Transformers One continues a trend of live-action and animated prequels being better than the previous live-action Transformers films. The film is currently available to purchase or rent on digital and will be available to take home December 17 on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray, and DVD.

I have to say first and foremost that my introduction to Transformers were through the live-action series starting in 2007. Unfortunately, I’ve yet to watch the 1986 film or the earlier TV series. As of now, there are way too many Transformers series to keep up with so I’m sticking to the feature films, for better or worse. Oversaturation tends to be terrible for a franchise. This film, first announced years ago, came over a year after Transformers: Rise of the Beasts. It was probably way too soon for releasing another prequel. Remember the five-month difference between Star Wars: The Last Jedi and Solo: A Star Wars Story? Or Marvel fatigue coming with too many films and TV series making their way to theaters or Disney+. At some point, executives have to pull back and ask themselves if it is too much.

What Transformers One does is tell Optimus Prime/Orion Pax (Chris Hemsworth) and Megatron/D-16’s (Brian Tyree Henry) origin story. The two sworn enemies used to be friends and mining bots before their worlds changed. By the end of the film, they are both taking on their current identities. It’s fascinating to watch their arcs play out on Cybertron and how, even then, they hint into what they’ll become. Not only this but we also see the origins of other Transformers such as B-127 (Keegan-Michael Key), better known as Bumblebee or Bee. Elita-1 (Scarlett Johansson) is first introduced as a supervisor to both Orion Pax and D-16. The Transformer was previously seen in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.

Orion Pax and D-16 journey from the Energon mines to the largely forbidden surface. It’s an attempt to find the vanished Matrix of Leadership. What they don’t know is that there’s more here than meets the eye. Orion idolizes Sentinel Prime (Jon Hamm) but he’s in for a rude awakening after Alpha Trion (Laurence Fishburne) tells them the truth. Sentinel Prime is not the heroic leader that he leads the Cybertron population to believe. When the two mining bots compete in the Iacon 5000, they inspire their fellow minors into working harder. Ultimately, the only one their ruse benefits is Sentinel Prime because it leads to more retrieving more Energon. Without giving it all away, what becomes the end of the agreement with the Quintessons ends up becoming another long-running civil war between Optimus Prime’s Autobots and Megatron’s Decepticons.

The Transformers films have not been without comedy of some sort. They really lean into the comedy in this film, especially through Keegan-Michael Key. That’s the actor’s real voice, too. He gets room to improvise, naturally, but he is using his real voice for the film. Given how Bee’s voice is damaged in earlier movies, I love that he gets his voice back. Chris Hemsworth has never done voicework for an animated film to my knowledge but he’s got tremendous chemistry with Brian Tyree Henry. The Thor star also reunites with Avengers co-star Scarlett Johansson.

My introduction to Sentinel Prime was in 2011’s Transformers: Dark of the Moon. It would lead to my being done with the series until returning with the fifth live-action film. If one goes by this film being canon with the live-action series, Sentinel Prime’s appearance in the 2011 film no longer makes any sense. Sentinel Prime is almost certainly as good as dead by the end of this film. In theory, the film should be the first in a trilogy of films leading into the 2007 movie. However, its underperformance at the box office probably means that this might not be the case. The sad part is that the franchise really benefits from animation over live-action. No offense to Bumblebee and last year’s Transformers: Rise of the Beasts but this film may just be the best of the three prequels.

Perhaps producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura was onto something. According to the production notes, the producer comments:

“But we always knew it wasn’t realistic to think it would be a live-action film. Animation gave us the ability to do things we have never been able to do, like create a whole new world that has never been seen before, but that somehow feels organic.”

I just cannot imagine making this film in live-action. It isn’t just that it would also be a very expensive film to make but animation allows filmmakers to do things that just is not really possible in live-action. The other thing is that there is not the bang-bang action that we see in Michael Bay’s previous movies. I think this is the thing that I’ve found so refreshing with the prequels. Once you get away from Bay’s style and let filmmakers bring their own style on board, they’ve become a breath of fresh air so to speak.

The market has been oversaturated with Transformers films for a number of years but Transformers One continues a trend of making a better prequel film.

Bonus Features

• In The Beginning — Witness the origin story of OPTIMUS PRIME (ORION PAX) and MEGATRON (D-16) and the evolution of their relationship from brothers-in-arms to sworn enemies. Filmmakers discuss the vision for the film and how it was brought to life.
• World Building On CYBERTRON — Hear from director Josh Cooley, the production design team, and the visual effects team about rendering the colorful world of CYBERTRON in a way that fans have never seen before.
• Together As One — Meet the A-list voice cast for each of the TRANSFORMERS: Chris Hemsworth (ORION PAX/OPTIMUS PRIME), Brian Tyree Henry (D-16/MEGATRON), Scarlett Johansson (ELITA-1), and more!
• The Iacon 5000 — Behold the most epic TRANSFORMERS race ever as competitors vie for the ultimate prize!  Go behind the scenes with the filmmakers as they break down this breathtaking action sequence.
• The Battle For CYBERTRON — Cast and filmmakers take you through the film’s epic climax as OPTIMUS PRIME and MEGATRON battle for CYBERTRON’s future.

DIRECTOR: Josh Cooley
SCREENWRITERS: Eric Pearson and Andrew Barrer & Gabriel Ferrari
CAST: Chris Hemsworth, Brian Tyree Henry, Scarlett Johansson, Keegan-Michael Key, Steve Buscemi, with Laurence Fishburne and Jon Hamm

Paramount Pictures released Transformers One in theaters on September 20, 2024. Grade: 4/5

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