The success of Bumblebee seems to have breathed new life into the Transformers films, resulting in the sequel Transformers: Rise of the Beasts and the prequel film Transformers One (TF One), which marks the franchise’s return to theatrical feature animation since 1986. Despite a more tempered reaction to the initial trailer, thanks in part to the mild confusion over the overall timeline post-Bumblebee caused by executive flip-flopping, I remained cautiously optimistic for TF One, enough to pick up an Optimus Prime popcorn bucket from a local Cinemark as well as jump at the chance to purchase tickets for an early TF One Fan Event for the Wednesday of release at a local AMC. Within that time, though I had heard positive word of mouth from previous early screenings, I also went so far as to hold off on buying any actual toys until I had seen the movie for myself to form my own opinion, regardless of availability. Upon finally getting the chance to see it, I genuinely found it to be the best piece of Transformers media I had seen (aside from the current Skybound comic) since Bumblebee.
