The launch of a billion-dollar sci-fi franchise comes to Netflix and changed movies forever

By Chris Snellgrove | Published 2 seconds ago

As a film franchise, Transformers hasn’t exactly been more than it seems lately. the excellent transformers one bombed at the box office and live action rise of the beasts It was a mediocre disaster that failed to match the critical or commercial glory of its previous predecessors. It’s obvious that this franchise needs to (ahem) transform into something better, but until that happens, nostalgic fans will always have the hits of yesteryear. Case in point: now you can watch Transformers on netflixMichael Bay’s initial masterpiece that took the world by storm.

Transformers fans have plenty 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 transforming alien robot. Soon the young man finds himself caught in an ancient struggle between robotic rivals, and whether or not he can help the heroic Optimus Prime defeat the malevolent Megatron will ultimately determine the fate of the world.

While the real stars of Transformers are the titular robots, fans who watch this movie on Netflix may be pleasantly surprised by how many big names are available to portray our human characters. Shia LaBeouf plays Spike, and Megan Fox plays his girlfriend turned partner in crime. Josh Duhamel plays a heroic Army captain, John Turturro plays a weasel government agent, and Jon Voight plays the Secretary of Defense.

Of course, long-time Transformers fans may be interested in what’s more than meets the eye…specifically, the voice actors behind this Netflix action classic. Optimus Prime’s original voice actor, Peter Cullen, returns for his character’s live-action debut and faces off against Megatron, the cowardly Decepticon voiced by Hugo Weaving. Meanwhile, fan-favorite trash-talking traitor Starscream is played by voiceover legend Charles Adler.

While old-school Transformers fans were happy to see Cullen return as Prime, those who watched this movie 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 feels completely wrong to this G1 fan. Some of the new transformations are cool, though… I can’t deny that Bumblebee is much cooler as a Camaro than he is as a Volkswagen, and Megatron is certainly scarier as a fighter jet than as a gun that someone else has to shoot.

Transformers It came out in 2007, the same year Netflix began offering online streaming services instead of simply mailing DVDs. At the time, reception was mixed: on Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a 57 percent critical rating, with critics mostly praising the action and criticizing the characters as unbelievable. However, it has a viewership rating of 85 percent, indicating that this film was a hit with both hardcore fans of the franchise and the general public.

And that appeal was transformed (so to speak) into a major box office success. With a budget of between $145 million and $200 million, the film earned a whopping $709.7 million, kicking off a sprawling franchise filled with live-action sequels and prequels. That franchise goes off the rails almost immediately (the first sequel, Revenge of the fallencould also be a war crime), but this first film is worth revisiting because it offers a perfect combination of spectacle and sentimentality.

Will you find? Transformers Will it be more than it seems when you stream it on Netflix, or will you decide that Michael Bay’s film looks like something Ravage left in Soundwave’s sandbox? You won’t know until you “unfold” it and broadcast it yourself. Think of it a little like The matrix: As long as you can forget the horrible movies that came out afterward, you can enjoy this first entry as a near-perfect sci-fi masterpiece.