Transformers One ~ Review

“You know what I did this morning? I played the voice of a toy. Some terrible robot toys from Japan that change from one thing to another. The Japanese have funded a full-length animated cartoon about the doings of these toys, which is all bad outer-space stuff. I play a planet. I menace somebody called Something-or-other. Then I'm destroyed. My plan to destroy Whoever-it-is is thwarted and I tear myself apart on the screen.” –Orson Welles to biographer Barbara Leaming on playing Unicron in Transformers: The Movie (1986)

If there’s one property that embodies Hollywood’s commercial vs. artist conflict, it would have to be the Transformers. Created in 1984 by toy company Hasbro, The Transformers was a concept designed to unify several completely unrelated transforming Japanese toy brands to market them to children in the United States. Of the franchises that were born in the wake of the Reagan administration’s deregulation of advertising to children, Transformers was probably the best of the bunch. This was because the various creatives in charge of making Transformers work as a brand, kinda, sorta, cared about the story as much as they cared about moving merchandise. 

The Transformers strange art vs. commerce legacy can be seen throughout its forty-year history, whether it’s in the original series TV episode environmental parable The Golden Lagoon, the Lovecraftian pulp space opera of the 1986 movie, the anti-war Beast Wars series from 1996, or Michael Bay’s gonzo over-the-top action/comedy hybrids of the 2000’s. There’s always been something in this franchise to make us critical types look at it and say – well, there is more here than just a toy commercial. This is all to say that the new animated film, Transformers: One is probably one of the best things the franchise has produced, far better and emotionally complex than a 90-minute toy commercial has any right to be.

Every living being on the planet of Cybertron is a robot. Some of these creatures can transform – and these robots form the upper crust of society, while the robots who cannot transform perform menial labor.
Best friends Orion Pax (Chris Hemsworth) and D-16 (Brian Tyree Henry) are miner robots who work deep in the planet’s depths trying to acquire something called Energon (Cybertron’s energy source). You see, Cybertron is in the middle of a war against creatures known as Quintisson’s and it has created an energy crisis ever since a possibly magical gizmo called the “Matrix of Leadership” went missing fifty years ago. So, Energon needs to be mined to keep things working properly, all under the watchful and protective eye of Sentinel Prime (Jon Hamm). 

Orion Pax is a rule breaker with boundless optimism, who doesn’t think before he leaps and desperately wants to move beyond his lowly station. He wants to find the Matrix and become a transformer, while D-16 is content with following orders and working his way up the ladder. 

Eventually, Orion Pax discovers a hidden message that could lead to the location of the Matrix. So, Pax, D-16, Elita 1 (Scarlett Johansson), and B-127 (Keegan-Michael Key) go up to the forbidden surface of Cybertron to find the Matrix. And before you can say “Plato’s Allegory of the Cave,” this rag-tag group is going to learn the dark secret about their world.

Here's the thing about Transformers One that truly separates it from being a 90-minute toy commercial…it’s the fact that this film is a tragedy. This being a prequel, Orion Pax and D-16 are destined to become Optimus Prime and Megatron who in the wider franchise are sworn enemies. So, every scene of these two saying they’re best friends and how they “have each other’s backs” is tinged with melancholy. This adds a strong note of poignancy to the film.

The script by Eric Pearson, Andrew Barrar, and Gabriel Ferrari, has abundant references to not only Transformers lore, but also to Fritz Lang’s Metropolis, the myth of Romulus and Remus, and the aforementioned Plato. All the while, deftly balancing this melancholy tone with humor and an earnestness that honestly feels refreshing.

Director Josh Cooley stages truly brutal action here, which surprised me at just how crazy this movie goes action-wise. Characters are decapitated and ripped apart, casually pushing the boundaries of the PG rating. Cooley also gets great performances from the animators at ILM, making the Transformers themselves feel like real people with real emotions.  The world of Cybertron also feels like a lived-in place.

The cast is great, but Bryan Tyree Henry gets special as he manages to play a convincing villain turn in the third act, that works because of his performance. You understand where D-16 is coming from when he turns to Megatron.

For this old-school fan, Transformers One is the type of movie I envisaged when my friends and I played with the toys. With respect to the late, great, Orson Welles – Transformers can be more than the comings and goings of “whoever they are’s” against “something-or-others” it can be a class treatise on the nature of power and heroism. Transformers One proves that the franchise can be, perhaps…more than meets the eye.*

Three and a half out of four stars. 

*The writer has been punished for using this incredibly hacky line.