Transformers One is a surprisingly good origin story and ranks because the franchise’s finest movie up to now (by a protracted shot).
PLOT: An origin story set on Cybertron centered on the friendship between a younger Optimus Prime (Chris Hemsworth) and Megatron (Brian Tyree Henry) earlier than they turned arch-enemies.
REVIEW: It figures that the most effective film Paramount’s ever created from the Transformers franchise is animated. After I hit Comedian Con in San Diego just a few months in the past, the parents behind Transformers One talked about that by adopting an animated format, for the primary time within the historical past of the massive display screen franchise, they have been capable of make a Transformers film with none human characters, set 100% on Cybertron. It could have price about $400 million had this been live-action. And, certainly, with no restrict on the story’s scope, for the primary time, we’ve a Transformers film that may legitimately be known as terrific.
Certainly, of us are in for a shock with this one, which could be very a lot within the vein of the current animated Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles reboot and the Spider-Verse films. Whereas it’s positively not so good as both Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse or Throughout the Spider-Verse, it comes a lot nearer than you would possibly count on.
In it, we get a deep dive into the historical past of the Autobots and Decepticons, monitoring how Optimus Prime and Megatron liberated Cybertronians from digital enslavement earlier than being break up into two warring factions. On this one, the younger Optimus, right here known as Orion Pax, and Megatron (D-16) are two miners who don’t have remodeling cogs and exist within the decrease echelon of Cybertronian society, which Jon Hamm’s Sentinel Prime lords over. Chris Hemsworth and Brian Tyree Henry do a superb job evoking the buddy-movie chemistry wanted between Orion Pax and D-16, with a lot of the film taking part in nearly like an animated model of Tango & Money as the 2 embark on a mission that results in their eventual transformation into the enduring characters as we all know them.
Whereas all of it feels like you need to be steeped in Transformers lore to understand what director Josh Cooley (Toy Story 4) and his writers are going for, the film is way more compelling than you’d assume. It begins off as your typical sci-fi journey film, full with a humorous sidekick (Keegan Michael-Key as Bumblebee earlier than he misplaced his voice) and a robotic love curiosity (Scarlett Johansson’s Elita), however finally takes a darkish flip as the reality about Cybertron emerges, and D-16’s extra ruthless aspect involves the floor. You’ll be able to’t assist however get invested within the brotherhood between the 2 robots, and after they finally activate one another, it feels fairly epic.
The voice work by Hemsworth and Tyree Henry actually helps it. Whereas many might have points with Peter Cullen not voicing Optimus, Hemsworth works in lots of vocal references to his predecessor, paying homage to his iconic efficiency because the movie goes on. Likewise, Tyree Henry’s vocal efficiency as soon as he turns into Megatron begins to alter, and he imbues the character with a stunning quantity of pathos.
It additionally doesn’t damage that the movie is beautiful to take a look at. The animation fashion is fresh-feeling, and it makes an effort to be distinctive whereas additionally paying tribute to the previous cartoon present and 1986 movie. It’s additionally set in the identical timeline as the fashionable Transformer films, nevertheless it’s distinct sufficient that you just actually don’t need to have seen any of them to get pleasure from it.
One factor value noting is that the viewers I noticed this with REALLY appeared to like the film. They laughed and cheered all through, and when it was over, the viewers gave it an enormous spherical of applause, which is one thing you actually by no means get at free screenings in my neck of the woods. There’s a cause why Paramount’s been doing so many word-of-mouth screenings, as this has the potential to be a serious hit, and, once more, it’s the most effective Transformers film ever made by a large margin.
Try this trailer with a candy JoBlo quote off the highest!
