Transformers One is a Long Time Coming

Transformers One is a long time coming. Whoever was in charge of the marketing needs to be fired. The trailers did not do this movie justice. The 2nd trailer was better but they treated it like a comedy point blank. As someone who grew up watching the first three Transformers movies I dreamt we’d see a film on Cybertron. There’s so much you can do. Expand the lore. Sci-Fi Action. The Rise and Fall of Cybertron. And no humans. The closest we got to it was Transformers Prime Beast Hunters: Predacons Rising but it wasn’t released in theaters. Straight to DVD. Until now. Transformers One tells the origin story of Optimus Prime and Megatron before the Fall of Cybertron. Before they were enemies, they were brothers. Their journey ultimately changes Cybertron's fate forever.

So Sentinel betrayed the Primes for greed; he tried to take the Matrix of Leadership but it vanished. And he put Megatronus on a t-shirt. Then he took everyone’s cogs (Their ability to transform) bringing slavery to Cybertron. This was just to pay off his debt to Cybertron’s sworn enemy: the Quintessons. Yeah, Sentinel is a scumbag in every universe. He’s way worse than Homelander. It gets much worse. He took D’s Megatronus logo (Decepticon logo) off his shoulder, put it on his chest, and branded him.  Made Bayverse Sentinel look like a saint. The animation is stunning. It takes me back to the early 2010s and they took inspiration from the G1 cartoon. 

I've been a Chris Hemsworth stan ever since they announced the voice cast. This is a different Optimus than we're used to. Much younger. Like D-16 he's a miner but with the desire to do something more than mine. Little cool fact about this movie is Peter Cullen actually helped him out with the voice of Orion Pax/Optimus Prime. One of my favorite scenes in the movie is when he goes back to the mining bridge to rally up the Cybertronian with this really great speech worthy of a Prime. There's a reason why everyone calls him the greatest leader in fiction. I really liked Elita. I know very little about her other than the netflix series Transformers War For Cybertron - Siege. She left quite an impression. Bumblebee had very little screen time but it was effective. He was basically isolated from any contact in a trash room. He’s like the comic relief of the group. 

Megatron was the best character in the film. He’s one of the greatest villains of all time. The Bayverse movies didn't do him justice at all aside from the first movie. Afterwards he became a side character. He and Orion looked up to Sentinel only to find out he was a fraud. Yeah, Megatron took that personally. Him letting Optimus go gave me chills. Then he gave Sentinel the Jazz Treatment. Got him acting like Kratos. He did go too far but it was an understandable crashout. I find it poetic that Megatron named himself while Orion was given his name by the Primes. All of this made their scenes in the movies hit differently. They were brothers once. Once. We all knew what was gonna happen and when it did it hit hard. I didn’t know what to think of Brian and Chris at first but those two killed it. My favorite part of the movie was the 3rd act.

After their little skirmish, Optimus banished him from Iacon but not before letting him take the High Guard with him. I’m sure that won’t bite him later. Then everyone gets their cogs back. It's all wrapped up with a great speech from Optimus Prime. We got 2 post-credit scenes. The mid credit scene is just Bee back at the trash dump. There's really not much there. Then we get to the good stuff. Megatron rounds up his minions now wearing the Decepticon logo but purple. Then he ends his speech in Megatron fashion. And so begins the eventual Fall of Cybertron.

Right now Transformers One isn’t making that much money at the box office. So far it only made about $119,059,184 worldwide. Then again Joker 2 flopped and it had a budget of 200 million. Transformers One only cost 75M. I want a sequel but the golden rule is a movie has to make its budget back to warrant a sequel. If you can’t see it then buy the toys. That’s how we got Transformers/Gi Joe. I thinl Paramount will hopefully greenlit a sequel.

Overall Transformers One is a breath of fresh air directed by Josh Cooley. One of the best Transformers movies out there. I wish it was a little bit longer but I digress. Chris Hemsworth and Brian Tyree Henry were outstanding. Had a great storyline. Some of the best action scenes in a Transformers movie. If you’re new and you want to get into the Transformers lore I highly recommend it. And there may be more to the franchise than meets the eye.