I’m pretty fine with everyone’s voices, so far it seems alright to me, but my god, soundwave just makes me wanna like tell them whyyyyyyy would u do this

 

Well, finally finished this show. And I still stand by everything I said in previous posts: the writing felt very flat, the voice actors tried much harder than in the Machinima stuff (ugh... so, so, so terrible... ) but a lot of them still fell short, especially Megatron, I feel that the guy doing his voice was trying to hard to "growl" Welker style, and then would trail off at the end of each sentence, so he didn't feel like a very "commanding" leader. His dialogue, too, was kind of bland. In my head, I could almost hear H. Jon Benjamin delivering the lines instead, stuff like "oh, so-and-so did what? really? oh, well, go kill him then..." or "Prime, you're so bad, just a bad guy... this ends here... like now, today..." I almost feel like the writers intentionally made him lifeless? But that's probably thinking more about it than they did. I guess on the whole, it wasn't terrible, but it did feel like I just watched a 3 hour video game cut scene, and not this whole "games are the new medium, the new Hollywood" type of cutscene, more like one from the late 90's early 00's where the voice acting was as bad as your average anime dub. Elita-1 was definitely the best "acted" character, but her whole story, reasons for doubting this or that seemed thin. I was really disappointed with Ironhide, Hound... characters that would have been easy slam dunks to nail with little effort, but instead they were complete empty shells--just "drone" type characters with a couple bland one-liners.

I won't go off on a long tirade about my disdain for the "Allspark"--the king of all movie macguffins--and how disappointed I am to see it crop its cube-shaped-whatever-it-is in this show, but that's another big point I have against this show, and just most of the new content in general. It's like Hasbro just decided (around 2007) they were done trying to come up with layered or clever plots for the Transformers to go to different places or do different things, and came up with this Swiss-army-knife of plot devices to blame everything on. Leaving Cybertron? Allspark. Bring someone back from the dead? Allspark. Speaking in tongues? Allspark. General malfunctioning? Allspark. Need a new character for no reason in the middle of your show? Allspark. Need to conveniently kill Megatron to wrap up your B-movie? Allspark... sigh.

I guess if I had to rank this in the order of somewhat US-produced Transformers shows (just my personal list),
I'd probably put it tied for third from the bottom with Energon, just above Rescue Bots & Armada.
1) G1
2) Transformers: Prime
3) Transformers: Animated
4) Beast Wars
5) Beast Machines
6) Transformers: Cybertron
7) Transformers Robots in Disguise (2015)
8) Transformers Robots in Disguise (2001)
9) Transformers: Energon
9) Transformers: War for Cybertron SIEGE
10) Rescue Bots
11) Transformers: Armada
*Excluding the Machinima stuff... a couple amateur webisodes don't count as a "show" in my opinion, but they'd be below Armada... just utter garbage.

 

With the exception of the last episode, that was awful. Unbelievably boring. Who directed these voice actors? Did they just pump them all full of ambien before each recording session? I'm fine with the animation and art style, but the sound design is pretty bad. Everything sounds dull and muted.

They took the first 6 minutes of More Than Meets The Eye Pt 1 and said, "hey I bet we can inflate this into 2 hours of crap."

 

Show is great so far

 

So they switched the de facto female Autobot from Arcee to Elita-1, just to have a female character in an authoritative role to boss the male Autobots around.  

 

Can we talk about how they rarely get the transformation sound right?

Tone going up = Robot Mode
Tone going down = Vehicle mode

So often in this show they used the same sound regardless of the conversion.

 

That was really good. It’s strengths are it’s characters and their relationships to one another. The voice acting was much stronger than I was anticipating. Also, very surprised at how strong the animation is here. Looking forward to watching it again.

 

Watched the first ep. Pretty decent.

Megatron's lips are weird though....

 

It is good.

 

Review of Netflix's Transformers: War for Cybertron: Season 1: Siege
Episode Total: Six
I loved it solid character work. Impactor, Optimus, Megatron, Jetfire, Hound, Ultra Magnus, Elita-1, and Ratchet were some of my favorites. But I think the other named characters had some solid moments. Bumblebee was "different" and his introduction with Wheeljack creating a new dynamic with Jackie and rest of the Autobots of his overall arc. Starscream as well. Shockwave is another honorable mention. Hound having a similar feel to his Bayverse counterpart have convinced me to want to buy his Siege figure next month. And start collecting the onscreen characters.
Glad Barricade might be in Earthrise, hope to see more of him, Astrotrain, Ratchet, and Hound.
Overall I'd rate the series 8/10. Points off for audio mixing, as some of the characters voices were quiet to the point I had to turn up the volume, such as Alpha Trion and Soundwave.
Looking forward to Season 2: Earthrise.

 

I don't know if that's entirely accurate. This seems to be a fan-oriented show aimed mainly at adults fans. Didn't the creators even say that in early interviews? (I could be mistaken on that). Either way, it seems to be a 2.0 version of their last attempt at fan-oriented shows. Granted it does seem to be trying to reach a wider audience than those (which debuted on some obscure app or something), but I wouldn't say this is for a "wider audience than anything since the Bay movies". I think the average cartoon like Rescue Bots or RID2015 are meant to appeal to a wider audience than this is. And the Bumblebee movie was absolutely made for a wider audience than this. This seems intended for a much narrower audience. If it were truly intended for a general audience, I suspect it would have a bigger budget for more impressive animation and maybe some celebrity voice actors. The fact that they're cutting corners by doing stuff like hiring non-union voice actors tells me that they probably don't expect this to have a huge audience.

Supposedly they're working on a Hollywood theatrical movie set on Cybertron (which might tie into the Bumblebee movie). I would imagine that movie would be aimed at general audiences more than this is. I'm also looking much more forward to seeing that movie than seeing this.

 

I really hope that they bring in peter Cullen for earthrise, jake foushee was fine but I would prefer peter Cullen, Jason marnocha and frank todaro were amazing, this show has the best megatron ever imo, some of things I really liked were how desperate the autobots were, action scenes were good, and the ending nearly made me tear up so personally I would rank it as my favorite transformers show don’t @me

also my favorite characters were

Megatron
Elita 1
Starscream
Jetfire
Optimus
Ratchet
Bumblebee
Ultra magnus
Impactor
Mirage
Prowl
Sideswipe
Shockwave

here’s my ranking:

1. Siege
2. Prime/animated
3. Beast wars
4. Beast machines
5. Cyberverse
6. G1
7. Rid2001
8. Armada
9. Cybertron
10. Potp
11. Combiner wars
12. Rid15
13. Titans return
14. Energon

 

Glad I'm not the only one that got a little emotional at the end.

 

I guess we can all agree taste is subjective...

 

So it's not Prime Wars Trilogy bad, but this really wasn't that great. Definitely the least impressive of the pre-earth fiction we have received recently. I have a lot of critiques for Ruckley's ongoing and '84, but they both do more interesting things with this kind of setting than what we've seen here.

They tried to give some dimension to the Autobot-Decepticon war with references to Functionism, which is nice, but what the Decepticons promise, and why Optimus seems to disagree with them enough to start a war is still left to just be assumed by the audience. They make a point that Optimus may very well be prolonging the war only because it is personal to him now. Although even

Spoiler

the aforementioned death of Alpha Trion

receives no development.

Spoiler

Why did Megatron kill him? Was Trion a slavemaster? What could have brought that about? We never know, and yet it is such a major plot point to this story. Alpha Trion appears basically never, and his name is said like thirty times.

Also, while I know Megatron's motivations are based on the IDW version, with added elements of slavery, there is something highly dubious about the political stance this show seems to be making. When you strip away the leninist undertones to the Decepticon movement, and try to apply the same motivations in this light, it takes a very disturbing stance on something more relevant which I will not say here. Perhaps not intentionally, but the subtext is omniprescient in any work of fiction, and I am not going to speak any further about this here.

None of the characters are particularly interesting, beyond the potential inherent in the Impactor-Ratchet dynamic. In fact, it seems like the only thing differentiating our cast is the degree of how much of a chip on their shoulder each character has. Megatron seeming to believe he is in the right was a good touch, although it really should have been developed further. As with the shared pasts of Optimus, Magnus, and Megatron, the conflict they apparently fought in together, and Alpha Trion's actual importance in pre-war society. The references to pre-determined alt-modes leading to slavery grant viewers a hint of the nuances established in IDW1, but they are not nearly as comprehensive here, and almost feel like the illusion of nuance. And it's not like the showrunners came up with this idea to develop Megatron on their own to make the war more palpable. They just wiki'd it, threw it in, and called it slavery, rather than Functionism.

The show also suffers from everyone being as good a sniper as Cliffjumper, a plotline that has the same complexity as the absolute worst story arc in Regeneration One, a disastrous need to push the ADULT angle as a means of playing up the fact that this is our first real "not for kids" Transformers show, very little original thought beyond what we have already seen divulged in established lore, and really uninteresting action and visuals. When I read that Mirage had cool tech-based fight scenes I didn't realize it just meant he made holograms of himself and they all just shoot from cover and disappear when they get shot. I get that Mirage's hologram abilities don't usually get explained, but when it becomes a major plot development they do kind of stick out like a sore thumb here.

I will say the

Spoiler

Sea of Rust sequence was pretty nice looking,

and while some of the voice acting was lifeless, Optimus Prime's VA did quite well when he wasn't trying to imitate Cullen to a T. When he shouted the first time I was impressed by how visceral he was willing to allow the character to be. Shockwave's voice, while different, was also possibly the best acted in the show. I am no fan of his depiction as a mad scientist since it makes his character so contradictory, but he was probably the most entertaining to listen to and watch. Good job to that VA as well. The way Jetfire's VA was able to make the G1 voice sound sinister was pretty interesting too, though his character was essentially

Spoiler

a watered-down version of our previous Decepticon/Predacon turncoats. Honour, honour, Megatron has lost his way, honour, boring blah. Also, the whole bomb in his head plot development was so pointless. Did the writers think it would be unrealistic to have him around if they didn't add that scene in? Wouldn't it have been more effective if Optimus had to take a leap of faith with Jetfire instead?

Otherwise, this was only the slightest bit better than what was generally expected of it I think.

While I always thought the whole "Characters not acting like their original interpretation is bad!" critique that had been passed around in the early reviews was stupid, I kind of get it here when the characters are so comprehensively stripped of the positive quirks that made them so endearing. Red Alert isn't paranoid, he's a solemn doctor, Prowl isn't uptight with rules, he's just a solemn soldier, the Decepticons all just like killing things aside from the turncoats. I'd rather have an Animated Bumblebee or even a Movie Bumblebee than the "Tch, I work best alone," Bumblebee we get here.

The highest rating I think I'm willing to give this is a 5/10, tbh. It's just not great compared to other fiction we've got, and we really should be seeing new and greater things, but it's just not there for me.

 

Jesus. Elita is a better leader than Prime.

 

Like any other netflix production, too little content over too many episodes. And at only 6 25 minute episodes, that says a lot

 

Episode 5

Spoiler: This Show Is Really Predictable

-SOUNDWAVE! YAY! His voice is painfully bad, and kind of hard to understand.
-INCONCEIVABLE! (I can't hear that word without thinking of the Princess Bride).
-Megatron gets mad at his subordinates again. Yay for character consistency!
-Hahaha, "Another one of your secret experiments we don't know about?" That was actually a good line. Why do the writers know how to handle the Decepticons but not the Autobots?
-The Decepticons using biological warfare is well-established by this point, and fits with loyal IDW Shockwave here.
-Good to see Soundwave being cautious. I really wish they could have used whatever they used for his voice in the Bumblebee movie instead of what they actually used, because I like Soundwave doing stuff, but I dislike his voice so much that I don't like hearing him talk.
-Shockwave and Soundwave are doing things that make sense for their characters! Yay! (Their voices are still really terrible, though.)
-Good to see they don't trust Jetfire immediately.
-Wow, that is the worst Ironhide voice I've ever heard. It sounds like Sideswipe or Bumblebee or something. He and Prowl should switch voices.
-Elita One is back to being pretty cool.
-Jetfire's voice actor is doing a really good job and making his heel-face turn much more convincing.
-YAY! Cog's not dead!
-Wheeljack's voice actor is incredibly good by the standards of this show.
-I'm also glad that jerk Bumblebee seems to have left the premises.
-Elita One is still smarter than Prime. I still don't think they seem like friends (or more than friends), but I appreciate her concerns.
-Dreadwing? Huh. Wasn't expecting him to get a mention.
-Elita's frustrated face made me giggle.
-Impactor and Ratchet play off each other really well.
-Mirage is back. Yay!
-And yay for positivit-never mind, they're being attacked again.
-Oooh, Mirage is using the electro-disruptor again. Clever!
-Shockwave and Soundwave are doing sciency stuff! YAY!
-Good to see that this Megatron has just as much appreciation for irony as his G1 counterpart.
-Jetfire is surprisingly good here.
-EEE! References to Prowl's backstory! And references to his morally ambiguous IDW self, which I'm less thrilled with.
-Jetfire is awesome, too.
-Still not crazy about the tone of this show. It's just relentlessly depressing every time Autobots not named Mirage, Ratchet, or Wheeljack are onscreen.
-Soundblaster, huh? Unexpected.
-Oh, hey there, Arcee. I like your voice.
-And there's a pair of not-Impactors. This show has no generic CGI models at all.
-Although there is one guy who looks like Brawl....
-Hound, please stop acting like Ironhide. The real Ironhide is even here now.
-Jetfire is really awesome.
-Sadly, I doubt the actual Vortex will pop up alongside these "metallic vortexes".
-Sounds like Shockwave's evil scheme has gone into action. He's super creepy in this show, a bit too similar to Tarantulas.
-Hey, it's Cliffjumper...and he's gone.
-Is Operation: Exodus a reference to the novel?
-Unintentionally amusing:
Prowl's screams are silly-sounding.
-Jetfire is still awesome.
-Yay character development! I actually kind of like this Prowl.
-It's Soundblaster for some reason! The fact that Shockwave made a Soundwave clone is kind of hilarious, and a clever way for the show to plug both the Soundwave and Soundblaster toys simultaneously.
-I like his voice better than Soundwave's voice.
-Keep up the good work, Mirage. But also, please don't die. Okay, good, he's not dead.
-Sideswipe's still in character. Good.
-Ironhide, you are worse than every Ironhide except Energon Ironhide.
-STARSCREAM! YAY!!
-Soundwave! YAY! (His voice is terrible, but he is in-character.)
-"Assemble every Decepticon we have!" So, Flywheels, Barricade, Spinister if he's still alive, Starscream, Soundwave, Ravage, Laserbeak, Shockwave, Thundercracker, possibly Acid Storm, and a bunch of Reflectors and generic Seekers?
-Sweet, they used Cog's ability to become weapons for other characters!
-I like Arcee so far.
-Soundblaster is great. Also, BUZZSAW!!! EEE!
-Chromia has a vague...Scottish maybe?...accent. She still hasn't done anything of note.
-Dark Energon. It's Dark Energon, and those are Terrorcons (in the TF Prime sense of the term). Wasn't expecting that (and I'm not being sarcastic this time; I really wasn't suspecting it).

Overall Opinion: Characters who are good are still good. Characters who are bad are still bad (except Bumblebee, who's grown on me). I still don't know what to think of this Shockwave. Soundblaster is my favorite thing to have come out of this show so far.

 

God this is kind of hard to watch. I actually kinda wish it was... worse? It’s not so bad it’s good, it’s just completely bland and painful to listen to. The voices are so freaking bad, and everything is sluggish from the dialogue to the action to the story.

Which is why all the marketing and promotional material has been about appealing to older fans and trying to market to older audiences that grew up with Transformers as kids.

  You give general audiences too little credit.

 

First off, before I even begin: THOSE. FOREARM. GAPS.

Overall, it wasn't terrible. Easily an improvement over the Prime Wars Trilogy. Well okay, Megatron wasn't an improvement, but this one is...well he's not an Autobot, so he can't be the worst Megatron. But he is a step down from Cyberverse and Prime Wars Megatron. Also, I miss the days when Transformers had good voice acting and not just cheap Peter Cullen impressions and whatever amateur talent they were able to rustle up from the nearest Starbucks. In the end, I don't know if this show was actually meant to appeal to general audiences because it feels like every "That Transformers Cartoon All True Fans Want" you could ever imagine. Sometimes painfully so.

Spoiler: And now for spoilers!

• I like how no one recognized Ultra Magnus until he took his ridiculous hood off.
• I also like how they went to the trouble of explaining why Soundblaster looks just like Soundwave, but we have an endless horde of Impactors, Sideswipes, and Ironhides.
• The plus side to this is that now there's no need to worry about the deaths of Impactor and Skywarp. All you have to do is take an Impactor-type generic and a Seeker and paint them up to look like Impactor and Skywarp. We can call them New Impactor and New Skywarp.
• Optimus Prime was borderline insufferable and as generic an Optimus as they come. Why anyone would follow him is a mystery
• I can see why Elita chose to stay on Cybertron. I'd want to take a break from that guy too.
• This is the best Bumblebee since...well, ever.
• I don't like that Red Alert is a medic since that's far too Unicron Trilogy for my tastes, but with Ratchet unable to fill the role for obvious reasons, it'll do.
• You'd think the Guardians would have intervened earlier when Cybertron was in the process of going directly to shit, maybe try to mediate. But no, as per the usual with such characters, the only things they were guardians of was their own sanctimoniousness. Good to know at least Omega Supreme isn't useless.
• I'm probably the only one who was thinking this, but I half-expected Optimus and Megatron to start playing an impromptu game of Basketball with the Allspark before Optimus slam-dunks the thing into the space bridge. I have no idea where I could have picked up that idea.
• Soundblaster is the best Soundwave since Marvel. Fucking fight me.

It's no Cyberverse, but I'll take it. There's nowhere to go but up! I mean it has to, Earthrise looks like it's going to be positively bonkers.