Transformers Movie Review

New transformers film is fun, entertaining, heartfelt film that is flawed but a great step in the right direction for franchise 3 and half out of 5

Director Josh Cooley (Toy Story 4) finally does what so many people have been asking for a transformer’s movie with no humans and it pays off combining familiar elements from the original 86 film with new influences to create a fun movie. Sadly, for me the storytelling isn’t as well done as I would have hoped particularly Megatrons to becoming a villain and Chris Hemsworth as Optimus Prime is a bit of a miscast. The animation style is hit and miss sometimes I think it’s great like when prime gets the matrix of leadership or getting the backstory on the primes that was awesome and my favorite part of the film. The voice cast I thought did a great job bring these characters to life even if I felt Hemsworth was miscast bring weight to the dramatic moments and the comedy was done well.

The untold origin story of Optimus Prime and Megatron, better known as sworn enemies, but once were friends bonded like brothers who changed the fate of Cybertron forever. Josh Cooley direction in the film is good he manages to balance real heart, humor, action, and world building in ways only Bumblebee had done before like the action particularly the early racing scene where prime and Megatron try to prove themselves to sentinel prime is really fun to watch with good dramatic tension having them not being able to transform was smart makes you root for them as underdogs. The pace of the film was good it never dragged, lost focus, or let the tone go all over the place Cooley had a firm hand on the story the only thing I felt that could have been done better is the turn of Megatron it felt too easy him going from idolizing Sentinel to wanting to kill him felt to sudden there weren’t enough groundwork laid for it to work.

Chris Hemsworth as Optimus Prime to me was miscast but I will say after he gets the matrix of leadership to become Optimus Prime then delivers a damn good speech to inspire the other bots it won me over and if this film gets a sequel maybe Hemsworth will grow into the role. Brian Tyrique Henry as Megatron was fantastic even though I wish the script did a better job of earning him becoming the Megatron we all know he sold it with his voice work along with the friendship Optimus and he have at the beginning of the film is great you buy them as friends who always had each other’s backs from the moment they met makes you feel really sad when the split happens between them. Scarlet Johanson was perfect as Elita-1 bringing so much sass, no nonsense charm that has vulnerability underneath that you can her becoming Primes number 2 and the action scenes she has are badass and so much fun like when she is in buildings that are collapsing and must use her wheels to get out of situations are awesome.

The animation style for me is hit and miss there were times where it kept me from investing in the characters then it hooked me when we learn about the primes and what happened to them was great and why I love this world so much when it is done right. The animation of the action is good using creative ways to take advantage of the different abilities of the transformers as they got their powers showed that Cooley is clearly a fan of this world. The score for this film is memorable and gives the moment of Optimus becoming prime this epic mythic quality that just is a fist pump moment.

Final thoughts on the film are I enjoyed the hell out of it even though I didn’t love as much as I was hoping to but at the end of the day, I had a great time with it hoping ot get more in the future 3 and half out of 5.