The untold origin story of Optimus Prime and Megatron, better known as sworn enemies, but once were friends bonded like brothers who changed the fate of Cybertron forever.
I’m going to be blunt… My reaction to this movie surprised me. “Transformers One” is the type of film that argues against judging a movie by its trailer. For the past several months, I felt like the film looked bad every time I saw it advertised in front of a movie. Just something that was targeted at the kids in the audience with no regard for other viewers (be they the adults stuck watching with their children or long-time fans of the franchise). In other words, I fully expected a cash grab based on a well-known IP.
The cash grab part’s probably partially true (can we really think otherwise since this movie is certain to have merchandise heavily tied to it?), but, boy, was I wrong about the film being bad.
“Transformers One” is directed by Josh Cooley, who also directed Pixar’s “Toy Story 4.” This is Cooley’s second feature, showing a sharp improvement over his first. Working off a script by Andrew Barrer, Gabriel Ferrari, and Eric Pearson, this movie takes the Transformers back to the beginning, before they were the characters we are familiar with.
The story takes place on the planet of Cybertron (leaving out the human element the live-action films leaned so heavily on) and focuses on the friendship between Orion Pax (Chris Hemsworth) and D-16 (Brian Tyree Henry), or, as they are better known later in the Transformers timeline, Optimus Prime and Megatron.
A lot of background information is presented to the viewer; however, it’s not overwhelming, and the filmmakers manage to keep things simple. The main plot has Orion Pax and D-16 teaming up with Elita-1 (Scarlett Johansson) and B-127 (Keegan-Micheal Key) to follow a distress signal which pinpoints the location of the missing Primes, chosen leaders of Cybertron. Orion Pax and his group hope to find a lost artifact that will help their society.
Cooley’s film moves along at a good clip but does not offer much breathing room as the characters are led to their destinies. The script, featuring comedic moments that work for kids along with others that work for adults, explores its characters and allows the movie to show how a singular event can influence and alter the lives of those involved in extremely different ways. Some for the better and some for the worse. The action sequences are blended into the story in a way that helps things progress. They don’t come across as scenes added in purely to try to keep the viewer’s attention or extend the length.
The animation in the film looks stunning. Visually, it’s a very pleasing movie to view. While it was screened for us on an IMAX screen, it appears that it was designed to be viewed in 3D. The image frequently gives itself the illusion of a depth of field that lends itself to the 3D effect. If you’re questioning whether to see this in IMAX or another premium screen format, “Transformers One” does not offer an expanded image in IMAX.
Perhaps it’s because I went into this with low expectations, but I thoroughly enjoyed this movie. I’d even go so far as to say that this is one of the best, if not the best, movies of the franchise. This is a movie that fires on all cylinders, offering laughs, thrills, and heart.
In Theaters Friday, September 20th
