TRANSFORMERS ONE (2024)

Genre: CG Animation
Director: Josh Cooley
Cast: Chris Hemsworth, Brian Tyree Henry, Scarlett Johansson, Keegan-Michael Key, Steve Buscemi, Laurence Fishburne, Jon Hamm
Runtime: 1 hr 44 mins
Rating: PG (Some Violence)
Released By: UIP
Official Website: 

Opening Day: 12 September 2024

Synopsis: Transformers One, the explosive, long-awaited origin story of Optimus Prime and his archenemy Megatron, journeys from the depths of Cybertron’s pitiless Energon mines to the planet’s forbidden surface in a quest that will define the future of a civilization. A group of lowly cog-less worker bots, led by Orion Pax and D-16, make a daring excursion to retrieve the long-lost Matrix of Leadership and restore the free flow of Energon, their planet’s life blood. Instead, they uncover a centuries-old conspiracy that will set off the Transformers bots’ millennia-long civil wars. Presented in stunning, state-of-the-art CG animation and directed by Oscar® winner Josh Cooley, Transformers One opens the door on a new era for the record-breaking franchise.

Movie Review:

In the year 2024 alone, we have witnessed the origin of Furiosa, the resurrection of a supposedly dead superhero and the birth of a demon named Damien. Prequel, sequel, spin-off, Hollywood being the good old explorer will never leave any IP and their stories uncovered.

In yet another debatable business strategy, Hasbro and Paramount Pictures’ biggest cash-cow, Transformers received an origin story in the form of a CG animated adventure mostly done by renowned effects house, Industrial Light and Magic.

The story begins way before the Transformers land on earth, in a time when Bumblebee can actually speak and most troubling, way before our favourite robots can transform. Orion Pax (Chris Hemsworth) and D-16 (Brian Tyree Henry) are two lowly mining bots working daily at the Energon mines. Pax is ambitious, carefree and always getting into trouble while D-16, his best friend always gets him out of trouble and strictly follows the rules laid down by Sentinel Prime (Jon Hamm), leader of Cybertron.

As Transformers One takes place before the civil war between the Autobots and the Decepticons, the narrative takes viewers into the lore of the Primes adequately voiced by Laurence Fishburne in the role of Alpha Trion. The writing team consisting of Oscar winner and director Josh Cooley (Toy Story 4, Inside Out) and screenwriters Eric Pearson, Andrew Barrer, and Gabriel Ferrari tries to inject as much complexity liked the Matrix of Leadership and further weaved in Greek mythology to tell the basic story of a friendship gone sour.

While the writers’ efforts should not be forgotten, the entire movie feels both tedious and refreshing at the same time. No doubt the movie which is based on a toy line is packed almost back to back with endless action sequences, the animated flick in fact works better in its quieter moments. The first act which consists of Orion sneaking into an archive room and a subsequent Iacon 5000 competition race established the ever busy ongoings. The pacing and action is frenetic to the point of exhaustion that you are concerned if the narration suffers from a bad case of ADHD.

There are often times where you can’t really make up who is fighting who or who is chasing who. You can’t really tell the scale of it as it obviously inherits one of the major problems of the live-action movies by Michael Bay. To be more objective, the confrontation works better in the finale where our two protagonists go neck to neck, against each other. The clarity and setup definitely is in a better place compared to massive messy war sequences where anything goes.

At this point, we are sure everyone knows Orion Pax and D-16 refers to Transformer legends Optimus Prime and Megatron respectively. Rather than focusing on a large group of bots, Transformers One did a decent job detailing the origin story of the pair of once BFFs turned enemies. At least, the tension is compelling and reason worthy enough for D-16 to turn to the dark side while Pax becomes the famous Autobots leader.

Scarlett Johansson adding some celebrity glitter by the way is Elita-1, the duo’s mine co-worker who somehow joins in the rebellion and Keegan-Michael Key provides some hit-and-miss comedy as Bumblebee. Steve Buscemi is underused as the snarky Starscream and Hamm is seriously miscast as Sentinel. Perhaps Willem Dafoe is a better choice in this case. Transformers One also throws in a couple of Generation 1 bots including Jazz, Soundwave and Shockwave to satisfy long-time fans.

Even without the presence of humans, Transformers One still works. In the first place, humans are secondary in the Transformers stories. Right here, the main bot characters are clearly defined. The animation is breathtaking albeit a little busy. Clearly, this is a satisfying companion piece to the 1986’s The Transformers: The Movie despite some nitpicks.

Movie Rating:

(An origin story meant for longtime Transformers fans)

Review by Linus Tee