Transformers One
Before I can give my review of Transformers One, the origin story of the Transformers, I think it is only fair I reveal just how deep my fandom for the franchise is. As a 10-year-old, I would race home from the school bus to watch the greatest hour and half of television in history: Thundercats, G.I. Joe and Transformers. My friends and I collected the toys, sang the tv theme song, and watched Optimus stop Megatron from stealing the earth’s Energon day after day. We were first in line when the original animated movie hit theaters back in 1986. Transformers: The Movie still resonates with me to this day and I had it ranked as the top film in the entire franchise. It had it all, the emotional death of Optimus Prime, the introduction of Galvatron, Unicron, Roddimus Prime, and a soundtrack that I still have on my playlist today. Decades later, with grand hopes and aspirations for the live action films, I was left with nothing but disappointment after each Michael Bay effort. I understand the live action films have their own fandom, but many fans of the original Generation 1 cartoon felt the same as I did. The live action movies just did not feel the same and not even Peter Cullen voicing Optimus could save them.
So here we are, nearly 40 years after the original Transformers animated series debuted in September of 1984, and Transfomers One is here to tell the untold origin story of Optimus, Megatron, the Transformers and their home world of Cybertron. Transformers One begins with the story of how the Transformers came to be, the story behind the Matrix of Leadership, the fall of the Primes, and how their livelihood and planet now rely heavily on the mining of their sole energy source, Energon (things the live action films completely ignored). Cybertron is populated with two types of robots, the highly revered that can transform, and the miners, robots that lack the ability to transform due to a missing transforming cog. We are introduced to our mining main characters, Orian Pax (Optimus Prime), voiced by Chris Hemsworth, and D-16 (Megatron), voiced by Brian Tyree Henry. The movie does a wonderful job showing how close the two friends and coworkers are as your mind wanders and you find yourself already anticipating how things will go wrong to turn them into mortal enemies. Orian Pax longs for a life bigger than just mining and yearns to improve the lives of his fellow miners and the entire planet, while D-16 is a loyalist and rule follower that just wants to do his part to keep the status quo.
Realizing things are “more than meets the eye”, the pair set off on their mission thanks to a little deceptive planning from Orian. With the assistance of newfound friend, B-127 (Bumblebee), the pair stumble across a hidden secret that could answer the unsolved mysteries of their former leaders’ demise and the planet’s current situation. The role of B-127 is played masterfully by Keegan-Michael Key as the film’s comic relief throughout the movie. And a big thank you for giving us a Bumblebee that can talk like he did throughout the entire original animated series. The trio are joined by their former mining boss, Elita-1, played by Scarlett Johansson, and the four continue their journey to answer the unsolved mysteries of the past and save Cybertron. The fact this movie included an original animated character like Elita-1 that the live action films basically under used and overlooked, was just one more reason to love this film. When she spoke the line to Orian, “You’ve got no Touch and you’ve got no Power”, I was hooked. That line paid tribute to the Stan Bush song The Touch from the original animated movie that played as Optimus Prime rolled into Autobot City to face Megatron. It is still one of the greatest heroic moments in Transformers history.
Without giving too much of the film away, the group encounters more beloved characters from the original Generation 1 family including Starscream, Soundwave and many more. The film does a fantastic job building up to the climax of the film and the ensuing battle that results in the breakdown of the relationship between Megatron and Optimus. I never thought anyone could replace Peter Cullen as the voice of Optimus Prime, but Chris Hemsworth may have just done that. The team that cast the voice actors deserves recognition and should be commended for their incredible job. I cannot think of one character that sounded off or cast poorly, and I still have some of Keegan’s Bumblebee comedic moments running through my head.
This film is everything the live action films should have been. It is well written, nostalgic, incredible talent, and it respects the roots of where the franchise came from on televisions and toy stores in the 1980’s. Transformers One is not only the name of this film but should also be the ranking of the film in the franchise. It was that good. I loved the original animated movie, but this film has surpassed it on so many levels. I’m not a big fan of prequels either, but this movie changed my mind about that as well. I’m just a little saddened that I’ll have to wait almost another month to see it again in a theater when it officially releases on September 20th. But I’ll definitely be rolling out to see this one again.
9 out of 10
Lead image courtesy of Hasbro/Orion
