‘Transformers One’ is the Origin Story Fans Have Been Waiting For

Transformers One

★ ★ ★ ½

I caught myself smiling several times while watching this movie, because I started to feel like a kid again. It took me back to when The Transformers cartoon first joined the lineup of weekday after-school animated shows. It was 1985, and to most kids my age, robots that could turn into vehicles, aircraft and dinosaurs instantly grabbed our attention. And our parent’s pocketbooks.

Transformers: One recaptures that excitement far better than the preceding live action films in the series, with the exception of Bumblebee (2018). That’s really saying something, because transforming robots are completely worthy of cinematic sci-fi fun. But most offerings have been so-so.

Brian Tyree Henry as D-16, Keegan-Michael Key as B-127, Scarlett Johansson as Elita-1 and Chris Hemsworth as Orion Pax
© 2024 Paramount Pictures

The other films complicated everything with storylines that served the purpose of putting giant robots duking it out to thunderous music, laser blasts and explosions, but little else. They complicated the look and feel of the robots too, with confused structures and styles.

This film takes these robots back to simplicity while delivering a decent story and sympathetic characters. It starts before Autobots (the good Transformers) and Decepticons (the bad Transformers) ever waged battle against one another. If you’re an adult kid like me from 1985, you probably already know this. If not, you’ll catch on quickly.

Orion Pax finds a fallen Prime
© 2024 Paramount Pictures

Transformers are conscious, autonomous living beings from the planet Cybertron, and that’s where we meet the heroes of our story, Orion Pax (Chris Helmsworth) and D-16 (Brian Tyree Henry). Orion and D-16 work deep in the planet’s mines and are best friends.

The miners are lower class citizens of Cybertron. They are born without transformation cogs, or t-cogs for short which limits their abilities and employment options. Thus, they are destined for manual labor.

A map to the Matrix of Leadership
© 2024 Paramount Pictures

T-cogs are cybernetic organs that sit in the center of the chest area and give transformers the ability to transform. Transformers that have these t-cogs are highly regarded, well respected and often placed in positions of power.

Despite this, Orion feels destined for something more than a life of laboring in the mines can give and is always looking for a way to step out and prove his worth. This often lands himself, D-16 those around them in trouble.

When one of Orion’s plans lands D-16 and himself to the lowest part of Cybertron, sorting trash, they meet B-127 (Keegan-Michael Key).  B-127 has been working in waste management, isolated and alone – so long that he might be a tad out of his mind.

B-127 inadvertently sets Orion and D-16 on a journey to recapture one of Cybertron’s most precious artifacts, The Matrix of Leadership. This is a legendary object that has been lost for a very long time and can be wielded by only one transformer at a time. It has guided previous leaders of Cybertron and it chooses who it will allow to carry it.

Brian Tyree Henry as D-16
© 2024 Paramount Pictures

This starts out as a pretty simple, fairly standard story for an animated film that quickly turns into a much more dynamic plot with authentic conflict that develops between its characters. It’s surprisingly well written and engaging.

It’s campy at times, corny at others, but overall tells a solid origin tale of how the heroes and villains in this universe came to be. We will understand how D-16 becomes the evil Decepticon leader, Megatron and how Orion Pax becomes Optimus Prime, the leader of the Autobots.

In almost all the best ways, this film is so much more than meets the eye.

Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Animation