This year has been a rocky one for animation in film. We’ve had some real duds, and yet we’ve also seen some examples of the best the medium can offer. One of these being Transformers One!
I’ve been a Transformers fan for most of my life, yet I’ve never been the biggest fan of it. I’ve seen most of the movies, some of the shows, owned a lot of the toys, and even caught a few of the comics. I sort of fell out of the franchise though. My last memory was watching the Bumblebee movie back in 2018. So I mean it when I say this movie was the spark I needed to truly get into the series, and I think it could be yours too!
Transformers One follows the origins of the leaders of the infamous Decepticons and the iconic autobots, and how they were once like brothers. Orion pax (Optimus prime) and D-16 (Megatron) live on the planet of Cybertron. A planet formed by the sacrifice of a noble god. The planet was originally powered by energon, yet years of war lead to the rivers drying up. This forced the cybertronians into having to mine for energon to keep the planet running. Miners are viewed as the lower class, most not being able to transform. Two of these miners being Orion and D. However one day, Orion discovers what may be the key to finding the matrix of leadership, the item needed to restore the planet’s flow of Energon.
This journey would ultimately lead to the rivalry between Megatron and Optimus. It’s so heart wrenching, yet satisfying to watch how in finding themselves, they lose each other. Drama isn’t all this film has to offer though. There’s also tons of humor, amazing world building, and stellar action in the final act.
I’d also like to praise the animation. Not only is it a very beautiful and impressive use of cg animation, but it also manages to pack in so much love and attention to detail. My favorite detail being the limbs of the cybertronians having a natural stretchiness to them. An animator on the film explained how that was an intentional decision made with hydraulics in mind. Its details like that, I feel deserve to be appreciated in a theater.
I can’t stress the value of seeing the movie in theaters enough, especially with it not performing well despite all the critical success. Transformers One is rated PG for its violence, action, and language. Unfortunately the movie wasn’t done justice by the trailers. It’s not too late though! You can still go support this movie by seeing it in theaters.
