Transformers One

If ever a film needed better marketing, it's Transformers One. The latest in a long line of Transformers films from Paramount, the idea that it's a slapstick comedy aimed at children, as trailers suggested, was never accurate. Instead, the film is an action origin story that examines the Transformers lore with a clarity that's both unusual and welcome. While the original cartoon has given its version of events (basically that Transformers are appliances that revolted against their Quintesson masters before entering their own civil war on pretty simplistic grounds) and the comic gave us the idea of Primus as a God-like creator of the Transformers who gave his life to become their planet, it's rare to see the two ideas re-worked into a cohesive whole. As such, our ties to the Transformers home world have never felt more binding.

Cybertron is beautifully rendered too. The Transformers have moved underground due to the hostility of the world above, along with regular attacks from the Quintesson forces. Society is divided into those who can Transform and those who can't, the latter given menial mining duties to provide energon on which the entire population is dependent for survival. Enter Orion Pax (the pre-leadership identity of Optimus Prime) and D-16 (Megatron), a nice nod to his numeric designation in the Japanese toy line. As best buds they work the mines and look out for each other, D-16 constantly frustrated by Orion's obsession with the Creation Matrix and his illegal raids into the archives to discover the truth. 

Orion's minor rebellions eventually lead to his infiltrating the annual racing tournament, using jetpacks to make up for their lack of transformation, bringing them to the attention of planetary leader Sentinel Prime, who wants to use them as touring ambassadors to buoy the working classes and improve productivity. This goes awry when a disgruntled racer drops the pair down a mineshaft and into the deepest recesses of the planet. From here they meet Bumblebee, discover the hidden secrets of Cybertron's past and sets both Orion and D-16 on the paths that will eventually lead to them entering the conflict for which they're famous. 

The first thing that strikes you about the film is just how good it looks. Of course, Transformer fans are no stranger to CGI, from the Bayverse movies to Beast Wars, but Cybertron has never looked so vibrant and enthralling. True, the opening of Bumblebee gave us a brief glimpse, but the scene was an afterthought with no real depth, here however the entire layout of the planet has been thought through to make it feel like a real place. From the depths of the mines to Sentinel's spires, it's a crisply designed and beautifully realised. 

Longtime fans will have a lot of fun finding the numerous easter-eggs dotted throughout the film, from background details and characters to lines taken from other media. But all this means nothing if the story doesn't deliver, and thankfully it's a well told, if not entirely original, tale.

Our four leads are well played by their respective voice actors Scarlette Johansson gives a familiar performance as Elita One, spikey and assertive in that Black-Widow fashion we've grown used to. Chris Hemsworth as Orion Pax gives a solid performance too, landing both the gravitas and the comedy, which is great because he's an actor I like a lot and he's landed a few duff roles over the years despite being leading man material. I love Brian Tyree Henry in Bullet Train, I'm not sure he makes a great Megatron though - it really takes some getting used to as a longtime fan used to Welker's menacing rasp, but there's nothing wrong with his performance per se, especially his heel turn which is believable and brutal. Lastly we have Keegan-Michael Key as Bumblebee, and honestly I almost prefer the Bayverse mute - he's there to provide much of the comedy, but for my tastes it was overly "wacky" and he seemed annoying more than anything. I did like the line delivery for "Badassatron" though.

Weirdly the supporting cast were the heavyweights - Laurence Fishbourne makes a great Alpha Trion, joining Morgan Freeman as one of the great expositional voices of our time. Jon Hamm seems to be having a ball as Sentinel Prime, vocally mugging every scene he's in, and Steve Buscemi is suitably slimy as Starscream. Overall the cast did a fantastic job delivering the story, with believable performances conveying the air of dystopian oppression while also (mostly) imparting levity in manageable doses. (I'm looking at you, Bumblebee...)

The advertising sells this as a slapstick comedy, and this is wide of the mark. There are some very dark moments in the film, death, genocide and slavery all being addressed as they form the fabric of Cybertronian society. There are elements of Greek myths here that are all well handled and it comes together as an approachable film for young and old, revealing mature themes in a way that are digestible for a wider audience. Full credit to the writers and director Josh Cooley for walking a fine line very deftly.

Thanks to the insanity of the staggered release of this film, we know that Transformers One has been a bit of a box office bomb and that's a real shame. It's a good film, well designed and well told. A shame then that we in the UK are weeks behind the launch in the US, with much of the initial hype now blown over for the sake of catching the school holidays. I think this was a tactical mistake, but I foresee this doing very well in the Blu Ray/4K market after release, and I hope that pans out to allow for the next part of this planned trilogy to reach cinemas. At the moment, that's very much in doubt.