by Nick Ferro, Contributing Writer
When it comes to nostalgic ‘80s nerd-centric properties, one would naturally assume that I, an elder millennial who co-hosts a podcast called Geeks Speak Louder than Nerds, would be pretty up to speed on all things nerdy, geeky, and nostalgic. But when it comes to the Transformers franchise, I am shamefully uneducated. Save for a couple toys that I played with at friend’s houses, my first experience with the franchise was in 2007 when Michael Bay’s first Transformers movie was released. I then proceeded to be minimally interested in the franchise until 2009, when Revenge of the Fallen was released and I promptly lost all interest in the franchise. I tried again in 2018 and gave Bumblebee a chance due to my interest in Travis Knight and Hailee Steinfeld, but even that wasn’t enough to make me a fan. What I was really missing was a reason to care; the live action movies relied too much on the human characters and used the giant robots as nothing more than action set piece vehicles. Literally and pun intended. These movies had neither the power nor the touch to keep me invested. I needed more world building and backstory to really care about these robots in disguise. Cut to May 2024 when the first trailer for Transformers One was released, and I was not only surprised by how much fun the trailer was, but excited for a movie that my kids and I might enjoy together! And it was a prequel/reboot/origin story to boot! One could say I was ready to roll out!
Transformers One is set on the planet Cybertron back when Optimus Prime and Megatron were merely known as Orion Pax (Chris Hemsworth) and D-16 (Brian Tyree Henry). Oh… and they are BEST FRIENDS!?! WHAAAAAA?? The two brotherly miner bots don’t have the cogs to allow them to transform and are stuck to a life of mining Energon, the substance that brings life to their world. As it turns out, the planet used to have free-flowing Energon, but 50 years ago, a war between the Transformers and Quintessons resulted in the Matrix of Leadership disappearing. Since that time, Sentinel Prime (Jon Hamm) has been searching for the Matrix in order to revitalize their society once more. Orion Pax is a risk-taking dreamer with hopes of one day helping Sentinel Prime find the Matrix. D-16 is more content to follow the rules and live within his station, while also looking up to Sentinel Prime as a hero of sorts. After receiving a literal call to action, Orion and D-16, along with two other worker-bots, B-127 (Keegan Michael Key) and Elita-1 (Scarlett Johansson), head to the surface to find the Matrix. While on their adventure, they learn a terrible secret and must find a way to save Cybertron from a threat greater than any of them have ever faced.
Right off the bat we get to know Orion and D-16. We see their friendship is one of found family, and their characters are defined quite nicely. If I had one complaint about this friendship, it’s that I wish we could have a whole movie to see it grow, because their chemistry is great. While I wanted more, I still love how the movie handles giving both characters time to shine, while also focusing on their eventual parting of ways. Being that this movie is animated, it would have been easy for the writers to take the lazy route and not really earn any of the character development. But they do, and it leads to a believable conclusion that, although it could have been more tear-jerking, is adequate for what the movie is trying to accomplish. Without going into spoilers, I think that D-16’s discovery of certain information brings out a side of him that is compounded from that point forward, and his slow descent into anger and hate builds naturally. His insistence that he was deceived by the movie’s villain is a nice touch, considering he will go on to be leader of the Decepticons. Likewise, Orion’s optimism is always at the forefront, but as he grows, his moral center and sense of responsibility become more steadfast so that by the end, he can present himself as the hero we know the eventual Optimus Prime to be. For someone who is not well-versed in this franchise, I personally feel that the movie nails these two characters — I was very invested in both their friendship and their eventual parting.
Providing the bulk of the movie’s comic relief is proto-Bumblebee, B-127, and for me he is largely hit-or-miss with the comedy. Key does his best to throw a bunch of jokes at the wall, and it works for the most part if you happen to be under the age of 13. My kids both proclaimed that every scene with B-127 was their favorite, but unfortunately, if broad comedy is not your forte, some of the more annoying juvenile humor might clang for you. I will say that the good news is, the movie doesn’t rely on Key to carry the comedy by himself. There is a fair amount of humor from other characters in both quips and pratfalls, as well as some good meta humor. Between a “you got the touch” reference and the Key and Peele A-A-Ron reference, there is plenty to enjoy, even if every attempt at humor didn’t land for me personally. I may not be very familiar with the franchise, but I was able to appreciate a few characters that pop up later in the movie, and there is a very funny moment for fans of the original Decepticons.
For the most part, I enjoyed Transformers One a lot, but it isn’t without its flaws. For one, if you’ve ever seen a movie, you will clock every single, story trope and cliché from a mile away. It’s not hard to figure out the villain, you will see all of Chekhov’s Guns on full display, and you won’t be fooled by any fake-out deaths that may or may not occur. A second problem is the introduction and complete dropping of the Quintessons as a threat. They show up and seem to be a really big problem, but then disappear and never return. I can only assume that they are meant to be the setup for a sequel, because realistically there is no room in this movie for them. It’s an issue for me because they are given much more weight, and treated as almost as big a threat as the primary villain. Which brings me to my third and final issue: the “surprise” villain. On the one hand, I understand why they were given so little screen time and importance. Overall, this is a movie about Orion Pax and D-16’s journey to becoming Optimus Prime and Megatron. The movie needed to use all the available time to build these characters up. Which I appreciate. It just feels like the writers had two stories they wanted to tell, but needed to short shrift one in favor of the other. One of my biggest complaints about the live action movies is that they are way too long. But for once, I think Transformers One is a movie that could have benefited from an extra 20 minutes. Unfortunately, we live in a country where most animated movies are seen as kids’ movies, and 90% of the time are kept to 90-105 minutes. Transformers One suffers because of this. Granted, I’m not sure if all kids would have tolerated another 20 minutes, but I can speak for mine, and they were enjoying the movie enough that a longer runtime wouldn’t have phased them. At the end of the day, I don’t think these problems hurt the movie completely, especially for the kids in the audience; however, it may skew a bit too rudimentary for the adults to be fully engaging.
These issues aside, Transformers One did for me what none of the other Transformers movies have: It got me interested in the franchise and hopeful for a sequel. Sadly, I’m not sure if that will be in the cards. With an opening weekend box office of around $24 million on a reported budget of $75 million (not factoring in marketing costs), it has a long way to go if it wants to have a sequel. Transformers One has a TOUCH of what it needs to kick off a long-running franchise, but the question is, does it have the POWER to overcome such a dismal opening weekend? I personally hope so, as it would be a shame for the franchise to finally pique my interest only to be cut off at the knees before it has a chance to grow. I may not be Optimus Prime, but I’m going to conclude this review as he would: I am sending this message to any fan of the Autobots taking refuge among the wait-and-see crowd: Transformers One is here and it needs you to join the fight (for ticket sales)!
Rating: Liked It
Transformers One is currently playing in theaters
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