The Energon Pub

[Lorekeeper]

To steal some dusty philosopher's phrase, that was nasty, brutish, and short. There was no sense of space or weight to the animation. There was no sense of meaning or interaction in the dialogue. The plot was stupid.

The animation models were cool.

Some moments in the voice acting were good (Megs), so long as it did not rely on any other character's lines.

I had not though DoTM could have been topped for bottom, but this is the worst.

[Randomhero]

Awe come on, if you were the nostalgia critic this review would be 75% of cut aways of bad acting and a "fair use" public service announment about how mean and nasty companies don't want you cashing in on their successes.

[DedicatedGhostArt]

Can I PLEEEEEEASE make a small request? Can someone take a picture of Victorion with CW Computron's hands?

[Sabrblade]

Can I PLEEEEEEASE make a small request? Can someone take a picture of Victorion with CW Computron's hands?

...Wrong thread?

[DedicatedGhostArt]

Can I PLEEEEEEASE make a small request? Can someone take a picture of Victorion with CW Computron's hands?

...Wrong thread?

...yes. Sorry. I read Combiner Wars and skipped over "Machinima". Forgot this cartoon even exists.

[RodimusRex]

Anyone trying to say this bares any resemblance to the original animated series is about as far off as you can be.

Not particularly. All his points are pretty spot on. For all the love the G1 cartoon gets, it was poorly written and could be appallingly bad now and then. IDW ain't 100% perfect but it's a damn sight better than the G1 cartoon.

The ways that the writing is "bad" are not the same.

G1 cartoon tended to be maybe a bit trite and moralistic and employed what would now be regarded as some offensive ethnic and gender stereotypes. The humans were often forced into plots and action was often constrained or disappointing. It had a perhaps formulaic sitcom structure.

This had no moral. It was all action. It didn't have trite morals because it didn't have morals, really. It lacked structure.

I would seriously prefer Optimus and Elita One going on a date where a bumbling Grimlock and Computron dress up as butlers, trying to create a romantic dinner for them. Hot Rod, Bumblebee, and Daniel try to make spare cash to get Jazz new hubcaps by selling cookies door-to-door. Meanwhile, Galvatron wants all the cookies for himself and sends Bruticus to steal them.

I would absolutely take that and call it Combiner Wars over the forty odd minutes we just watched of action figures tearing one another's limbs off.

[Decepticon Stryker]

So, my thoughts on the last episode and the series... It wasn't good. It wasn't that bad either. Not a fan of Starscream's final words being the same as the only lines said by the Banshee in Darby O'Gill and the Little People. I mean, they excited me with a Combiner Combiner, but then they made it a giant Starscream hologram. Now, I would have been able to get past that.. But THEN they turned him into a head (Am I the only one who thinks he looks like BB-8?). However, I really enjoyed Megatron's performance and was sad to see him leave in the end. But what gets me is that it's all like "Yay! Starscream's dead! We won!" then *BOOM* the Titans have instantly returned. There's no conclusion like the Council rebuilding Cybertron, Metroplex's arm is left standing there in the city, and Rodimus is still missing an arm. There are good things about this episode. Like the look of the characters. By God I love that. The next good thing would be Megatron and his tank-gun-robot triple changing gimmick. But what I actually liked was the ending, and not just because it meant the end of this. It was the nod to a possible Titans Return series. Half of me actually wants to see that become a reality, the other half is a bit apprehensive. That's all I can say about this series. (Phew, I haven't gone on a semi-rant like that since I talked about King Kong vs. Godzilla on my blog...). Actually, being only five minutes long, all 8 of these episodes would make nice shorts for a certain show...

[Bronzewolf]

Actually, being only five minutes long, all 8 of these episodes would make nice shorts for a certain show...

Ehh, I doubt that would happen.

Maybe in the not too distant future...

[Decepticon Stryker]

Actually, being only five minutes long, all 8 of these episodes would make nice shorts for a certain show...

Ehh, I doubt that would happen.

Maybe in the not too distant future...

Will it be next Sunday A.D.?

[Bronzewolf]

Actually, being only five minutes long, all 8 of these episodes would make nice shorts for a certain show...

Ehh, I doubt that would happen.

Maybe in the not too distant future...

Will it be next Sunday A.D.?

Maybe by someone not too different from you or me.

[Decepticon Stryker]

Actually, being only five minutes long, all 8 of these episodes would make nice shorts for a certain show...

Ehh, I doubt that would happen.

Maybe in the not too distant future...

Will it be next Sunday A.D.?

Maybe by someone not too different from you or me.

Will they work at Gizmonic Institute? And be just a regular face in a red jumpsuit?

[Bronzewolf]

Actually, being only five minutes long, all 8 of these episodes would make nice shorts for a certain show...

Ehh, I doubt that would happen.

Maybe in the not too distant future...

Will it be next Sunday A.D.?

Maybe by someone not too different from you or me.

Will they work at Gizmonic Institute? And be just a regular face in a red jumpsuit?

He'll do a good job cleaning up the place, but his bosses won't like him, and they'll shoot him into space.

[Bronzewolf]

Actually, being only five minutes long, all 8 of these episodes would make nice shorts for a certain show...

Ehh, I doubt that would happen.

Maybe in the not too distant future...

Will it be next Sunday A.D.?

Maybe by someone not too different from you or me.

Will they work at Gizmonic Institute? And be just a regular face in a red jumpsuit?

He'll do a good job cleaning up the place, but his bosses won't like him, and they'll shoot him into space.

I'm all seriousness, though, I had a really good laugh at this. Good to meet a fellow MSTie. We better get back on topic, though, before Burn yells at us.

[epicvoiceguy]

SMH. No one ever considers the cast of an animated project is doing the job as they were directed by their employee to do it.

[Bronzewolf]

SMH. No one ever considers the cast of an animated project is doing the job as they were directed by their employee to do it.

I do consider it, actually. Like I said, Megatron is great, and his voice acting is a large part of that. I love your Prime, and I think it's obvious that you've had experience doing him before. You can't blame the VA's for bad writing/directing/producing/instruction in general, and so I haven't in my reviews.

No one blames Ben Affleck (in many people's opinion, the highlight of the movie) for Batman Vs. Superman, I don't think anyone is blaming the voice actors for anything that was out of their control. I think we know you all weren't given the best instruction in the world for this.

Don't take anything I say in the reviews personally, because I certainly don't mean it that way. Now, the writers? Them I would blame, but you all came in, did a job, and worked with what you are given. Nothing against you.

[RodimusRex]

SMH. No one ever considers the cast of an animated project is doing the job as they were directed by their employee to do it.

Like I said: I found the casting for the principals to be good. You and Jason were fantastic, although Jason was a real breakout talent here. Abby and Jason were good. Frank had big shoes to fill with Starscream and all the Starscream/Cobra Commanders since Latta passed have been hit or miss for me. Beyond the principals, some of the voices sounded like odd choices, especially Metroplex. (And especially sounding so unprocessed compared to how processed your voice was.)

I would be up for you and Jason returning as Prime and Megatron for everything Welker, Cullen, Kaye, and Chalk don't do.

Just because this wasn't my thing doesn't mean I don't appreciate your choices, your growth into the role, your process as an actor, or the amazingly awesome rich tones in your voice.

If you and Jason did Transformers 6 or a professional dub of the Japanese Headmasters or the next show after RiD or the video game sequel to Devastation? Awesome. If you did voice recordings for toys? Awesome.

For me, any criticisms I have with casting, audio processing, animation, or writing don't rest with the actors.

[ricemazter]

Anyone trying to say this bares any resemblance to the original animated series is about as far off as you can be.

Not particularly. All his points are pretty spot on. For all the love the G1 cartoon gets, it was poorly written and could be appallingly bad now and then. IDW ain't 100% perfect but it's a damn sight better than the G1 cartoon.

The ways that the writing is "bad" are not the same.

G1 cartoon tended to be maybe a bit trite and moralistic and employed what would now be regarded as some offensive ethnic and gender stereotypes. The humans were often forced into plots and action was often constrained or disappointing. It had a perhaps formulaic sitcom structure.

This had no moral. It was all action. It didn't have trite morals because it didn't have morals, really. It lacked structure.

I would seriously prefer Optimus and Elita One going on a date where a bumbling Grimlock and Computron dress up as butlers, trying to create a romantic dinner for them. Hot Rod, Bumblebee, and Daniel try to make spare cash to get Jazz new hubcaps by selling cookies door-to-door. Meanwhile, Galvatron wants all the cookies for himself and sends Bruticus to steal them.

I would absolutely take that and call it Combiner Wars over the forty odd minutes we just watched of action figures tearing one another's limbs off.

^
This

One addendum to G1's writing compared to this...thing's is that in G1 you actually understood what the stakes were to any given conflict. Heroic Autobots vs. Evil Decepticons, got it. Decepticons want to steal resources to fuel their war machine, Autobots want to stop that. Yes. We know the basic rules of the story and why characters are doing what they do.

Combiner Wars, though? Not so much. Something happened to Caminus because of combiners, we don't know what, who was involved, or even if people still live on the planet. Combiners are their own faction, except when they're not and are fighting each other. The enigma of combination needs to be destroyed because it creates more combiners, or maybe it powers up existing combiners, or maybe it destroys them, or maybe it does all three. The council on cybertron doesn't seem to know exactly what it does at any given time. They just know they want to use it. The combiners are a threat to society, except when they're doing their own thing, fighting megatron for funsies, or fighting each other on behalf of their factions.

Windblade is angry at combiners for the thing we don't know about, but despite the fact that some are working for the council, Computron, she's mad at all of them, even though there's a total of four. Starscream wants peace, except when he doesn't. It's not clear if this was a long term plan, if he knew how the enigma worked, or if he was a mindless monster at the end. Is his plan to just blow up Cybertron? Does he want to be the sole ruler? How does he plan to do that if he's just a screaming blob monster with laser beams?

The story seems to take a lot from the IDW fiction that most of us are familiar with, but makes key changes and expects us to just know how things are supposed to work. It's infuriating. Were the G1 episodes ridiculous and over simplified to the extreme, yes. But that is so much better than not understanding the basic premise of the story.

[Kurona]

I would seriously prefer Optimus and Elita One going on a date where a bumbling Grimlock and Computron dress up as butlers, trying to create a romantic dinner for them. Hot Rod, Bumblebee, and Daniel try to make spare cash to get Jazz new hubcaps by selling cookies door-to-door. Meanwhile, Galvatron wants all the cookies for himself and sends Bruticus to steal them.

I... I want this

[Microraptor]

SMH. No one ever considers the cast of an animated project is doing the job as they were directed by their employee to do it.

Dude. The voices were like the only good part of this. Don't worry about it.

[Flashwave]

From the News post, because I suspect the thread has long since buried it...

He couldn't climb the latter more if he tried. He even said how he convinced the public to trust him. He's where he wants to be! Where he's always wanted to be. Why would he ruin that? Why?

In hind sight, I think the point they were trying to get to, some of the things Megtron was trying to say, was that while Starscream had Political Power, an illusionary power, he wanted physical power. He wanted to be not just a leader, he wanted to be Strong. The giant among men, who lead because to be defied menat he destroyed the world of lesser bots. The COuncil was just a way to get to the artifact.

[Kurona]

I think maybe the point is the last line of Starscream's prelude - "I got power... but it wasn't what I thought it was."
So he's in the position he wanted, he literally couldn't get any higher; but he hates it now. So his getting the Enigma is his way of...

... and that's where the series fails. It doesn't explain in what way he dislikes it (hell, if you didn't watch the prelude you wouldn't know at all), and you don't know why him becoming all-powerful with the Enigma helps solves his dilemma. Is he simply lashing out? Does he want 'revenge' on everyone? Does he think ascending to a higher being will help him? Maybe by doing this and causing random destruction he'll revert the world back to war, hence becoming a military leader which is the position he actually wanted all along, hence being a leadership position he's finally comfortable in.

A few of those directions are potentially interesting. Too bad it's never explained which one, if any, it is.

[padfoo]

I don't want to jump on the negative bandwagon, but this series was lackluster. The potential was there but it all got chopped up in some corporate meeting...... so much potential lost.

[Bronzewolf]

Seibertronians, it is time. It certainly has been a journey full of ups and downs, curves, and many, many problems. But like all other journeys this one must come to an end. The curtains are starting to close. It is time. Time to review the final episode of Machinima's Combiner Wars series.


We start with Windblade. She is floating in a Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows-style afterlife dream sequence. A voice wakes her. She realizes it belongs to metroplex. He tells her that the titans have been listening to her thoughts, and don't like the anger they've seen within them.

Fear leads to Anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.

She apologizes for what she's done, but the titans remind her of who she truely is. She wakes up again on cybertron, because death means nothing.


And then, and then!!As if being able to take down a Combiner with a swipe of her sword or stop a friggin' BLACK HOLE WITH HER TURBINES wasn't enough for her, Windblade gets to take complete control of Metroplex! Awesome potential there for a entertaining story, right? Well...

It's just his arm...That's it.

Yes, that's right. Metroplex's arm makes a surprise appearance for some reason.


Friggin' called it! Well, sorta

A quick note: Starscream's...well...screams are absolutely horrendous. Nearly unwatchable. They sound like some tormented demon baby. 

Windblade smashes the titan's limb onto starscream, grabbing hold of him so Prime and Megatron can have a clear shot.

Now comes one of the top five moments in the series: Megatron turns into a gun. Yes, not only does this Megatron have a gun mode, but he's a triple changer. There's something for everyone to enjoy. I seriously, SERIOUSLY, love this Megatron.

Awesome!

Prime arms himself with Megatron, taking that one final shot at Starscream, destroying him.

Optimus checks on Windblade, and is surprised to learn she's still alive. Megatron approaches with the (somehow still intact) enigma of Combination. Seriously though, if an explosion of that caliber couldn't destroy it, I find it unlikely that anything Optimus or Megatron could do would. But then again, maybe Windblade can pull out another Dues Ex Machina magic power and destroy it single-handedly.

Megatron, Prime and Windblade have a quick conversation about what to do with the Enigma, and Megatron literally mentions how he's "more than meets the eye", as the entire audience participates in a collective eye roll.


Har har har

It's decided (by pretty much just Windblade) that the Enigma belongs to the combiners, and it's presented to Victorion. She does this weird chest-merge thing with it, sort of like the Matrix of Leadership, but more gross.

The council finally reappears for one last time, just long enough for Windblade to tell them that the Titan's have returned.

But then! Just when you thought it was over, we're teased with a shot of what is presumably Fort Max's head. Yep. Seriously.


Pfft. As if.

Well, I'm sure we'll be seeing that half a year after the Titan's Return toy line ends.

And that's it. That's the end. Of the whole thing. Some final, final thoughts:

I'd like to look at pros first before I get to my usual thoughts, because I feel that the good things about this series have been kind of trampled by the band wagon hate. I'd like to bring some of those good things to a greater light.

Pros:

The art style:
Although it does occasionally have its problems, the animation and art style are very visually pleasing, and have a great feel to them. The character models are new, but inspired, and suit each character well. I know it's very attractive to many fans to have toys that look like they just came off the screen, and vice versa. This delivers tenfold in that front. You almost couldn't get closer in some cases.
The color pallets used are very attractive, rich, and occasionally stunning.

Like this! I want this framed!

It's very beautiful sometimes, and is a highlight of the series. I wish it would have given us some more landscape shots, where this could have really shined.

Another positive would be most of the voice acting. Megatron, Starscream and Prime are done extreme justice here, and Rodimus and The Mistress of Flame are good most of the time, save for one or two lines here and there. I also don't mind the voice of Metroplex, Devastator, or Victorion. These are all well done, and, as I've said, did great with what they were given to work with.

Speaking of Megatron, I'm not exaggerating when I say that if this isn't one of my favorite incarnations of the character, it's by far the most interesting. I love every aspect of him. He's voiced perfectly, his personality is spot on, and his triple-changer ability satisfies the TankknotGuun camp and the GuunnotTankk camp, which, in my experience, is pretty damn near impossible. Boy, Machinima, you got a lot of things wrong but when you get something right you get it right!
Outstanding job. A+.

And that brings me to my thoughts. I don't hate this series. I don't. I just don't like it, either. The middle of the series was enjoyable, good, above par, even by standards set outside of the series. But the beginning was an absolute train wreck, and the ending was a textbook Dues Ex Machina situation. I feel that if it had just done a handful of things differently, it could have been unprecedentedly good. And hey, maybe if a Titan's Return series does happen, they'll take some of the criticism in stride and make it what I know it has the potential to be.


And that is it. All eight episodes, all eight weeks. I have to say that while the programme wasn't always enjoyable, these reviews were. I hope that you all had as much fun reading them as I had writing them. And while the Combiner Wars have indeed ended, who knows, maybe I'll review Another series some day. Thanks for reading my rants and rambles, it's been a ride, for sure, and a pleasure!

Wanna relive the journey? All of the episodes are available now for free on Go90 and Machinima's YouTube channel.

And, as always, thank you for keeping it tuned to seibertron.com, your best source for Transformers news (and reviews!) on the net!

[MaverickPrime]

Like you, I don't hate the series, just disliked it...what I hated with a passion was the wasted potential and the Titan-sized hype they wanted us to have for a product that, to me at least, feels rushed or unfinished or something along those lines, maybe the budget was cut or there were last-minute script changes or SOMETHING! Because there's a very noticeable inconsistency in the goods and the bads.
And yes, I really liked this Megatron, Starscream voice was nice when he wasn't screaming, because you used the perfect words for his description: tormented demon baby
I seriously cringed badly at that.
But to me, the highlight of this series was undoubtedly the fact that Jon Bailey is FINALLY an official Optimus Prime voice actor!
I just wish he had debuted in a better series
Also, the hell??? Was it me or did they treat the combiners as a race and not a team of combined cybertronians?

[fenrir72]

@ Bronzewolf.

Excellent neutral/fair take on the series. 'nuff said.