“Transformers One” is the best movie in the “Transformers” franchise since the 1986 original. Director Josh Cooley (“Toy Story 4”) and co-writer Eric Pearson (“Thor Ragnarok” “Godzilla vs. Kong”) are experienced in big dramatic stories set in established franchises that appeal to nostalgia but are more than just walks down memory lane; movies that tell big and bombastic stories without becoming empty spectacle.
“Transformers One” takes us back, way before Sam Witwicky, before Optimus Prime arrived on Earth, even longer before Cybertron was destroyed. This is a time before Autobots and Decepticons, when Transformers didn’t even have the ability to transform, but instead lived underground after a war ravaged the surface of their planet. The film tells the origin story of Optimus Prime, at this time known as Orion Pax (Chris Hemsworth) and Megatron, known back then as D-16 (Brian Tyree Henry). Before they became archenemies, the two were like brothers, bunkmates and partners working the mines beneath Cybertron. But in an attempt to prove themselves, the two set out to the surface in search for a lost relic that can save Cybertron, getting involved in a conspiracy, an interplanetary conflict, and also planting the seeds for a falling out that will eventually turn into a civil war that will destroy the planet.
If it sounds like too much movie, you’re right. That’s the biggest problem with “Transformers One,” a movie with too much ambition, set back by a 104-minute runtime that isn’t nearly enough to properly cover all the ideas the script wants to tackle. There’s at least a trilogy’s worth of plot here in just one movie, and at times the pacing is simultaneously too slow as it crams all this worldbuilding and lore, and too fast as it rushes from set piece to set piece, storyline to storyline. Still, between an impressive voice cast, some truly astonishing animation, and a surprisingly effective villain origin story, there’s more than meets the eye in this film.
An effective brothers-to-enemies story
Though the entire cast is rather good (Keegan-Michael Key in particular is hilarious as Bumblebee), the star of the film is undoubtedly D-16. How Orion Pax becomes Optimus Prime is interesting and thrilling, sure, but it is with the story of D-16 getting radicalized that “Transformers One” gets to be creative and more complex than the last couple of decades of “Transformers” movies combined. Brian Tyree Henry is fantastic as D-16, who starts off fun and funny — a charismatic best friend with ambitions and a resentment that is easy to dismiss at first, but hard to ignore when it bursts and turns into anger and hatred.
Indeed, as great as D-16 is and as good as Henry is playing the good side of the character, it gets turned up to 11 once he becomes the Megatron we know and love to hate. The magic trick the movie pulls is making the antagonistic turn make sense, as it is based in a clear ideology and sense of justice (as extreme as it might be). There is a compelling throughline about what makes a great leader that makes “Transformers One” more than just a forced prequel story restricted by knowledge of what’s to come. The civil war that eventually tears Cybertron apart is more than just a fight between good guys and bad guys, but a clash of ideologies.
“Transformers One” makes the best of its timeline, doing for the “Transformers” franchise what “Knights of the Old Republic” did for “Star Wars.” There is a reinvention of not just characters, but entire mythos here, from what Megatron and the Decepticons symbolize, down to the very ability to transform becoming tied to ideas of classism. And, yes, there are plenty of references to every era of “Transformers,” from the original cartoons to the Michael Bay movies.
A visual feast
If D-16 is the star of “Transformers One,” then the foundation upon which he gets to shine is the animation done by ILM. The legendary VFX company that revolutionized practical effects and digital computer graphics first produced a fully animated feature in Gore Verbinski’s “Rango,” but after a long hiatus the studio is back to making visually stunning animation. First there was “Ultraman: Rising,” and now with “Transformers One” they cement their status as a unique and essential player in the animation world.
Though it takes a minute to get used to the weirdly smoothed character faces, the end results are astonishing. Thanks to the ILM wizard’s live-action skills, the film looks as if shot with live-action cameras on an alien planet, giving it a cinematic look that feels grounded and tactile rather than overly polished and artificial as so many 3D-CG movies do nowadays. Despite the world of Cybertron being mostly metallic surfaces, there’s a warmness to the way things look. When it comes to the look of Cybertron, the production design helps make this a lived-in place with its own history and infrastructure tailored for robots that can transform into all sorts of vehicles, with upside down buildings hanging like stalactites, giving it a unique look.
“Transformers One” is the breath of fresh air the franchise has tried to achieve for years, a movie that feels new and unique but also familiar and fitting with the rest of the franchise. By the time D-16 and Orion become who we know them to be, the prospect of more stories in this time period told with this style feels less of a threat, and more of a dream scenario for “Transformers.”
/Film Rating: 9 out of 10
“Transformers One” opens in theaters on September 20, 2024.