Transformers One has a spark the live-action films are missing

After seven live-action Transformers films of — I’ll say generously — varying quality, to call Transformers One the best film in the franchise may be damning with faint praise. But even I went into the animated Transformers One with low expectations. After all, I was in the midst of watching all five Michael Bay-directed Transformers movies as part of my fascination with noisy Hollywood slop. The only possible trajectory was up. 

Director Josh Cooley’s semi-reboot of the Transformers cinematic universe — whether it has any association with the Transformers Bay-verse is somehow unclear — is better than its prequel premise (and trailers) suggests. Transformers One is funny, sometimes sweet, occasionally heartbreaking, and utterly convincing in telling an origin story for friends turned foes Optimus Prime and Megatron. Thanks to its strong cast and a solid story buttressed by a classic hero’s journey, Transformers One has a spark that we’ve rarely seen in a Transformers flick outside of 2018’s Bumblebee.

Transformers One’s prequel setting unpacks the early friendship between young Optimus and Megatron, when they were still on their homeworld, Cybertron, and known as Orion Pax and D-16, respectively. They fall out, of course, and become rival leaders of the Autobots and Decepticons. One manages to make this schism surprisingly believable.

Orion Pax (Chris Hemsworth) and D-16 (Brian Tyree Henry) are introduced in the film as cogs in a machine, low-class miners of the resource Energon. The two are established as lifelong, genuine friends who aspire to greater things, including the ability to transform, which remarkably not every Cybertronian can do. Orion is the optimist, D-16 the realist. But both put faith in Cybertron’s leader, Sentinel Prime (Jon Hamm), who is searching for the Matrix of Leadership to restore the planet to its former glory while also protecting Cybertronians from alien invaders known as the Quintessons.

Pax and D-16 ultimately find themselves on a quest to find a long-lost Prime, Alpha Trion (Laurence Fishburne), and are joined by fellow bots Elita-1 (Scarlett Johansson) and B-127 (Keegan-Michael Key). The group’s journey, part literal roller coaster ride, is peppered with shocking realizations about their planet and the long-dead Primes, which is interspersed with plenty of humor. Almost all of the jokes land, including shoutouts to the original The Transformers: The Movie and even Key & Peele sketches. Unsurprisingly, One relies on Key’s B-127 to deliver much of the film’s comic relief.

Transformers One is also biblical, as its producer promised, drawing on narrative elements from The Ten Commandments, Ben-Hur, and even The Matrix. It is equal parts epic, kid-friendly, and occasionally quite violent. Orion and D-16, as they evolve into Optimus Prime and Megatron, are not afraid to shred or decapitate any machine that stands in their way.

There were two things that initially turned me off to Transformers One before screening it: the film’s rudimentary computer-animated aesthetic and the idea that our heroes couldn’t transform, a plot point played for sight gags in early trailers. The final product proves both creative choices to be smart. Transformers One’s action scenes greatly benefit from the chunky, brightly colored look of the characters; the kinetic, balletic battles are both visually spectacular and digestible — a welcome change of pace from the mechanical chaos of the Bay Transformers saga. When Orion, D-16, Elita, and B get their transformation abilities, it’s some of the film’s most rousing moments, a change in the course of their lives that ties into the overall theme of Transformers One. 

Transformers One’s origin story sets in motion a potential new series of films, which might be Transformers fans’ best hope, considering the live-action side of the franchise. The garish, incomprehensible Bay films, and their mostly improved live-action prequels, have rarely been as inclusive, charming, and hopeful as the new animated Transformers movie is. Those live-action projects have also set us on a course that will result in a G.I. Joe/Transformers crossover film, a mashup of toy lines that has questionable justification outside of Hasbro’s board room.

In some ways, the franchise feels like it’s just getting started (again) when we see Transformers One’s painful breakup of Optimus Prime and Megatron. But if possible sequels can capture the magic and drama of this one, the Transformers cinematic universe will have changed for the better.