Transformers One: More Than Meets the Eye

From Humble Beginnings

The bots are back, but with a rather unique spin on the franchise; Transformers One is not only a prequel to every other Transformers movie, but it is also fully animated, making it the first of its kind in theaters since 1986. 

What also helps is the highly positive reception from critics and audiences. While the films in the prior live action series generally received mixed to negative reviews, the reaction towards this movie has been highly positive, with some even calling it the best film in the entire franchise.

In 2007, action director Michael Bay released the live action adaptation of Transformers based on the popular cartoon series and toy line. After the film saw major box office success, it eventually transformed into a billion dollar franchise itself, with a steady stream of new installments releasing in the following years. 

Despite continuous financial success throughout the late 2000s and early 2010s, the franchise started running out of steam. 2017’s Transformers: The Last Knight was maligned by critics and lost Paramount Pictures around $100 million. Even last year’s Transformers: Rise of the Beasts underperformed at the box office, becoming the lowest grossing film in the series to date. 

But given the current reception of Transformers One, the series seems to have finally found some footing.

Having attended an early screening of Transformers One on Sept. 14 at my local theater, Reading Cinemas in Manville NJ, the question arises: does this movie live up to all the hype?

New Format: Does it Pay Off?

Directed by Josh Cooley of Toy Story 4 fame, Transformers One tells the origin story of Orion Pax & D-16 (Optimus Prime & Megatron), chronicling how their relationship crumbles from being built like brothers to mortal enemies, and how they would change the fate of the planet Cybertron forever. 

The film has an all-star cast including the likes of Chris Hemsworth, Brian Tyree Henry, Scarlett Johansson, Keegan Michael-Key, and Laurence Fishburne among others. As previously mentioned, this film tries something different than most other Transformers movies; it’s a fully animated prequel. I’m happy to report that this film takes that premise and puts it to strong use. 

Rather than just be a standard action movie, Transformers One actually takes its time to develop the conflict, with writing that does not move too fast or too slow. This is especially noticeable in the characters, and how they interact with each other.

The film tracks the fallout between Pax and D-16 throughout the entire course of the runtime, developing them surprisingly well. What also helps is how each character is given their own personality traits that never feel one-note or standard. Each character stands on their own two feet–or drives on their own four wheels–and interacts with their surroundings fluently, which makes way for a variety of funny jokes and surprisingly dark moments in the second and third acts.

There is one fault I had with the writing, though; the core story itself did get a bit predictable. This is to be expected of a film like this, given that it’s a prequel to movies that have already been released. That said, it’s hard to ignore the simplicity of the core plot. 

While it did have its fair share of moments I did not see coming, the main story hits plenty of familiar beats. Yet, despite that, the engagement level still remains high because of everything else happening around the script, whether it’s the terrific visuals, beautiful music score, or strong character development. Despite the story’s predictability, the picture does not let go of its audience’s attention, which I’ve got to give it props for.

Action and Visuals and Fights, Oh My!

The movie’s writing and characters are mostly strong, but what about the animation? That’s part of what helps this film stand out from its live-action predecessors, after all. 

To answer that question, the picture has terrific animation; it’s very colorful and vibrant throughout. There’s a major attention to detail in the film, which can be noticed everywhere from the character designs to the environments they travel across. However, it’s the action sequences where the animation reaches its full potential, as they provide the most intense moments in the film. 

Much like its live action counterparts, the action sequences really let the visual style shine as bots start transforming, fighting, and driving all over the screen. The film is edited in a way that makes the action scenes easy to keep track of, letting viewers take in all of what’s going on and keeping them on the edge of their seats. 

The final 30 to 40 minutes of the movie especially stand out in the animation and action sequences. Without giving too much away, I can say that it’s in the running for one of my favorite climaxes of any movie I’ve seen all year.

Big Celebrities: Big Success or Big Problem?

Casting big name celebrities as iconic cartoon characters can either benefit or harm a movie. In some cases, they can provide their own unique twist on a character, while others provide dull and empty performances that get rid of a character’s whole personality. Luckily, the voice actors in this movie gave it their all, and helped elevate their characters even more. 

To start, Chris Hemsworth provides the voice of Orion Pax, marking the first time the character has not been voiced by his longtime performer, Peter Cullen. 

That said, Hemsworth does find a way to make the character his own; seeing how he’s playing a much younger version of Optimus Prime, he makes his own unique voice for the character, finding the right balance between the charm he is known for and the power in Prime’s iconic voice. In fact, I’d say it was hard to recognize Hemsworth in the role. I heard a young Prime rather than just another Hemsworth performance. 

The other characters also have their own distinct voices that give more life to these bots, with Scarlett Johansson providing a sarcastic wise-cracking approach to Elita-1 and Brian Tyree Henry truly selling the personality change of D-16 into Megatron.

For me, the biggest surprise performance was Keegan Michael-Key as B-127, or Bumblebee. This is the most talkative the character has ever been in a modern Transformers movie; he is silent in the vast majority of the live action movies. I was admittedly skeptical of Key’s performance in the trailer, which made it look like he was going to be playing just another generic comedic relief sort of character. 

But he actually proved himself one of the highlights of the film. He was more than just another joking type. There’s a lot of enthusiasm and eagerness to his character that made me smile whenever he was on screen. Plus, whenever he does get a joke out, his comedic timing and delivery can make for some of the funniest moments in the entire film. 

Transform and Roll Out!

Overall, while the story can be predictable, Transformers One is a great time at the movies thanks to its stunning animation, engaging action scenes, and great work with its characters from their development to their voice acting. 

This is a film that can appeal to a wide crowd, especially for those who are into action-heavy or animated movies. Even non-Transformers fans can find something they love. There’s something for everyone in this movie. Centenary University students can catch this film right here in town at Cinépolis Luxury Cinemas! 

After years of hit-and-miss quality, the Transformers franchise may have finally found its gold mine. There are plans about making a trilogy out of this film if it’s successful. 

Whatever the next step is for this franchise, though, I am fully on board for it; this is a film that I definitely think audiences should roll out to go see.

Tanner Sullivan is a junior communication major and serves as program director at Centenary's WNTI radio station.  As both a devotee of film and student in WRI2011-Intro to Journalism, he has decided to take the plunge into news media as our newest movie reviewer.