Rating: Overflowing

Genre: Animation, Sci-Fi, Action, Comedy, Family

Studios: Paramount Pictures/Hasbro Entertainment/New Republic Pictures/Bayhem Films/Di Bonaventura Pictures

Cast: Chris Hemsworth, Brian Tyree Henry, Scarlett Johansson, Keegan-Michael Key, Steve Buscemi, Laurence Fishburne and Jon Hamm

Director: Josh Cooley

Writers: Andrew Barrer, Gabriel Ferrari and Eric Pearson

Based on: the toys by Hasbro

Producers: Michael Bay, Lorenzo di Bonaventura, Aaron Dem, Tom DeSanto, Don Murphy and Mark Vahradian

Music by: Brian Tyler

Rated: PG for sci-fi violence and animated action throughout and language

Release Date: 09/20/24

Tagline: Witness the Origin

Favorite Character: Orion Pax/Optimus Prime

Quote: “Hi there. I’m B-127. I’m actually working on some really cool nicknames and the one I’m floating with right now is Badass-A-Tron, which is actually pronounced…BADASS-A-TRON.”- B-127/Bumblebee

Fun Fact: The trailer was first released in the spacecraft in outer space.

The Review: You may remember Optimus Prime of the Transformers toy line when it was flying off the shelves during 1984 when the toyline and the classic cartoon was first introduced. That toy craze didn’t happen again until 2007 when Michael Bay’s live action film franchise begin with a bang but slide down as more movies came along.

Taking this prequel is animated director Josh Cooley (who won an Oscar for the very much unneeded Toy Story 4) driving us into the planet Cybertron where two working class miners Optimus and Megatron are a couple of BFFs trying to show the transforming bots that there is more than meets the eye when it comes to their life.

Yes. You heard me. Optimus and Megatron used to be best friends right before they became well known rivals, except during their time in the film, their names are Orion Pax (Chris Hemsworth) and D-16 (Brian Tyree Henry).

The adventure doesn’t really start until there was an incident involving at the race got these two banished to the trash incineration in the unknown bottom floor with nobody but comic relief Bumblebee (Keegan-Michael Key) or as he likes to call himself ‘Badass-A-Tron’

The adventure starting in the trash place doesn’t sound that much. It starts when they find a hologram that is actually a map to the ancient place on the surface, where most of the Primes once stood but died out leaving only Sentinal Prime (Jon Hamm) still standing. And tagging along with these three guys, a pushy Elita-1 (Scarlett Johansson)

When the trailer first came out, I don’t know what to think much about that movie other than the point that the new animated reboot looks almost completely like a comedy rather than the action genre that the franchise was best known for which I find a little weird.

But as I saw the movie, it completely blew my expeditions away.

For those who grew up with the 80’s cartoon (Which you can check out on Tubi) will find the character designs very nostalgic, taking back to the old days where they sit in front of the TV with a bowl of sugary cereal sitting in their lap.

Except, the movie ditches the 2d animation with a promised metallic animation being inserted with the beautiful environments (especially the surface).

Don’t get me wrong, Peter Cullen will always be THE Optimus Prime voice. But if the film is gonna take us back to the beginning, we might as well have someone younger like Chris Hemsworth take Optimus’ voice box and deliver us a silly personality (that works).

So in end result, we got another winning animated film in the 2024 calender.