by Chris Snelgrove
| Published
As a film series, Transformers has been little more than meets the eye lately. Excellent Transformers one It bombed at the box office and live action Rise of the monsters It was a mediocre mess that couldn't achieve the critical or commercial glory of its early predecessors. It's clear that this franchise needs to (ahem) transform into something better, but until that happens, nostalgic fans will always relish the hits from yesteryear. Case in point: You can now watch transformers On NetflixMichael Bay's seminal masterpiece that took the world by storm.
Transformers fans have a lot of content to watch on Netflix right now, but there's still something very special about this first live-action movie. The film tells the story of Spike Witwicky, a high school student whose first car turns out to be a convertible Alien robot. The young man soon falls into an ancient conflict between robotic rivals, and whether or not he can help the hero Optimus Prime defeat the malicious Megatron will ultimately determine the fate of the world.
While the real stars of Transformers are the titular robots, fans are following this movie Netflix We might be pleasantly surprised by how many big names are on deck to represent our human characters. Shia LaBeouf He plays Spike, and Megan Fox plays his girlfriend-turned-partner in crime. Josh Duhamel plays the heroic army captain, John Turturro plays a complacent government agent, and Jon Voight plays the Secretary of Defense.
Of course, long-time Transformers fans may be interested in more than meets the eye… specifically, the voice actors behind this Netflix action classic. Original Optimus Prime voice actor Peter Cullen returns in his character's first live-action appearance, facing off against Megatron, the treacherous Decepticon voiced by Hugo Weaving. Meanwhile, Starscream, the fan-favorite traitorous talker, is played by voice acting legend Charles Adler.
While old-school Transformers fans were happy to see Cullen return as the Prime Minister, those watching this film on Netflix may have mixed feelings about the new designs of their favorite heroes and villains. Personally, I've never been a big fan of the decision to make all the robots look like robotic insects, and giving Optimus a mouth seems completely wrong to this G1 fan. Some of the new transformations are cool, though… I can't deny that Bumblebee is more cool as a Camaro than a Volkswagen, and Megatron is certainly scarier as a fighter than a gun that someone else has to shoot.
transformers It was released in 2007, the same year Netflix debuted it My neighbor services instead of just mailing DVDs. At the time, reception was mixed: on Rotten tomatoesThe film received a critical rating of 57 percent, with critics mostly praising the action and calling the characters implausible. However, it received an audience rating of 85 percent, indicating that this film was a hit with both hardcore fans of the franchise as well as general audiences.
And that appeal (so to speak) turned into a huge success at the box office. Against a budget of between $145 and $200 million, the film grossed a whopping $709.7 million, kicking off a sprawling franchise filled with live-action sequences and prequels. This franchise goes off the rails almost immediately (Part 1, Revenge the fallen(It may also be a war crime), but this first film is worth revisiting because it delivers the perfect blend of spectacle and emotion.
Will you find transformers There's more to it than meets the eye when you stream it on Netflix, or will you decide that Michael Bay's movie looks like something Ravage left in Soundwave's litter box? You won't know until you “roll it” and stream it yourself. Just think about it a little like Matrix: As long as you can forget about the terrible movies that came out later, you can enjoy this first entry as a nearly perfect sci-fi masterpiece.
