Throughout my 90s childhood Saturdays were for cartoons and one of my favorites was for the different incarnations of Transformers. I loved the Autobots and Decepticons so much, had quite a good amount of transformers and if ONLY I KNEW as a kid that they were going to be so valuable now days I would have keep them in good shape, same for my Silver Hawks collection but anyways, fast forward 20 plus years, and my enthusiasm for the series hasnt fade out. And when I heard about an animated Transformers movie set on the storied planet of Cybertron, I was way too excited. On the surface, Transformers One is just another summertime action flick, but one that dives much deeper than you might think, in a way that is surprisingly entertaining and insightful.
- IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8864596/
- Platform: AppleTV+
Rottentomatoes Rating
Before the Autobots and Decepticons fought on Earth, the planet Cybertron is fought over by another race the Quintessons, since the all powerful Matrix of Leadership is gone, the people of the Matrix are struggling to produce enough Energon power. Sentinel, voiced by Jon Hamm, the sole surviving Prime, goes on a search of the surface of the world to find the Matrix that his race has abandoned. Orion Pax voiced by Chris Hemsworth is a mining bot without the cog he needs to transform, who is trying to find it to prove he’s worth more than his lowly station in life. When Orion Pax finds the likely coordinates to the Matrix he drags his best pal D-16, voiced by Brian Tyree Henry, and his co workers, Elita-1 by Scarlett Johansson and B-127 by Keegan Michael Key on a mission to save their people.
The plot might not seem too outlandish for an action adventure storyline but it’s the characters that Transformers One focuses on and unlike any other action adventure story before it, giving away so many details on how this relationship between Megatron and Optimus happen. This movie is much wiser, it hasn’t jump in as many characters as possible with even lesser distinctive character traits than previous Transformers movies have, it has chosen a few core characters and takes time to develop their personalities and the way in which the characters work together, but of course it’s the story between Orion Pax and D-16, the split which eventually leads to their upheaval as Optimus Prime, Autobot leader, or Megatron, Decepticon leader.
Referring to Orion, writer Abrams develop a cheerful, bloody, gun loving bot who knows what he wants, even if he runs the risk of dying in the process, he is not battle hardened, leader we know from previous films. Orion weighs his decision throughout the story to discover how much weight this decision carries and the effects of being a leader on his followers, he is less interested in his glory and more interested in finding a Matrix of Leadership that will not only make a better life for his people, but establish lasting peace. Orion’s complement is D-16, relatable is the path of righteous vengeance that D-16 sets himself and his people on after that faith is violently shattered with his actions are sometimes admirable, heartbreaking, appalling, but this transformation is all the more poignant because it shows us the hopeful bot he used to be.
The voice cast do a great job with these characters, Chris Hemsworth and Brian Tyree Henry nail their characters in the voice acting department, taking the classic Optimus and Megatron sound bites and putting their own spin on the younger versions of the characters. Scarlett Johansson and Keegan Michael Key are equally impressive as Elita-1, beginning by being indifferent with Orion, moving to resent him, then respect and admiration for Orion in order to help give him the leadership qualities without taking away from Johansson’s character.
Another high light of the movie is the animation style, the planet’s surface has a nostalgic vaporware ‘80s vibe, the underground world of Cybertronian civilization refreshes the retro futurist vibe of original cartoons. The bot design also has a nice variety of it, which will make any fan nostalgic for classic toys. Blaster shots are solid and satisfying, and blows from laser or melee weapons ring out as though they were actually being wielded by massive robots.
Although the movie isn’t perfect, towards the end it feels that it drags, and though it's crucial to the plot information we get during this time, the predictability of the story feels as if you want to skip past as quickly as possible. The break from friends to enemies is shocking and should’ve been handled much more smoothly with more time spent on the shattered relationship and climactic conflict between Orion and D-16.
Transformers One ends in a way that sets up a brand new future for the franchise, probably the necessary reboot that it needed, after years of live action movies. Paramount and Hasbro brought Transformers movies back to animation to explore the origin stories for Orion Pax and D-16 as they become the legendary and powerful Autobot and Decepticon leaders. Following Orion Pax and D-16, the story tells of the journey the future Transformers One Autobots and Decepticons take when B-127 and Elita accompany them on a quest to locate the Matrix of Leadership in order to unearth the dirty secret about Sentinel Prime’s reign on Cybertron.
The climax of the movie is a big action one, and an emotional one, as Orion Pax and D-16 become Optimus Prime and Megatron. Primus gives Optimus Prime the Matrix of Leadership from the middle of Cybertron because he also saves Orion from sure death, after which Optimus Prime emerges empowered by the Matrix. Officially, he is transformed into Optimus Prime and he leads Cybertron into a new age, a time when the civilians of Cybertron can live safely. After Optimus defeats Megatron, he shows mercy and does not kill him instead banishing him from Iacon City and telling him to take the High Guard's with him, the friendship between Optimus and Megatron is over, but we really know and as the movie implies this is just the beginning to a never ending war between the two.
Transformers One is a great addition to the franchise in terms of providing a detailed and interesting look at the origins of Optimus Prime and Megatron. The movie has its problems though, with pacing and predictability being its two biggest flaws, but it’s excellent when it comes to character development and animation. What a setup for a whole new Transformers era I can’t wait for what they will come up with next time we either have a sequel animated movie or the story moves into live action movies. A long time fan of the series, I was very involved in the movie. There was palpable nostalgia in the beautiful landscape, the cameos of other Transformers, I really enjoy and had a good time watching this movie, reason I give it a 8/10.
