Transformers War for Cybertron Trilogy Chapter 1: Siege
Year: 2020
Created by: F. J. DeSanto
Starring: Jake Foushee, Jason Marnocha, Lindsay Rousseau, Kieth Silverstein, Frank Todaro & Joe Zieja
Episodes: 6
BBFC: PG
Published: 02/08/20
Created by: F. J. DeSanto
Starring: Jake Foushee, Jason Marnocha, Lindsay Rousseau, Kieth Silverstein, Frank Todaro & Joe Zieja
Episodes: 6
BBFC: PG
Published: 02/08/20
I’m going to state right out of the gate, I was not a Transformers kid growing up. I rarely found that Transformers was ever on TV when I watch watching, plus I was always more of a Nickelodeon kid growing up with cartoons like Spongebob Squarepants, Fairly Odd Parents, and Jimmy Neutron. My first real go at the Transformers mythos was the 2004 PS2 game just titled ‘Transformers’ and though I never finished it I had a pretty good time with it. I then went on to really quite enjoy Michael Bay’s Transformers films, despite acknowledging that they are actually terrible, and I also played a few other Transformers games over time. One of those games was 2010’s War for Cybertron on the PS3 & Xbox 360 which I also really enjoyed. So, when I heard that Netflix were partnering with Rooster Teeth to create a Transformers series called War for Cybertron Trilogy I was pretty stoked. I’ve just gotten around to watching it and I’m a little underwhelmed to say the least.
Most of this is because the story failed to really grab me. Like I say I’m not much of a Transformers nut so I don’t know the intricacies of the lore all that well and really the only characters I can recognise and name if push came to shove are the ones that feature heavily in the Michael Bay films.
Transformers War for Cybertron Trilogy Chapter 1: Siege (that’s the full title, it’s horrendously long I know), does not have anything to do with the War for Cybertron game…as far as I could remember anyway. But the story does take place relatively early in the Transformers lore timeline from what I can gather.
Optimus Prime hasn’t yet gained the full respect of all the Autobots and so despite being their leader his actions are regularly questioned because of his seemingly short-sighted motives. Bumblebee is not yet an Autobot, but just a nomad scavenger who gets caught up in their side of the battle against the Decepticons.
The Decepticons meanwhile seem to have their own power struggle going on over who gets to be Megatron’s right hand man, Jetfire or Starscream. Jetfire seems to be in disagreement with Megatron over how the war is being handled, feeling that is beginning to turn into a genocide rather than having Cybertron’s best interests at heart. Whereas Starscream encourages Megatron’s desire to see the Autobots wiped out completely.
What then transpires over the six 25-minute episodes is the Autobots attempting to convince Optimus to come to a kind of peace treaty with Megatron as they are losing; and the Decepticons building to strike the Autobots whilst they are weak and hopefully eliminate them.
Most of this is because the story failed to really grab me. Like I say I’m not much of a Transformers nut so I don’t know the intricacies of the lore all that well and really the only characters I can recognise and name if push came to shove are the ones that feature heavily in the Michael Bay films.
Transformers War for Cybertron Trilogy Chapter 1: Siege (that’s the full title, it’s horrendously long I know), does not have anything to do with the War for Cybertron game…as far as I could remember anyway. But the story does take place relatively early in the Transformers lore timeline from what I can gather.
Optimus Prime hasn’t yet gained the full respect of all the Autobots and so despite being their leader his actions are regularly questioned because of his seemingly short-sighted motives. Bumblebee is not yet an Autobot, but just a nomad scavenger who gets caught up in their side of the battle against the Decepticons.
The Decepticons meanwhile seem to have their own power struggle going on over who gets to be Megatron’s right hand man, Jetfire or Starscream. Jetfire seems to be in disagreement with Megatron over how the war is being handled, feeling that is beginning to turn into a genocide rather than having Cybertron’s best interests at heart. Whereas Starscream encourages Megatron’s desire to see the Autobots wiped out completely.
What then transpires over the six 25-minute episodes is the Autobots attempting to convince Optimus to come to a kind of peace treaty with Megatron as they are losing; and the Decepticons building to strike the Autobots whilst they are weak and hopefully eliminate them.
I watched the whole series in a single sitting which made it play out like a two-and-a-half-hour film, but I failed to connect with the story because it’s clearly pandering to existing Transformers enthusiasts. No effort was made to introduce characters other than Bumblebee (who I already knew from the Michael Bay films). Characters like Elita-1, who plays a huge role in the story, I didn’t know because I haven’t got much Transformers knowledge. Having done my research on who she is it’s clear that fans of the 1980’s cartoon and animated film will know who she is, but it’s just a shame that the series doesn’t cater to new audiences by at least having some kind of introduction for her, even if it’s done to provide a character like Bumblebee (who is being brought into the Autobot clan as a newcomer) with some knowledge as to who these people are.
The story itself was fine, in fact I liked how a lot of time was spent really analysing the motives behind each faction, and ultimately why they are just as bad as each other. But because I couldn’t connect with very many of the characters, I simply failed to really engage with it the way I’m sure many fans of the old cartoons will.
On top of this a lot of the characters don’t even have their names mentioned, which I would consider fundamental storytelling. Now whilst this could have also been because the series is clearly only catering to existing fans, the issue lies with the fact that most of the character models don’t look like the models from other Transformers series. For example, going back to Elita, I don’t believe her name was said for the first two episodes so I did a bit of googling to try and find her but I got confused because all the images online of her character looked nothing like her character in this show.
The story itself was fine, in fact I liked how a lot of time was spent really analysing the motives behind each faction, and ultimately why they are just as bad as each other. But because I couldn’t connect with very many of the characters, I simply failed to really engage with it the way I’m sure many fans of the old cartoons will.
On top of this a lot of the characters don’t even have their names mentioned, which I would consider fundamental storytelling. Now whilst this could have also been because the series is clearly only catering to existing fans, the issue lies with the fact that most of the character models don’t look like the models from other Transformers series. For example, going back to Elita, I don’t believe her name was said for the first two episodes so I did a bit of googling to try and find her but I got confused because all the images online of her character looked nothing like her character in this show.
War for Cybertron Trilogy is an animated series and generally it looks pretty great. It’s a mix between cel-shading and 3D computer animation which for the environments and bodies looks great. The lighting is generally fantastic, giving even slow-paced dialogue sequences a great deal of visual intrigue. Action sequences look great too as it’s all slick and well animated. But the faces leave a lot to be desired. They’re completely textureless and look out of place in comparison to everything else. They all look the same too, there’s no distinguishing facial markings to most characters. It’s like they’ve just mocked up a stock face and pasted it onto almost every transformer. Some characters don’t even have mouths which then leaves me questioning how they can talk...I know I’m looking too far into this. But when a character like Elita can do a range of emotions with facial animations (even though she just has a generic featureless face), but Optimus Prime just looks deadpan the whole time it makes scenes that should have emotional tension completely fall flat because I can’t register what half the characters are feeling because they’re totally void of facial emotion.
So, then I ask the question of who is this show even for? I’ve spoken to a some hardcore Transformers fans who love it and feel like it’s the best Transformers media they’ve had in years, so if that’s you then you’ll enjoy Transformers War for Cybertron Trilogy Chapter 1: Siege. But as a newcomer this show does almost everything it can to alienate because it doesn’t take the time to set up fundamental things like character names and their role in the story. Couple this with some shoddy facial animations and I feel like the story simply won’t resonate with a lot of people.
Though I certainly enjoyed the way the show dealt with criticising both factions and deconstructing their core beliefs and motivations. As well as feeling like it was well animated in every area other than the faces, I feel like Transformers War for Cybertron Trilogy Chapter 1: Siege is a terrible place to start when thinking about getting into Transformers. Even the Michael Bay films went into more effort of basic storytelling principles than this did and that’s saying something!
So, then I ask the question of who is this show even for? I’ve spoken to a some hardcore Transformers fans who love it and feel like it’s the best Transformers media they’ve had in years, so if that’s you then you’ll enjoy Transformers War for Cybertron Trilogy Chapter 1: Siege. But as a newcomer this show does almost everything it can to alienate because it doesn’t take the time to set up fundamental things like character names and their role in the story. Couple this with some shoddy facial animations and I feel like the story simply won’t resonate with a lot of people.
Though I certainly enjoyed the way the show dealt with criticising both factions and deconstructing their core beliefs and motivations. As well as feeling like it was well animated in every area other than the faces, I feel like Transformers War for Cybertron Trilogy Chapter 1: Siege is a terrible place to start when thinking about getting into Transformers. Even the Michael Bay films went into more effort of basic storytelling principles than this did and that’s saying something!