One of the best movies of 2024 is finally available to stream for free on Amazon Prime Video. It’s an animated film, but still ranks as one of the best and best-reviewed action movies that came out last year, netting better Rotten Tomatoes audience scores than big blockbusters like Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (pictured left) and Gladiator II (pictured right).
Transformers One tells the origin story of sworn enemies, Optimus Prime and Megatron, the key leaders in the age-old battle between the Transformers and the nefarious Autobots.
On Rotten Tomatoes, Transformers One has an 89% critic score and a 97% “Popcornmeter” or audience score. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (which I absolutely loved) has a 90% critic score and an 88% audience score. Gladiator II (which I loathed) has a much lower 71% critic score and an 82% audience score.
Other big action movies in 2024 included:
- Netflix’s Reacher-like Rebel Ridge, which snagged a 96% critic score but just a 72% audience score. I liked this one quite a bit also.
- The Crow, with its dismal 21% critic score and surprisingly high 62% audience score. I refused to watch this one.
- Netflix’s surprisingly fun (if totally implausible) Carry-On, which boasts an 87% critic score and a 52% audience score.
- Animated Lord Of The Rings prequel, War Of The Rohirrim, which fared poorly with critics at 48% on Rotten Tomatoes but much better with audiences at 82%.
As you can see, Transformers One ranks higher than any of these with audiences, and near the top with critics. This is with good reason. It’s one of the best Transformers movies ever made. Only Bumblebee scored higher with critics (91%) but even that one (which I found very charming) scored just 75% with audiences.
The next-best rated Transformers movie is the 1986 animated feature, with a 62% critic score / 88% audience score, followed by 2007’s first live-action entry at 57%/85%. None of these even come close to the combined critical and audience praise of Transformers One.
If you missed this in theaters and haven’t gotten it already on 4K or VOD, give it a shot this week now that it’s free with a Prime membership.
