Transformers as a film series has had a very long, tumultuous history. While many loved the action and scope of the Michael Bay films, it came to ahead with The Last Knight being the lowest grossing and reviewed movie in the franchise. As such, most Transformers fare has struggled to find a new creative direction in live-action. And after so long, we now have a new animated film in theaters now. An origin tale of Optimus Prime and Megatron, where before, they were Orion Pax and D-16, miners from the planet Cybertron. Together with their new allies Bee and Elita, they uncover a great secret about Cybertron’s past, and how it leads them down to a familiar path for both characters.

For most Transformers fans, this is probably a dream come true. Newcomers can finally see how both Pax and D-16 become their iconic selves. And how Cybertron works as a whole before they come to Earth. A Pre-War Cybertron works as a nice basis for an origin story. But that’s the main problem with the film: It’s an origin story.

Origin stories usually have a lot of buildup, but not much of a payoff. Many Superhero movies, for example, usually start with an origin story, and take their time to establish their cast, their arcs, and setting up the main conflict past just starting out. Transformers One does fall into these same trappings. There’s many concepts that the film introduces (the Quintessons, Starscream, and the rise of the Decepticons etc.), are brashly introduced to only be saved as a later conflict for a sequel. Maybe I just seen it one too many times before. It also doesn’t help that the humor in this film is a stock, with repeated improv from B-127. Keegan-Michael Key does his best (even if it just comes to rambling improv), and if you like this type of humor, more power to you. He does mellow in the 2nd half of the film, which helps to show the grave situation our protagonists find themselves in. Though, I can’t say he is any more relevant after that point.

The best parts definitely come from Orion Pax’s and D-16’s friendship, how it transforms into becoming true enemies. While Orion is mostly a static character that tries to prove his worth throughout the film (kind of reflected by Chris Hemsworth boisterous acting that has been seen numerous times before), D-16 is made the straight man in their antics, as the more law-abiding citizen that trusts the system. Only when he realizes how much the system betrays everything he’s ever cared about and known, he becomes radicalized to destroy. Brian Tyree Henry provides a good shift to his character when that midpoint happens, and his change in attitude increases to vengeful extremes. Elita-1 doesn’t have much going on, unfortunately, other than to trust Orion near the end, (I guess you can say it’s being more than judt protocol and promotions, but it mostly just culminates to her and Orion.) And Steve Buscemi’s Starscream is just there. His voice isn’t bad (they actually do a small gag with how his voice sounds later in the movie), Screamer just doesn’t have much to do other than be in command of the High Guard, and just a means for D-16 to get himself an army at the end.

If anyone is familiar with Sentinel Prime, (for most casual audiences, his appearance in Dark of the Moon where he’s played by Mr Ballad of Bilbo Baggins, Leonard Nimoy), they shouldn’t be too surprised by his role. His actions set the the current state of Cybertron under his thumb, but when it comes to his fate near the end of the film, it makes a grand moral statement of whether it’s right to kill those who oppress us. It does feel a little refreshing to see Optimus be concerned for life, as opposed to the bloodthirsty portrayals in past films, and they show D-16’s turn to becoming Megatron, with lots of visual symbolism that children can get easily and be entertained. And the film presents you to not be a cog in the machine. You can be so much more than what society tells you to be, and shouldn’t let them take away those options. By the end, though, it feels like we just rushed through to 2 different climaxes, and once more teasing more to come. In hindsight, it’s not egregious like other franchise films, but it’s annoying to see that happen time and time again.

With having seen Rise of the Beasties last year, and to a certain extent, Bumblebee, it seems Hasbro/Paramount wants to play it safe and conventional for their Transformers films, making them more like Marvel films (as evidenced by the writers, script by Gabriel Ferrari and Andrew Barrer, both of who’s notable work is Ant-Man and the Wasp, and Josh Cooley, the director for Toy Story 4). Their creative direction is a little derivative in nature, but it’s not without a distinct change in tone once the 2nd half kicks in, and really drives home its story and themes. For all Transformers fans (myself included), it’s a good gateway for newcomers to enjoy this film that takes from previous stories and lore for a cohesive new story.

-alArts

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