OKAY. SO. I JUST FINISHED WATCHING ALL SIX EPISODES OF 'TRANSFORMERS WAR FOR CYBERTRON CHAPTER 1: SIEGE.'
SEVERAL THOUGHTS.
FIRST OF ALL.
I ain't mad. Rooster Teeth did a good job. I am fairly impressed.
The animation was good. I was a little disappointed in the lack of actual transformation sequences, but i understand how demanding those effects are in 3D animation and that there probably wasn't time nor budget to add more. Plus chapter one seemed to focus more on the actual storytelling WHICH IS GOOD. MOST OF THE TIME TRANSFORMERS SHOWS COMPLETELY SKIP THAT OR DO IT POORLY.
SECOND. DESIGNS:
They ACTUALLY followed og G1 designs. So. THANK YOUUUU. BUMBLEBEE LOOKS LIKE BUMBLEBEE. ITS ABOUT DAMN TIME.
G1 Bumblebee approves of this message.
The only real flaw I saw with the designs was Soundblaster. HOWEVER. They seemed to be leaning more towards the comics storyline than the g1 tv show storyline. Plus they mentioned a part of his backstory which makes more sense as-to the general direction of the designs and story. Now I'm not sure how accurate that is even to the comics as I haven't gotten very far in them yet- I'm still slowly chipping away at them in the IDW collection order which is their recommended reading order. (Im trying to avoid spoilers so I'll leave it at that.)
Aaand g1 megatron transformed into a gun, not a tank. Even in the comics i dont recall him transforming into a tank. (Like i said i havent gotten that far in the comics yet so idk if that changes or not.)
ASIDE FROM THAT THE DESIGNS ARE GREAT
YOU CAN INSTANTLY TELL WHO IS WHO BY LOOKING AT THEM (if you're even remotely familiar with the og designs anyways) AND THAT IS GOOD.
Moving on.
VOICES.
Okay. I'm aware I'm being super picky and Most people wouldn't see this part as being important. But when you think optimus prime, you should instantly hear Peter Cullen's inspirational heroic voice just echoing through your bones. And Megatron you should hear the maniacally raspy, spine chilling growl of the ruthless deception leader. If you don't then idk what to say to you.
They didn't use the original voice cast, which is completely understandable. Several of the og cast are dead, and the rest are getting old. I wish they could live forever and continue playing my favourite characters until I die, but that's not going to happen and I know that.
Now, they did a REALLY GOOD JOB capturing the essence and personality of each character from the of show. Most people wouldn't even be able to tell that its not the original cast. Hell, there were even a few times when I almost forgot that Frank Welker and Peter Cullen WERENT voicing Megs and Prime. The actors were phenomenal.
The only character I think they could have done better on was Starscream. (And maybe arcee. But now I'm just being super picky. Keep in mind i literally hear these voices in my head when I see the characters.) They somehow managed to make him sound even more whiny and obnoxious than OG Screamer. Which shouldn't even be possible, but they did it.
Now OG Starscream is HARD to copy. I mean he's the perfect annoying combination of Shrill, Grading, menacing, mischievous, whiny, feminine, and twisted badass all crammed into one voice. The only person who will ever truly be able to pull that character off is Christopher Collins.
Okay. I'm done being super picky about voices.
Lets talk about animation quality now- something else I'm passionate about (fun fact I'm a 3d animations student).
It was good. The texturing and rigging could have been improved. Not saying I could have done it that well. I am not the best rigger or animator and like I said I'm just a student, but theres somethings I noticed that could be fixed.
Big one is megatron's mouth. The textures pucker and distort. Lot when he's talking. I mean its to be expected, but the brushed steel texture they used with the worn edges REALLY showed it off. It was kind of distracting.
Again thats probably the average viewer wouldn't even notice. My brain is just hardwired now to analyze every animation I see and try to break down how they did it or how I would approach a similar scene.
Like another thing i noticed was Optimus Prime's rig. (The rig is the part animators actually animate. It includes the skinning which tells the rig where joints bend and how limbs move and how much distortion you want when things move. It can be an animator's best friend or worst nightmare.)
They took his pelvic area and actually split it at the hip sockets to allow for his legs to have full mobility. That was a very smart modification to make. I applaud them for that. It's minor enough where most viewers wont pay any mind to it, and it stops the mesh from overlapping a lot (which would be a huge distraction to the audience and thus loose their engagement from the film.) One flaw i kind of saw was his waist area. The grill on his abdomen bends and twists when he walks. It distorts and breaks the illusion of solidity. That is a difficult design feature on prime that is difficult to problem solve though. He doesn't have any features to pivot it easier like Elita for example. Elita has a very obvious division between her chest waist and hips/pelvis. It makes rigging much easier as you can take those twisting motions and use her torso and hip areas as like a socket that her waist section sits in. Anyways im getting all technical and lecturey now.
I liked the render mode they used. Looked like arnold to me, but again i could be wrong. I'm not a professional yet. Im only just going into third year. They had what looked like a too. Shader on there though, which was perfect. Its a subtle way to stylize it so it looks even more comicy and cartoony all while keeping the complexity of the realistic materials. A toon shader can be used ti add an outline around your characters/objects that you render, which can make the characters stand out from the backgrounds more. (Which is perfect for super complex mechanical bgs like Cybertron especially when your characters are also super mechanical and would basically camouflage into the rubble and details. Having that subtle but distinct border helps wonders and prevents you from loosing your audience.)
The actual animation was a little clunky, but that fits the whole Alien Robots Fighting A War On A Metal Planet thing so that is excusable. The fight scenes were a little lack lustre and seemed to rely more on the effects in blaster battles, which is fine but I wish it was a little more dynamic and fluid with the actual close combat fighting.
I'd have to watch it again to really analyze the cinematics of it. But overall, i was pretty impressed with it.
Now the actual story and writing of the show.
Again this is only 6 20 minute episodes so theres not much to work with. Realistically they could have just put them together as a movie and it would have been the same length. In my opinion, if you're going to do episodes, make them a little longer so we more character development than we'd get in a single movie. Isn't that the entire point of doing a tv show style series opposed to a 2 hour film?
There really wasn't much for character development to be honest. The main character development took place with two characters. Jetfire and Bumblebee. Which i mean, are nice parallels, (again trying to not spoil anything) but i would have liked to see more.
Yeah Ratchet, Piledriver and Mirage had some decent development, and we kind of saw Prime and Elita dealing with some stuff, and starscream was being starscream, but it was all minor. I understand that it comes down to time and budget, but again, its a tv show style story. Each episode has a different set of challenges and characters they explore. Which is why i wish there was more. At least 10 episodes would have been ideal to me. That would be over 3 hours of film to expans more on some of the side characters and additional challenges. Maybe explore Alpha Trion more. Or the Guardians. Hell, even Elita having more backstory would have been nice.
Maybe I'm just being picky again.
They did cover a lot of actual story and context in the first part. Which i suppose is what they should have focused on for the first part of the trilogy anyways.
They did touch a lot on why the decepticons started the war. Where Primes faults are, and where things changed from a revolution for freedom, to a dictatorship using false propaganda to appeal to the masses and hide true motives and tactics. They touched on the energon mines and the gladiator fighting pits, and how Magnus, Optimus and Megatron were all close and considered each other brothers before Optimus became a Prime. They touched on the betrayal that started the war and the reasons most of them still fought.
They also touched on the aftermath of their actions and how simply winning a war was bot going to fox all the damage and destruction both sides have caused.
Maybe part of why I'm kind of disappointed im how short it was was because I liked the themes and writing so much. It really was good and definitely one of the more mature Transformers series I've seen so far.
Bay-verse transformers could have learned a lot from this one.
In fact, the writing and themes are so good id question their rating it youth 7+. It's so much more than just a kids show in my opinion (and I mean, theres some pretty intense torture and death scenes too. So uh... 👀)
Anyways I am actually impressed so far and am excited for the next two chapters. I dont want to wait :((
This has kinda been a spoiler free sorta review of 'Transformers War For Cybertron. Chapter 1: Siege'
I highly recommend it. Bit just because I'm a huge TF geek, but because it's actually pretty good. If you do watch it, hit me up and we can geek out about Wheeljack and Soundwave! Lol