By Bob Garver
I actually had high hopes going into “Transformers One.” Not because I’m a big fan of the toys or really anything about the property, but because this movie promised to correct some of the mistakes made by its predecessors. Namely, I was excited that there wouldn’t be any live-action actors. For some reason, this franchise has never shied away from shoving human Shia LeBeouf or Mark Wahlberg characters down our throats when we all know it’s the giant robots that sell tickets. This time, no humans, all robots. Also, animated versions of previously-live-action franchises have been pleasing me lately. Both “Spider-Verse” movies are outstanding, and last year for the first time I found myself liking a “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” movie with “Mutant Mayhem.” Could “Transformers One” turn me around on another property that I had previously dismissed as a series of glorified toy commercials? Sadly, no.
The new film is a prequel that looks at the friendship-turned-feud between Optimus Prime (Chris Hemsworth) and Megatron (Brian Tyree Henry) back when they were just humble miners on the planet Cybertron. The robots, known then as Orion Pax and D-16, respectively, live to serve planetary leader Sentinel Prime (Jon Hamm), but they can’t do much since they lack the gears to Transform. Orion believes that if he can retrieve an ancient artifact known as the Matrix of Leadership, he can help the struggling planet more than Sentinel ever could. He hatches various harebrained schemes that include breaking into forbidden records rooms, entering he and D-16 in a race off-limits to non-Transformers, and exiting the mines and visiting the planet’s surface ultra-dangerous surface.
It’s on the surface that they meet left-for-dead Prime robot Alpha Trion (Laurence Fishburne), who warns them of a threat to the entire planet. They also come across a roving band of disavowed High Guard robots led by Starscream (Steve Buscemi), who may become allies if Orion and D-16 can win them over. History is learned, secrets are revealed, some characters are captured by the villains for the final act. Along for the ride are disgruntled ex-mining supervisor Elita-1 (Scarlett Johansson) and waste management grunt B-127 (Keegan-Michael Key). Supposedly the latter will eventually become Bumblebee, a Transformer I know to be more competent than Optimus Prime, but here is just an annoying screwup, making me understand why “Bumble” is part of his name.
B-127 is responsible for about a third of the unfunny comedy in this movie, meaning that he’s the “most” responsible, but he’s not the only one. There’s a weird… what I’ll call “frat boy” energy permeating the scenes with male robots in this movie, outside of Fishburne. It’s like Hemsworth, Henry, and Hamm are all competing to nail the perfect ratio of humor, chill, and action stardom. The result is three performances that are basically the same, which might work if the humor was funnier and the chill was necessary. And by “chill” I mean overly casual mannerisms, not the reassuring calmness that an actor like Optimus Prime’s previous voice actor Peter Cullen brought to the role.
The action scenes didn’t really do it for me either. It’s nice that the animated movie doesn’t have to worry about Earthly limitations, but with every character being an arguably-soulless robot, it’s hard to care about anyone having an advantage over anyone else. Plus, while the characters may have some color to their trim, their skeletons are all the same grayish metallic color, and that’s what you mostly see during action sequence, so it’s hard to tell who’s winning.
“Transformers One” doesn’t have much to offer outside of the Orion/D-16 relationship, which does provide some nice emotional moments from Hemsworth and Henry. Otherwise, this movie is right on par with the live-action “Transformers” movies that I wanted to leave behind. To be sure, getting rid of the humans is a step in the right direction, but it will take many more steps before I give one of these movies a recommendation.
Grade: C-
“Transformers One” is rated PG for sci-fi action and animated action throughout, and language. Its running time is 104 minutes.
Contact Bob Garver at rrg251@nyu.edu.
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