Just watched this tonight. DJariya is right: watch this movie. I loved every minute of it. It's such a shame this bombed, because I'd love to see the two planned sequels.

I really liked how Chris Hemsworth and Brian Tyree Henry molded their voices to sound like gradual approximations of Peter Cullen and Frank Welker as the film progressed. I also dug how Bryan Tyler subtly included sounds reminiscent of the '80s transformation sound into the score itself.

I had my doubts about this movie. Some really big doubts after seeing the trailer. But I heard the great review and really wanted to see it but just never made it to the theater. So I finally checked this out on Friday and yeah I think it really lives up to the hype. Especially the ending. Throughout most of the movie it was pretty much what I thought it would be. Just a fun silly animated movie set in the Transformers universe. It did have quite a bit of lore which I loved. But then pretty much from when they met up with Starscream and Mr and Mr Wave that the movie really took off. And that ending was absolutely bonkers. I was wondering the whole time if they were going to go for it or not. If we would see the rise of Optimus and the fall of Megatron and they did go for it. They went all the way there. I was really impressed with how they handled the transformation. Most of all they really pulled off the emotional resonance of Orion Pax becoming Optimus Prime and especially with D becoming Megatron. Brian Tyree Henry did an excellent job of gradually introducing more and more menance into Megatron until the ending. Really impressive to me considering the run time and how much at the beginning of the movie was dedicated to more silly antics. I was worried that they couldn't pull that off in a single movie but they did. Chris Hemsworth did a pretty decent job too but honestly BTH did so much better. Crazy because he was a major issue with me just watching the trailers. Also maybe it's because Hemsworth has to fill the giant shoes of Peter Cullen who is just so iconic in that role. It would have been cool to see how he would have done in that role. Seeing him voice Orion Pax in a much more.....well...optimistic role at the beginning until becoming Optimus.

It's funny. My cousin and I used to joke that he was really Pessimist Prime since he was always so negative about everything.

Bumblebee: Yeah!! We defeated the Decepticons
Optimus: I wish we could be certain but I'm sure they will be back.
Repeat ad infinitum
Ok Pessimist Prime

I really really hope we see more Transformers One now. Even though it didn't do to well at the BO I'm hopeful it will do well enough in streaming to warrant a sequel. I still really think it was timing. It's the fall and school was already in full swing. Dreamworks released the Wild Robot which has much more mass appeal and unbelievable reviews so if you're a busy family and you only have time and money for one then you're going to chose Wild Robot. At least we did. And I'm a huge Transformers fan. I think they should have released it in the Summer. More competition but also more opportunities to watch it. And pour in the marketing dollars it deserves as a big animated summer blockbuster.

I finally caught this. Add me to the crowd that was turned off by all the jokey humor in the trailer. The film is like 95% the opposite of that.

I thought they did a really good job of establishing the world and mostly definitely setting the stage for future installments.

Some observations:

• I caught the “you have the touch” and GoBots references. I’m sure there are a lot more I missed. Willing to bet there were some on the race leaderboard.
• I wasn’t too distracted by the voices. I didn’t peg Hamm at all.
• It was an interesting blend of original toys, the CGI films and some creative design. The deer reminded me of the Horizon video game series.
• I thought the evolution of the characters and simultaneous final transformations were great
• Was that Peter Cullen as the Prime world?
• I thought the teeth on the cave were some sort of Unicron foreshadowing.