It’s an emotional rollercoaster being a Transformers fan. On one hand, there is some excellent content, such as the 2007 Transformers film, Dark of the Moon (I’ll stand by that), and the Cybertron Netflix series, but on the other, Revenge of the Fallen, Age of Extinction, and that affront to both man and God, The Last Knight. So with recent Transformers films ranging from pretty good to forgettable, I was holding out hope that one day we would get another stand-out Transformers film.
And then Transformers One was announced. This animated origin story was set to be the first feature-length film set on Cybertron in over 30 years. Even more interesting was that it was going to show us the history between storied enemies Optimus Prime and Megatron back when they were called Orion Pax and D-16. I was keen as a bean for this film to drop, but has it managed to meet my expectations, or did I leave the theatre once again in disappointment? Let’s find out.
Transformers One is the story of Orion Pax and D-16, miner bots on the planet Cybertron. These two are basically brothers from other mothers and help each other deal with the monotony of daily life in the mines. These two are also cogless, meaning they can’t transform, so they’re stuck in the mines digging for energon. But Orion Pax dreams of a better life with meaning, while D-16 is content with the status quo. After some convincing (and lying through omission) from Orion, the two enter into the Iacon 5000 (a race throughout the entire city), announced by the leader of Iacon City, Sentinel Prime. This sets off a chain of events that involves action, mystery, deception, and heartbreak, as these two brothers’ lives will never be the same again.
I really enjoyed this take on the Transformers story. We don’t normally get anything set on Cybertron, let alone before the war, so seeing a relatively peaceful Cybertron was refreshing and opened up some fun storytelling opportunities. I also enjoyed the friendship between Orion and D-16 grow throughout the film and how their relationship became the crux of the story. With as few spoilers as possible, there are a handful of emotional story beats throughout the film that even if you know what’s going to happen, it still hurts seeing it unfold.
Most of these moments happen in the film’s final act, which is a climactic smorgasbord of awesomeness. It had me on the edge of my seat and even had me surprised at the level of violence on full display. If you think that this is a silly film made for kids, you are gravely mistaken (peeps get ripped in half and decapitated, sucker). The film does have a bit of a slow start, but as a whole, this is one of the best Transformers stories since the Cybertron games.
The heart of Transformers One is, without a doubt, the relationship between Orion Pax and D-16, so it’s lucky they’re the best characters in the film. They bounce off each other extremely well, and their banter from start to end was very enjoyable (even if they didn’t finish the film on the friendliest of terms). Chris Hemsworth killed it as Orion, which I can honestly say was a surprise. In the age of casting celebrities for voice roles just because they’re famous, Hemsworth delivers a very strong performance that feels like a young Optimus Prime, and by the end, you can hear a little bit of the Optimus we all know start to come out.
D-16 is no different, as Brian Tyree Henry was the best actor in the entire film. He brought such a range of emotions to D-16 that made you sympathise with his goals (even the slightly murdery ones). His performance also made the very fast personality shift D-16 has halfway through the film a little less out of place. It felt like a big chunk of D-16’s character development was left on the cutting room floor, and we got just enough to get the gist of it, which was my only real negative of the film. It didn’t ruin the film, but it definitely stuck out.
The rest of the cast also did stellar jobs and that, once again, left me pleasantly surprised. Scarlett Johansson and Keegan-Michael Key as Elita-1 and Bumblebee were excellent and reminded me that, yes, Johansson has done a lot of voice-over work before and that Key is still as funny as ever. Jon Hamm as Sentinel Prime gave off the confident leader vibe but was still untrustworthy (I wonder why). Laurence Fishburne did a fantastic job as the wise Alpha Trion and made me open to having a prequel to this prequel about the Primes before Optimus. And I couldn’t talk about this cast without mentioning Steve Buscemi as Starscream, who was oddly perfect for the character. To summarise, this cast was great, and I can’t wait to see more.
This film is gorgeous to look at. Everything from the animation to the character and world designs is spot on. It combines elements from various Transformers iterations, such as the overall aesthetic of the original show, the vehicle modes that look similar to the War for Cybertron games, and the robot-on-robot violence from the Bayverse (which surprised me). Staying on the topic of the fights, they were sick as fuck. You can feel every punch, kick, and blast as these robots beat each other senselessly. But besides looking cool, some of the fights (including one at the very end, which I won’t spoil) hit all the right emotional beats that make it an all-time great Transformers fight scene (even rivalling that one scene from Revenge of the Fallen). My only real complaint with the look of the film would be that sometimes the faces look a little weird, but that’s really just personal preference.
The soundtrack is no slouch either, with music that references previous Transformers outings, so no matter what type of Transformers fan you are, you’ll catch a tune or two. And fun fact: Yuqi from (G)I-dle actually sang a promo song for the Chinese release of the film, and it kinda slaps hard. I’m a little disappointed it wasn’t in the film at all, but it’s still definitely worth a listen (now, please release it on streaming platforms).
Transformers One is the best Transformers film ever made. I loved almost everything about the film; it was nearly perfect. The story was engaging, the characters were likeable, and the film’s overall vibe was fantastic. While I have some issues with some character choices, and it did take me a while to get used to the faces, I still thoroughly enjoyed my time with the film, and you will too.
And if you’re looking for more Transformers content, keep it locked to Couch Soup.
Have you seen Transformers One? What did you think? Is it the best film in the series? Let us know in the comments where we can all recover after watching that very messy break-up.
