As beloved as the Transformers franchise has been for the past 40 years, the movies have been overall very hit-or-miss. When Transformers One was originally announced, I couldn’t contain my excitement. There had been Transformers prequel stories done in video game and comic form, but aside from a singular action scene in the opening of Bumblebee, it hadn’t really been explored on the big screen.
My excitement quickly turned to trepidation when the awful first trailer dropped. It looked as bland as a lower-tier Dreamworks film, with all the celebrity stunt casting, and smirking posters that entails. Turns out there was more to Transformers One than meets the eye (sorry), because not only is the film actually really good, it’s one of the franchise’s strongest cinematic offerings to date.
Before they were known as Optimus Prime and Megatron, they were best friends Orion Pax (Chris Hemsworth) and D-16 (Brian Tyree Henry). A pair of lowly miner bots without transforming cogs, they live in the shadow of Cybertron’s beloved hero, Sentinel Prime (Jon Hamm). Pax is determined to find the Matrix of Leadership, a mythical artifact that can restore the planet’s dried up Energon reserves. However, during their search for the Matrix, they uncover Sentinel’s involvement in a massive conspiracy that will not only shake the foundation of Cybertron, but will eventually turn the pair’s friendship into the rivalry that defines the entire franchise.
In terms of my earlier trepidation, the first act of Transformers One has a tone very much like that original trailer. It’s silly, it gets a lot of the more obvious references and puns out of the way and focuses on establishing the friendship between the rebellious Pax and the rule-abiding D-16. It takes a while for the pair to get into a groove, but by the time the Pax and D-16 sneak into a city-wide race early on do you eventually see how the two could be as close as brothers.
It’s pretty uneven, but a lot of Transformers One’s comedic bits surprisingly land, especially the ones delivered by Keegan-Michael Key as B-127, whom we later know as Bumblebee. B-127 is the standard motor-mouth comic relief, but Key’s delivery manages to tow the line enough to be more funny than irritating. He even sneaks in a Key & Peele reference that had me laughing harder than I expected. The only disappointment comes from Scarlett Johansson’s Elita-1, the fourth member of the team who feels like she has significantly less to do than the others outside of being the generically tough one.
“Turns out there was more to Transformers One than meets the eye (sorry), because not only is the film actually really good, it’s one of the franchise’s strongest cinematic offerings to date.”
The film’s second act is where things significantly kick up a notch. From the moment the quartet discover Sentinel’s corruption, dueling ideologies start to fracture the bond between Pax and D-16. The former wants to expose Sentinel’s crimes, the latter wants to kill him outright. Director Josh Cooley gives Transformers One a surprising amount of dramatic heft, aided by Brian Tyree Henry’s fantastic performance.
Even though D-16’s turn to the dark side feels a bit rushed, his simmering rage towards Sentinel’s manipulation gives it the legitimacy it needs to make the eventual split all the more tragic. Chris Hemsworth holds his own as well, imbuing Pax with the charisma of the natural leader we know the future Optimus to be, but carrying the pain of seeing his best friend fall down the wrong path.
Sure, it’s melodramatic, but it doesn’t feel out of line with the original series, something that some of the previous live-action films struggled with. It also never loses sight of that conflict, especially during the movie’s amazing third-act battle sequence, an all-out war filled with tons of fan-favorites like Starscream and Soundwave. It’s filled with all the action old-school G1 fans have been waiting for, and it’s very satisfying.
I can’t reiterate enough how much Transformers One feels like an entirely different movie than the one it’s being marketed as. Yeah, it’s still a brightly-colored adventure about robots punching and shooting each other, but allowing genuine, well-written drama has helped this movie be the most refreshed I’ve been towards the Transformers franchise in years. While we are still sure to get more live-action films (namely the teased G.I. Joe crossover at the end of Rise of the Beasts), there’s real potential for future animated installments that Paramount would be fools not to roll out the red carpet for.
