I wonder if they're hoping to catch the back-to-school crowd which might lead into good holiday sales? I don't even know if things work that way any more, but it seems reasonable. I assume it's also because they don't want to go up against the big end-of-year family titles coming out (to include Red One, Moana 2, Mufasa and Sonic 3).
Transformers One is filling a nice "counter programming" slot akin to what happened with TMNT Mutant Mayhem and to space it from Paramount's big summer kids film, IF.
As nice as it would be to see the film sooner...I think they got a nice spot for it. May has IF and Garfield, June has Inside/Out 2 leading to Despicable Me 4 in July. August has Sony's Harold and the Purple Crayon...and that kind of wraps the big kid/family stuff for the summer. Aside from the superficially similar The Wild Robot from Universal, kids/family content is pretty sparse until the end of November. And Transformers has a LOT of name value relative to Universal's film. Transformers is the most notable kids film between September and the end of November. I'm not expecting huge number (see TMNT last year), but I expect it to do well enough and Hasbro will benefit from the fall release on the toy front.
As for the trailer... yeah this is about the vibe I sorta expected when the cast was revealed. It sorta feels like every animated kids movie from the last 20 years or so, just with a coat of Transformers on it. Hard to know how much of that is just the trailer though (are we really gonna get "Start Me Up" as in-movie music?) Doesn't look bad, seems funny enough.
That was my vibe on it. It "felt" like so many other "mainstream focused" animated films, and they all start blending at some point. But, if the marketing works...
The biggest issue, and that's probably because I've been in this game my whole life (literally! I'm turning 40 this year!)...I basically see where the beats are and where the plot will go. For many of us, this is FAR from our first rodeo on the "Origin" train.
That said, I can see plot elements and themes that COULD well elevate this beyond my experience tells me how this story will play out. Josh Cooley has the proven talent to elevate this film, so I'm still quite open to seeing his interpretation.
On the plus side...Bumblebee has a real face again! And (likely) Quintessons!