On September 14th, myself and a packed theater of parents and children saw the much anticipated animated film by director Josh Cooley, “Transformers One.”
The general perception of Transformers nowadays is on the rather negative side, but if there is anything that could possibly undo that, it will be this movie. “Transformers One” is a tremendous step forward for the Transformers franchise and its fans.
From beginning to end, it was truly a joy to watch. The movie starts out with a young Orion Pax and D-16, who would later be more well known as legendary duo Optimus Prime and Megatron.
The film focuses more on their relationship before delving into the lifestyle and political elements of the Transformers’ world.
In the second act, a conspiracy is revealed that is sure to leave the viewer in awe. The tone of the trailers led many to believe the film was meant for a younger audience and that most older fans wouldn’t like it. While it was geared toward younger watchers, it is still a movie that the whole family can enjoy.
“Transformers One” has a great mixture of fun and serious moments. The movie does not have an identity crisis like a lot of films do today. It is clear that the intent was to be interesting, funny, and breathe life into the Transformers franchise again.
Some fan-favorite bots from other films return to the big screen, like Bumblebee (Keegan-Michael Key), Optimus Prime (Chris Hemsworth), Starscream (Steve Buscemi), and Jazz (Evan Michael Lee).
Some new faces make a debut on the big screen including Elita-1 (Scarlett Johansson). For one, it truly felt like each Transformer had its own personality. They aren’t all stoic, and they aren’t all comedians either. The main cast feeds well off of each other’s dialogue, and the world around them.
Their chemistry is something that was enjoyable to watch unfold. Although the film was rather short, the pacing was well done and packed lots of adventure into the time.
Above all else, it really felt like a story. I was interested in the characters and their motives, and why they behaved the way they did.
Let’s talk about the setting: The film is set entirely on Cybertron, the mechanical home of the Transformers. Some may be skeptical of this, but there is no need. Many people are often not the happiest to hear that something new from the Transformers franchise is set majorly on Cybertron, which could be a reason as to why it has not happened until now. The reasoning is not entirely clear, but in the context of “Transformers One,” I feel that it works well.
The look of this movie was insanely satisfying. The film did a good job of portraying the scale of the Transformers universe, a place where many other movies in the franchise have failed. Whether it be the large mountains in the distance or the taller and stronger talking robots intimidating the smaller ones, it was nice to see. Cybertron is everything you could imagine about an alien homeworld.
The movie brings original character designs into the present day, and the combination of these two eras, with the vibrant neon colors in the film, is easy on the eyes.
This, combined with the way the Transformers run, drive, fly, and fight, the audience can tell that each scene was made with tremendous precision and love.
The team behind this film made it seem like they wanted to hit a home run with this one, and I must say, they hit a grand slam. My only gripe with the film is that I wanted more. I wanted more exploration, jokes, fighting, and everything that the film did well. The only thing that could make “Transformers One” better would be more time spent in its world and with its characters.
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