Scene Analysis #20: Apelinq vs Scourge—Transformers: Rise of the Beasts · 5:50pm February 24th
Scene Rating Scale:
9/9: Flawless! Outstanding scene!
8/9: Great scene! Totally Rewatchable!
7/9: Pretty good. Not as perfect as I expected though.
6/9: Decent. Doesn’t ruin the movie/episode.
5/9: Mid.
4/9: Pretty bad. One of the weakest scenes of the movie/episode.
3/9: You hear that? It’s the wind of lameness.
2/9: One of the worst scenes of the film/episode.
1/9: Horrible, unwatchable, and unacceptable.
Greetings, folks! This is Mr. J back with my twentieth scene analysis for you all today. At this time, I will be reviewing the confrontation between the former leader of the Maximals and Unicron’s right-hand man from “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts”. Now, I do wanna say that the opening scene is one of the best scenes of the whole movie because it set the tone for the story and established the central characters we’re supposed to look out for.
I’m only gonna analyze this segment of the prologue because it stood out the most to me. But to establish some context here, the Maximals are fighting off the Scorponoks sent by Unicron. To protect the Transwarp key from the Chaos Bringer’s hands, Apelinq orders the others to escape with it while he buys them some time.
After dubbing Optimus Primal as his successor to lead the Maximals, he watches as they run off with the key. Thus, it leads up to this scene.
Honestly, it kinda saddens me that people are criticizing this scene because “it’s too short of a fight” or “Apelinq died too quickly” or “It looks lame!” I feel like people are completely missing the point of this confrontation and only looked at it through a surface level. Here’s why I think this scene is terrific in every way:
As Scourge slowly approaches Apelinq in the woods, the latter activates his arm blades and patiently waits for his enemy to get closer. Notice that he doesn’t rashly rush into a fight the moment he sees Scourge; he allows him to monologue until he makes his first move. He had to make sure he stalled him long enough for his Maximal brethren to escape.
This is the only scene he has, but throughout his entire screen time, we see bits of his own character that justifies him as the Maximals’ leader. He’s watchful, wise, protective, and vigilant. And notice how he doesn’t look at Scourge until the latter commented on the abundance of life seen on his planet.
That’s when he realized he made an indirect threat to his home. Now, when Scourge demands him to surrender the key, look at the background: the camera focuses on the tower being activated which is basically the key being put to use.
Then we see Apelinq turning his attention back to Scourge; that was the confirmation he needed that his fellow Maximals were getting away just as he ordered. Plus, he was hoping the Terrorcon wouldn’t realize this was a distraction although continuing to look away would’ve alerted Scourge of what he was really trying to do.
Then when Apelinq explicitly refused Scourge’s demands, the Terrorcon prepared to take him out right there and then. That was his opportunity to fight for his home world, but the thing is…he knew he was going to die.
He knew that Unicron was gonna consume their planet eventually, and he certainly didn’t want to go out like a coward and watch him devour his home slowly while he would perish with it in the most agonizing way possible. He would rather go out fighting so he wouldn’t see his own home getting eaten to oblivion. But at least he won’t die in vain because his surviving Maximals are the universe’s last rays of hope if Unicron must be stopped.
Now, here’s this detail that I’m sure many people missed while watching: when Apelinq jumped in the air with his arm blade raised, if you pay close attention, he was aiming for Scourge’s claw. Scourge saw what he was planning to do which is why he let his claw be exposed while he hid his other arm behind him.
He had a trick up his sleeve—a double-bladed sword to catch him off-guard. He quickly withdrew his claw while he stabbed Apelinq through the chest. Then he blasted half of his upper body with his raw dark energy power to put an end to Apelinq.
In my opinion, making this scene more longer would’ve been unnecessary and overkill because Apelinq was set to be killed off anyway and also because he had no intention in surviving his encounter with Scourge. Why would he appoint Primal as the new leader if he had plans to survive? It would’ve been pointless, now would it? So I don’t understand why people are complaining about this.
This scene has perfect pacing and serves itself well to set the tone for the rest of the movie. However, there are a few minute errors I noticed at the end: 1). Apeling’s Maximal insignia is never seen on his shoulder until Scourge rips it off out of nowhere.
2). Scourge’s lips do not sync with his “They never learn” line. However, that can easily be explained with the internal monologue idea. He is so egotistical and narcissistic he views himself as above everyone, but he says all this in his head.
Apelinq’s “You’re too late, Scourge” line doesn’t follow up with Scourge’s remarks which leads me to believe the Terrorcon was internally monologuing with himself about serving Unicron.
3). If you look closely at one of Scourge’s smokestacks on his back right after he says “They never learn”, it looks…unfinished.
4). Lastly, the Maximal badge he just took from Apelinq is somehow never seen again on Scourge’s shoulder pad when he yells “No!” In fact, it’s never seen again throughout the rest of the movie. Did the CG artists forget that or what?
Now keep in mind, these minor errors do not affect the overall quality of this scene, so in my eyes, this was a perfect way to start the movie. It’s actually a much better opening than the deleted alternate opening with Transit. So with all this said, I will give this a 8/9! Both David Sobolov and Peter Dinklage were amazing in their respective voiceover roles.
Peace!
Well said. Granted, I did wish Apelinq not only fought a little while longer but also transformed into his robot mode and utilized his “data-to-life” ability from the previous incarnation, but at least he died a hero to the end. His spark will definitely become one with the Matrix.
P.S. what are your thoughts about Lockdown’s theme being used in this scene?
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Lockdown’s theme does not fit well with this scene. Given how loud and ambitious it is, it’s very distracting and takes the focus away from the action.
I get that it’s just an edit, but I’m not a fan of this concept. I’ve seen this video before, and I wasn’t impressed back then.
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I guessed as much.
That said, this is the second time David Sobolov voiced a gorilla and the third (or fourth) time Peter Dinklage started in a movie that had (a) primate(s).