The problem is, the episode doesn’t exactly know what it wants to do with itself. Splitting the Maximals into three groups does provide some opportunity to do some character explorations, however, splitting the Maximals into three groups dilutes each of the story lines and character explorations. The result is an episode that is successful in terms of simply pushing the story along, but is unsuccessful in terms of creating or maintaining any real momentum.
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Posted on August 9th, 2008 by Samuel Walters
A new review of a Beast Machines Season 2 episode, “Sparkwar, Part 1: The Strike,” is now available:
“Sparkwar, Part 1: The Strike” introduces new characters and establishes the groundwork for a three-part narrative that will bring Beast Machines to the brink of its conclusion. The primary purpose of this episode is setup, and it certainly has that fee to it. But the “The Strike” also provides sufficient subplots, about the introduction of two new Vehicons as well as Botanica’s hesitation to openly fight Megatron’s forces, to allow this episode to stand on its own merits.
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Posted on August 8th, 2008 by Samuel Walters
A new review of a Beast Machines Season 2 episode, “Home Soil,” is now available:
“Home Soil” introduces the Beast Machines audience to the wonderfully bizarre character of Botanica. It’s subplot, about Nightscream and Silverbolt learning to work together as a team and appreciate one another’s strengths is interesting, but altogether too superficial to be of much use. All told, this episode just slightly better than average, thanks to a solid homage in which we first see Botanica.
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Posted on August 7th, 2008 by Samuel Walters
A new review of a Beast Machines Season 2 episode, “A Wolf In The Fold,” is now available:
“A Wolf in the Fold” is an episode about harmony and chaos – and about those parts of ourselves which can lead to either path. These are certainly worthy topics for exploration and dramatization. But the episode just isn’t very successful. More to the point, this is a very poor episode that, without the attempt at a deeper subtext, would have failed miserably. As it is, this installment is barely tolerable.
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