Only one year after the franchise’s last movie, “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts” Paramount releases “Transformers One.” This movie is completely animated and is set in a different universe than the previous live-action movies. “Transformers One” follows the origin story of mining bots Orion Pax and D-16 as they develop into the famous pair of foes, Optimus Prime and Megatron. I have always been a fan of Transformers and I think that the Michael Bay movies are dumb fun that I enjoy going back to often. I kept my expectations neutral because I thought this would be some dumb fun for families, but this movie is so much more than that.

The story of this movie is outstanding. It is so much more complex than it initially appears to be. I expected a basic cartoony origin story,  but this one delivered a plot that was fun and full of dark and serious moments. This movie starts off somewhat slow with a pace that only drags for about five-10 minutes. Then things start unfolding and you see where the movie is headed. But by the last 30 minutes, I was on the edge of my seat because everything was coming together and that was crazy. It was paced so fast but was able to keep a good momentum and develop everything in the right amount. There was no plotline that felt undercooked and each character felt like they properly reached where they were supposed to get to by the end of the movie. There were no mysteries left unsolved in “Transformers One” and that was nice because the studio can now choose to either leave it be or make a sequel and continue the story right where it left off, either way making sense. It was not like some recent big franchise movies where it feels like the story is incomplete by the end of the movie and you have to wait years to see what happens. This was very much a standalone movie. I personally really hope Paramount decides to make a sequel because I think this is the best version of the Transformers movies ever to be in theaters. It is honestly my favorite movie of 2024 so far. It would be such a missed opportunity not to make a sequel after making such a perfect origin story for some of the most iconic heroes and villains.

The character development of “Transformers One” has to be one of my favorite aspects of this movie. Watching Orion Pax slowly develop the characteristics of a leader after starting as a rebel, transforming him into Optimus Prime was so satisfying to watch. On the other hand, you can watch D-16, a sweet and naïve mining bot slowly become vengeful and angry, and watching his pain build up until he takes on the title of Megatron was so cold. I loved Megatron in this movie. His grief and tension are portrayed so well. There were several moments in this movie where the dialogue between the two characters gave me goosebumps and sent chills down my spine. This movie felt a lot like episode III of Star Wars because it is a prequel, and so I knew how it was going to eventually end and watching it all play out was cool. It was also hard to watch because D-16 is a very likeable character at the start of “Transformers One” so you do not want to watch him become the villain that you know he has to become by the end of it.

The animation in this movie is awesome. This was honestly my biggest concern upon seeing the first trailer for this movie. The animation looked kind of stale and soulless, but after watching this movie, I take that back. There were many shots in this movie that were beautiful to look at, especially when the crew is on the surface of Cybertron. The animated designs were awesome too, full of color and character. Megatron even has this design on his eyes that was crazy, where the color of his eyes would follow wherever he moved, sort of an eye-tracking animation. I absolutely loved it because it added more uniqueness to his character. The voice acting to go along with the animation was awesome. Chris Hemsworth portrayed Orion Pax/Optimus Prime, and Brian Tyree Henry portrayed D-16/Megatron. Henry really gave an amazing performance. The emotion he was able to portray, even just through his voice, was outstanding. The side characters Elita-1 and Bumblebee were portrayed by Scarlett Johansson and Keegan-Michael Key, who I also thought did a great job as being the backup and comedic relief characters.

Finally, after almost 20 years, there is a Transformers movie without any humans. FINALLY. This was one of my favorite things about “Transformers One.” It is set completely on Cybertron, the home planet of the Transformers, and not on Earth for even one second. Without having human characters, the Transformers actually are the main characters of the movie and they are the characters that get to develop through the course of the movie, not the humans who either end up getting humbled or ego-boosted. This was always what I thought the biggest setbacks were for previous Transformer movies– too many humans and not enough robots, but this movie did not have that.

I loved how faithful the designs of the characters were too. If you compare Megatron in the Michael Bay movies to Megatron in “Transformers One,” you will see almost NO similarities. But if you compare this Megatron to the original one, he looks identical. I loved this. This goes for Optimus Prime and most of the other Transformers too. I also loved how they included characters like Shockwave, Soundwave, and Starscream in this movie. They are iconic characters who are never really included in movies as actual characters but as cameos instead, and this movie gives them a supporting character role. The faithfulness and accuracy to the original Transformers in “Transformers One” is amazing.

All in all, “Transformers One” exceeded my expectations. It goes above and beyond any previous Transformers movie scoring 5/5 stars from me.