Transformers One – Review

When the iconic 80s cartoon Transformers proposed that there was More Than Meets The Eye, it could never have imagined that this would encompass over 40 years of lore building across dozens of shows, hundreds of comics and toys, and of course, a billion-dollar film franchise.

So it must have taken Hasbro and Paramount some level of gumption to decide that the next film in the franchise would be a reboot of what had come before, be animated and only the second theatrical one since Transformers: The Movie (1986), be focused on the original core characters and for the first time in a long time, recast Peter Cullen, long recognised as the definitive voice of Autobot leader Optimus Prime since the first animated series, with Australian star, Chris Hemsworth of Thor fame.

The reason director Josh Cooley (Toy Story 4) could get away with most of it is because the live-action film franchise, while somewhat popular, has never really been embraced by fans of Transformers, unlike say, Tolkien fans being enmoured with Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy. There have been dozens of retellings of popular Transformers characters through countless shows, from the heroic Autobots to the evil Decepticons, that there has never been a recognised and definitive lore to serve as the foundation of the franchise.

And let’s face it – Cullen, while iconic in his portrayal, sounds a lot older now than when he first voiced Optimus and Transformers One serves as an origin story of how Cybertron fell, and how Optimus Prime came to be, after having a bad falling out with his then best friend, D-16, who would eventually become Decepticon leader, Megatron.

Wait, what?

Maybe events here aren’t what you remember from your childhood, but here’s the thing – that history has never been properly defined and this is a movie for fans of Transformers, who want more than the good versus evil archetype that the various incarnations of the TV series were known for, and want something deeper and more meaningful. Before he was Optimus Prime, our future Autobot leader was Orion Pax, a dreamer who never saw himself as a leader. A miner extracting energon from the core of Cybertron, it’s where he met fellow miner D-16 and both became friends, looking out for each other. 

At this point in history, there are no Decepticons or Autobots – just a race of sentient robots, some of who can transform, while others like Pax and D-16, cannot. It’s where the duo first meet some of the other key characters in the series, from Elita (Scarlett Johansson) who is more commonly known as the girlfriend of Prime, and of course, Bumblebee (Keegan-Michael Key) who is currently known as B-127, or as he prefers, Badassatron. 

Leading the film though are Hemsworth as Orion Pax, and Brian Tyree Henry (Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire) as D-16. The film sets them up as close friends whose different ideals set them on different paths. Think Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi from Star Wars, or Elphaba and Glinda from Wicked, and Batman/Bruce Wayne and Two-Face/Harvey Dent and like those stories, the rivalry was first established before someone decided to go back further, and make them friends turned enemies. 

Heck, this trope seems to be making a comeback in Hollywood, as the upcoming Mufasa explores the deep friendship between Mufasa and Scar, as does Wicked – Part 1, and as ludicrous as it may seem, Transformers One doesn’t dwell on the friendship between Pax and D-16, but uses it more as a platform to tell a story how different approaches can lead people along different paths.

Wanting his mining crew to be recognised, Pax signs himself and D-16 up for a race that gets them noticed by their great leader, Sentinel Prime (Jon Hamm), much to D-16’s chagrin, but it also gets them sent to the lower levels of Cybertron, where they meet Badassatron. Finding a lost signal, it sends Pax, D-16, Badassatron and Elita to the surface of Cybertron where they meet the long-thought-dead Sentinel Prime (Laurence Fishburne), and discover secrets that divide Pax and D-16.

Spliced between the narrative are a litany of easter eggs, some easier to spot than others, but if you know your characters, you’ll spot the obvious, including Starscream (Steve Buscemi), Shockwave (Jason Konopisos-Alvarez) and Soundwave (Jon Bailey) as Soundwave, as well the less obvious, including cameos by Jazz, Hound, Ratchet and a bunch of other blink-and-you-will-miss-it appearances, and the obscure, such as when a mocking Elita tells Pax that he neither has the touch, nor the power. Ouch!

That’s clearly a reference to the first 1986 film, as the phrase matches the lyrics for Stan Bush’s song, The Touch, which serves as the anchor song from the movie. There’s no denying that this movie will be heavily compared to that fan favourite, with both films tapping on well-known actors to voice popular Transformers characters. Both movies were made to sell toys, except that the 1986 marked the end of the first two seasons of the original cartoon, this film serves as a new beginning. What that film marked in death and destruction, Transformers One serves as a rebirth, filled with action, a story about new friendships, testing loyalties, what it means to be a leader, all shaped against the splintering of society. 

When the movie was first announced, there was no denying that it arrived with a healthy amount of sketicism. Recasting the key cast of a popular franchise is rarely embraced, especially with new character designs that point towards the selling of new toys by tapping on the legacy of old ones. But everyone in the case sounds like they had fun, from the craziness of B-127, the unhealthy adherence to authority of Elita, to the trajectory in life that D-16 takes – it’s all a great foreshadowing of what’s to come.

If there is one misstep in the film, it’s that it tries very hard to merge known lore into one film. From the Matrix of Leadership, to the many Primes who serve the planet Cybertron, to the introduction of the Quintessons, to visually revealing so many characters – it’s like saying your current friend squad is comprised of people you met as a teen, and they’ve been with you all this while.

What this movie is missing though is a kick-ass soundtrack. It’s the one thing that the 1986 film had that few movies have surpassed, and maybe it’s the songs that fans grew up with, but if there ever is a sequel to this planned trilogy, more can be done to amp up the tunes. But other than that, Transformers One serves as a fitting new chapter to a great legacy.