Transformers: War for Cybertron Trilogy - Chapter 2 Earthrise (2020) Review

I really enjoyed the first part of Transformers: War for Cybertron and with the third and presumably last part coming out next week I finally caught up on the second part Earthrise and here is my review for it.  The premise of the season sees Optimus Prime and his Autobots attempt to locate the Allspark, while Megatron and his Decepticons look for any way to save Cybertron. 

Main Character

Optimus Prime and Megatron are huge names in the world of TV and Film and they are really well executed on this show. They are seen as good and evil but there is more nuance to it, especially, Megatron who is given much more character development here and you see how this whole thing has affected him. Optimus takes a bit of time to get going but it is interesting to see a younger version of the character as he doesn't get everything right but is still trying to be a hero. 

Supporting Characters

There are plenty of supporting characters in this show, I mean there are way too many to even really keep track of. The main two that stood out to me were Starscream and Bumblebee, Bumblebee has had plenty of development this season, he is now transitioning into his character that we have seen in other mediums over the years. Starscream is actually quite entertaining to see just the lengths he will go to in order to betray Megatron and take over the Decepticons while being really bad at it. But the rest of the characters basically fold into one, Alita and Jetfire were given plenty to do in the first part but here they are less then important, Jetfire in particular isn't given anything to do and that is a real letdown when you consider his character from the previous part. 

Story 

The story involving its main characters is the most interesting part of the show. Megatron and Prime are really interesting characters and their feud really drives this show forward and makes it rise above some of the more messy parts of the story. The show becomes a bit complicated with the amount of characters it tries to focus on, I mean we don't even see Optimus Prime for the first few episodes. It tries to focus on so much Transformers Lore that it gets a bit bogged down in the story it is trying to tell. 

Script 

The script is okay, it is a bit darker then you would expect from an animation but it is effective and makes it feel more gritty and dramatic. But it does lack life at times and feels a bit too much in terms of everything that it is trying to fit in to tell its cohesive plot. 

Style 

The animation still looks great, the transformers look as they should and the action scenes are fun and also pretty brutal at times. It is only a shot series, but I felt like it was more bogged down here due to everything that is thrown at it and it just felt me not as engaged as I was with the first part of the show. 

Overall 

Overall, Transformers: War for Cybertron Earthrise is an above average second part of the series. I didn't enjoy this part as much as the first but there is still plenty of enjoyment to be had here and if you are already watching then stick with it and hopefully it really delivers a satisfying conclusion. 

Rating - 6/10