Transformers Onehas debuted on Rotten Tomatoes, and its score allows it to be compared to the other movies in the long-running franchise. The movie, which was directed by Josh Cooley from a screenplay by Eric Pearson, Andrew Barrer, and Gabriel Ferrari, is the latest installment in the multimedia franchise, which was launched in 1984 with the animated seriesThe Transformersand the Hasbro toy line of the same name. It is the ninth theatrical installment in the franchise and the first to be an animated feature since the first-ever theatrical release, which was 1986’sThe Transformers: The Movie.
Theanimated movieTransformers Onemarks a return to form for the franchise in more ways than one, however. While the theatrical installments have been live-action since 2007, the entirety of the franchise as it exists on the small screen has been animated. This may be one reason that the Rotten Tomatoes critical reception of the movie, which features a star-studded voice cast that includes Chris Hemsworth, Brian Tyree Henry, Scarlett Johansson, Keegan-Michael Key, Steve Buscemi, Laurence Fishburne, and Jon Hamm, hasallowed it to compare favorably to other installments in the franchise.
Transformers One Cast & Character Guide: What The Actors Look Like In Real Life
The animated Transformers movie Transformers One offers a promising cast voicing iconic Autobots, Decepticons and mythical figures of Cybertron.
Transformers One’s Rotten Tomatoes Score Explained
The Movie Has A Near-Perfect Tomatometer Score
A week ahead of the movie’s wide release premiere in the United States on September 20, critics shared theirTransformers Onereviewsonline. At the time of writing, Rotten Tomatoes has already aggregated 39 different reviews from various web publications, eight of which are from writers who have been deemed “Top Critics” by the platform. Although the score is likely to fluctuate somewhat as more reviews are added, the movie has debuted on the platform witha thoroughly positive 90% score on the Tomatometer, a full 30% above the threshold of 60%, past which a movie is considered Fresh.
[It] will likely become Certified Fresh once more reviews are added…
At the time of writing, the moviehas not yet had enough reviews to be considered Certified Freshon Rotten Tomatoes. to earn that badge for its Tomatometer score, a movie needs to meet several criteria including having five reviews from Top Critics, maintaining a score above 75%, and having a minimum of 80 reviews for a wide release. So far, it has met two of these three major criteria and will likely become Certified Fresh once more reviews are added, presuming they retain the same positive tenor as the current slate of reviews.
Why Transformers One’s Reviews Are So Positive
Critics Appreciate The Movie’s Big Swings
While critics are split on the animation style ofTransformers One, the majority seem to agree that the movie offers a unique twist on theTransformersformula. According to many reviews, it honors the canon of the franchise while remaining an irreverent good time, presenting an adventure that is bright and well-attuned to the sensibilities of young audiences, if not particularly original. Ultimately,many agree that the movie took big swings that paid offwith its cast, material, tone, and overall approach.
Transformers One Is Tied For The Highest-Rated Transformers Movie On Rotten Tomatoes
An Earlier Live-Action Transformers Also Earned 90%
At the time of writing,Transformers Oneistied for the highest Rotten Tomatoes score of the franchise with 2018’sBumblebee, a well-received prequel that takes place earlier in theTransformerstimelinethan any of the theatrical releases that had come before it.Bumblebeealso has a score of 90%, aggregated from 252 different critics' reviews. Because of its score and the robust number of reviews, it has been officially Certified Fresh on the platform, lending it the distinction that the animated movie has not yet earned.
Bumblebeewas directed by Travis Knight, who is now attached to the upcomingMasters of the Universemovie.
In fact, at the time of writing,Bumblebeeis the onlyTransformersmovie to have earned a Certified Fresh badge. However, it could soon be joined byTransformers One. Should that be the case, both Certified Fresh movies in the film franchise, which has so far lasted for nearly 40 years and looks to be set to continue for many years to come, will have hit theaters within a single six-year span.
Transformers One’s Rotten Tomatoes Score Is Much Better Than Transformers: The Movie
The Original Animated Movie Cannot Compare
Of the other theatrical installments in theTransformersfranchise, the original animated titleThe Transformers: The Movieisthe only other release to have earned a Fresh score on Rotten Tomatoes. With 26 different critics weighing in, it has earned a score of 62%, giving it a Fresh score just 2% over the threshold past which it would have been considered Rotten. The new animated movie has considerably outpaced the original release’s score, with its 90% score exceeding it by 28%.
How Transformers One’s Rotten Tomatoes Score Compares To The Live-Action Movies
All But One Live-Action Movie Is Rotten
The live-actionTransformersmovieshave largely been commercial successes, collectively earning more than $5 billion and making the franchise the fourteenth highest-grossing film series of all time. However, of their number, onlyBumblebeehas earned a Fresh score on Rotten Tomatoes. While that movie was beloved by critics, becoming Certified Fresh and tying withTransformers Oneas the best-reviewed movie of the franchise,the rest of the releases have generally been lambasted on the platform. Below, see the Tomatometer scores for every live-action installment in the franchise:
57%
20%
35%
18%
16%
90%
Transformers: Rise of the Beasts(2023)
52%
Of the Rotten live-action installments,the originalTransformersfared the best with a 57% score, followed by the most recent installment, the prequelRise of the Beasts, with 52%. Both fell close to the 60% threshold and could have been considered Fresh if they had earned fewer than 10 extra percentage points when their reviews were being tabulated. However, the scores of the other movies fall far below the threshold, with a huge drop to the next-lowest title,Dark of the Moon, at 35%, and an even larger gap between that and the lowest-rated title,The Last Knight, at 16%.
Transformers: Rise of the Beaststakes place between the events ofBumblebeeandTransformers.
With its near-perfect Rotten Tomatoes score, there is a huge gulf between the lowest-rated movie in the franchise and the critical zenith hit byBumblebeeandTransformers One. With their 90% scores at the time of writing,the difference between the highest and lowest-rated movies in the franchise stands at a whopping 74%. The difference is so severe that the number itself represents a higher Rotten Tomatoes score than the ones earned by seven of the nineTransformersmovies.
Transformers One
Transformers One is an animated action-adventure movie that marks the first animated feature-length film for the series in decades. The film will be a prequel to the franchise, and will tell the story of Optimus Prime and Megatron in their early years, how they met, and a closer look at the war on their home planet, Cybertron.
