"Transformers One:" The Untold, Animated Origin Story
We really need a trilogy out of this!
I remember watching the Michael Bay Transformers movies as a kid with their intense action, heavy CGI, and poor writing of human characters.
As I got older I stopped paying as much attention to the Transformers brand until I saw the trailer for Transformers One. A story about the origin of Optimus Prime and Megatron and how they became enemies? How could I not be interested!
Transformers One follows the story of Orion Pax (Chris Hemsworth), the future Optimus Prime, and D-16 (Brian Tyree Henry), the future Megatron, as they embark on a journey to become more than simple mining bots, a minority demographic on Cybertron, and return the Matrix of Leadership to Sentinel Prime (Jon Hamm) to save their planet.
Along the way the brother-like duo also join up with Elita-1 (Scarlett Johansson) and B-127 (Keegan-Michael Key), the future Bumblebee.
There are plenty more Transformers for fans to recognize, but I’m going to avoid naming them for the sake of spoilers.
The voice actors all do a solid job, but Hemsworth and Tyree Henry are easily the standouts.
Hemsworth doesn’t aim to do an impression of Peter Cullen, but their vocals do align towards the end of the film to help show how the younger Orion Pax could evolve into Optimus Prime. Tyree Henry does a solid job of balancing comedy and bloodthirst in his portrayal of D-16 making him truly a villain by the end.
While Transformers One utilizes the trope of “best friends become enemies” for the bulk of the plot, the serious moments are allowed to be serious. The film’s comedy follows suit by allowing the comedic moments to not intrude on the serious moments, at least in the first two acts of the film.
Unfortunately, a lot of the plot is predictable thanks to a trope being the main plot and prior knowledge of certain character motivations from other Transformers media.
The final act of the film also suffers from cutting between Orion Pax and D-16’s point of views which makes things feel a bit messy.
Some have claimed the movie as the “Spider-Verse for Transformers” and I can understand why as the animation is without a doubt the best part of Transformers One. Everything feels fluid during fight scenes and is well-polished overall.
The scale of things is also well-made as you can see the size difference between miner bots, Transformers, Iacon City, and the surface of Cybertron itself.
Transformers One suffers from its comedic timing and predictable plot, but the acting and animation carry the film so heavily that it’s almost not even noticeable, nor a problem. The film also serves as a great watch for family movie night and a jumping on point for new and existing fans alike.
Transformers One — ★ ★ ★ ★
Note: A trilogy is also being considered if this film does well, so go check it out!
Release Date: September 20, 2024
Director: Josh Cooley
Runtime: 1hr 44m
Rating: PG