Transformers One relaunches the franchise with high-octane action and surprising emotion
Good franchise reboots are easy to remember: Batman Begins, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, and Casino Royale, just to name a few. When a lucrative intellectual property gets tiresome or outdated, it’s common for the owners to seek a fresh take on popular characters to spark a new film or TV series (yes, ultimately to make money). After seven live-action films starting in 2007, with an uneven mixture of fun but mostly embarrassing results, the Transformers franchise is rebooting with Transformers One, an attempt to reset the cinematic dial on Hasbro’s iconic brand with animated pizzazz. Transformers One is the first CG-animated Transformers film, featuring an A-list voice cast and a surprisingly strong emotional core. It sets a fun and exciting tone for the series to build on moving forward.
On the robot alien-turned-planet, Cybertron, two lower-class miners without Transformation Cogs (the objects allowing them to transform), Orion Pax (Chris Hemsworth) and D-16 (Brian Tyree Henry), have grand visions of proving their unrecognized value in the eyes of their society’s benevolent leader, Sentinel Prime (Jon Hamm). When one of Pax’s hurriedly hatched plans goes wrong, he and D-16 end up on the mysterious planet’s surface with their tough mining supervisor Elita (Scarlett Johansson) and talkative-robot-with-a-screw-loose B-127 (Keegan-Michael Key). There they discover disturbing secrets about their hierarchical society that threaten to tear their home world–and their friendship–apart.
The filmmaking team, led by director Josh Cooley (Toy Story 4), does a nice job of integrating a quick and understandable summary of the Transformers backstory. By doing this, the foundational information doesn’t need to be woven into the narrative. Rather, the story can be character and action-driven. The filmmakers don’t settle for the substandard storytelling you might expect for a kid-friendly film. Much emotion, tenderness, and emotional stakes are built up throughout the three-arc structure. This allows the action to keep the audience invested, even when the action is dizzyingly explosive, colorful, expertly imagined and choreographed… which it is. The script never allows the audience to lose sight of the central characters and their motivations.
Similarly, the voice cast doesn’t phone it in. Hemsworth and Henry’s work imbue their respective characters with three-dimensional personalities on diverging paths: one toward responsible leadership and the other toward unleashed vengeance and authority. Long-time fans will enjoy the strategic sprinkling of popular side characters and plotlines that can be further explored in sequels. None of it feels like fan service. Transformers One bursts with energy and solid storytelling groundwork. It may just be a family-friendly animated film, but… I’m not gonna say it. Okay, I’m gonna say it: It may just be a family-friendly animated film, but Transformers One is more than meets the eye.
—–
Transformers One comes out in theaters Friday, September 20th.
