Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Transformers: War for Cybertron Trilogy’ on Netflix, a Sturdy Anime Origin for a Longstanding Franchise

Netflix’s anime subsect tackles an eternally familiar franchise with Transformers: War for Cybertron Trilogy, which tells the (wait for it) ORIGIN STORY of the vintage Transformers we know and love from the halcyon bygone days of animated not-even-thinly-veiled toy commercials of the 1980s. It’s a story that hasn’t been told before, maybe, I think, and I’m not sure because maybe there’s fan fiction (surely there’s fan fiction), or it’s already been elaborated in one of the countless series, movies, comics, etc. that exist underneath some surely awkwardly retrofitted three-and-a-half-decade continuity umbrella that’s just too convoluted to suss out right now. (I think it’s a “reboot” of the “Generation 1” Transformers? Don’t quote me on that.) But anyway, here are some of the your most beloved Transformer characters in anime form, and it better be good, but it can’t be worse than those execrable Michael Bay movies, because that’s an impossibility of all known physical properties of the universe.

TRANSFORMERS: WAR FOR CYBERTRON TRILOGY: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: Decepticon airships zoom through a gloomy, cloudy grey Cybertron sky.

The Gist: DATELINE: CYBERTRON. A ZILLION OR SO YEARS AGO, I THINK, GIVE OR TAKE. In an attempt to be utterly effing Shakespearean, the story begins in medias res: The planet is a heap of twisted metal and smoking craters and other depressing things. The good-guy Autobot Wheeljack (voice of Bill Rogers) has hired fringe mercenary Bumblebee (Joe Zieja) to help him find some energon which, if my Transformese isn’t too rusty, means “energy.” They find some, and a “space bridge,” but before Wheeljack can get too excited about it, they’re cornered by some evil Decepticons, including one I recognized from mothballed 1984 memories as Starscream (Frank Todaro), whose voice still sounds like brake calipers screeching against the rotors.

As is their wont, the Decepticons squabble, and then their leader Megatron (Jason Marnocha) shows up, and then valiant Autobot Optimus Prime (Jake Foushee) arrives, and there’s a disappointingly brief royal rumble after some yak yak yak about how Megatron doesn’t want to commit genocide, but he does want to enslave the Autobots and therefore rule the ruins with a very literal iron fist. Optimus Prime refuses to submit to Megatron’s offer of a “peace treaty” that seems hella dubious, so who can blame him for resisting? Before Megatron can capture our intrepid protags, female Autobot Elita-1 (Linsay Rousseau) saves their clankity mechanical butts, allowing them to escape to their hidden base.

The Autobots are in dire straits. They’re a small and bedraggled collection of stripped gears and bent chassis, but they still have “the spark” inside them, which I think is the Transfomer version of a soul. They try to get Bumblebee to join the losing team, but he resists, and you kinda can’t blame him? There’s some debate about them just giving in to Megatron’s proposed treaty, but Optimus Prime — who was chosen to lead by “the matrix,” which I think is the Transformer version of God — would rather die on his feet than live on his knees. Meanwhile, Megatron holds a Trump rally for his brainless Decepticon hordes, then meets to strategize with his high-ranking minions Starscream and Jetfire (Keith Silverstein) before a mystery Decepticon arrives. He’s their secret weapon, it seems. Who is this DIABOLICAL FIEND?

Our Take: The opening volley of six episodes — with two more batches to follow, hence the “trilogy” — is titled Siege, so batten down the Transformer version of the hatches and gird the Transformer version of your loins for a hardcore robot-on-robot standoff. The first episode is a little light on action and a little heavy on exposition, and I felt a little bit lost as to the significance of some characters (which may not be an issue for dedicated Transformers Underoo wearers of all ages). But I wasn’t discouraged, because it teases a complicated ideological battle at play beneath the money shots of robots pounding the nuts and bolts out of each other.

War for Cybertron — not to be confused with the video game of the same name, although it might be less not unconfusing if they maybe chose a different title for the series — offers bold, colorful computer animation, bringing the Transformers to life on their soon-to-be-dead planet, although if the planet is all mechanical, and the robots on it are also mechanical, are they truly alive? Wikipedia might help: “A Cybertronian (is) a fictional extraterrestrial species of sentient self-configuring modular robotic lifeforms (e.g.: cars and other objects), a synergistic blend of biological evolution and technological engineering.” Sweet!

I digress. Here I acknowledge that I know little about previous animated Transformers series beyond the original “Generation 1” show and its spinoff Transformers: The Movie, which is infamous for its nonsensical “Weird” Al Yankovic musical montage, its casting of Orson Welles in one of his final roles, the deployment of the word “shit” in the dialogue of a kids’ movie and also its utter unwatchability. I’ve also seen the Bay films, which put a pear of anguish inside the orifice of my childhood and turned the crank; I’d rather watch GoBots: Battle of the Rock Lords than any of them, ever again. Perhaps this series, with its emphasis on classic characters in a classic scenario uttering classic exhortations such as FOOLS! and NEVER! and JOIN US! will heal those wounds. So far, so good: If I’m willing to give it two hours of my life to prove itself, diehards absolutely will.

Sex and Skin: None, but has anyone ever figured out how Transformers reproduce? Or am I better off not knowing? (I’m probably better off not knowing.)

Parting Shot: The mystery Decepticon reaches up to take off his hood (hey, Transformers sometimes wear hoods!), but the show cuts to the credits just before the big reveal.

Sleeper Star: The idea that Bumblebee was a lawless bot-for-hire before he became a steadfast hero-mascot for the Autobots is an inspired development. He’s always been the sleeper star, and it doesn’t look like that’s going to change here.

Most Pilot-y Line: Optimus Prime: “Cybertron needs freedom!”

Megatron: “Cybertron needs strength — MY strength!”

Our Call: STREAM IT. Transformers: War for Cybertron Trilogy gets off to a solid start. If it’s not yet stellar, it shows the potential to be so, hopefully soon.

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Read more of his work at johnserbaatlarge.com or follow him on Twitter: @johnserba.

Stream Transformers: War for Cybertron Trilogy on Netflix