Mining bots Orion Pax (voiced by Chris Hemsworth) and D-16 (Brian Tyree Henry) are best friends in a dead end and dangerous job. Their foreman, Elita (Scarlett Johansen), runs a tight ship and isn’t a fan of insubordination. Unable to transform, Orion and D-16 take on the impossible task of racing against transformer bots in an annual race. They expect to finish last but have the goal of beating at least one single competitor to prove they have purpose beyond the mines. After some clever racing, they find themselves accidental heroes to the entire population of bots who don’t have a cog either (the thing that allows them to transform). The planet’s leader, Sentinel Prime (Jon Hamm), congratulates them for inspiring his workers but they’re mistakenly banished to a sub level where B-127 (Keegan-Michael Key) has a job literally processing garbage. The three go on an adventure — picking up Elita along the way — and set out to find the Matrix of Leadership on the other side of the planet.
Everything about this movie screams “desperate money grab.” They hired and marketed A-list actors instead of seasoned voice actors, there have been far too many Transformers movies over the years — most of which are terrible — and there are some ridiculously cheesy things like calling the MacGuffin the “Matrix of Leadership”… and having Laurence Fishburne, known for playing Morpheus in THE MATRIX, say it as many times as possible.
But, boy, was that assumption wrong.
TRANSFORMERS ONE is a surprisingly riveting back story to the characters we’ve grown up watching since the cartoons of the 1980’s to the big screen in the 2000’s. Hemsworth and Henry do a great job making the lead characters their own while also paying homage to the classic original voices.
Short of 2007’s TRANSFORMERS and 2018’s BUMBLEBEE, this franchise has been riddled with garbage. Even the original wasn’t great cinema but, boy, was it fun. TRANSFORMERS ONE might be the best movie of the entire franchise, one that gives future films promise and hope and, quite frankly, that’s a huge improvement.
The story is compelling, the comedy hits, the animation is excellent and it’s the perfect length for what this film is. This is the rare movie made for families that will appeal to adults, kids and everyone in between. It should be seen on the big screen and will be a streaming favorite once the time comes.
JKG SCORE: 8.0
Untitled Film Project 