As Megatron builds up his control of Dark Energon, the long dormant Unicron awakes deep in the center of the Earth. Already imbued with Dark Energon, Megatron decides it is only natural for him to command the power of Unicron as well. The feeling isn’t mutual. Unicron decides Megatron is unworthy of his power and rejects the Decepticon leader.
Not one to hold a grudge, Megatron proposes an alliance with the Autobots to defeat Unicron. The Autobots are skeptical, but Optimus Prime sees the alliance as the only way to help stop the Dark Energon contamination causing a number of natural disasters around the world.
The general concept is great, especially for a show that regularly features multi-episode arcs, though it doesn’t work quite as well as you would think. Even with some creative re-editing, One Shall Stand still feels like a series of cobbled together episodes rather than a unified production. The story has a flow, but the narrative isn’t incredibly tight. Breakpoints are usually obvious, which make it hard to lose yourself in the story like you would a movie. The concept probably would work better as two separate features. At the very least, it would offer a good stopping point, which is something I needed.
One Shall Stand isn’t a "new viewer" friendly experience. Fans of the show shouldn’t have a problem catching on to the plot, though anyone just jumping into the series may need to play a little catch up. Thankfully, the core plot lines aren't overly complicated; you'll just be in the dark on character relationships.
The extras are primarily for older Transformers fans. First is a short roundtable discussion with the series' writers. Unfortunately, the discussion isn't all that entertaining. Few specifics are given; instead, everything is discussed in the broadest strokes possible.
The second is a voiced storyboard animatic of an episode. I watched the animatic three times, but I'm weird and love anything having to do with storyboarding (it also helps that I teach a class on storyboarding…). Younger viewers interested in animation or art might have some fun watching the animatic just to get an idea of how the animation/ production process works, but that's about it.
Transformers Prime - One Shall Stand is an okay purchase for fans of the series, though you may want to wait a little longer for the official Season Two DVD. The movie presentation is a novel idea, but is a little too scattered disjointed.
