‘Transformers One’ review: Breezy animated prequel packs heart

The zippy and thoughtful Transformers One manages to be the best Transformers film by a considerable margin.

After nearly 40 years, eight films, and billions of dollars in theatrical and merchandising revenue, the code of making a good Transformers film is still a mystery. The 1986 animated feature is about as blatant a feature-length toy advertisement as one could get. The five Michael Bay films feature some of the most jaw-dropping visual effects in recent memory, but they’re unfortunately undone by shrieking incoherence and the crass racist and sexist overtones, among other things.

After all, these are based on children’s toys; why are there robot testicles, a small robot trying to hump Megan Fox’s leg, and Chevy concept cars who speak in stereotypes? Bumblebee and last year’s Transformers: Rise of the Beasts were steps in the right direction, be it the charming, Amblin-lite tone of the former or the refreshing plight of diverse human characters in the latter. However, neither could entirely shake off the rust of the Bay features. Turns out with Transformers One… ninth times the charm? That may sound like the newest feature is merely managing to clear an extremely low bar, but in all seriousness, the latest Transformers feature manages to rise above the pack by implementing the one single thing that the previous eight features lacked: heart.

Before becoming Optimus Prime and Megatron, Orion Pax (Chris Hemsworth) and D-16 (Brian Tyree Henry) are best friends and lowly miners on Cybertron born without the ability to transform. Cybertron is dying due to the disappearance of the Matrix of Leadership (the lifeblood of Energon that once flowed lavishly on the planet) after all of the Primes except one – Sentinel Prime (Jon Hamm) – were lost to the War of Cybertron. Pax consistently sneaks into the archives of Cybertron to get to the bottom of this mystery, and his insistence on breaking protocol leads him, D-16, B-127 (Keegan-Michael Key), and Elita-1 (Scarlett Johansson) to the surface of the planet, where they learn the truth of the War of Cybertron from one last remaining prime, Alpha Trion (Laurence Fishburne).

Same make, new model.

From strictly a plot perspective, Transformers One is relatively similar to any of the other films with its heavy emphasis on a MacGuffin device that holds to key to the survival of Cybertron. Where it differs is how it places emphasis on character, drama, and humor as opposed to said plot mechanics. Even as the plot busies in its final third with sudden new characters and nonstop action, the first hour focuses on Orion and D-16. Their friendship as well as their clashing ideologies (Pax’s nobility vs. the simmering rage underneath D-16) ultimately lead to their Shakespearean fallout that’s impressive even if we already know their fates.

Hemsworth and Henry make that relationship believable and impactful, and it’s to their credit that the story’s emotional core is effective. There’s also humor here that is genuinely funny, and outside of a couple mild swear words, is witty instead of crass. That might be indicative of director Josh Cooley (Toy Story 4), a longtime Pixar veteran who knows how to meld sharp comedic time with clean humor.

Rise of the machines.

What’s also surprising about Transformers One is the film’s themes about the working class and criticism for those in authority. The “cog-less” (the aforementioned miners born without the ability to transform) are seen as exploited by those in charge and gaslit for being told their job is contributing to the greater good. This leads to the ultimate schism between Pax (breaking the law but in the name of what they believe is noble and just) D-16 (blindly following authority until discovering that it was all built on a lie).

It takes shots at charlatans who go around convincing impressionable people that they are an effective leader yet exploit them and sell them out to enemy forces (deeply and unfortunately prescient). Did we mention this was a kids movie? It’s the first Transformers film working for the demographic of the toys, and it’s more thoughtful and character-driven than any of the PG-13 ones.

The bottom line.

Transformers One manages to be the best Transformers film by a considerable margin by being a zippy, funny, emotional, and thoughtful entry while still delivering the things that were good about the previous ones (plenty of robot-fighting action and impressive transforming VFX). In fact, let’s do a compare-and-contrast between the new iteration to a scene from 2011’s Dark of the Moon.

During the third act of this film, Megatron is about to make a terrible choice in the villain’s fate, to which Optimus Prime urges him not to by noting, “We’d be no better than them.” In Dark of the Moon, with a similar villain, [redacted] begs for his life at the end, only for Optimus Prime to shoot him point-blank in the back of the head. That heart and nobility is evident early and often in Transformers One and it’s all the better for it.

Transformers One opens in theaters on September 20. You can watch the trailer here.

Images courtesy of Paramount Animation/Hasbro/New Republic Pictures.