Transformers One is a surprising animated delight. Most live-action versions are content to bombard the audience with mindless action and zero semblance of a character story. Thankfully, this movie doesn’t have those issues; instead, it supplies a fine balance of action, humor, and heart to carry it through.
The movie serves as a prequel that focuses on the relationship between Optimus Prime and Megatron, or, as they’re called in this movie, Orion Pax and D-16. Chris Hemsworth and Brian Tyree Henry provide the voices. They work as minors on the planet Cybertron, with D-16 always having to save Orion’s bacon as he proves to be a mischievous machine.
Jon Hamm is the voice of Sentinel Prime, the leader of Cybertron, who wants to find a device known as the Matrix of Leadership, which could lead to the survival of the entire planet.
The movie introduces other colorful characters, such as Scarlett Johansson’s Elita-1, who is no-nonsense throughout, and Keegan Michael Key, who provides a lot of the comic relief as B-127, a.k.a. Bumblebee.
Laurence Fishburne is the voice of Alpha Trion, who tells the robots the whereabouts of the Matrix. Given that Fishburne keeps using the word “Matrix” in his speeches, it’s impossible not to think of his role as Morpheus.
Transformers One is crammed with dazzling animated sequences and wall-to-wall action. There’s a race scene early in the film that Orion and D-16 compete in, and it could’ve been nothing but noise without a purpose, but it’s convincing due to the crisp clarity of the animation, and it serves the story.
Hemsworth and Henry have a lot of fun with their voice work, and so does the rest of the cast. Each character is fleshed out more in animation than in live-action, and that’s a plus.
Of course, the action is front and center at every opportunity, especially during the climax, and there’s little to no intrinsic suspense because we know the plot is a loophole for the inevitable sequel.
However, Transformers One achieves something that almost none of its live-action counterparts could do: a sense of fun and wonder.
If this is the beginning of a series of movies, I’d say there’s more than meets the eye in animation.
Grade: A-
(Rated PG for sci-fi violence and animated action throughout, and language.)
