Review of Netflix Transformers War for Cybertron Chapter One: Siege
Tuesday, July 28th, 2020 4:19PM CDT
Categories: Cartoon News, ReviewsPosted by: ScottyP Views: 98,769
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A Review of Transformers: War for Cybertron, "Chapter One: Siege"
Spoiler Free-ish
Images in this review courtesy of Netflix
In a mere two days' time Transformers fans will finally get to watch the highly anticipated, much speculated about first chapter of the Transformers: War for Cybertron Trilogy, known as "Chapter One: Siege". You'll need a Netflix account to stream the show's 6 episodes, and in case you need a brief overview, here's the official synopsis provided by Netflix:
It is the final hours of the devastating civil war between the Autobots and Decepticons. The war that has torn apart their home planet of Cybertron is at a tipping point. Two leaders, Optimus Prime and Megatron, both want to save their world and unify their people, but only on their own terms. In an attempt to end the conflict, Megatron is forced to consider using the Allspark, the source of all life and power on Cybertron, to “reformat” the Autobots, thus “unifying” Cybertron. Outnumbered, outgunned, and under SIEGE, the battle-weary Autobots orchestrate a desperate series of counterstrikes on a mission that, if everything somehow goes right, will end with an unthinkable choice: kill their planet in order to save it.
After the debacle that was the Prime Wars trilogy of streaming shows, fans looking for something different in (perceived) tone from the outstanding Transformers: Cyberverse have eagerly awaited the arrival of this latest installment. Many of us are happy to see toys that we've had for a year and a half reach the silver screen. All of us are wondering if it will be good - read on to find out.
The main plot of the series is summed up well in the synopsis above, and most fans will likely find the "30,000 foot view" of the plot to be about what's expected. While stories about the end of the war on Cybertron are as old as the franchise itself, the past decade or so has created so many disconnected permutations of this story that it's starting to become Transformers' version of Bruce Wayne's parents being killed. It makes sense for this first chapter to play things relatively safe in this context, given the amount of casual fans likely to be exposed to this series that haven't experienced the wide combination of movies, video games, books and other Transformers TV shows covering the same general story as much as those hanging out here on Seibertron.com on a daily basis have in recent history. For the most part, the good guys are the Autobots, the bad guys are the Decepticons, they're in a war which is bad and has been long, and events occur with big, sweeping consequences for the Transformers. The show keeps it simple on a high level, and to be honest, it works.
One of the reasons the somewhat standard main plot works is because the side plots with tighter character focus are then able to grasp the spotlight and provide the series' most compelling moments. The first hour of the show does feature a great deal of talking and walking but it's worth sitting through because the characters you should really be paying attention to, such as Jetfire and Bumblebee, gain foundational characterization that pays off as the episodes progress. The cast is a little big and there's maybe one "B" plot too many running in the middle of this first chapter given its length, but this isn't a problem that sticks around for long.
The aforementioned cast of characters is kept somewhat small and if you're expecting anyone that doesn't have a Siege toy, temper that expectation now. Heck, if you're expecting any Battle Masters or Micromasters from the toy line, I'm going to go ahead and bring you that disappointment now too, because they're not present. Optimus Prime and Megatron receive the most spotlight as expected, with Jake Foushee reprising his role as Optimus Prime after performing him in Cyberverse. It's one of the weaker Optimus Prime performances that I can recall, but Foushee does kick some more emotion in nicely during some of the more action-packed sequences. Marnocha's Megatron sounds tired, which feels character appropriate, but is overall so low and slow that if you were only listening to audio you might mistake the character for Unicron or some other giant Transformer. It's worth noting this could be entirely on the provided direction and not the actor himself, to be fair.
Thankfully, there are standout voice performances surrounding the sub-par ones. Keith Silverstein brings in a fantastic performance as Jetfire, layering in his experiences playing Char Aznable in another globally huge robot franchise to create a take on the character that feels fresh while carrying appropriate emotion. Georgia Reed delivers punchy lines as Chromia in another more subtly notable performance, to me at least, while Frank Todaro's Starscream has evolved into one of the best interpretations of Chris Latta's original take on the character's voice that's ever been recorded.
Now if voice director Philip Bache could just get everyone to actually enunciate the first "r" in "Cybertron" we'll be getting somewhere very good.
Transformers shows are notoriously limited by budget constraints, as making complex CGI models of robots transform into CGI models of vehicles is, presumably, complicated and expensive. There's just enough transforming most of the time that it feels appropriately present throughout, and sometimes this is accomplished through clever-ish use of smoke and other camera panning effects leaving your imagination to fill in the rest. It works fine and is preferable to skipping out on opportunities to have the Transformers, you know, transform. There was only one moment early on where I wanted to pull my hair out because the Autobots were running away on foot from Decepticons, some with flying alt modes, who were also chasing them on foot. The rest of the animation is fine with the movements of characters looking infinitely better than what was seen in Prime Wars, though not quite as nice as other recent forebears such as Transformers: Prime or even Cyberverse with the characters in "Siege" moving their hands a little too much, too often while they speak. The backgrounds are also positively gorgeous at times, with large, sweeping vistas and massive buildings giving Cybertron a sense of grandeur and scale. Occasionally the characters stand out oddly against them, but this was something I only noticed once or twice during interior shots.
I'm going long on this part of the review, but need to mention that the action and battle sequences are crisp, busy, and ultimately quite satisfying.
If there's one thing I found to be a let down, it's the sound. The balance of voices to background music and sound effects was occasionally off, and I had to turn up my 5.1 system temporarily at times to make out what some characters were saying. The classic transformation sound effect from G1 is used effectively in some places, but they forgot to sample more than one version of it making me wonder why they even bothered at all. It's something that should be done with differences in tempo, levels and duration based on the character and what they transform into but here, a lazy, one-size-fits-all approach was used. Edward Bosco's voice performance as Soundwave is ruined by a poor attempt at his voice effect but at least he also plays Ultra Magnus well, proving he's not a slouch. The musical score by Alexander Bornstein is entirely forgettable and sounds like the Tron: Legacy score by Daft Punk was cut into small samples to avoid a lawsuit then rearranged into a generic bore-fest that adds no emotion to anything at any point. My apologies to Mr. Bornstein if generic, derivative music that sounds like everything else while also sounding like nothing whatsoever was precisely the musical direction desired by Hasbro and Netflix.
Producers of Transformers shows, if you take nothing else from this review, please take this: just hire Vince DiCola next time. Barring that, hire a good Synthwave artist that can provide some exciting electronic scoring to go with the action.
:exhales:
It doesn't suck.
All I wanted was for this show to not suck, and it achieves that. The wider story is a bit blasé to this long time Transformers fan who rabidly consumes its media, but the side plots and character work help elevate it. Some of the character models are re-used as generics far too often, but the overall nice visuals make me care less about that. The voice performances are hit or miss and the score is terrible but excellent all-around work on characters like Jetfire, Ratchet, Mirage and even Impactor lead me to forgive. The really important thing here is that it was a fun watch that doesn't ask for a ton of your time. You'll have about 2.5 hours sometime in the next week where the Transformers will entertain you, and for many fans, that's a big increase.
I considered going a notch higher on the score below, but "Tarnhauser Gate" was too cringe-worthy to let go without some punishment.
. ½
out of
Seibertron.com was provided with complimentary advance screening access to Transformers Chapter One: Siege by Netflix for the purpose of this review. "Thank you" to Netflix and Hasbro for this access!
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Posted by o.supreme on July 28th, 2020 @ 4:40pm CDT
ScottyP wrote::exhales:
It doesn't suck.
All I wanted was for this show to not suck, and it achieves that.
It is sad we've lowered our expectations so far, but it is truth to the most accurate degree. thanks for your honest review, my anticipation for watching this series has gone up a couple clicks.
I've been Waiting 7 years from the end of Prime until now. and Nine Years between the end of Car Robots to Prime. It's rough, really rough to be a Transformers fan that has certain expectations of an animated series. Glad to see the drought has ended.
*If your raising your eyebrows at my mention of Car Robots/Rid. I can explain. BW was great, BM was a letdown. Car Robots not only return to formula of sorts, but added a fun anime flare as well. The sense of Fun most fans attribute to TF Animated, is what I get out of Car Robots.
Posted by ZeroWolf on July 28th, 2020 @ 4:59pm CDT
Posted by sol magnus on July 28th, 2020 @ 5:17pm CDT
Posted by ScottyP on July 28th, 2020 @ 6:58pm CDT
Yeah, I'm looking forward to the next installments now. Went into this one with a lot of fear, and while it's not revolutionary or some phenomenal Emmy winner, it's nice to have been freed from the fear.ZeroWolf wrote:That it doesn't suck is great news as hopefully the next chapter can build on what this show does right
Posted by Rodimus Prime on July 29th, 2020 @ 3:44am CDT
Posted by ScottyP on July 29th, 2020 @ 6:51am CDT
None of the material I can get to goes this specific, but with time zones being what they are I'd guess 3 AM eastern at the soonest.Rodimus Prime wrote:Will it be available at midnight, or will we have to wait until later in the day?
Posted by o.supreme on July 29th, 2020 @ 1:37pm CDT
In any event Thursdays are always my busiest day both for work and after work obligations. I'll no doubt want to binge this all at once (seems to make for about a 2 hour movie), so Ill regrettably end up waiting until late Friday most likely. I could probably watch part of it Thursday night, but if I forced myself to watch it all, I'd be in bad shape come friday morning
Posted by D-Maximal_Primal on July 29th, 2020 @ 9:23pm CDT
Posted by Cyberpath on July 30th, 2020 @ 4:01am CDT
Yeah, overall it's refreshing to see something new. Even if I think it has zero "rewatch value."
Posted by SpikeyTigertron on July 30th, 2020 @ 5:21am CDT
I felt it had a nice blend of action. It's hard for me to critique some of my particular gripes w/o going into specific details... but all in all... I enjoyed it. Would keep watching.
Kind of wish Dreamworks got the nod for this. They did great with Voltron and She-Ra.
Posted by Burn on July 30th, 2020 @ 5:48am CDT
I mean it's the same old story AGAIN, but this time with an even smaller cast. I know most people are going to think it's the greatest thing under the sun, and hey, good for them, but there was just something about it, and I can't say what exactly, that stopped me from truly enjoying it.
I didn't hate it, but I won't be singing it's praises unless we're having a comparison between it and Machinima's series.
Because that series sucked huge festy donkey balls.
Posted by Deadput on July 30th, 2020 @ 5:56am CDT
Performances I really did like include Ultra Magnus, Impactor, Mirage, Cog, Elita-1, Ratchet, Starscream (some of the best traditional type SS VO I've heard), Shockwave (his voice fits his role here) and Soundblaster as weird as it is since Soundwave's was the one I disliked the most but I guess it's how they used the vocal effects with SW rather then the actual voice work.
The animation was good, it's not going to "wow" anyone I guess but I didn't notice any bad frame rate, there was a few environments I liked such as The storm and such in the Sea of Rust
The story was fine, not bad by any means but I guess it wasn't the best story ever told but I never look for stuff like that, I just watch it as it is and judge by my entertainment of it and I was entertained, it's quite better then Prime Wars in my opinion if anybody wondered about that.
Honestly the weirdest thing for me was The weird inclusion of Moonracer in the second last episode who was just a straight repaint of Chromia with no new head and her sudden strange death, she was literally just a generic with an existing character name for all purposes, to be honest it came off as a tad strange and I'm fine with the generics in the show, the other strange thing was Astrotrain's brief appearance in the final episode which I can only describe as "he shows up" and that's literally it, he does nothing besides walk a bit menacingly with no one acknowledging him, and he's like the size of Omega Supreme or something.
The spoiler pack with Ultra Magnus and Rung absolutely makes no sense to me now, is Rung supposed to represent the Alpha Trion protocols?
I quite enjoyed it, it might not be the second coming of your fave Transformers series (whether that be Beast Wars, Animated, Prime or something else) but I think I can say that it will likely be enjoyable for most fans of the franchise unless the VO bothers you more then it did me and if you have problems with character deaths.
7/10, better then average and I'm looking forward to the next parts which are presumably called Earthrise and Kingdom, I personally hope that they can increase episode count by a little for the other parts like maybe 7 or 8 instead of 6 since I feel that the number of episodes for Siege probably rushed things or made it so that the show creators couldn't fit certain things in.
Posted by Deadput on July 30th, 2020 @ 6:06am CDT
Burn wrote:It was ... meh.
I mean it's the same old story AGAIN, but this time with an even smaller cast. I know most people are going to think it's the greatest thing under the sun, and hey, good for them, but there was just something about it, and I can't say what exactly, that stopped me from truly enjoying it.
I didn't hate it, but I won't be singing it's praises unless we're having a comparison between it and Machinima's series.
Because that series sucked huge festy donkey balls.
I can see where your coming from with the "repeated story" stuff, and yeah it's for sure a bit old to go into the war over and over again and I would love to see new stuff and perspectives be presented in future content.
I think at this point in the franchise since it's been about 35 years the character dynamics and cast is what one should look for in these stories rather then what the whole overall plot is since a "war" franchise can only tell so many stories.
And I think there was some nice character stories and moments told in this mini series, so for that I think Siege has it's place.
With the way Siege ended With the Ark taking off, maybe Earthrise and Kingdom will be able to tell more intriguing stories and Siege simply being the setup for things to happen, but I could of course be wrong.
Posted by Cyberpath on July 30th, 2020 @ 10:11am CDT
Never mind Astrotrain or Omega Supreme.. what about Bumblebee, Ultra Magnus, Ratchet, Soundwave, Shockwave, Reflector, Impactor, Mirage, Arcee, Wheeljack, etc? Ridiculous. It's like a show about super-heroes that don't use their powers.
And those that did, mostly transformed out of screen.
Posted by ZeroWolf on July 30th, 2020 @ 10:13am CDT
Posted by o.supreme on July 30th, 2020 @ 10:26am CDT
The lack of Transforming was a bit bothersome as some have pointed out, but it was better than Prime Wars where it was barely existent and done in shrouded dust, or offscreen. There was some of that here as well, but it was better. Fans of IDW comics, where there is barely any Transforming at all are sure to enjoy this
Unlike Prime Wars, Siege is definitely rewatchable. I know we as fans are going to pick this thing s apart, I just hope we don't kill it before Earthrise comes along. Also, I know many fans have been praising Cyberverse for it's unique takes. But it's just nto for me. Visually it is hard to watch, and the plots are silly IMHO, perfect for its intended audience, but I've seen the whole series to its conclusion, and enjoyed none of it, and have no desire to watch it again. Sige, with its flaws, I feel at least tried to make something intended for me, and I appreciate that, and will watch it a few more times no doubt before the next chapter comes along.
As I said I have a few nitpicks, but I'll leave with just a question. In one interview FJ DeSanto Says one of his favorite characters Dreadwing is introduced in Episode 5. Now, that characters name was mentioned, but was never seen (although I was a bit sleepy, maybe I missed it?)...Does anyone think there are some deleted scenes that didn't make the final cut? Or is poor FJ just confused?
Posted by Deadput on July 30th, 2020 @ 11:37am CDT
Posted by o.supreme on July 30th, 2020 @ 3:42pm CDT
No Battlemasters or Micromasters (some mini cassettes do appear briefly).
Sixgun
Brunt
Springer
Apeface
Galaxy Prime
Crosshairs
Bluestreak
do not appear.
Still, I believe nearly 30 characters did appear if I counted correctly (not counting generics, and multiple nameless seekers), that's about double what Beast Wars and Transformers Prime had in their first seasons sticking with smaller casts, and a much larger budget. Now I'm not saying in any way shape or form, WFC is anywhere close to as good as either of those. Basically I'm just saying I'm glad they were able to give us a couple nice surprises despite some flaws.
Posted by AllNewSuperRobot on July 30th, 2020 @ 4:04pm CDT
I echo Burn that is it the exact same story again, which is disappointing. There was no real over attempt to even give the subtitle context. Aside from just branding for the toyline. I didn't like how toy-like the designs were. The big fat kibble backpacks on most people were ugly.
Deadput wrote:I think at this point in the franchise since it's been about 35 years the character dynamics and cast is what one should look for in these stories rather then what the whole overall plot is since a "war" franchise can only tell so many stories.
I'd dispute that. Given Transformers has about 8 different continuities, that have put their own spin on things. And there are a lot more war stories to be told than that. This is also simply repeating one of the previous ones, with caveats.
As far as voices go, Prime and Soundwave were not good. The modulation for SW made most of his dialogue inaudible and the Prime voice would have been better served with a Cheetor/Hot Shot/BB type character. Really didn't mesh with the visual. Most of the others were serviceable at best. Although too similar, as also noted above. That said, I actually think there is something off with the audio in general in this. As pointed out in the review of the first episode and it does not improve throughout.
Personally, I haven't watched a single Transformers show since the first few episodes of Prime. So the only "recent" comparisons I have are Beast Era, Animated and Prime. I didn't even think it was as good as Prime. A show I didn't like, largely for the aesthetic and disproportionate human interaction. But I just didn't get any "vibe" from this at all. It was very by the numbers and in spite of the generics used to bulk up each side, I didn't really get a sense of agency to this conflict, not from the narrative nor character dialogue. Cybertron too, has never felt so empty. It gets a 5/10 from me.
Posted by excalibur1814 on July 30th, 2020 @ 4:08pm CDT
-Starscream is spot on, at least.
-Just an avenue to sell toys. Usual.
-Do they just walk everywhere?
-Nice to see the Ark again.
-So many, many words. Blah, blah.
11 minutes in, terrible. I'll continue watching as it's all we have.
P.s. Optimus put up one heck of a fight. Not /s
Posted by Nemesis Primal on July 30th, 2020 @ 5:07pm CDT
I am very happy with some of the character inclusions, particularly Impactor, the goon squad of Barricade, Skytread, and Spinister, and the appearance towards the end of Soundblaster as a Merc of all characters.
The voicework was hit and miss, some characters were great, some were forgettable, and some were eh. Hound sounded like Bulkhead for some reason, Ironhide sounded generic, and everyone has already mentioned Prime and Soundwave, but on the other hand, Wheeljack was spot-on, Impactor, Mirage, Starscream, and Ratchet were all solid, Megatron was suitably sinister-sounding without falling into the WfC/FoC game problem of him SCREAMING EVERY LINE, and Soundblaster's demon voice was a particular highlight for me.
Outside of the first episode, the action was fine, and Mirage in particular gets I think the best fight scene of the show, and the plot was a bit derivative but still included just barely enough new tweaks to be interesting for me. The way they handled the individual character plots were pretty good though, I was able to be invested in Jetfire and Impactor's allegiances wavering despite knowing it was coming because of how they make both of them unique (is that a spoiler? The toys straight-up marketed it).
I think the character models being based off the toys was for the most part actually a good thing, I like being able to see the figures on my desk in motion on the screen, although it did bother me that Ratchet had Ironhide's shoulders for some reasonand Arcee randomly showed up in full Sunbow-kibble-free glory because...why?
Hopefully Astrotrain gets to see more action in Earthrise, the fact that there's no WfC Buzzsaw is now especially annoying because I need one for Soundblaster, and I guess now we know both why the spoiler Magnus was just a beat-up Magnus instead of a Decepticon repaint and why Elita's release is being relegated to the Netflix exclusives instead of a proper ER release.
My brother also kept popping in and watched most of it with me, and he both says he liked it and had surprisingly few questions for his level of TF knowledge, so if they wanted the series to be enjoyable for both the casual Netflix viewer and the TF fans I guess they succeeded?
excalibur1814 wrote:I'm 7 minutes in and it's lacking any and all energy. It's dull, boring, but amazing to see the characters on screen again (close to their G1 versions).
-Starscream is spot on, at least.
-Just an avenue to sell toys. Usual.
-Do they just walk everywhere?
-Nice to see the Ark again.
-So many, many words. Blah, blah.
11 minutes in, terrible. I'll continue watching as it's all we have.
P.s. Optimus put up one heck of a fight. Not /s
If it helps, I thought the pilot was probably the weakest of the 6 episodes, the protagonists just running away and the Seekers changing TO ROBOT MODE TO CHASE THEM WHEN THEY WERE ALREADY IN TETRAJET MODE was just plain stupid.
Posted by Deadput on July 30th, 2020 @ 5:33pm CDT
AllNewSuperRobot wrote:Deadput wrote:I think at this point in the franchise since it's been about 35 years the character dynamics and cast is what one should look for in these stories rather then what the whole overall plot is since a "war" franchise can only tell so many stories.
I'd dispute that. Given Transformers has about 8 different continuities, that have put their own spin on things. And there are a lot more war stories to be told than that. This is also simply repeating one of the previous ones, with caveats.
Yeah I get that realistically there could be new stories to tell if people really "wanted" to.
But my overall point is that it's unlikely to happen, Transformers isn't going to have that kind of effort/talent placed onto it, it's always just going to be different people putting their own spin on the same story every time, but that doesn't mean there can't be some fun retellings of a story.
It's unrealistic to expect something that will be the next big thing so I will take what I can get and if it's entertaining then it's fine enough for me.
There isn't going to ever be another Beast Wars or Animated, not in this day and age or the foreseeable future if the state of overall media is anything to go by.
Originality is dead and has been for some time.
Posted by Tigerhawk7109 on July 30th, 2020 @ 5:55pm CDT
The characters are a mixed bag. I actually think I sympathize with the neutrals, Ratchet and Bumblebee, more than the Autobots. Their performances are great.
Jake Foushee is a pretty weak Optimus. I think he worked better in Cyberverse than he does here.
However, the performance of the year has to go to Keith Silverstein for his Jetfire. This jet is absolutely incredible, and now I want a Siege Jetfire. This is coming from a guy who’s favorite character is Jetfire, but the show is worth watching for Silverstein’s performance alone. Beautiful.
So, Siege is pretty okay. Definitely rewatchable. And I definitely agree with SpikeyTigertron over Dreamworks getting the nod, because Dreamworks and Netflix are my favorite combination in animation.
So, ‘Til all are one!
Posted by Lorekeeper on July 30th, 2020 @ 7:33pm CDT
Voice acting was hit or miss, I actually watched the back 3 episodes with the volume down and the subtitles on. Optimus Prime should not yell. Raising his voice to be heard would be acceptable, but this weakling screaming was unacceptable.
Bad war setting, though. The military tactics and how much damage someone or something took from a direct hit was inconsistent at best. Everyone had plot armor until they didn't. And why punch instead of shoot? Why say "shoot them" or "kill them"(and then they never get around to it) when they could have been shooting already? This is a problem with most kids-military shows, though.
Yeah, I'll go with "didn't suck."
Posted by Rodimus Prime on July 30th, 2020 @ 8:02pm CDT
Otherwise I just have some nitpicks.
- The seekers running after Autobots when they could fly.
- Bee's characterization was all wrong to me. His lines sounded like they should have been coming from Hot Rod's mouth.
- Was I the only one who cringed during Prime and Elita's final scene?
- In the last episode, the Ark's design bothered me. It was way too flat and wide. Looked like a saucer.
Like I said, I'll research it and cone up with more, but on first viewing, it seems like it was made for the reason we all think: to sell toys. There was no sign that it was a labor of love for any of the performers or writers and producers. It was lacking serious passion.
Posted by Sowndwave76 on July 30th, 2020 @ 11:27pm CDT
Burn wrote:It was ... meh.
I mean it's the same old story AGAIN, but this time with an even smaller cast. I know most people are going to think it's the greatest thing under the sun, and hey, good for them, but there was just something about it, and I can't say what exactly, that stopped me from truly enjoying it.
I didn't hate it, but I won't be singing it's praises unless we're having a comparison between it and Machinima's series.
This was also my initial feeling.
A couple things I didn't like; Megatron was too reserved, Optimus was too emotional.
There's a spirit that's lost in CG animation compared to hand-drawn. Sure this comes with major advantages, but the overall look is too stiff even if these are metal robots.
I'm also wondering if we'll ever see Soundwave or Soundblaster's alt mode... Something tells me someone (or a lot of people) thought that mode was so weak that they didn't want to bother with adding it in to the show.
Could be wrong, but if they thought it was amazing, you'd think they would've added it in somewhere.
I mean, I'll be really surprised if they don't have Soundwave in his recorder mode at some point in ER.
I am looking forward to seeing what happens next, although I'm not expecting a whole lot.
Posted by Nexus Knight on July 31st, 2020 @ 12:44am CDT
Sowndwave76 wrote:Megatron was too reserved, Optimus was too emotional
Agree to disagree... I actually thought these were some of the best character work for these characters that we've seen (in animation) of this time of the war for these two leaders. Megatron feels like a Megatron who hasn't been at this tyranny thing for a long time. It makes sense for him to be a little hesitant at full evil, holding back, even if for the briefest of brief moments. Optimus Prime feels like a newish leader, with some experience, but not the completely unshakable one we know. He's not entirely sure if he's made the right choices, and he feels the weight of the deaths he's indirectly responsible for.
I enjoyed the time I spent watching this series. Is there better? I can point to Prime or BW for that. However, like Cybertron or Cyberverse, I didn't find it bad. It was good, but not great. It took risks, but not always. The voice acting was all over the place, the animation was fine, and the action sequences were fun. All in all, if you had fun watching it, even just a little, it did it's job in my opinion. I'll probably watch this series again, especially when Earthrise comes out.
Sidenote: No matter your opinion of this series, I think there's something we can all probably agree on- There is no WAY on Earth or Cybertron that this series can be placed in the same leagues as the Prime Wars trilogy.
Posted by william-james88 on July 31st, 2020 @ 1:50am CDT
The decepticons were amazing though. Everyone was written super well. I loved Megatron, Starscream, Shockwave. The show creators see to know these characters inside and out. For all of them, I see their motivations and how they are indeed a threat. Shockwave was just perfect (as he was in cyberverse), with these batshit machievelan plans that all sound perfectly cold and logical to get the job done with no fail (although, as always, he does fail). Starscream is interesting since Frank already voicd him before, but the way they alter that voice here is just a perfect call back. It's odd, the cons seemed to be in a different show than the autobots.
Oh and regarding voices, Ironhide's voice just threw me off, what is he 25? And Elita-1 really suffers here. She is written as a sterotypical nag, only pointing problems without ever offering solutions. Come on, it's 2020, women can be written better than this.
Lastly, very random point... where was scrap face? The Netflix line went all out on providing a rather interesting deco and I didn't see him. I did go get some food at some point, maybe I missed him.
Posted by Cyberpath on July 31st, 2020 @ 3:40am CDT
More Siege/Netflix articles from Figure King, like posters and run downs of the characters/figures @ Loopaza Mega Store
Posted by NiteStar on July 31st, 2020 @ 5:37am CDT
Posted by william-james88 on July 31st, 2020 @ 7:53am CDT
Posted by Cyberpath on July 31st, 2020 @ 8:14am CDT
Posted by Sabrblade on July 31st, 2020 @ 9:10am CDT
Peter Cullen dissed both Jake Foushee and, even more directly, Jon Bailey.
Yikes.
Posted by AllNewSuperRobot on July 31st, 2020 @ 9:21am CDT
Also amusing that Fem-Bots are the new Token characters and Red Shirts... Note as well that none of them transformed.
Posted by Sabrblade on July 31st, 2020 @ 9:23am CDT
All except for one red Cog redeco who turned into a set of cannons for Sideswipe to use.AllNewSuperRobot wrote:Also amusing that Fem-Bots are the new Token characters and Red Shirts... Note as well that none of them transformed.
Posted by AllNewSuperRobot on July 31st, 2020 @ 9:27am CDT
Posted by william-james88 on July 31st, 2020 @ 9:37am CDT
Cyberpath wrote: They look so much livelier and dripping with personality.
Yeah, especially the Rainmakers.
Posted by o.supreme on July 31st, 2020 @ 9:55am CDT
william-james88 wrote:Sad to see how hurt Peter Cullen is about this show. He seems to care much more about the legacy of the character and well being of actors than the money.
Source?? It may just be early for me, but I'm not sure I'm understanding....
Peter Cullen is hurt that he wasn't asked to play Prime, or that he just didn't like the series in general?
Also I would think caring about his characters, as well as the actors themselves over money would be a good thing?
Posted by AllNewSuperRobot on July 31st, 2020 @ 10:02am CDT
Posted by o.supreme on July 31st, 2020 @ 10:11am CDT
Unfortunately however, starting now, I believe we are going to experience a Muppets situation. Just today in fact a brand new Muppet show debuts on Disney+, and the 3rd Kermit is getting lambasted by fans, for good reason, but its sad the previous actor still wants to do it, but was fired by Disney a couple years back.
Posted by AllNewSuperRobot on July 31st, 2020 @ 10:17am CDT
The issue though is that "young" voices don't work for every character. Some need to sound more world weary and experienced. As I mentioned before, that Siege Prime voice would have been better suited to BB/Hot Rod/Cheetor etc
Posted by o.supreme on July 31st, 2020 @ 10:32am CDT
Posted by AllNewSuperRobot on July 31st, 2020 @ 10:35am CDT
Posted by Deadput on July 31st, 2020 @ 11:06am CDT
It's a shame that despite some good performances, the VO work is arguably one of the things that brings down the show, you can have the most perfectly written dialogue but it doesn't mean much if you can't get someone to properly execute it.
The sound mixing not being that good doesn't help either.
Posted by aronjlove on July 31st, 2020 @ 11:41am CDT
Posted by william-james88 on July 31st, 2020 @ 12:08pm CDT
o.supreme wrote:william-james88 wrote:Sad to see how hurt Peter Cullen is about this show. He seems to care much more about the legacy of the character and well being of actors than the money.
Source?? It may just be early for me, but I'm not sure I'm understanding....
Peter Cullen is hurt that he wasn't asked to play Prime, or that he just didn't like the series in general?
Also I would think caring about his characters, as well as the actors themselves over money would be a good thing?
My source is the video I posted, did you look at it? And yes, this is what I meant. He wants to voice the character so that this character's legacy stays true as long as he can, and yet he was not hired due to money reasons.
Posted by Dark Ops on July 31st, 2020 @ 12:56pm CDT
In a few more words, there was no energy, there was no inflection or emotional range. I couldn't even tell most of the characters apart based on their voices. Their voices were flat, unemotional except for moments of suddenly shouting, and everyone had weird... unnatural... pacing.
The most damning thing is that it was uninspired. A retread of a retread. We JUST got done with another series based on chucking the allspark through a space bridge, and the dialogue and acting in that one were less constrained. We know the fiction can go in other directions. Look at some of these ideas:
G2: The War we knew was microscopic, and a grand (evil) unified Cybertronian Empire was at its peak.
Animated: The War's over. The Autobots won. Megatron's the resistance leader, Optimus is somewhere near the middle of the hierarchy, and some interesting, emotional character studies showed up. See: Ratchet vs Lockdown.
IDW 2005: Love it or loathe it, it broke new ground, told new stories, and did a lot of world-building.
I guess I'd just like an error to be made trying something new instead of revisiting Cyberverse with more swearing and less acting.
Posted by o.supreme on July 31st, 2020 @ 4:06pm CDT
Additionally, this lends further intrigue into what's in the 2nd spoiler box. I'm sure that these toys will be repaints/retools throughout the whole trilogy, but it seems as though this 2nd wave is still aimed at Siege, and since it's out already, not sure how this 2nd box will be handled...
I understand how some can feel that this is a retread however...you can remain the the original universe and still have new stories to tell.
11-9 MYA Quintesson Rule and Transformer Revolution
9MYA-4MYA 3 different Great Wars
20 year gap between 1985-2005
Post-Rebirth
Post Operation Combination
300 years between "The End" of the Autobot/Decepticon war and Beast Wars
Post BM....
Gundam does it, Star Trek does it, Ultraman does it..... although all those franchises have multiple universes as well, it's nice to go back to the original and tell new stories.
Posted by william-james88 on July 31st, 2020 @ 5:03pm CDT
Sabrblade wrote:Oh dear...
Peter Cullen dissed both Jake Foushee and, even more directly, Jon Bailey.
Yikes.
How does he dis Jon?
Edit: oh shirt, wait, i just remembered that Jon is the BB Prime actor he is referring to. Yeah, thats bad.
Posted by DarkEnergon on July 31st, 2020 @ 9:10pm CDT
I loved the blocky designs. I loved light callbacks to G1, to Barber/comics, and I loved the new twists. I liked the deaths. I didn’t mind the voice acting (except shockwave and ironhide). In short, I felt it glued together and elegantly simplified a lot of deep or conflicting mythology. Some of the dialogue was off, the fluidness of the characters was off, but I liked it, and want more.