Alex Moss EditorYou’d be forgiven for not necessarily having an animated Transformers film on your bingo card for one of the year’s most entertaining films but here we are. Because Transformers One is a film that punches way above its toy-franchise origins and dispels any bad aftertaste you may have had from the glut of live action Transformers films.
With Cybertron a relic of what it used to be and the Primes all missing in action the planet is forced to mine for a fuel source. Amongst the miners are best friends Orion Pax (Chris Hemsworth) and D-16 (Brian Tyree Henry). When the pair enter a race only for transformers they find themselves banished to sub-level 50 where they meet B-127 (Keegan Michael Key) who has a map to the possible location of the Primes and The Matrix of Leadership (Mcguffin alert!). Helped by the far more sensible Elite-1 (Scarlett Johansson) the team set out to free Cybertron.
Packed with brilliant action sequences and a script that is reminiscent of early Marvel films, Transformers One is a relentlessly entertaining popcorn film for the whole family. It’s visually cartoonish but vibrant enough to really immerse you in the world of Cybertron. Director Josh Cooley, a Pixar graduate and director of Toy Story 4, perfectly juggles the slightly over complicated plot with some great visual gags and action sequences that, like the best of Pixar, are both exhilarating and often funny.
But more than anything what makes Transformers One so satisfying is the way it enriches the Transformers mythology without ever losing sight of the film being pure entertainment. So we find out how Optimus Prime became a Prime, how Megatron broke bad and why it’s probably a relief that Bumblebee lost his voice.
A rare film that will have viewers of all ages laughing together rather than at separate jokes aimed at different demographics, Transformers One is a joy of an animated film and with any luck could lead to more entries in the franchise.
