In the early 1980s, a handful of science fiction writers were commissioned to write a marketable mythology for the Japanese toy series that became known as TransformersIt has been 40 years since these efforts launched a worldwide franchise that began with an animated series and the cross-generational cartoon from 1986but above all through live-action reinterpretations that targeted, edgy nostalgia for adultsWhile these latter versions have struggled to establish their own identity as a property worthy of a cinematic universe, Hasbro and Paramount have returned to the world of cinematic animation with Transformers Onewhat director Josh Cooley (Toy Story 4) and three screenwriters (Eric Pearson, Andrew Barrer and Gabriel Ferrari) issued a similar instruction to the original narrative team: Start with Transformers once again, with a new origin story. It’s hard to argue that they didn’t achieve that goal, with the caveat that there are elements that will seem familiar to anyone who has seen another film or two.

Set in the alien world of Cybertron, Transformers One follows Orion Pax (Chris Hemsworth) and D-16 (Brian Tyree Henry), two mining robots and best friends who dream of one day rising from the mines by finding the mythical Matrix of Leadership on behalf of their benevolent leader, Sentinel Prime (Jon Hamm), and earning gears that grant them the ability to transform. But when a stunt to prove their worth lands them in an even deeper level of the mines with the jabbering B-127 (Keegan-Michael Key), Pax and D-16 realize their only path to salvation is to find the Matrix of Leadership itself on the planet’s surface. B-127 and mining manager Elita (Scarlett Johansson) are drawn along as they discover the hidden truths of their stratified society.

There is tension to Transformers One if you have even a cursory knowledge of the Transformers Characters or myth, a conflicting realization that the film’s story is well told, even as it treads the familiar terrain of other friend-versus-foe storylines. The film’s marketing will tip off the most unwary casual observer that Pax and D-16 will become known as Optimus Prime and Megatron, respectively, so the central character arcs of betrayed friendships carry a burden of inevitability that precludes any narrative invention or surprise. And after immediately realizing that Sentinel Prime’s benevolent leadership is obviously a facade for ulterior motives, the plot becomes as mechanical and predictable as a straight road leading from the title to the credits.

This does not mean that the artists who participated in Transformers One have not given everything to realize the relatively modest ambitions of their story. The team of writers does an excellent job of weaving established Transformers Mythos into the form of a character-driven narrative in which it’s easy to like and care about our underdog protagonists. The voice actors are consistently committed in their performances, with Henry in particular selling D-16’s societal disillusionment with unexpectedly tragic seriousness. The animators at Industrial Light & Magic have taken on the unenviable challenge of bridging the gap between the quasi-realistic depictions of the Transformers from the live-action films and the emotive cartoon models of more recent animated films, a creative decision that threatens to seem painfully generic in the gray-metallic environments of Cybertron. They do, however, add enough colorful accents and retro-futuristic flourishes to make the action scenes feel excitingly coherent rather than over-the-top, even if the attempts at slapstick would have benefited from a more exaggerated style.

With so much that Transformers One gets it right, there’s still that nagging feeling that we’ve seen it all before. A rushed first act plows through world-building with such efficiency that it sets a precedent for a tight pace that doesn’t allow much room to breathe between thrilling action scenes. Conversely, this leaves comedic moments feeling like forced tokenisms, leaning heavily into kinetic hyperactivity rather than telling jokes that won’t go stale before the punchline lands. Both problems feed that pervasive sense of familiarity – that the drive to feed the franchise machine has overshadowed the genuine joy this film has to offer. While we’ve never seen these characters play out this particular story on the big screen, we’ve seen versions of these characters, and a version of this kind of cinematic universe-building, often enough that, at least in adult eyes, it conveys a sense of mathematical calculation rather than emotional involvement.

But this is the first time in a long time that the eyes of adults do not seem so important for Transformers Film. Since Michael Bay made it a reality in 2007, Transformers Films are steeped in a nostalgic atmosphere of Generation X and Millennials, reminiscent of cartoons that were once made to sell toys to us as children by selling theoretically adult spectacles to adults. Transformers Onebut seems specifically aimed at an audience too young for a PG-13 rating, an audience that has no connection to these characters and is discovering these tropes and stories for the first time. Acknowledging this demographic shift doesn’t automatically elevate the material beyond serviceable programming, but it does cast a more respectable light on Transformers One as the product of filmmakers telling stories within the framework of a franchise project that excites and captivates children more than their parents. The rarity of a franchise film that seems primarily designed to appeal to a new generation is more in keeping with the legacy of the original series than any other film that has come out since.

Director: Josh Cooley
Writer: Andrew Barrer, Gabriel Ferrari, Eric Pearson
With: Chris Hemsworth, Brian Tyree Henry, Scarlett Johansson, Keegan-Michael Key, Steve Buscemi, Laurence Fishburne, Jon Hamm
Release date: 20 September 2024