I consider myself a Transformers fanboy. I know, that’s not exactly an exclusive club. I grew up with them as my favorite toys, it was my favorite cartoon, I used to run a Transformers online RPG group, I have Transformers tattoos and Transformers posters on my wall at home. And yet, I mostly despised the Michael Bay live-action movies which are all pretty terrible. For me, there are only three good films that the Hasbro toy line has produced: the original 1986 Transformers the Movie, Travis Knight’s Bumblebee in 2018, and now Transformers One, which is simply phenomenal.
The skepticism was thick on my part, too. Promos for Transformers One suggested a buddy comedy set on the planet Cybertron, even going so far as to cast Chris Hemsworth as Orion Pax/Optimus Prime and Brian Tyree Henry as D-16/Megatron. Is that really how we want to depict the relationship between these two eternal rivals? It seemed like a cheap gimmick and, under different guidance, it would’ve been. But director Josh Cooley (of Toy Story 4 fame) and writer Eric Pearson (Thor: Ragnarok) are better than that. Transformers One combines humor and nostalgia to present the Autobot/Decepticon conflict in a fresh way that asks us to reexamine our thoughts about something we think we already know.
Transformers One is an origin story, taking us back long before the Autobot/Decepticon War, before the battle came to Earth, before there was even an Optimus Prime and a Megatron. We’ve never seen this side of the Transformers story in this way before. War against the Quintessons has left Cybertron ravaged, and most of the population exists underground and work in energon mining camps. Only a few of the elite Transformers can even transform. If you think an unfair class structure emerges from this dynamic, you’d be right. Before they were the greatest of enemies, Orion Pax and D-16 were the best of friends. Together, they toil in the mining camps, causing trouble and dreaming of greater things. Orion is the mischief-maker of the two, a far cry from the heroic “Autobots Rollout!!’ dude, while D-16 is the one who usually bails him out. It all sounds so wild, right?
One of Orion’s many schemes drops the two into the annual Iacon 5000, in which Transformers compete for a grand prize awarded by Sentinel Prime (Jon Hamm), their leader and the last surviving Prime. Think of the pod races of The Phantom Menace and you’ll get the idea, but it looks incredible and moves at the kind of blistering pace you can only get from such fluid animation. Ultimately, this doomed plot earns them both global acclaim and stiff retribution, but it also leads Orion and D-16 on a quest to find a lost artifact that can save Cybertron. It also pulls them into a vast political conspiracy involving the death of the Primes, the lost ability to transform, and begins the erosion of a friendship that once was as strong as brothers.
It’s a lot that Transformers One puts on its plate, especially when you consider the brief 100-minute runtime. And to be fair, not every thread gets pulled as tightly as it could be. I think the film could’ve used another hour and still not had enough to cover everything. The result is that you simultaneously love the amount of detail they put on building out the world of Transformers One, while hating that they can’t spend more time with other aspects. But there’s a reason they did it this way. We’ve never had a look at the socio-political climate of Transformers before. We’ve never seen how the Robots In Disguise deal with an unfair system of government that places one group as humiliated workers and another as ruling elites. Everything that comes later we are at least somewhat familiar with, even if we’ve never seen them right from the earliest stages.
We all know that eventually Orion Pax will become Optimus Prime, and that D-16 will be Megatron, and that they will become to-the-death rivals. What Transformers One does is plant the seeds early, then lets us watch as they grow organically throughout story. Henry is phenomenal in voicing D-16, whose grievance at being a worker bot with no chance of advancement is what slowly eats away at him. It lays the groundwork for his eventual turn towards evil, but of course, it doesn’t start out that way. The best villains don’t actually see themselves as the bad guy, and that is definitely the case with D-16. While more time could’ve been spent on D-16’s turn towards becoming Megatron, it makes complete sense and feels like the natural course of events.
Less so is the turn Orion Pax makes towards becoming Optimus Prime. Not to say that it’s bad, just less convincing because good guys are never as compelling. Orion starts out as devilish and funny, but his main attribute is that he’s loyal and looks after the people he loves. It’s this latter aspect that is leaned into most when it comes to his evolution. I’m not sure that’s enough to make him the ultimate Autobot leader the film wants us to see him as, but I think they’re leaning hard on our knowledge of who he ultimately becomes.
All of the voicework is extraordinary, and that includes Hemsworth, who delivers Orion’s bold speeches beautifully as well his many jokes and, when the time comes, his dismay over the course of events. The best gags go to Keegan-Michael Key as B-127, who eventually becomes fan-favorite sidekick Bumblebee. He’s a completely awkward weirdo in this one, in keeping with the many different interpretations of the character. Also, Scarlett Johansson is excellent as Elita-1, a strict middle-manager who becomes a true badass battlefield leader. Laurence Fishburne brings the perfect gravitas to the role of Alpha Trion, and Steve Buscemi has just the right petulant voice to play Starscream in a scene that I hope hasn’t been spoiled too much. Fans who know the antagonistic Megatron/Starscream dynamic will get a kick at seeing how it all began.
Industrial Light & Magic has steadily improved in its visual presentation of the Transformers. They did the first six Michael Bay films, which started out looking like hot garbage but got better over time. But they are at their absolute best with Transformers One, a visually breathtaking feast for the eyes. Using advanced technology developed over years of doing extraordinary work, the film looks more live-action than the actual live-action movies, like painted art come to life. In still frames Transformers One looks awesome, in motion it looks even better. I hope this becomes the standard for these movies from now on.
Transformers One checks all of the boxes and should be a huge hit with longtime fans such as myself, and newcomers being introduced to the story of Optimus Prime and Megatron. I had my doubts going in, but they are long gone, and I can’t wait to see this story continue. Free of the need for exposition, the sequels can be even more intense, more action-packed, funnier, and yes, so much more than meets the eye.
Transformers One opens in theaters on September 20th.
