Transformers One review

TRANSFORMERS ONE: 

NEW ANIMATED ORIGIN IS ONE OF THE FRANCHISE’S BEST! 

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: *** ½ out of 4

PARAMOUNT PICTURES AND HASBRO

Bumblebee, D-16/Megatron, Orion Pax/Optimus Prime, and Elita-1 in Transformers One

 

            The Transformers are back on the big screen (This time fully animated!) in Transformers One, the latest film based on the Hasbro Transformers toy line and an animated origin story showing the events leading up to the rivalry between Autobot and Decepticon leaders, Optimus Prime and Megatron. Despite the title, this is not the first time the Autobots and Decepticons hit the big screen in animation form as there was already the 1986 hand-drawn animated film based on the Transformers cartoon series, The Transformers: The Movie. 

            But this is the first fully animated Transformers movie since 1986 after several live-action/CG animated movies with varying results (Though I enjoy the first Michael Bay movie from 2007 and his third installment as a guilty pleasure). However, 2018’s Bumblebee certainly felt like an animated movie in terms of its storytelling and direction with a Lilo & Stitch and Iron Giant vibe. 

            After Bumblebee and last year’s Transformers: Rise of the Beasts resurrected the franchise and gave it some well-deserved fresh blood, Transformers One rolls in with many of the same producers of the live-action Transformersmovies including Michael Bay (Who directed the first five movies) returning and Josh Cooley (Toy Story 4) as the director. 

            The movie looked fine by the trailers, but the most polarizing thing about it seemed to be casting celebrity voices as the Transformers so we have Chris Hemsworth (Marvel Cinematic Universe, Rush, Extraction 1 and 2) instead of Peter Cullen as Optimus Prime and Brian Tyree Henry (If Beale Street Could Talk, Spider-Verse, Bullet Train) instead of Frank Welker as Megatron and a lot of reliance on comedy (Thankfully, not Michael Bay-style comedy). But then early reactions hailed it as the best Transformers movie ever made which certainly got my attention and…yeah, I really enjoyed this. 

            I still stand by Bumblebee as the best film in the series and Transformers (2007) will always have a special place in my heart, but this is a solid and entertaining origin story to Optimus Prime, Megatron, and the War on Planet Cybertron. This is also coming from someone who got most of his Transformers knowledge from the first Bay movie and is not a purist on Transformers lore. 

            The film is set on Planet Cybertron (Home of the Transformers) and follows fellow brothers, Orion Pax (voiced by Hemsworth) and D-16 (voiced by Tyree-Henry) working as Energon (The energy fuel of the Transformers race) miners which has become scarce on the planet after the fall of the Primes under command of their leader, Sentinel Prime (voiced by Jon Hamm-Mad Men, Million Dollar Arm, Baby Driver). But when they discover a map leading to the Matrix of Leadership (A powerful artifact that can restore Cybertron’s Energon), Orion Pax, D-16, and friends Elita-1 (voiced by Scarlett Johansson-Lost in Translation, Marvel Cinematic Universe, Under the Skin) and B-127/Bumblebee (voiced by Keegan-Michael Key-Key & Peele, Hotel Transylvania franchise, Toy Story 4) venture off to the surface of Cybertron in order to locate the Matrix and save their planet while along the way gaining their abilities to transform into vehicles and chronicling the events leading up to the literal transformations of the heroic, Optimus Prime and the villainous, Megatron. 

            The film also features the voices of Steve Buscemi (The Big Lebowski, Monsters, Inc., Hotel Transylvaniafranchise) as eventual Decepticon Starscream, Laurence Fishburne (The Matrix franchise, Mystic River, Ant-Man and the Wasp) as Alpha Trion, Isaac C. Singleton Jr. (Planet of the Apes (2001), Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, Deadpool) as Darkwing (No relation to Darkwing Duck), and the Honest Trailers guy Jon Bailey reprising his role from Bumblebee as the voice of Soundwave. 

            Overall, Transformers One brings the franchise back to its roots with a colorfully animated, action-packed and surprisingly character driven origin story that puts the majority of live-action Transformers films to shame. Despite enjoying a few of the live-action movies and the 1986 animated film, this is the most I’ve ever cared about Optimus Prime and Megatron in any of the Transformers movies because Optimus isn’t the badass hero and Megatron isn’t the vengeful, power-hungry bad guy yet, they’re just two brothers and friends trying to save their planet and their dynamic reminded me an awful lot of Charles Xavier and Magneto’s relationship in X-Men: First Class at various points in the film. 

            A lot of the impact of their origins comes from Chris Hemsworth and Brian Tyree Henry’s vocal performances (Yes, you read that correctly!). Peter Cullen and Frank Welker will always be definitive Optimus Prime and Megatron voices, but I don’t think they’d fit with the tone of this movie and how the Transformers are characterized here. 

            Chris Hemsworth voices Orion Pax as very mischievous and troublesome while Brian Tyree Henry voices D-16 as essentially the straight man (or robot) to Orion’s shenanigans. Both are portrayed incredibly well and you buy their friendship which makes D-16’s inevitable “Transformation” into Megatron all the more tragic when he does go bad. 

            Scarlett Johansson as Elita is fine though she just sounds like Scarlett Johansson and Keegan Michael-Key gets a few laughs as the childlike Bumblebee though the “Badassatron” bit gets old pretty quick. Speaking of which, I thought most the comedy was fine, it wasn’t knee-slapping hilarious but there are some good jokes here like in the beginning where Orion “Transforms” to escape security and a gag later when they’re recruiting robots to join the fight that made me laugh out loud. 

            The action is a lot of fun and not an overblown clusterf*ck like in the Michael Bay movies, definitely worth seeing on the big screen. It isn’t just robots punching and shooting each other for long stretches of time, this movie incorporates their transforming abilities into the action scenes and leads to some creative and genuinely exciting sequences. 

            Transformers One joins Bumblebee as one of the best Transformers films of all time and just a fun, animated take on a beloved property much like the Spider-Verse movies and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem. Hopefully this will continue to lead to more experimental film projects in the Transformers series and less Michael Bay explosion-fests with little substance because with this, Bumblebee, and Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, there really is more to this franchise than meets the eye (And now, I regret already using that to close my Rise of the Beasts review last year).