Transformers One

[Sparky Prime]

The Transformers One trailer came out today. This film is fully animated, telling the origins of Optimus (Orion Pax) and Megatron (D-16) on Cybertron.

I figured when this film was announced it would be more cartoony in tone and animation style. But this still isn't what I had expected. It's just odd to see Optimus and Megatron being... so goofy out on a wild adventure. It makes me think of the Super Mario movie that came out last year mixed with Guardians of the Galaxy. While that's not necessarily a bad thing, I'm just not sure it makes sense for Optimus and Megatron, even if it is essentially them as kids. I'm not a fan that they decided to put Bumbl... B-127 in the film. Optimus and Megatron both matured, but Bumblebee, who apparently has been alongside them from the very beginning, never did? I get 'Bee has become the face of the franchise for general audiences, but this really should have been a different character, like Dion or Ironhide or Ultra Magnus... You know, someone who isn't supposed to still be the young up-and-coming scout once they end up on Earth in millions of years. Scarlett Johansson and Laurence Fishburne I think sound pretty good as Elita-1 and Alpha Trion, but Chris Hemsworth, Brian Tyree Henry and Keegan-Michael Key just don't sound like good matches for Optimus, Megatron and Bumblebee to me. Not sure how I feel about the idea that they start out not being able to transform, and have to be given transformation cogs. Character designs I'm mixed on. Some are great. Others look... The humanoid faces just don't look right.

So I dunno.... There are some things I like about this trailer, mostly in terms of visuals, but they've made a lot of decisions I think could have been better...

[Sparky Prime]

The second trailer was released today.

I liked this trailer a little bit more than the first. It toned down the goofiness... a little. Feels out of place to me for Orion Pax to have a middle finger joke, which just reinforces that I think the writers have taken some inspiration from Guardians of the Galaxy. I'm wondering if they added some voice modulation to Chris Hemsworth and Brian Tyree Henry. There's a bit more of a rasp to Brian Tyree Henry's voice I don't think was there in the first trailer. Chris Hemsworth seems to a bit more baritone, although that might just be when he's playing Optimus. Nice to get some more Transformers references in this trailer, with Orion Pax giving his "Transform and Roll Out!" line. Also like that they took Megatron counterpart line (Rise Up!) introduced in Transformers Animated.

[Sparky Prime]

Transformers One is now streaming on Paramount+

Spoiler

Orion Pax breaks into the archives looking for clues to the location of the Matrix of Leadership, which has been missing ever since the 13 Primes were killed by the Quintessons. With the Matrix gone, the flow of energon has also stopped. Orion is chased out by security, eventually getting away with the help of his friend, and fellow miner, D-16. Sentinel Prime, upon his return from the surface having failed another expedition to locate the Matrix, announces the Iacon 5000 race. Orion tricks D16 into participating in the race, and the two are demoted to working sub level 50, where they meet B-127, who has inadvertently saved a recorded distress call from Alpha Trion. Thinking it may lead to the Matrix, the trio sets off an are joined by Elita-1 on the way to the surface.

Eventually, they discover the cave with the bodies of 12 Primes, and a still living, albeit powered down, Alpha Trion. Reviving him with some energon, he informs them Sentinel is no Prime, and that he betrayed them to the Quintessons. Being unworthy of the Matrix, it faded to dust when Sentinel tried to claim it for himself. As a result, he stole all newborn Cybertronian transformation cogs before they came online, so that he could keep them at the bottom of Cybertronian society and force them to mine energon. Most of which, Sentinel is giving to the Quintessons. Alpha Trion gives them transformation cogs from four of the fallen Primes, and the evidence they need to expose Sentinel's lies to the public, when they are attacked by Sentinel's guards.

Alpha Trion is captured and killed, but the others manage to escape, only to be captured by the Cybertronian High Guard, lead by Starscream. They've become outlaws having witnessed Sentinel's betrayal. D-16 fights Starscream when the group is attacked by Sentinel's guards, who capture many of them, and the evidence Orion Pax had is destroyed. Realizing Airachnid has witnessed everything, he and Elita-1 devise a plan with the help of the remaining High Guard and the miner population. The group attack Sentinel's tower and manage to capture Airachnid, broadcasting her memories to the population of Cybertron. Orion attempts to stop D-16 from killing Sentinel, but is gravely injured in the process. D-16 allows him to fall into Cybertron's interior before killing Sentinel. Claiming his transformation cog (which Sentinel had stolen from Megatronus Prime... and I wish the movie had explained why since he never needed to take another's cog), D-16 gets an upgrade and renames himself Megatron, ordering everything Sentinel built to be destroyed.

Orion falls to the very core of Cybertron, where the spirits of the 13 Primes greet him and Primus bestows him with the Matrix of Leadership for his deeds. Now Optimus Prime, he returns to the surface to confront his former friend. Besting Megatron, Optimus banishes him from Iacon along with the High Guard. With the Matrix, Optimus returns the flow of energon, reinvigorating the planet, and the missing transformation cogs are restored to all of the miners. Naming themselves Autobots, Optimus warns the Quintessons they will fight them if they ever return to their planet. In the post-credits, Megatron brands his followers with the face of Megatronus that he as adopted for his own cause, the Decepticons.

I didn't hate this film like I thought I would from the trailers. It wasn't nearly as goofy as I'd anticipated, with pretty much all of the jokes in the film being in the trailers. So the marketing really didn't do them any favors. The story is pretty much a condensed mash up of origins from the last decade or so, with influences from IDW's comics and the "Aligned" continuity particularly. It works for the most part, but I do think there are things they miss out on. For one, Megatronus Prime doesn't betray the 13, and he's killed with the rest of the Primes, so none of The Fallen stuff. While I get why they did included the 13, as a way to simply Orion becoming Optimus, I kinda wish they hadn't. As I recall, the movie says something like it's been 50 cycles since the Quintesson war. Personally, I prefer the idea of the 13 having become more legend than relatively recent history, and the lineage of Primes being more than 14. Orion Pax isn't an archivist, and D-16 is never a gladiator. I like that they are miners together, but without those other elements to their backgrounds, I don't really see why they end up taking such different paths. I mean, like all of the miners are future Autobots. So what exactly sets D-16 apart that he becomes the leader of the Decepticons? The faces didn't bother me as much as they did in the initial trailer. I think they've grown on me. Although Orion/Optimus still felt a little off. I still think Bumblebee shouldn't have been in the movie, or at least, not in a prominent role. There were some nice little touches throughout the film, such as Starscream's voice gets messed up during his fight with D-16.

As its own stand alone film, it's aright.