Heya gang. I know there's a review for the regular 2 disc edition, but with so many people curious on this version, I didn't know if it warranted its own topic. So if the mods feel the need, go right ahead and merge this or whatever
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Anyway, on to my brief review.
Packaging
The packaging is TERRIBLE in design to be honest. It's made of your standard, semi-flimsy cardboard, only that there's this stupid, ugly gap in the centre of the case. This causes it to bend open, and gets the two halves all mashed up (mine got bent through shipping). Extremely stupid design choice IMO, a regular shiny cardboard box would've been WORLDS better.
Disc 1 - The movie
Pretty much what's been said before. Standard, good stuff here. Movie, commentary - the basics, but little else. Not much more to say here, so let's go on to the main curiousity here -
Disc 2 - Beginnings
First off, let's get this straight - this is
NOTanimated. It's nothing more than a slide show of panels from the prequel comic, with narration and voice acting. It's presented real nicely for certain, with the dramatic score kept intact, the 'black screen with big words' effect, and the voice work by Mark Ryan (I think), Cullen, Welker, and Starscream, Barricade and Blackouts' voice actors, are all cool.
However, the whole 'narrated by Peter Cullen' thing is a huge misleading, as if you've read the prequel comic, Prime is hardly in this one. Thus, hardly any 'Cullen narration'. Narrated by Bumblebee is more accurate.
I hate to say it, but I'm quite let down by the Beginnings disc. It was mildly interesting for me as I've not read the prequel comic, but those who have, might feel really letdown expecting some animated special. IMO, trading a whole extras disc for just a menu-less, 22 minute voice acted slide show is just not worth it.
Overall, the fact that it has the movie itself, just barely manages to save the set. It's great to have the movie in DVD form, but don't buy into the hype of the Beginnings disc - you can easily do without it.
6/10
