Film Review - Transformers One
Images courtesy of Paramount Pictures.
Transformers One, directed by Josh Cooley (Toy Story 4), tells the story of Orion Pax (Chris Hemsworth) and D-16 (Brian Tyree Henry), two mining robots living on Cybertron, a planet inhabited by intelligent robotic beings called ‘Transformers’. Hoping to restore the energon (their fuel source) flow of their planet, the duo, along with mining co-workers Elita (Scarlett Johansson) and B-127 (Keegan-Michael Key), embark on a quest to find the legendary Matrix of Leadership, a powerful artefact seemingly lost to time. Aspiring to thrust themselves up to something above their status as “lowly worker bots”, Orion and D-16 instead find themselves reckoning with political and cultural lies and exploitation enforced upon their society. This initial journey of self-fulfilment leads the two down a path that moulds them into the mortal enemies Optimus Prime and Megatron, the leaders of the Autobots and Decepticons respectively, and the beginnings of an intergalactic war between two factions of Transformers.
Transformers One embodies its newfound CG animated aesthetic, being the first film in the series since the 1986 film to be animated, but to a generic sensibility that I feel is somewhat a pitfall. The characters of Transformers - robots that transform into vehicles, machinery and (sometimes) animals - are quite literally based on actual toys, and part of my love of the franchise is the visual tactility usually evoked by the designs of these characters. My favourite Transformers entries are those that communicate this toy-like physicality; when they look fidgety, incomplete, blocky or mechanical is when they are at their best to me, and I sadly see little of this in Transformers One. The film has every character abide by a simplistic visual design that emphasises their humanoid status, which results in background character designs blending together and everyone feeling overly homogeneous. Now this is not an immediate discredit to the film, as it is ultimately a personal preference of mine, even the IDW comics follow a similar physicality, but the IDW comics generally have an extremely sturdy backbone of gusto and finesse in their execution, even at their messiest. The Transformers One characters look like the characters in Robots, but at least I can contend that the latter displayed a bit more enthusiasm in depicting varied, diverse and unique bodies, something Transformers is normally quite great at. On a formal level, Transformers One is unremarkably similar to most contemporary animated features from Illumination. Mind you, I never feel this presentation style is downright bad, in fact I think it's cutesy and easily identifiable style will undeniably appeal to wider audiences, but this homogeneous and generic style is something that bleeds into its political commentary.
This political commentary on worker exploitation is rather passively diluted and framed through the relationship between the two leads. Unlike the Michael Bay films (2007 - 2017) and the Travis Knight and Steven Caple Jr. films (2018 - 2023), Transformers One is solely directed towards children, and as such this dilution is clearly by design. However Transformers is no stranger to representing political conflict and metaphors in a way digestible for children without sacrificing its complexity. For instance, Transformers Animated (2007 - 2009) utilises its Detroit setting, once a bustling hub of automobile production and now a husk of capitalism, to depict a Transformers world where its robotic characters contend with the upholding of backward traditions of mechanical innovation. Transformers One vaguely commentates on how workers are exploited for authoritative needs of the state, primarily conveyed through the gleefully selfish and power-hungry actions of Cybertronian leader Sentinel Prime (Jon Hamm), and further, the precise manner in which one must take up arms against it, shown by the optimistic pacifist Optimus and the brutal tyrant Megatron. Much of this is on account of what I feel is a weak script - whilst it does a solid enough job of stripping down the politically complex and genuinely intriguing societal exploration of the Transformers IDW comics, of which this takes much inspiration, I feel it loses the specificity of prior explorations such as those in Transformers Animated. As a result you could ultimately apply its metaphor to any real-world political position. Again, this toothlessness is not a marker of poor quality and certainly nothing new for Transformers, but it is undeniably where the film chooses to stray.
Set in a new continuity unconnected to any pre-existing Transformers films, the film follows the usual beats of the Optimus and Megatron origin story (with some superfluous differences) as presented in prior iterations of the relationship. The trailers, posters and blurbs all explicitly state that this is the story of how Optimus Prime and Megatron, formerly brothers-in-arms, became mortal enemies on either side of an intergalactic war. Thus, the film has a habit of introducing individuals or groups of characters and immediately signposting where they will end up. It’s clear that Elita and Bumblebee will stick with Optimus, that the cheerful and nice-looking mining buddies will all eventually become Autobots, and the red-eyed and villainous-looking Iacon High Guard - made up of fan favourites Starscream (Steve Buschemi), Soundwave (Jon Bailey) and Shockwave (Jason Konopisos-Alvarez) - will eventually become Decepticons. While Cooley - and Transformers owner Hasbro, who likely play a part in this - may feel compelled to fall into the traditional story beats that have been characteristic of the franchise as of late, this is ultimately a dilution of the series’ often complex iconographic depictions. It signals that audiences must be able to immediately recognise which character will end up ‘good’ and ‘bad’, diminishing the nuance that this series has demonstrated the capacity to tackle, and sidelining exploration of the appealing roots of these characters in favour of them simply being present in the frame.
This is most egregiously demonstrated in Megatron himself, a character who has undergone substantial and continual revision in various Transformers series from villain to redeemed anti-hero. Transformers One is aware of this reckoning with Megatron’s character and plants the seeds of this eventual redemption in a planned trilogy, but the execution leaves much to be desired. What could potentially have been - and to its credit it occasionally is - an interesting examination of hypocrisy and the very human quality of internally clashing mood swings is instead a very flatly-written Megatron who has little of the complicated yet hefty finesse of his more stronger-written counterpart in series such as IDW. Part of this is embodied by the structure of the film - in a decision I feel is somewhat bewildering, the film waits until the climax for this falling-out between Optimus and Megatron to occur. It plants the seeds throughout of course, but is otherwise occupied with the kid-friendly adventures of the gang for substantial portions of its runtime. As is, the film’s ending is ultimately predetermined, which whilst not inherently a flaw, further adds energon to the fire of this film’s contentment with sauntering along familiar franchise beats.
Despite the franchise’s infamous tagline suggesting otherwise, Transformers One is exactly what meets the eye - a fine enough film that kids will enjoy, that offers little of the characteristically charming yet biting commentary and tactility of certain forebears in the series (most of which are also for children mind you), but not in a way that I think will disappoint fans. From my formerly substantial experience with the Transformers fandom I can say that this will please them, and whether you choose to interpret that as an indictment on them is up to you!
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Transformers One is screening in cinemas now. For tickets and more info, click here.