Transformers One, 2024.
Directed by Josh Cooley.
Featuring the voice talents of Chris Hemsworth, Brian Tyree Henry, Scarlett Johansson, Keegan-Michael Key, Steve Buscemi, Laurence Fishburne, Jon Hamm, Vanessa Liguori, Jon Bailey, Jason Konopisos-Alvarez, Evan Michael Lee, James Remar, Isaac C. Singleton Jr., Steve Blum, Jinny Chung, Josh Cooley, and Dillon Bryan.
SYNOPSIS:
The untold origin story of Optimus Prime and Megatron, better known as sworn enemies, but once were friends bonded like brothers who changed the fate of Cybertron forever.
Transformers fans haven’t always had it easy when the franchise has made it to the big screen for as long as anyone can remember. As great as the original animated film is, it traumatized a generation with the deaths of Optimus Prime and most of the original characters to make way for new ones while Michael Bay’s live-action series are considered varying degrees of good, cringe and awful. Thankfully, Josh Cooley’s Transformers One is something both longtime fans and young newcomers can enjoy as the film’s passion pours through every frame with gorgeous animation, its great cast and heartfelt characters.
Transformers One takes audiences to a place it has seldom gone in film or TV by exploring Cybertron’s glory days before Autobots and Decepticons were even a thing with Optimus Prime and Megatron as lowly worker bots. To that end the film gives a (excuse the pun) prime introduction to anyone unfamiliar with the franchise. The story is intriguing, even with some familiar beats from various Transformers lore or other generic tropes, as it places the characters first and foremost above spectacle as it tracks how the two main characters went from friends to bitter enemies and changed the course of their planet’s future for the worse.
The development of Orion Pax and D-16 into their future selves could have easily been rushed just to give audiences what they’d want, but the story takes its time showing us why Orion and D are friends and the many ways they compliment each other. In the case of D-16, his journey to evil is not a sudden light switch but a slow and growing tide of anger and resentment that turns him into the deadly Megatron. The film knows how to play up the tragedy of their friendship despite knowing what’s coming.
A lot of that goes into how much Chris Hemsworth and Brian Tyree Henry commit to their roles. It’s a tall order to fill the shoes of the legendary Peter Cullen and Frank Welker, but Hemsworth and Henry both show they are more than worthy of taking on these iconic characters as they put their own spin on them, especially given the fact this is their origin story. Hemsworth imbues Orion with a lot of humour born from Orion’s charisma and confidence while Henry makes D-16’s downfall feel relatable. Their chemistry works really well together as Orion and D-16 feel like real friends and by the time the credits roll Hemsworth and Henry have earned the transformations Orion and D make into their classic characters.
The rest of the cast do great work with Keegan-Michael Key providing nice and balanced comic relief as B-127 while Scarlett Johansson grounds Elita-1 between Orion’s overenthusiasm and D-16’s practical nature with plenty of spunk of her own. Laurence Fishburne is his typical wise-but-ass-kicking-mentor self as Alpha Trion while Jon Hamm plays up Sentinel Prime’s smarmy characteristics. Even the cast who don’t appear as much like Steve Buscemi, Jon Bailey and Vanessa Liguori make their roles memorable, especially in the case of Buscemi and Bailey as they play fan-favourite characters.
As for the animation, Transformers One is just gorgeous to look at. It opens Cybertron up in a way none of the previous films have done, save for possibly Bumblebee‘s opening sequence but One benefits from exploring a pre-war Cybertron in all its vibrant colours and varied environments. The animation is smooth and is used to its best potential with the character designs and transformations, creating very cool and entertaining action scenes with fluid movements and choreography. Of note is how emotive Orion, D-16 and the others are since, again, it would have been easy for each one to look generically robot-like, but each bot is largely distinct from the other and even the bots with faceplates or eye visors or both emote a lot due to their body language. From start to finish, Transformers One is a visually beautiful film.
Transformers One succeeds in focusing on its cast and creating rich development for such iconic and longstanding characters. Hemsworth and Henry carry the film with their chemistry alongside great animation and set pieces. Transformers fans of any age will enjoy how the story is simultaneously fun and serious with plenty of homages to the franchise’s 40 year history. Whether you’re new or familiar with Transformers, you should roll out to the theatres for this one.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★
Ricky Church – Follow me on Twitter for more movie news and nerd talk.
