There’s more than meets the eye in this CGI Transformers prequel that showcases how Megatron and Optimus Prime were friends turned rivals.
Transformers One
Directed by Josh Cooley
Starring Chris Hemsworth, Brian Tyree Henry, Scarlet Johansson, Keegan Michael Key, Jon Hamm, Lawrence Fishburne, Steve Buscemi,
Runtime: 1 hour, 44 mins
Synopsis
On the planet Cybertron, Orion Pax (Hemsworth) and D-13 (Henry) aspire to be more than simple energon miners. When they discover that the war that ravaged Cybertron may be more nefarious and complicated than they originally believed, they will go on a journey with Bee (Key) and Elita (Johansson) to discover the truth and become new transformers along the way.
The Voice Acting Torch
Comparing Chris Hemsworth’s Orion and Brian Tyree Henry’s D-13 to the iconic portrayals of Peter Cullen as Optimus Prime and Frank Welker as Megatron isn’t fair, but they do a solid job for the material and direction of this film. I can argue that adding those original voices into the mix wouldn’t have worked with the lighter elements or well-timed jokes throughout this film. Hemsworth and Henry aren’t cracking jokes every few minutes, which shows some incredible restraint from director Josh Cooley and writer Eric Pearson to dole those jokes out in the right spot.
Johansson and Key also make solid contributions as the supporting transformers Elita and Bumblebee, though their stories/arcs aren’t featured as heavily. Similarly, Steve Buscemi voices the latest version of Starscream, who gets a few good moments between Megatron and his future Decepticon lackeys Soundwave and Shockwave. If Hasbro is going to turn this into an animated franchise, they will need to address these weaker elements so that younger fans who have less Transformers experience can enjoy and connect with their stories, too. Generally, animated Transformers‘ shows allow the opportunity to flesh out these side characters (as there are so many of them), so it’s not surprising they were minimized here, but there was a missed opportunity.
Surprisingly Solid Stakes
Wisely, this film avoids leaning on what Orion/Optimus and D-13/Megatron will become and focuses on who they are right now. Orion wants to help his fellow transformers, though he’s not quite adept enough for the situation. D-13 wants revenge for how their lives were changed and irrevocably altered and is letting rage blind him. This allows us to actually learn who they are and how they become the characters we love – without cheating the audience of that journey and experience. Too many prequels wink and nod to their audiences about what will eventually happen without taking care of the narrative we all came to see. This was the massive trap that recent box office failure Madame Web fell into: rather than give us a solid story featuring multiple Spider-Women, supported or directed by Madame Web, we got a middling prequel that didn’t establish its key character well and kept teasing way more interesting stories featuring the people on screen.
Within the Transformers-universe, there’s a great recent example of prequels doing this the right way, with Bumblebee (2018) reintroducing and soft rebooting the Michael Bay movie-verse without too much focus on those movies events happening in the future timeline. They wisely focus on the relationship between Charlie (Hailee Steinfeld) and Bumblebee, which lets the connections they need to make for future iterations come in naturally. That movie would have been dragged down if they had attempted to make connections or explanations for every future decision.
The unexpected heart of this movie focuses on our main characters’ self-determination and autonomy. To avoid spoilers, I’ll be a little vague here: essentially, our lead characters (and the populace of Cybertron, for that matter) wrestle with their self-worth and removal of agency and spend the rest of the runtime rediscovering that for themselves. This could have been a complicated subject for younger audiences to grasp, but the movie doesn’t wax philosophically about these issues either. It’s just presented as the tragedy it is, and audiences should be able to understand how heartbreaking the situation is/was. Older moviegoers will have plenty to think about and process when they consider the repercussions presented, which showcases how well this story works across multiple age ranges. It’s not a perfect exploration of these themes, as there are some moments where you may miss or confuse where they want these characters to end up or may linger on one joke a bit too long, but it largely works enough to keep you engaged.
Conclusion / Recommendation
Transformers One delivers a solid romp that showcases the early years of fan-favorite Transformers in a package that young and old moviegoers can appreciate and resonate with.
Kids will probably have a blast, either at home or with a large crowd that laughs with them, so parents who are looking for an economical choice may want to wait for streaming. Major Transformers fans will likely find this entry scratches an old itch that they forgot about after the Michael Bay film series blunted the potential of this franchise.
Score: 8 out of 10
- Solid Mix of Stakes and Fun- 9
- Some may call this film dark, but in reality it sets up some important stakes for our characters and wisely doles out the laughs in controlled bursts.
- Vocal Performances- 8
- The talent assembled can’t beat the classic voices of these characters, and they don’t need to, this entry is trying to create and say something new.
- Styling- 7
- While the film looks good, there’s nothing here that’s going to stand out compared to some other artistic knockouts like Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (2022) or even this summer’s Inside Out 2 (2024).
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