Machinima's Transformers Combiner Wars Episode 4 REVIEW

Seibertronians, are you excited? The next episode of the Machinima Combiner Wars series is up, and it's good. Like, properly good. But it's still not without it's faults. Let's break it down:

We open with a dusty Colosseum-style arena. We see what is obviously the Constructicons fighting a mysterious figure, which is revealed to be Megatron himself. He beats them all quickly, and demands another challenger.

Our First Look at Megatron

Prime arrives, saying he's not here to fight, along with Windblade, who wonders why they came all the way out to a desolate planet for Megatron.

Windblade Watches from the Bleachers

Her City-speaker ability is again mentioned, this time by Megatron, driving that point home. Megs also mentioned how he's a big fan of her work (the killing part, that is). He rushes Prime, and Optimus has to engage the former Decepticon leader, with some of the usual mixed-in dialogue about how Prime "is nothing without the war", so on and so forth. It's actually very intriguing, as it points out interesting parts of Prime not previously divulged. This is one of my favorite parts of the series so far.

Just Like the Old Days

Prime has a flashback mid-conversation to the Black-and-white scene we saw in some of the Trailers for the series, when Megatron tells Prime to pull the trigger, and end it. Megs then catches him off-guard with a massive blow. Windblade comes in to try and save him, but Optimus is already back up and fighting.

Float Like A Fireflight, sting like a Bumblebee

The group talks about the Enigma of Combination for a bit, and Megatron learns that the Council is in possession of it.

Then comes one of the strangest and most out of place scenes in the entire series so far.

Windblade rather randomly and unprovoked walks up and sucker-punches Megatron to the ground. She tells him "Enough." (even though Megatron had already stopped fighting for a good few minutes, and he was making no motions to start again) and that Prime's "telling the truth", (even though Megatron hadn't shown any sign of doubt in what Optimus was saying. Heck, he didn't even have time to before he was suddenly beat to the ground.) She then proceeds to deliver almost the exact same line that Prime had just said, not only once but twice, one after another. And the times she says it sound so similar in tone that it almost seems like they accidentally put two takes of the same line in. Not only does she say it, but she says it in front of the constructicons! She literally puts the entirety of Cybertron singlehandedly in danger by saying basically straight to a combiner the one secret combiners shouldn't know! The Constructicons of course transmit this new info to probably all other combiners right away. This scene simply doesn't make sense. It's actually confusing. It's kind of a train wreck, and drags the whole episode down.

Megatron decides to be a part of the team, and the exit the arena. The old Decepticon leader decides to make fun of Prime's old catch phrase, and gives the order to Transform and roll out. The delivery (and Windblade's reaction to it) seem very out of place, especially after that last scene. It would have been better if it was delivered if Megatron had said "I've waited years to say this: Transform and roll out!" or something of the like.

And There They go, off into the Sunset. Headed for Cybertron


So some final thoughts. This is a fairly good episode, but the main problem was the pacing. It's been a problem through the series I haven't touched on yet, but in this episode it's absolutely unavoidable. It rears its ugly head with every change of Pace, feeling, tension, or drama.

Voice acting is good in this one. I'm getting used to Windblade, Prime's good, and Megatron's actor gives a great performance, though I wouldn't peg it as Megatron. Speaking of Megs, one thing of note is that this iteration of the character lacks his arm cannon, even though the designs of the characters seem to be heavily based on G1.

The Animation is especially great in this one. It's surprisingly smooth and fluid and looks really really good. Again, there's the mouth movement issues, but I feel we're going to have to move pass those.

One point that I feel hasn't been touched upon enough is the fact that this is the first time it's referenced or shown that a combiner is actually multiple bots. It seems strange, because up until now it's been implied combiners are one, not many. This really hasn't been explained, and I'd like to know the rules.

So, you've read my opinion, make your own by watching it on Go90, and then share in the comments. Is there anything I missed? Tell us!

Credit(s): Bronzewolf