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Thread: Series Review: Transformers War For Cybertron (Netflix) - SPOILERS

  1. #11
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    Finished it. I liked it. Animation is more enhanced/refined then the trilogy though it looks wrong when they are in vehicle mode. Wonder if the recolours have names yet

    Wonder if earthrise will be a cut down g1 esque story on Earth

  2. #12
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    Copying my thoughts from the Ozformers Discord:

    I just finished, it was pretty good actually. Not at the level of Prime or Animated I think, but the storytelling, characters and themes were still quite good. I haven’t seen too much of BW but the ship scenes gave me some of that vibe visually (probably the somewhat similar CGI style and Ark). The animation and textures(?) were actually a lot more dynamic and visually grabbing than I would have thought. They did manage to avoid making them look stilted and toy-like, a big concern of mine with taking the direct CAD files of the toys.

    They did fall into the “this war” schtick a little more than I would have liked, and the pacing was definitely a bit too slow in parts. I was very surprised when all the climax suddenly started happening, I thought there would be a little more before it. The voice acting except for a few characters (Elita and Megatron were good) was a bit piss poor and embarrassing/cringe for some characters. I am excited for the next chapter though, this is much better than what we have previously gotten in Machinima Prime Wars shows/bits.

    I hope they pull a few more stops in Earthrise(?), it was easy in this one to see the limitations like the constantly reused character models and limited cast (not in a good way) in general. There was a lot of telling rather than showing. With the constant references to the period slightly before like the rise against oppressors, battle of Tarnergate, etc it would have just been nice and powerful to just see that stuff happen instead. Some prequel trilogy problems!

    Side note: obviously a marketing technique but I did find myself appreciating a lot of the Siege toys on my shelf in a different way now, having seen them with voices, personalities and moving dynamically. It doesn’t really motivate me to get any more than I have however, seeing as most are getting superior new versions or I have a good one already (Henkei Hound and Mirage).
    Last edited by Bidoofdude; 31st July 2020 at 03:48 PM.
    Seeking the Following:
    - CW Brawl
    - Earthrise Runabout
    - Earthrise Thrust

  3. #13
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    What a struggle that was.

    Some quick thoughts:

    Prime needs to go. "Our planet is in mortal danger, the Decepticons are out to wipe us all out... I think I'll just talk some more." Shut up. Hand the reigns over to Elita. She is clearly wearing the pants. Why the Matrix chose a lima bean like him is beyond comprehension. BuT hE's OPtiMUs... derp.

    How convenient that Shockwave has a virus just waiting for the Alpha Trion protocols to kick in. The same protocols that amounted to nothing. Great way to pad out a thin story -that will fill 12 minutes of screen time, only another 132 to take care of.

    Omega obviously had enough of Optimus talking too, unlike the other guardians that are just there... How the Decepticons got hit by him when he telegraphs his moves from 80 kilometres away? Lols

    Blah blah morals blah blah Jetfire blah Impactor blah blah blah

    90,000 toys and we only see 7 character models.

    I counted 7 fusion cannon blasts from Megatron. That's just over 1 per episode. Shows how much fluffing each side does

    Starscream was one of my highlights. Go you good thing.

  4. #14
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    Personally, I'm kinda tired of every line of Optimus Prime's dialogue being delivered with such gravitas all the time. I miss the 80s when he just talked normally, with different inflections . Most of the voice acting wasn't that great, but the overall story was ok.

  5. #15
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    Just started episode 2. I?ve seen enough to say this is the best thing since the original G1 US cartoon. Absolutely loving the animation. I?d buy the figures if I wasn?t collecting Masterpiece.

  6. #16
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    Aside from the inherent lack of fluidity of 3D animation in action scenes, I think the whole thing was beautifully animated. And there were some excellent set pieces that were atmospheric and just plain gorgeous.

    However I really hate the contrast between toy-based characters straight imported from CAD models that are toy-accurate to a fault, and the made-up characters models that clearly can't transform. They just don't look like they belong together. And I guess the show kept the relative scale the same from the toy CAD files, which resulted in a really short Impactor and Prowl; then you add in the mix a freakishly tall Elita-1 and Arcee, the scale is just all over the place. And what's with those broad wrestler shoulders on Arcee?? That character model looks worse than MP-51!

    Plot is pretty much non-existent imho. I could tell they tried some kind of character development, but everything was far too predictable. I really liked Elita-1 though. She's consistently been the voice of reason in the Autobot camp and a level-headed second-in-commander.

  7. #17
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    found this nice review:
    https://www.polygon.com/animation-cartoons/21347569/transformers-war-for-cybertron-siege-cameos-characters-easter-eggs-autobots-decepticon

    i really struggled with the slow voice acting. is it possible to speed up a video?

    i liked how they referenced a lot of canon, but the plot was also too derivative. the only original bit was the macguffin of alpha trion's knowledge which only lasted a few useful minutes anyway.

    optimus was crap, he got smacked down in the first episode, clearly not a real rival to megs. elita was boss, nice twist on canon how she "chose" to stay. the best bits were impactor's and jetfire's character journey, bumblebee's was meh. poor magnus always seems to luck out in these stories.

    overall it was really cool to see such toy-accurate animation that honoured canon, hope the next chapter gets better.

  8. #18
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    I have just finished watching the whole series myself. I did like it but I can't help to feel that this show had a lot of unfulfilled potential. Overall this first season is just 'ok' and that's it. There is nothing really exciting or good about it and neither is there anything wrong or terrible about it either. It's just 'meh'.

    Why I say that? Well the story seems to be very 'geewunn' as in lacking in scope and depth, just the basics. The characters are all presented as very bland with none of their key personalities present, just the odd reference to their abilities like Mirage's holograms. Prime seems less of a leader and more of someone who begs for blind faith from his followers than really deserving of it. At the same time, he has been made dull just like the movie counterpart in which he is just sad and depressed like everyone else in this show. Also the story is so simplistic that its hard to believe this is part of a long and complicated war - They just went into fetch quests down with the old cliches like zombies, getting back to base on time, etc which again shows a lack of creativity and adds to the blandness. I understand that the war is tragic but something that the Marvel comics and IDW exceeded with good writing is that despite the tragedy of war, there can be some bits of humor and light hearted moments with character interactions that do not betray the overall theme of the story. The dialogue and character interactions here were mostly very bland and by the numbers to serve the thin fetch quest plot, this was specially so for the Autobots as at least the Decepticons had a bit more depth. The convenient plot devices and mcguffins were also what added a bit too much to the generic feel of the story so they lacked impact or surprise.

    Animation is not personally to my liking, it is too much like the Livio Ramondelli art we have seen in IDW like in the Autocracy series but it works alright. They reuse a lot of character models but I can understand that for budgetary reasons. Now having said that, the 'great war' also seemed to be portrayed as very small and narrow scoped with just a few characters on each side but once again this is probably due to budget but a more creative writing team could have added an awe factor to make the scope feel grander without showing it.

    I did like that Megatron was portrayed as the more competent leader as he strategised, provided a vision and inspired his troops (for the most part) and made difficult decisions. Prime on the other hand seemed more like a hopeful idiot demanding blind faith from his troops and falling into a bad situation onto another with only plot armor helping him through it - That part is disappointing. Commendable for the show was that they partially blurred the line between 'good and evil' by portraying the Decepticons in a more 'Dark grey' shade than straight out villains with differing perspectives on what it means to be a Decepticon. Despite most characters having bland and generic personalities, they did bring out some non-geewunn variety in characters not normally seen in animation such as Impactor, Flywheels and Cog. However it seems that the writing staff knew very little about them as they were just there to serve the narrow plot purpose (like the cliche sacrifice so Ratchet can push the button in time) than anything more deserving which makes me think that the writers are only superficially familiar with Transformers in a geewunn sort of way (as in only familiar with the 1984 - 1986 cartoon).

    So overall this show is 'ok'. It can be dull at times but watchable. For Transformers 'just ok' is a huge feat however as almost everything in the last 20 years for TV/Movies have been rubbish with maybe one or two small exceptions. Within this context, Netflix WFC may be by far one of the best Transformers series we have gotten in ages but in the greater scheme of things, it's just 'meh'.
    Last edited by kup; 1st August 2020 at 12:03 AM.

  9. #19
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    I binged this all in one go - I thought it was pretty cool (actually want to rewatch ahah!)

    While I understand some of the pacing was weird, and I agree with the non-toy characters looking super out of place (why didn't they sort this out?), overall I liked the story and the characters.

    Really enjoyed seeing the toys 'come to life'... It's definitely made me want to pick up some Siege characters (like Jetfire) that I passed on initially.

    Would have been cool to have the battlemasters in it (esp as they appear in the Netflix packs) but I mostly enjoyed the character spread - don't mind the recolours, but I felt like they kept mentioning 'the team' but characters like Arcee, Moonracer, Ironhide, Prowl etc just appeared out of nowhere in Episode 4/5, when they should have at least been in the group shots earlier-or they should have stuck with a main cast of 6-7 characters (like TF1).

    That said, I enjoyed myself a lot and am now very excited for part 2 and 3!

  10. #20
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    Yes some bots showing up and disappearing seemed odd especially one in the middle of a battle. I thought BB was hubcap at first being a bit of a douchbag. Such attitude. Ill stick with my 7/10. Some niggles and cliche writing but overall good.

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