Review of Second Cyberverse TV Film The Perfect Decepticon
Monday, November 8th, 2021 10:17PM CST
Categories: Cartoon News, ReviewsPosted by: william-james88 Views: 82,277
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The second Transformers Cyberverse TV film concluding what Hasbro has labelled as "season 4" is now available in Canada. It appeared on Teletoon and is now available on streaming with whichever package includes teletoon, like Stack TV. I just watched it and here is the review: if you liked the Volcanicus episode, then you will surely like this.
I'll go more into depth of course, but that is the crux of it. It is a fun short movie for kids that never feels overly long and is a great mix of G1 and other continuities combined into a new modern day Transformer saga. And like last time, if you are a soundwave fan, this is a must watch. Both he and Hot Rod, another amazing character from the series, shine here.
I personally really love what Cyberverse has become. We get fun stories with great references for the most die hard fans, definitely feels like the perfect show for fans to watch with their kids. There are some wonderful deep cuts with Onyx Prime lore and Skybyte's love of Haikus. For anyone who wanted a deeper dive into the current leadership roles within the Decepticon ranks than what was hinted at in the previous episode, well it's given. And of course, this is the episode that brings fan favourite Tarn to the mainstream. While you'd think it is jarring to have the leader of the DJD be a main character in a movie for kids, the Cyberverse team makes it work. They give him a new origin and anyone who has not watched the final episodes of season 3 should really watch that first since it ties into that. Other members of the DJD do not make an appearance (Tarn is not a member of the DJD here, this is a different interpretation) and we never see his alt mode. While that last part is disappointing, there is an in story reason for it, Tarn is missing some of his parts (at least, we see he's missing parts, so that's what I inferred).
While it is a different interpretation, it is still one I quite liked, and Tarn becoming a legacy character gives greater chances to us getting a toy of him on day from Hasbro. Speaking of toys, while the Volcanicus episode definitely felt like a commercial for all the new Dinobot themed toys in the Cyberverse lines (and even for toys that don't exist, like an actual combiner), there was none of that here. This episode is purely about telling a story, and having loads of action. We get some really awesome moments here, like Arcee riding into battle atop Chromia (get your mind out of the gutter), Repugnas coming to the rescue with his voracious appetite, and Cosmos showing how you shouldn't underestimate a cute little UFO mode. As you can tell, the cast of characters is great and they all have their little moments. It just reminds me of how great a sandbox the Cyberverse show is for creators who love the Transformers lore.
That's all I will say for now aside from saying I hope that this is not the end of Cyberverse. This film will be dropping on youtube soon (no specific date given) and both films will be available on Netflix November 22.
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Posted by ZeroWolf on November 9th, 2021 @ 4:00am CST
primalxconvoy wrote:william-james88 wrote:Woot! Episode 2 is available to watch now for me. Will review it later
So, that's how many days after the initial release that UK-based folks are "allowed" to watch it? A week?
Regardless, that's good to know that it's only a temp thing. Startrek trailers (DISCO, Picard, etc) are all geoblocked outside the US. TRAILERS, for heck's sake.
Will is Canadian, so it's still geo-locked for UK audiences. However I wonder if it has anything to do with the UK broadcaster, of if it may pop up on their website

Posted by william-james88 on November 9th, 2021 @ 10:28am CST
other fansite Cartoon forum
Posted by william-james88 on November 9th, 2021 @ 10:31am CST
Posted by optimeow on November 9th, 2021 @ 10:33am CST
Posted by YoungPrime on November 9th, 2021 @ 11:19am CST
Meh.... This show basically made him a group of soulless Vehicons.optimeow wrote:I hope we get a toy of this version of Tarn :]
Tarn and the rest of the actual DJD deserve REAL quality Generations figures.
Posted by Sabrblade on November 9th, 2021 @ 11:49am CST
Posted by william-james88 on November 9th, 2021 @ 1:04pm CST
Sabrblade wrote:Man, that was incredible. Cyberverse really is the Transformers cartoon that gets the medal for "Most Improved Series".
While I think that final fight is one of the best action packed transformers sequence we ever got, I did have 1 problem with the editing. There is a crucial moment that feels similar to the scene in Infinity War where they are trying to remove the gauntlet from Thanos and there is a really rough cut where you feel completely disoriented to the point where I actually thought we had entered a dream/illusion sequence.
Posted by william-james88 on November 9th, 2021 @ 4:57pm CST
Sabrblade wrote:Man, that was incredible.
Did a particular scene remind you of The Last Knight ... but good?
Posted by D-Maximal_Primal on November 9th, 2021 @ 6:34pm CST
Posted by Sabrblade on November 9th, 2021 @ 6:44pm CST
Frankly no because I've more or less blocked most of that movie from my mind's memory.william-james88 wrote:Sabrblade wrote:Man, that was incredible.
Did a particular scene remind you of The Last Knight ... but good?
Posted by Sabrblade on November 20th, 2021 @ 10:24am CST
Posted by Sabrblade on November 20th, 2021 @ 5:59pm CST
Posted by D-Maximal_Primal on November 20th, 2021 @ 8:05pm CST
Posted by Whifflefire on November 20th, 2021 @ 8:12pm CST
I've never been blown away by Cyberverse; There were some fun moments and interesting concepts, but the format compressed it too much for its ideas and characters to really grow. But these two movies have been able to take great advantage of their extended running time and tell excellent stories with new spins on the franchise's lore. I was really impressed!
Even though I think Cyberverse's biggest flaw was not doing enough to establish their versions of characters, I still appreciated all of the callbacks to the characters' histories (Teletraan X affectionately calling Windblade 'Not Crew', Jetfire and Sky-Byte's rivalry getting referenced when Jetfire came to the latter's aid, Shadow Striker and Bumblebee's history, etc.) They did a good job of making the finale nostalgic without being overly sentimental. It made the characters feel much more established. Even Astrotrain's death felt like it carried some weight, even though I've no attachment to this version of the character (again, my main issue with the series). Soundwave, on the other hand, managed to win me over by the end of season three by exploring his relationship with Laserbeak. His sacrifice did feel emotionally impactful, poor sad Laserbeak (sad noises)
Also, having just gotten Thunderhowl's toy, I'm glad he had a big role in the episode. Was always disappointed that he, like many others, was a one-and-done, but especially with representation in the toyline you'd think they would have tried to do more with him. I enjoyed his character (and the toy is actually pretty nice)
Dinobots also surprisingly endearing for having just shown up; love that they carried over Sludge's particular dimwittedness, his scenes were funny.
The stand out was Tarn, though, hands down the best televised TF antagonist since, like, what, Prime Megatron? Superb reimagining of the character from the comics. At first I though he was going to be an in-name-only version, and I was at best mildly bemused at the reveal of his ploy, but he was played so charismatically, and used the 'DECIEVED' line so well that I not only accepted it, I was quite taken with how legitimately ruthless they were able to make him. No other Cyberverse villain was able to reach that level, and I can't recall offhand any RID villain to do so either. Full Marks for Tarn. Let's go Generations leader class?
"The Immobilizers": 8/10
"The Perfect Decepticon": 9/10
Posted by chuckdawg1999 on November 20th, 2021 @ 11:34pm CST
Posted by Sabrblade on November 20th, 2021 @ 11:45pm CST
He extracted his own sinful spark in an attempt to kill Heaven, but Cheetor countered its effects by cleansing the Allspark with his own pure-hearted spark. Way back in the four-parter "Battle for Cybertron".chuckdawg1999 wrote:Somebody remind me, what happened to Shockwave?
Posted by william-james88 on November 21st, 2021 @ 7:25am CST
Posted by Immortal Starscream on November 21st, 2021 @ 11:00pm CST
I legit laughed at "Trypticon Park" poor Trypti. Guess it's better then getting turned into a space ship and forgotten about.
over all,




I've said before that I almost didn't give this show a fair chance after the first few episodes. Chalked it up to just dumb playing down to kids. But then I came back to it, and saw named characters get on screen killed. I was like.. wait, WHAT!, then I went back and watched everything. All in all, it did have its dumb kiddy cartoony moments, but so did Beast Wars and Animated, both shows I hold in high regard. Ultimately Cyberverse turned out to be a great show, with lots of nods to both cartoon and comic lore of yesteryear. I mean we basically have Underbase Starscream in this. While I wouldn't quite put it up there on my personal best lists with Beast Wars or Prime, it does come close with Animated.
Give the whole thing a watch, and keep with it into the second season before you write it off. it is worth it imho. I genuinely hope this show succeeds in spawning a new generation of fans.
Posted by chuckdawg1999 on November 22nd, 2021 @ 12:03pm CST
Sabrblade wrote:He extracted his own sinful spark in an attempt to kill Heaven, but Cheetor countered its effects by cleansing the Allspark with his own pure-hearted spark. Way back in the four-parter "Battle for Cybertron".chuckdawg1999 wrote:Somebody remind me, what happened to Shockwave?
I barely remember any of that. I guess they had to get him out of the way for the story to play out like it did.
Posted by modabuddy on February 7th, 2022 @ 12:18pm CST
Posted by Sabrblade on February 25th, 2022 @ 10:05pm CST
Posted by paulsmith6193 on December 14th, 2022 @ 8:42am CST
Posted by GudrunHelga on April 11th, 2024 @ 6:55am CDT
Posted by #1 Signal Lancer fan on October 30th, 2024 @ 9:36am CDT
I watched the first episode a few years ago, and its not hard to see why I didn't continue.
I really don't enjoy this show (at this point). If I hadn't heard how much better it gets in consecutive seasons, I wouldn't watch another episode.
First, what I do like about it:
I like seeing Windblade so prominently featured. I enjoyed her character in IDW, so it's nice to see her get some screen time.
I like the attention to Transformers lore
I like Soundwave's character design.
Some of the past story is interesting regarding the end days of the war.
Now, the things I don't like:
So far, this show has maybe my least favorite iterations of Bumblebee and especially of Grimlock.
Most of the other character, while not bad, are bland and one-dimensional. Windblade is a helpful Autobot. Optimus is a stoic leader. Wheeljack is a crazy inventor. The seekers hunt Autobots. There's no depth to any of them beyond a two-to-three word description.
I don't like the animation style (Although, I felt the same way about Animated at first, but now I love it)
Much of the voice acting feels... stale, I guess? I'm not sure how to describe it, but there's something missing.
This show, more than any other Transformers series I've watched, is geared strictly towards kids. Many Transformers series are family friendly and have elements that are for kids, but this one very much feels like a kids show. Which is absolutely fine, but I can tell that I'm not really the target audience (At this point at least)
Knowing small details about what's to come, I'm curious how I'll feel about later seasons. Things I know in advance:
Tarn is a main antagonist in the last season.
There's a titan named Croatoan(?)
Alchemist Prime runs a bar.
Cheetor and Sky-Byte are in the show.
There's a Megatron from another dimension.
Starscream becomes a Quintesson I think?
Posted by Sabrblade on October 30th, 2024 @ 9:59am CDT
The first season also seemed to suffer from having to tie into the Bumblebee movie by having him be amnesiac and radio speak, for the sake of brand consistency by Hasbro. But once the second season comes, they drop all of that and drop the anthology style storytelling and go forth into more epic storytelling.
Posted by D-Maximal_Primal on October 30th, 2024 @ 10:04am CDT
Season 1 has good background, but things really pick up after that
Posted by #1 Signal Lancer fan on October 30th, 2024 @ 10:29am CDT
Sabrblade wrote: The first season also seemed to suffer from having to tie into the Bumblebee movie by having him be amnesiac and radio speak, for the sake of brand consistency by Hasbro.
That makes a lot of sense. I was wondering why they bothered with the radio speak, given that they let him communicate normally with Windblade anyways when they're inside his mind.
Posted by Sabrblade on October 30th, 2024 @ 10:48am CDT
He could speak normally in his mind because "thinking" doesn't require vocal cords. The mental plane is different from the physical plane, so he's allowed to have a real voice inside his mind.#1 Signal Lancer fan wrote:Sabrblade wrote: The first season also seemed to suffer from having to tie into the Bumblebee movie by having him be amnesiac and radio speak, for the sake of brand consistency by Hasbro.
That makes a lot of sense. I was wondering why they bothered with the radio speak, given that they let him communicate normally with Windblade anyways when they're inside his mind.
Although, despite the annoyance of his radio-speak in the physical world, I actually do have to give props to Bumblebee's voice actor, Jeremy Levy, who singlehandedly had to do and did every single variation of those radio clips all on his own. He was basically tasked with doing for Bumblebee what the late great Robin Williams had to do for Genie in Disney's Aladdin back in 1992. But the difference is that Williams was a natural impressionist who could do all of those celebrity voices for Genie back then with no trouble at all, whereas Levy had the even greater task of doing all those radio voices for Bumblebee, because he had to make them all sound distinct from each other, but without the notion of any of them being recognizable pop culture voices. That's harder than what Williams had to do for Genie since Williams was doing celebrity impressions that were recognizable, while Levy had to distinguish all of the radio voices from each other without any of them being necessarily based on any preexisting or recognizable voices. It was all down to him and him alone to make each radio voice sound unique and distinct. That takes a LOT of improvisational work to do.

Posted by D-Maximal_Primal on October 30th, 2024 @ 11:39am CDT
Xavier Paul alone made Dead End one of my all time favorite Cons.
Jeremy Levy did so much for so many as well. He did great with Bee as Sabr mentioned, but he brought 1/3 of the Season 3 resistance to life, and gave Rack n' Ruin their first ever voice.
I think unlike the WFC trilogy, Jake Foushee did good as Prime, this kind of series played better to his strengths.
Also, I gotta say, Marc Thompson did a very enjoyable Megatron.
Posted by #1 Signal Lancer fan on October 31st, 2024 @ 9:34am CDT
The show is already starting to improve. I wouldn't say I enjoy it yet, but I'm starting to see the potential.
Some episode-specific thoughts:
Episode 6: Megatron is my hero: I liked the Megatron backstory here. While it was nothing new, the show did a good job summarizing it concisely. This characterization of Megatron is great. Also, I'm so glad they ditched the Australian-like accent from his first appearance, he sounds a lot more menacing now.
Episode 7: Cube. This is maybe my least favorite episode yet? I could not have cared less about the sport or Bumblebee's attempts to get in. The only thing that was somewhat interesting here was seeing Autobots and Decepticons interacting before the war.
Episode 8: Terminal Velocity. As someone who grew up with Transformers: Cybertron, I love how much of a staple Velocitron has become in Transformers lore. That said, other than that I didn't really enjoy this episode... until the end. The surprisingly dark ending really caught me off guard because of the tone of the show to this point. It might have been more impactful if I liked this version of Blurr at all, but it was still really shocking to me.
Episode 9: Shadowstriker. Between the last episode and this one, it feels like the tone of the show is starting to shift for the better. While it's still a stretch to say that I enjoyed it, this episode was a massive step in the right direction in terms of storytelling.
Episode 10: Maccadam's. This may be the first episode of the show that I can say I enjoyed. I loved the three cuts to the oil house at different points in the war, seeing the progression. I also liked Maccadam as a character. Another small thing I liked was seeing Shockwave and Wheeljack work together as dual mad scientists for a moment.
Overall series favorites/least favorites so far:
Favorite character: Megatron
Least favorite character: Tie between Bumblebee and Grimlock
Favorite episode Maccadam's (S1E10)
Least favorite episode: Cube (S1E7)
Posted by Sabrblade on October 31st, 2024 @ 11:11am CDT
Season 2, meanwhile, kicks off with a bang right out of the gate.
Posted by #1 Signal Lancer fan on November 1st, 2024 @ 9:18am CDT
Sabrblade wrote:Most agree that Episode 10 is when Season 1 starts to get good, so it should be smoother sailing from here to the end of the season.
Definitely smoother sailing in this next batch (for the most part at least)
I watched episodes 11-13. Overall this batch was better, as I enjoyed 2/3 episodes.
Episode 11, Sabotage: I enjoyed this one. Shockwave is always a fun antagonist. I really liked his plan this episode, but the way it concluded felt a bit lackluster (which is likely due to the short episode lengths). I also really don't care for Slipstream or the other seekers (at least the ones on Earth).
Episode 12, Teletraan-X This was probably my least favorite episode yet just because it didn't really have anything going for it. I don't like Slipstream or the seekers, I don't like Bumblebee, and I really don't like Teletraan-X. I don't mind Windblade, but I don't love her character in this show either.
Episode 13, Matrix of Leadership: While I still don't like Teletraan-X, so the present scenes were not the best, I did like the flashbacks for this episode. It was cool seeing Optimus get the Matrix from Alpha Trion. His Autobot symbol shield was cool. And one thing I really liked was that it showed Optimus realizing he made a mistake by sending the Allspark away. While that concept has been implied before, it's not a moment we've ever actually seen.
Favorites/least favorites:
Favorite Character: Megatron (Wheeljack and Shockwave could be contenders with more screen time)
Least Favorite Character: Teletraan-X (Grimlock could be a contender with more screen time)
Favorite Episode: Maccadam's (S1E10)
Least Favorite Episode: Teletraan-X (S1E12)
Posted by Sabrblade on November 1st, 2024 @ 10:15am CDT