The bruised and beaten franchise waves a cheery flag.
A prequel following the origins of Optimus Prime and other Transformer characters, Orion Pax, a worker on Cybertron, discovers a world-shaking conspiracy.
The awkwardly named Transformers One is directed by Josh Cooley, who recently made Toy Story 4. The writing team is entirely from Disney/Marvel MCU backgrounds, such as Black Widow and Ant-Man and the Wasp. The voice talent also includes Chris Hemsworth and Scarlett Johansson in lead roles, without the return of Optimus Prime’s Peter Cullen. All of these were the initial igniters of fan ire online. Transformers One is an animated feature, set entirely upon the robot world of Cybertron and long before any events seen on the big screen.
It has done quite badly in the box office. But is it deserving of the backlash from angry fans?
Personally, I am always biased towards Transformers. It was my number one cartoon as a kid, so the trailer didn’t put me off like it did with so many others. I will do my best to be objective.
Transformers is a silly cartoon. Watch the original series and the early episodes are rife with clunky dialogue written to give “character” to toys. Lots of talk of “rear axels” and other cringeworthy comedy. But had passion, and it had Peter Cullen.
Eventually, the cast is going to have to change if we want more content. A story set entirely on Cybertron is welcome at this stage, and the character designs are quite faithful to the original material. What’s more, there aren’t any character assassinations in the screenplay. Which is very surprising given the glut of them in Hollywood at the moment when “rebooting” or “reimagining” old franchises. Overall, I, as an old crotchety fan, found myself nodding away at the resemblances seen along the way.
Once the characters start to evolve (transform, if you will) then we start to see the real potential. A particular scene with everyone’s favourite Starscream is especially good. The third act is a good time!
Ultimately, this is more for younger audiences. The older audience wants something different. But that something different is harder to market to studios right now, especially when the product is literally to sell products.
No, the issues here are not in its theming or its production value or its looks. The issues are in its action choreography and its… comedy. Or lack thereof, in both cases.
The film is awfully certain that it is funny, and while the cinema wasn’t at all full, there weren’t any laughs or chuckles. The character “B-127” has a tedious running joke that “B” stands for “Badassatron”. Around the third time it was inspiring me to plug my ears.
The action meanwhile is more “Bayhem”. Whether or not this is because Michael Bay’s production company is still involved is a mystery. There are some cool designs here, but with the combat scenes turning into a blur of (this time) colourful chaos, it loses all cohesion. The lack of scale presented is also an issue; there are no humans present to help with that.
It is a flighty, colourful adventure. Although it does take a bit of time to start. The beginning is sluggish as there isn’t much to learn about the characters or the world. On top of that there’s a conspiracy to keep hidden from the audience.
Similarly with 2018’s Bumblebee, there is potential here. Unfortunately it probably won’t get the chance to prove itself with any future instalments.
