Transformers One is a shockingly good origin story and ranks as the franchise’s best film to date (by a long shot).
PLOT: An origin story set on Cybertron focused on the friendship between a young Optimus Prime (Chris Hemsworth) and Megatron (Bryan Tyree Henry) before they became arch-enemies.
REVIEW: It figures that the best movie Paramount’s ever made from the Transformers franchise is animated. When I hit Comic Con in San Diego a few months ago, the folks behind Transformers One mentioned that by adopting an animated format, for the first time in the history of the big screen franchise, they were able to make a Transformers movie without any human characters, set 100% on Cybertron. It would have cost about $400 million had this been live-action. And, indeed, with no limit on the story’s scope, for the first time, we have a Transformers movie that can legitimately be called terrific.
Indeed, folks are in for a surprise with this one, which is very much in the vein of the recent animated Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles reboot and the Spider-Verse movies. While it’s definitely not as good as either Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse or Across the Spider-Verse, it comes much closer than you might expect.
In it, we get a deep dive into the history of the Autobots and Decepticons, tracking how Optimus Prime and Megatron liberated Cybertronians from virtual enslavement before being split into two warring factions. In this one, the young Optimus, here called Orion Pax, and Megatron (D-16) are two miners who don’t have transforming cogs and exist in the lower echelon of Cybertronian society, which Jon Hamm’s Sentinel Prime lords over. Chris Hemsworth and Bryan Tyree Henry do a good job evoking the buddy-movie chemistry needed between Orion Pax and D-16, with much of the movie playing almost like an animated version of Tango & Cash as the two embark on a mission that leads to their eventual transformation into the iconic characters as we know them.
While it all sounds like you have to be steeped in Transformers lore to appreciate what director Josh Cooley (Toy Story 4) and his writers are going for, the movie is much more compelling than you’d think. It starts off as your typical sci-fi adventure movie, complete with a humorous sidekick (Keegan Michael-Key as Bumblebee before he lost his voice) and a robot love interest (Scarlett Johansson’s Elita), but eventually takes a dark turn as the truth about Cybertron emerges, and D-16’s more ruthless side comes to the surface. You can’t help but get invested in the brotherhood between the two robots, and when they eventually turn on each other, it feels pretty epic.
The voice work by Hemsworth and Tyree Henry certainly helps it. While many may have issues with Peter Cullen no longer voicing Optimus, Hemsworth works in many vocal references to his predecessor, paying homage to his iconic performance as the film goes on. Likewise, Tyree-Henry’s vocal performance once he becomes Megatron begins to change, and he imbues the character with a surprising amount of pathos.
It also doesn’t hurt that the film is gorgeous to look at. The animation style is fresh-feeling, and it makes an effort to be distinctive while also paying tribute to the old cartoon show and 1986 film. It’s also set in the same timeline as the modern Transformer movies, but it’s distinct enough that you really don’t have to have seen any of them to enjoy it.
One thing worth noting is that the audience I saw this with REALLY seemed to love the movie. They laughed and cheered throughout, and when it was over, the audience gave it a huge round of applause, which is something you really never get at free screenings in my neck of the woods. There’s a reason why Paramount’s been doing so many word-of-mouth screenings, as this has the potential to be a major hit, and, again, it’s the best Transformers movie ever made by a wide margin.
