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Re: NETFLIX War for Cybertron: SIEGE discussion WITH SPOILERS
Pros: Way better than the last trilogy. Multiple intersecting storylines. G1 characters seen in new ways. I thought Optimus Prime's voice actor did a good job. Liked the mix of original and IDW history/story elements. I liked Shockwave as a mad scientist.
Cons: It wasn't super great. It was alright.
Here's a grab bag of brain farts from a middle-aged G1er who should probably take a nap.
- Everybody sounds the same, speaking with the same... slow... dramatic... speech... pattern. Feels like there's not enough content for 23 minutes (but still tons more than the last trilogy!) so they run down the clock that way.
- Soundwave's voice should only be done by a guy imitating Frank Welker's Dr. Claw voice with a flange effect applied. It's like they forgot how to do it.
- Every scene takes place in huge rooms or large corridors simply to get walks and talks out of the characters. The Autobots have no resources yet managed to build a cavernous space ship.
- They've been struggling to get energon for so long and they only needed two handfuls? Arcee had three energon canisters in her arms that looked like it took up more space. And it super charged the Ark and killed everybody immediately with all its lasers.
Some of the things I didn't like but realize it's the reality of a small TV budget:
- All the generic crowds were made up from recolored secondary characters. Why do we care about red Sideswipe when blue Sideswipe is just some background guy? Some of the same animations in the crowds were used right next to each other. And so many Refraktors.
- The last few episodes they avoided animating transformations when they could. Starscream would jump off screen, then the transformation sound would play, then the camera pans to see him in jet mode. Same as Jetfire once or twice.
- Who did we see actually transform in the whole series? Prime, Megatron, Seekers, Jetfire? Anybody else? My memory's not great.
Things I noticed because of the reality of animating toys:
- Everybody's arms were separated from their bodies so that when they articulate they don't clip into the chest. This makes everybody super wide.
- Man, the way everybody's lower body and hips sway when they walk is really unnerving. All the characters have rigid metal parts except for their stomachs. Seeing OP's grill bend made me wince.
- It was weird seeing Prowl being so short next to OP and Elita-1.
- The laser sound effects were lame, tinny pew pews. Here it sounds like they just dragged and dropped laserbeam001.wav into ProTools. Megatron's fusion cannon needs to sound intimidating.
Some of the plot stuff that bothered me:
- I don't know how Optimus Prime got to be leader when he makes clearly bad decisions.
- Ultra Magnus, Autobot military commander (?), ditches them for two episodes and nobody notices?
- Why does UM wear a cloak when his shoulder stacks that clearly identify him are uncovered? Never mind his uncommonly massive body for an Autobot.
- Why wear a cloak at all? What was the reason for it?
- Jetfire switching sides when he noticed Megatron was a bad person. The war's been going on for how long and he didn't notice?
- Why does Megatron have to be personally involved with everything?
- Why didn't anybody check if Impactor was actually okay? He was just underneath a metal panel. Also, he had a communicator. He couldn't call anybody?
- Megatron announced Impactor's death to his followers. Why is he important enough for them to care?
- They perform a "weapons check" at SoundBlaster's base yet don't notice Cog is basically all guns.
- Everybody has a communicator (as seen on Impactor) yet Skywarp has to go to Megatron directly to tell him about the Autobot base?
- I thought Mirage as a Decepticon was going to be a lot more interesting than what it was. Also, his disguise failed immediately yet later he's able to 1) create working clones of himself that are solid and fire lasers that cause harm, 2) apply a hologram over the space bridge. Also also, he almost dies (or is greatly hurt from the strain) when trying to do the hologram over the space bridge yet later he's perfectly fine?
- There are no shades of grey in the Autobot/Decepticon conflict. Everybody's like "There's no way I'm helping a DECEPTICON!", or "Who knew a DECEPTICON would help others?". Yes, yes, I get it. I get it.
- The sea of rust was a nothing event. Prowl gets throw into the winds, gets rescued (by a DECEPTICON!) by Jetfire yet everybody else just drives through.
- The Alpha Trion protocol was all for nothing? Fine, they found the Allspark.
- the Allspark was floating in the air glowing this whole time? Nobody noticed?
Misc, somewhat unrelated:
- I don't get why the Netflix Ultra Magnus was a spoiler box. What exactly did it spoil?
- What's the point of having a recolored Rung? I thought it had something to do with the actual series.
Alright, I'll stop now.
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