Transformers One is the newest film in the Transformers franchise and is the origin story of how the war between the Autobots and Decepticons started. It’s being hailed as one of the best if not the best Transformers film that has come out in recent years. It’s also been praised for its story, music, acting, characters, and animation.
After seeing the film myself, I can confidently say that all the praise is warranted. But despite all this praise, the film is failing at the box office. Only making back 97 million dollars on its 75-million-dollar budget which might not sound bad, but it still needs to make at least 150 million dollars to break even. So after all this praise, why is it failing?
To summarize the plot, our main characters Orion Pax and D-16, played by Chris Hemsworth and Brian Tyree Henry, are two sentient robots and best friends who are forced to work in the mines on their planet Cybertron.
Cybertron has a caste system, those who are born with T-cogs which is what allows them to transform and get to live the high life while those born without them have to do the grunt work. After illegally entering a race, they are both forced to work garbage disposal. It is there they meet Bumblebee, played by Keegan Michael Key, and also find a distress signal that leads to unknown coordinates to the surface of their planet.
Along the way, they bring another robot called Elita One, played by Scarlett Johanson, and make their way to the surface. Once they arrive, they meet Alpha Trion, played by Laurence Fishburne, one of the original primes who led Cybertron. It’s there they find out the true purpose of why they’re forced to mine and why they don’t have T-cogs.
After these events, the film starts to show the origins of how both factions formed, how Orion became Optimus Prime, how D-16 became Megatron, how the war started, and how they became enemies.
The plot is honestly really good. You wouldn’t expect to get this invested in a Transformers movie, but you do. One of the film’s strengths is that it’s not afraid to get dark and emotional with its scenes, and it does well with how it presents the film as more character-driven than the other films in the franchise for the film’s benefit. This is a film you won’t get bored of while watching.
The characters are this film’s strongest aspect. They are well written and their voice acting is great. Orion is one of the highlights of the movie. His journey of going from wanting to prove that miner bots can be more, to someone who wants to help take down the corrupted regime, and eventually turning into Optimus Prime. He’s a character who’s driven by hope and doesn’t lose it throughout the film. Not to mention Chris Hemsworth is surprisingly good for the role.
Elita One starts off caring more about her ego than the actual mission. But over the course of the film, she stops thinking about herself and more about the mission. She maintains some of her cockiness but she doesn’t let it distract her in the end.
Scarlett Johanson plays her in this film and she’s pretty good. Keegan Michael Key is good for Bumblebee and I like how at the start he’s initially just along for the ride, but the writing for him is a little weak. The problem with him is that they try to make him the main comedic source in the film and it doesn’t always work.
If there was a standout character in the film, it was D-16, better known as Megatron. The writing for this character is really strong and his voice acting is great. He starts as Orion’s best friend and has full faith in the system he’s in.
But once he finds out the truth, his whole world shatters, everything he did was not for his planet but to benefit someone else. He becomes vengeful, only caring about burning everything down instead of helping his planet.
Anyone who knows about Transformers knows that Megatron is the main villain of the series so his turning evil shouldn’t be surprising but they do it in such a way that turns it tragic. By the end he becomes the definition of “the abused becomes the abuser” and as stated before, his voice acting is superb.
Brian Tyree Henry gives probably the best performance in the film. He makes his voice have such believable rage and menace in it without overacting while also doing the emotional scenes quite well.
The animation for the film is stunning. For it being fully animated, it’s a surprise how good it looks. The colors are vibrant but not oversaturated, the models are unique but not too over-designed, and the character designs are a nice throwback to the original cartoon without looking too simplistic.
The action scenes benefit from this since they’re both well-animated and well-choreographed. Not to mention the music is great. It helps they hired musical composer Brian Tyler, who gives the soundtrack a sense of epicene. There are a few flaws with the movie but only one stands out. The pacing is too fast and doesn’t hold on to a serious moment for too long.
Even after all this praise given, why is the film failing? This comes down to three reasons. The first reason is that Transformers as a franchise just isn’t as popular as it once was. The second reason is it was marketed late stage in its development, and they made it look like an action-comedy aimed at kids. The final reason was the timing, the film was released near the same time another movie was released called “The Wild Robot.” It’s doing so well that it outclassed in terms of box office. I guess it just looked like the more appealing film, but I digress. This film is honestly really good and deserves more attention than it’s getting.
If you’re a Transformers fan, then I heavily recommend this movie and if you’re a casual movie goer I still recommend this movie. It’s such a fun watch and you’ll end up wanting more by the end.