REVIEW: 'Transformers One' makes the convoluted franchise accessible to fans, old and new
Warning: This review contains mild spoilers from Transformers One.
Friendship break-ups are a tried-and-tested theme in the world’s most popular stories. There’s X-Men’s Professor X and Magneto, fighting over the best way to protect the discriminated mutants. Over at Westeros, Alicent and Rhaenyra are no longer pulling hair, but seemingly competing which had more children left breathing. Not only does it make good entertainment—tales about ex-best friends turning deadly enemies are relatable. Well, IRL we do not need to shoot lasers at them but simply push the block button.
Transformers One attempts to replicate these timeless conflicts, re-introducing nemeses Optimus Prime and Megatron as bosom buddies, miners who can’t transform, Orion Pax (Chris Hemsworth) and D-16 (Brian Tyree Henry). In this alternate history, Energon, their version of water, is depleting on the planet of Cybertron, since the disappearance of the Matrix of Leadership. Bots who can’t transform are forced into labor to dig for Energon underground.
Without going into spoiler territory, Transformers One makes the franchise more accessible to new fans, while paying homages to the many deaths of a key character from the original '80s The Transformers cartoon and the animated feature Transformers: The Movie (1986). Nostalgia is a good draw, even including beast transformations reminiscent of the Beast Wars: Transformers (1996) animated series.
However, these presented a loophole. How an alien race can transform into animals and vehicles found on Earth was not explained. Canonically, Cybertron natives had to scan a planet to adopt existing beasts and vehicles in their transformations. The most logical explanation is trucks, planes, spiders, and prehistoric beasts already exist on Cybertron, which was not shown before in the franchise.
Critics might also raise eyebrows at how D-16 abruptly succumbed to his dark side as Megatron. Viewers can find themselves as surprised as Orion when D-16’s personality flips 180°. In defense of the character, D-16 might have also grown tired of incessantly saving Orion. Unmet expectations are indeed a friendship killer—in both figurative and literal sense.
The best comedic one-liners come from B-127, the future Bumblebee (Keegan-Michael Key), whose character is also mentally unstable like D-16. It is disconcerting that the character’s knee-jerk reaction to slice enemies appeared to be more forgivable than D-16 attempting to execute a villain. Talk about double standards.
Despite its flaws, Transformers One is the best adaptation yet of the Autobots-Decepticons rivalry Gen Xs, millennials, and Gen Zs grew up watching. Director Josh Cooley, who co-wrote Inside Out and directed Toy Story 4 brought the sentimentality of Pixar films to the franchise, lately associated with the explosion-happy Michael Bay. Scribe Eric Pearson (Thor: Ragnarok) and writing duo Andrew Barrer and Gabriel Ferrari (Ant-Man and the Wasp)’s screenplay crafted a light-hearted tale of an FO gone wrong.
With this entertaining, non-dragging prequel, we can let the Gen Alpha in on the fun we’ve been having with The Transformers all these years.
Transformers One opened in Philippine cinemas on Sept. 18. Watch the trailer below.