Whoever put together the first trailer for Transformers One should be fired.

The first trailer I saw for this animated movie, a return to the world of Cybertron and the Transformers, was one of the worst trailers I have ever seen. I hated it so much that I almost decided to skip this movie. The job of a trailer is to get a viewer more excited to see a movie and this one nearly stunted my viewership.

I have had some terrible Transformer movie experiences, with The Last Knight being one of the worst, so seeing this first trailer filled with some many unfunny moments nearly ended me. However, the second trailer which, I believe, came out of San Diego Comic Con this year was so much better, which confused me. Then, we started getting word of mouth from people who had seen it, some of which, were claiming that it was the best Transformers movie ever. I had a difficult time wrapping my head around that idea with that first trailer still front and center in my mind.

Well, they were 100% right. Transformers One is the best Transformers movie ever put on screen and should be considered as one of the best movies of 2024.

I know… who would have thunk it?

The film dives into the origin of Optimus Prime, called Orion Pax (Chris Hemsworth), and Megatron, called D-16 (Brian Tyree Henry), showing us how these friends became the iconic characters that we know of all these years.

Orion Pax and D-16 were minor bots, who could not transform and who were working mining Energon in the mines of Cybertron. Orion Pax had a vision to reach for more than what life had given him and he caught the eye of the one remaining Prime, Sentinel Prime (Jon Hamm).

There are so many great moments through the movie that I could not believe it. I was not sure that I wanted Optimus and Megatron to have been best friends only to become mortal enemies. That trope feels as if it has been used too much, but it works here way more than I ever thought it would. It helps to bring a real emotional kick the film and the story does a wonderful job of showing how these two characters went from friends to bitter rivals. You believe it. It was well earned.

Scarlett Johansson played Elita-1 and Keegan Michael Key played B-127 (who will become Bumblebee) and they both did a great job. All of the voice actors were exceptional in their roles, especially Chris Hemsworth and Brian Tyree Henry who had the difficult task in stepping into famous and well-recognizable voices. Hemsworth in particular had to follow in the footsteps of Peter Cullen (EYG Hall of Famer) whose work as Optimus Prime has been iconic over the decades. Hemsworth seemed to be able to make the role his own. Perhaps that was because they started him off as Orion Pax and not in the mantel of Optimus Prime.

The film looked great and the action worked so well. The humor, which was so terrible in that first trailer, worked so much better in the context of the film that I was shocked. The film did not feel like a parody of the Transformers as that first trailer had seemed. Even the moments from that trailer that did not work, was so much more entertaining when they came in the film. They were dispersed beautifully and never felt like it was trying to take over the film. Did ever joke work? No, but how many films can say that every joke worked? Very few.

I loved the Transformers when I was younger and they were first on TV. As many others, I was scarred after the 1986 movie made me suffer through the death of Optimus Prime. I hated the Michael Bay movies, which seemed to get worse with every one. I was hopeful with the release of Bumblebee and the fairly likable Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, and the comic from Image Comics, written and drawn by Daniel Warren Johnson is a great hit every month. I really thought Transformers One would send this franchise crashing back to the bottom, but I was wrong. It is one of my favorite movies of the year.

5 stars