By Chris Snellgrove | Updated
As a film franchise, “Transformers” hasn’t really been more successful lately than one would think at first glance. The excellent Transformers One bombed at the box office and in the live-action adaptation Rise of the Beasts was a mediocre mess that failed to achieve the critical or commercial fame of its earlier predecessors. It’s obvious that this franchise needs to transform into something better, but until that happens, nostalgic fans will always have yesterday’s hits. Case in point: You can watch now Transformers on NetflixMichael Bay’s first masterpiece that took the world by storm.
Transformers fans have plenty of content to watch on Netflix right now, but there’s still something special about this first live-action film. The film tells the story of Sam Witwicky, a high school student whose first car turns out to be a transforming alien robot. Soon the young man finds himself caught up in an age-old battle between robot rivals, and whether he can help the heroic Optimus Prime defeat the malevolent Megatron will ultimately decide the fate of the world.
While the real stars of Transformers are the titular robots, fans who tune in to this film on Netflix may be pleasantly surprised at how many big names are on board to portray our human characters. Shia LaBeouf plays Sam and his girlfriend-turned-accomplice is played by Megan Fox. Josh Duhamel plays a heroic army captain, John Turturro plays a weaselly government agent and Jon Voight plays the Secretary of Defense.
Of course, long-time Transformers fans might be interested in more than meets the eye… especially the voice actors of this Netflix action classic. Original Optimus Prime voice actor Peter Cullen returns for his character’s live-action debut, taking on Megatron, the dastardly Decepticon voiced by Hugo Weaving. Meanwhile, fan-favorite treacherous trash talker Starscream is played by voice acting legend Charles Adler.
While fans of the old-school Transformers rejoiced at Cullen’s return as Prime, those who watched 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 bots look like robotic insects, and giving Optimus a mouth just feels completely wrong to this G1 fan. Some of the new transformations are great though… I can’t deny that Bumblebee is way cooler as a Camaro than as a Volkswagen, and Megatron is certainly scarier as a fighter jet than a gun for someone else to fire.
Transformers was released in 2007, the same year that Netflix first began offering streaming services instead of just mailing DVDs. At the time, the response was mixed: The film has a critical rating of 57 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, with critics mostly praising the action and dismissing the characters as unbelievable. However, it has an 85 percent audience rating, which suggests that this film was a hit with both hardcore fans of the series and general audiences.
And this appeal turned into a huge success at the box office (so to speak). On a budget of $145 million to $200 million, the film grossed a whopping $709.7 million, launching a sprawling franchise full of live-action sequels and prequels. This franchise goes off the rails almost immediately (the first sequel, Revenge of the Fallenmight as well be a war crime), but this first film is worth revisiting because it offers a perfect combination of spectacle and sentimentality.
You will find Transformers to be more than meets the eye when streaming it on Netflix, or will you conclude that Michael Bay’s film looks like something Ravage left in Soundwave’s litter box? You won’t know until you “launch” it and stream it yourself. Just imagine it a bit like this The Matrix: As long as you can forget about the terrible movies that came out later, you can enjoy this first entry as a near-perfect sci-fi masterpiece.