Transformers One

I am not a huge fan of the Transformers franchise (Bumblebee is my favorite and I liked Transformers: Rise of the Beasts well enough) but I thought the trailer for Transformers One looked like a lot of fun so I went to see a Thursday preview in IMAX last night.  I had a blast with this animated origin story detailing how friends Orion Pax and D-16 become the arch-enemies Optimus Prime and Megatron.  In the aftermath of war with the Quintessons, during which the original Primes were destroyed and the Matrix of Leadership was lost, Sentinel Prime (Jon Hamm) leads Cybertron from the underground city Iacon.  He frequently visits the surface to look for the Matrix of Leadership because it is needed to restore the rivers of energon.  Orion (Chris Hemsworth) and D-16 (Brian Tyree Henry), two of the many bots who are missing the cog that would allow them to transform, are forced to work in the energon mines but they are demoted to waste management because of a stunt.  Hoping to regain their status, they recruit fellow miners Elita-1 (Scarlett Johansson) and B-127 (Keegan-Michael Key) to go to the surface with them to find the Matrix of Leadership in order to impress Sentinel.  Instead, they discover a betrayal.  Orion, who wants to use the truth to unite all of the bots to work for change, and D-16, who wants to control them all to take revenge, disagree on what to do about this discovery which leads to an epic confrontation.  I really enjoyed the surprisingly engaging story (which also has deeper themes than I was expecting), the relationship between Orion and D-16 and their believable evolution from friends to enemies, the excellent voice work from Hemsworth (who really impressed me with his, er, transformation from a goofy optimist to a leader with gravitas), the dazzling animation (I especially loved the visuals on the surface), and the exciting action sequences.  I was actually really surprised by how much I liked this and think it might be my favorite in the franchise!  See it in IMAX if you can!