Transformers: Earthrise is the second installment of the Netflix’s War for Cybertron series.
Picking up where we left off from Transformers: Siege, the Autobots have fled Cybertron in search of the Allspark. Optimus Prime and his crew of Autobots are now in deep space after Prime had jettisoned their home planet’s sole source of energy. This is the main story arc, where Optimus Prime laments his decision as his actions are causing the slow demise of the Transformers home planet.
Left on Cybertron is a small group of Autobot rebels fighting against Megatron and his Decepticon regime. Megatron, having firmly secured his grasp on Cybertron, is placing the blame on the planet’s imminent destruction on Optimus Prime. Some questionable decisions are made in the name of sacrificing for the greater good. Death and destruction inhabits each episode, some gruesome and some tragic.
The six episode series is a quick tale of how Autobots and Decepticons fled their home planet, ultimately encountering characters known in Generation One history but with a new twist. The series succeeds in creating a unique origin story for its characters while still keeping the core elements of Transformers history intact, a difficult task to be sure.
The action, when present, feels non-stop. However, character interactions and dialogue at times seem overdramatic and drawn out, a weakness Earthrise shares with its predecessor Transformers: Siege. The voice cast for the series paid homage to original characters, such as the voice actor for Starscream who resembled Chris Latta in a nearly flawless way. However, the fact the cast was never able to simply speak naturally without so much pausing mid-sentence, prevented the dialogue from sounding fluid, and proved a consistent distraction.
While I enjoyed appearances of fan favorite characters, many of these appearances were short-lived, with some meeting their demise only minutes after being revealed on screen. As someone who grew up with the original Transformers, I had to accept that the personalities of these characters would be changed. However, some of these personalities became a little too over the top with no resemblance whatsoever to their original 1980s characterization. This proved to be a significant disappointment, especially without having a chance to develop or understand how they came to be. Had this been a 10 or 12 episode series, there may have been a chance to flesh out some of these characters instead of rushing the appearances with very brief reasons for their presence.
One influential character had the opportunity to reveal his origin from a certain planet-sized dark deity. Hopefully they will resurface next season.
Without spoiling too much, my number one biggest gripe in this series was the Quintesson. The word quint means five. I won’t go into more detail but let’s just say it could have been handled better.
The final three episodes paved the way for what’s to come in the third and final part of the trilogy, known as Kingdom. Don’t worry, this was not a spoiler as the Kingdom toy line has already hit store shelves.
I would say this season did improve from Transformers: Siege, despite glaring weaknesses being carried over. Although the first few episodes dragged along, I enjoyed the latter half of the season as different plots and character arcs came together. Hopefully this trend will continue in Season 3.
