Series of Posters for NETFLIX Transformers WFC Earthrise Cartoon

All that red-orange on Cybertron in the first two posters makes it look like it's about to explode.

blackeyedprime wrote:Euwwww on the merc symbols on double dealer -going to be interesting to see how they likely screw up his power masters along with Zarak for Scorponok.

Nice to see the three leaders side by sid...erm swipe, odd choice for a poster.

Screw up his power masters?

Those guys aren't even in his actual toy and are a Selects exclusive, why would they be in the show? Why does including a gimmick for him and Scorp matter?

blackeyedprime wrote:It's not a gimmick when it is the actual character/s

Zarak sure but Knok and Skar aren't even characters when their only source of personality is toy bios with otherwise no media appearances.

We have enough characters as is that struggle with screen time, there is no need to include the 2 who are for all purposes a couple of drones.

With much closer timing to its namesake toyline, the next part of the Transformers: War for Cybertron Trilogy known as "Chapter Two: Earthrise" is due for release on Netflix in only a few days' time. Picking up where "Chapter One: Siege" left off, Earthrise finds the heroic Autobots adrift in space in search of the Allspark which they themselves sent out there. For a little bit more, here's the official synopsis provided by Netflix:

The WAR FOR CYBERTRON continues with the second chapter, EARTHRISE! With the Allspark gone, Megatron is forced to confront the harsh reality that his Decepticons are trapped on a dying Cybertron while also fighting off the persistent threat of Elita-1 and her Autobots. Meanwhile, lost in the darkest reaches of space, Optimus Prime and his team embark on a desperate mission that will push them to the breaking point as they travel to uncharted new worlds to face spacefaring mercenaries, enigmatic figures from long ago and even their own creators…the Quintessons.

How does this chapter stack up to the first, and to expectations in general? Read on to find out.


The initial episode ignores the cliffhanger at the end of "Siege" and returns the action to Cybertron. While this does result in the first of many questionable pacing choices, it helps set up the basis for the plot lines to follow effectively while continuing to build on the character of Megatron. It will also serve as a good reset of expectations for any viewers that expect a dramatic shift in tone, acting, or even the quality of production for "Earthrise", in that it really is a sequel to "Siege" and feels like it right from the beginning. Any problems a viewer had with respect to animation, voice acting, or the Tron: Legacy copycat score (my biggest sore point from Siege) will remain in Earthrise. Plan accordingly.


Based on early trailers and promotional images, many fans are looking forward to the new "faction" known as the Mercenaries, featuring some franchise standards like the conehead Seekers alongside new or sparsely used characters such as Exhaust and Doubledealer. They're only especially present within one episode, but they bring some fun and even humor to the mix and help break up the generally slow pace of the first 2/3 of the show. While not given especially deep characterization, they serve a purpose in the story and do so well.


The writing isn't a huge departure from Siege, but there are a few lines throughout that feel like they'd be more at home in a soap opera or low budget horror film. When these occur for the purpose of levity, such as Red Alert mentioning how he's "always... alert", that's ok and it ultimately provides some welcome personality. When it's in a serious moment and the show follows it up by having the characters within take it especially serious, then I just feel insulted. Some of the new characters introduced see their plot progress too quickly without earning it, while others still are some of the more egregious uses of "they're here to sell toys" that we've seen in a while. Characters appear who speak lots of words that end up not meaning anything which makes the experience more somniferous than stimulating.


That leads to the big offender with respect to the overall problems carried over from Siege into Earthrise: pacing. Just as the first four episodes of Siege felt like they dragged on, so do three of the first four of Earthrise. Saving almost all of the good stuff for the third act isn't very surprising, but the relative dullness of what comes before it was for me. Some viewers are likely to disagree with this sentiment, and there's definitely an argument to be made that Earthrise does much better at making sure to include action scenes on a regular basis. Unfortunately, when these are padded out with a nearly six minute long conversation between Optimus Prime and Megatron, that loses its luster.


The show looks very nice, and even downright incredible in some scenes, with the texture artists once again providing a visual treat for Transformers fans. More variation in the environments helps here too, with the backdrop of a galactic journey providing more opportunity for variation than the constant scenery of war-torn Cybertron. Sure, characters still move too much while talking, not enough of them transform, and the cost-saving recycling of CGI character models is completely frustrating at times, but within the framework put forth Polygon did an outstanding job. A particular one on one battle in episode five even added characterization through the action for someone familiar to Transformers fans but wholly obscure to casual viewers that only caught the live action movies, which was an impressive feat and part of the show that I really enjoyed.


If this review feels very negative, there's a very good reason for it - reviewers were not allowed to mention details about the final episode. This is a really bizarre thing as it's the strongest episode in the series to date and that's really about all I'm allowed to say about it until December 30th. You'll just have to take my word for it that the end of this show was very good and saved it from a much worse numerical score. The rest of it is quite boring. How boring? To be genuinely honest, I haven't had to actively struggle to pay attention to a Transformers show like this since Transformers: Energon. What was being laid down was clear and nothing went super far off the rails, but a good bit of Earthrise just did not land for me. Eventually it was worth it to have made it through, but I don't see myself coming back to this one anytime soon.



Seibertron.com was provided with complimentary advance screening access to Transformers Chapter Two: Earthrise by Netflix for the purpose of this review. "Thank you" to Netflix and Hasbro for this access!

The designs too look like toys is a huge mistake IMO it has always been the other way around. It just looks like a super serious Toy Story movie with the budget and engineering limitations in the toy design translated to the screen is very visually off putting. WFC, Siege and ER have been some of my favorite TF releases of all time but I can pass on these toons easily.

Sabrblade wrote:

o.supreme wrote:I'm still looking forward to it. While I wont be waking up early before work this time. I'll enjoy binging on Wednesday evening. I was reading a review on another website and something has me a bit concerned.

The reviewer states "Scorponok! Not classic toon size…" (I take this as he is not a giant City Bot, although I could be wrong). This would defeat the whole purpose of being a Titan Class toy in the ER line, and would go against all other portrayals of his Classic personna in Animation (I know the comics are different), but while this is a whole new continuity, I think most viewers tend to skew it closer to the original animated series than any comic book continuity. A non-city bot Scorponok would definitely be disappointing.

Maybe he could still be big but not city-sized big. Like, Combiner-sized big.

Mild spoiler but I'll tag it anyway: it's more or less toy scale used when Scorponok's in bot mode. He may be a little smaller than toy scale in scorpion mode, there's a scene I'm thinking of involving Optimus where I feel like OP's toy would be too small if recreated. Particulars aside, he's very big but not huge/city-bot sized. For what they do with him, it really doesn't matter, tbh.

Rodimus Prime wrote:As for a 6-minute convo between Prime and Megatron being a downer, I wouldn't consider it that as long as their interaction gives exposition and furthers the story along in an interesting way.

It does further the story, ymmv on it being interesting. My biggest issue with it is that it could have been done four times faster and gotten the same job done.

Without getting spoilery, how well do you who previewed it early think the ER toyline was represented? I mean obviously from the outset, they are not 100% beholden to what toys are in what series (BB and Elita was planned as Mainline and became Netflix exclusives, then you have Selects like Bugbite showing up, you also have at least ONE Kingdom Character showing up in ER etc...)

For Sige, I thought the line was represented well. While no Battlemasters or Micromasters appeared (aside from a couple cassette minions of Soundwave & Soundblaster). Pretty much everyone from the Mainline appeared except: Sixgun, Brunt, Crosshairs, Springer, & Apeface.

However due to budgetary constraints, I know only a fraction of the characters from Siege will be appearing in ER, but still, it feels like a LOT of ER characters are going to be left out, unless the previews we've seen have done a really good job of holding back.

Rodimus Prime wrote:I understand why you would say that. Most fans prefer the version you also do, but I am partial to the other version, since that one was a big part of my favorite TF continuity. So I'm looking forward to seeing my favorite version in animated form.

I'd really like to see Leader Class versions of Scorponok and Fortress Maximus at some point in the future. They really need both versions! It'd be a great way to keep two main Transformers on shelves and give us a new way to have those characters in our collections.