I will say this version of Jetfire reminded me of

Spoiler

Transformers: Prime's Dreadwing.

 

Meh....

 

I enjoyed this. My complaints were mainly that it felt like all the male voice actors on the autobots were basically trying to imitate the same style of voice. The other complaint was that while I was fine with them re-using character models for filler/background characters, it really made it hard to figure out when someone of note was dead, or if it was just a random character (for instance, there were a few scenes where I had to think if I missed something about Sideswipe, because a random body looked exactly like him, even in color).

Spoiler: Spoiler/question about ending

What happened to Omega Supreme? Did he get sucked into the space bridge? Did the space bridge blow him up? Was he destroyed? Did he decide to just take a walk?

 

Watched the first 2 episodes thus far. Animation is solid. Not great, but solid. Voice acting is very sub-par. No one reads lines with any sort of emotion or emphasis. All very monotone and everyone sounds basically the same. The majority of characters just come off as generic rather than being unique and vital to the plot. Step in the right direction, but get better voice actors.

 

“We are not the Decepticons!” Christ that was terrible. I’m not even finished the first episode and I’m in pain.

Why didn’t they hire anyone with distinct voices that don’t sound like childish impressions? Why hire someone to put on a deep voice, rather than someone with a naturally deep voice?

 

Were decent voice actors that expensive? I'm pretty forgiving so far but I'm generally unimpressed with the overall quality of the voice acting.

 

Jazz!? Jazz!!! How dare you disrespect my boy Wheeljack like that!

I'm messing with you a bit but I had to say something lol.

I'm actually not terribly surprised to see so many people split on it given how insanely difficult our fandom is to please. As someone who absolutely adores the High Moon games and whose favorite Transformers cartoon outside of G1 is TFPrime, this was so much of what I wanted and I loved it. It's by no means perfect--the pacing and voice work certainly had its issues and Prime could've been handled better-- but it's definitely the best thing we've gotten since TFPrime and I dare say I like this more in some respects. Given what Desanto has said in multiple interviews, the show is going to get a bit lighter from here so I think people who don't like the darker tone will probably enjoy Earthrise and Kingdom more. Siege is meant to be the darkest part, I mean it's nearing the end of a brutal civil war ffs. If you want something more upbeat and silly like G1, watch Cyberverse it's actually pretty good, if you want something more serious watch Siege. We have options but some people are impossible to please and I feel sorry for them.

 

Spoiler free opinion: watched all 6 in one go, and I don't regret watching it. Took just around what, 2 hours? Just like a long movie. I can dig that. But yeah, not great, but not the most terrible thing I've ever sat through.

On to spoilers, in no particular order, so be warned:

Spoiler

I see everyone graduated from the "storm trooper academy for plot convenient sharp shooting"

Wheeljack says "pain in the ass" and I'm left to wonder how this managed a TV-Y7 rating with that. Also, I'm left to wonder if they have donkeys on cybertron.

I find elita and arcee's walk cycles to be disturbing, not because I have any problem with "they being thicc" but moreso because I know the actual toy backpacks would make those movements less possible if they were on accurate model.

The voices are fine for me, it's the dialogue that's wonky. Too many awkward pauses, for the non english dubbing I guess. I kinda laughed when someone's aussie accent slipped through, so that was a plus.

I like bee being a mercenary, I guess. And him getting plot twist chosen one status was kinda funny.

Fun fact -- this may very well be Buzzsaw's first on screen appearance in English. I don't know for certain because I didn't watch the prime wars trilogy. Or any other series outside of beast machines. Nevertheless, justice for buzzsaw. Now give him a toy.

Pretty sure I shouldn't mention what they did with magnus's body even in spoiler tags.

They really couldn't give moonracer the accurate headsculpt, could they. Well, it's either laziness, or we're stealth getting retools of all the fembots with chromia's head. So, laziness either way.

Everyone not dying instantly when the allspark went bye bye kinda makes me wonder if that thing can do half of what the narrative implies it can.

For a hot second Prowl sounded like Joe from family guy. Actually watching the credits proved no, it's not. Missed opportunity, I tell ya. Patrick Warburton would have made the meme-ability of this series skyrocket.

And that's pretty much it for now. If I think of anything else I'll come edit it in.

 

Soundwave's voice is Dr.Claw electronically pitched to C

. This actor just didn't do the Dr. Claw Voice.

Ironhide: Sorry to hear about you and Elita.
Optimus: We're on a Break!
Man it bad when Emgo's Optimus actually seems more reasonable then the real deal.

 

i'm on episode 2 and just realized this series is a scavenger hunt

 

you mean WE ARE NOT THE DECEPTICONS UHH!!!

 

Painful. All I can say is it's Netflix as usual.

 

I found it mediocre. Not the worst thing to bear TF branding, but far from the best, either. The animators did a good job of translating the toys, and even improved on Elita-1. But there was little expressiveness in the animation. While not as bad as Energon, it lacked the feeling of Beast Wars/Beast Machines. Mainframe had a way of making robot characters (even the ones with non-human faces) emote that nobody since has matched. Still, this was the same crew that did Prime, so they should have at least been able to match that level.

And what the heck was wrong with Megatron's lips?  

Spoiler

Storyline was rather by the numbers overall, but that was to be expected given where we know it has to end up. A lot of the characterizations seemed off to me. Prime as an extremist was a different take. I'm not sure if I like it, but I give the writers credit for doing something besides the "stoic, perfect leader" of recent years. Probably my favorite character in the show was Mirage, someone who I normally don't really care about positive or negative.

Then there's the biggest problem - the voice acting. Amateurish is the nicest thing I can say about it. Most characters were indistinguishable from one another, and the only ones that stood out did so because the voice simply didn't fit. And if you're going to have Todd Haberkorn play SHockwave, why in Primus' name would you not have him draw from his portrayal of Spock in Star Trek Continues!?!

But I went in with relatively low expectations, so I was able to enjoy it for the middle-of-the-road (for TF media, not media in general) product it was. At the very least, it was far more enjoyable than Netflix's Godzilla anime. That had no redeeming value whatsoever!

 

my in-depth review

 

Episode 6

Spoiler: I Love Soundblaster Now

-I really like Soundblaster.
-Why did the lights just go out for no apparent reason?
-And we're back to the zombies, who, of course, all hilariously look like preexisting characters. That being said, they may not have actually be resurrected by Dark Energon like I thought last episode.
-Moonracer? What? Never mind, she's dead. ARRGH!
-And now the zombies are just gone because reasons. (Okay, Allspark magic, but that's basically the same thing.) What is happening?
-Hey Sideswipe. You're still good.
-You, too, Impactor. Glad to see you.
-Arcee's pretty well-handled, but BOY does she ever sound a lot like Elita One.
-Go Cog! I'm glad they didn't kill you.
-Elita One's voice acting is still decent.
-Prime's voice is still subpar.
-Obligatory "roll out!" from Optimus.
-An Autobot redshirt just died.
-The main characters, however, are magically not dying
-A Reflector clone just bit the dust, as did another Autobot generic.
-Starscream! YAY!
-And there went either Thundercracker, Acid Storm, both, or two generic Seekers.
-Yay! A Jetfire/Starscream fight.
-Sector Seven. Nice reference.
-Soundwave and Laserbeak! Soundwave said "Laserbeak reports"! My nostalgia is happy (even if Soundwave's voice is terrible).
-I don't know how Megatron goes from "Prime is sending the AllSpark offworld" to "he'll kill us all!" (unless he assumes that, with the Allspark gone, everyone will die, but that seems like a dubious assumption).
-Jetfire still has a sweet lightsaber. And his fight with Starscream was really wasted potential.
-How is Soundwave going to decimate the Ark by himself?
-I hope Sideswipe's okay. He just got shot and fell over, and I don't want him to die.
-Elita's voice is getting a little weird, though it might just be because she's upset.
-Unintentionally funny moment:
Hound and Optimus Prime: Uaauaauaagh!
Those groans sounded really strange.
-I guess Spinister didn't die. Either that or it's a generic that looks a lot like him.
-Megatron has a really great speechwriter.
-LOL at the pan over like fifteen different Reflectors.
-Prime's speech is just as good, but Megatron's voice actor has better delivery.
-That being said, Prime's actor does seem to have gotten better over the course of the series, though, which is more than I can say for Soundwave's voice actor.
-Skyfire sounded very different just before he was blasted away by Megatron.
-Wheeljack is great. He's actually been in-character the whole time.
-Teletraan One's voice isn't great.
-Soundwave, you and those Reflectors epically failed to stop the Ark.
-YAY! Finally, we have a legitimately positive moment.
-A generic seeker just bought it.
-Go, Ratchet, go! I am at least invested enough in what's happening to cheer for the good guys.
-IMPACTOR! NO! I liked you! If Mirage dies too, I swear...
-The space bridge looks a lot like the space bridges in Prime.
-I don't know who said "For Cybertron!" but it was a really lackluster battle cry.
-Oh, hey Megatron.
-Prime, stop yelling! Your voice acting gets exponentially worse every time you do.
-Prime just got taken down by a shot from a Reflector. I don't need Prime to be invincible, but...really?
-Uh, good going, Prime and Bee!
-The Prime/Megatron fights in this show are terribly underwhelming.
-Surprise Omega Supreme....really isn't that surprising. Boy does his voice sound dumb, though. He's also hard to understand. At least he looks cool.
-See ya, Reflectors.
-Bye, generic Seekers.
-RED ALERT! NO! You were...okay, I guess. Actually, I don't know why I just reacted so strongly to his death.
-Hi, Flywheels. Bye, Flywheels. (Are you dead?)
-Elita One....is actually making a decision I can get behind. She still has zero chemistry with Optimus.
-And there goes the Ark.
-Where'd Omega Supreme go? Is he dead?
-I guess Red Alert's not dead. Good. Chromia still being on Cybertron makes me hopeful that they might eventually do something with her.
-SKYFIRE! YAY!
-To be continued...in a series that's hopefully less depressing than this one!

Overall thoughts: Elita should be Autobot leader. AND STOP KILLING OFF MY FAVORITE CHARACTERS!

Overall thoughts on the whole series: Wow, this was bleak. I know that that was what they were going for, but I didn't particularly like it. All the Decepticons were characterized pretty well (except maybe Shockwave, who was weird). The Autobots were more hit-or-miss. Ratchet, Mirage, Wheeljack, Sideswipe, and Jetfire were good. I liked Cog a lot. Elita One and Bumblebee were okay. Red Alert was weird. I didn't like Hound or Ironhide, and Chromia and Arcee didn't do much of anything. And this Optimus Prime was bad. He might even knock Cardbordimus Prime from RID 2015 (and to some extent Prime) out of the top spot in my list of least favorite Optimus Primes. Also, a lot of the last episode made zero sense.

 

Megatrons lips werent that bad

 

Overall, thought this was decent. Like I said earlier, I'd put it on par with the first season of Beast Wars. Some general thoughts below.

Good:
-Overall I liked the characterization of a lot of the bots and cons even if the VA worked ranged from good (Megatron, Elita, Shockwave, Prowl) to subpar (Optimus, Jetfire). Megatron and Elita were the standouts for me this season and while his VA wasn't the best I liked Optimus was allowed to show more emotion.

Spoiler

Damn, now I have to get a Soundblaster toy and I never even cared about that character concept before. I like it seems he even made a faction symbol of his own based off his head

Mixed
-This doesn't really do that much different when it comes to the usual pre-Earth stuff. At least how it's been portrayed since the '07 movie.

Spoiler

-So I can see the logic of Soundwave's voice but don't care for it, or at least fix up the audio so I don't need captions to understand what he says. I can be swayed to it if it were to be improved.

Bad
-Lot of the hand-to-hand fights are limited by the animation here. In particular the first one between Optimus and Megatron looks like you could have done better with stop-motion and the actual toys

 

Umm did anyone else spot Astrotrain in episode six during one of the scenes where the ark is under attack?

 

Just binged all 6 episodes and it was better than i expected but overall it was just okay. Elita's voice actress felt like she was trying too hard it was kinda funny

 

Wish they used soundwaves Cyberverse voice actor he was perfect
Also kinda fucked up that jetfire didnt slash away the zombies from the bots, they shouldve really gathered around stick together but no moonracers arm is gone just ignore it and stay far from each other