Transformers One
Hey everyone and welcome, today we will be talking about the film Transformers One. Fun Fact, this is the first animated theatrical Transformers film since Transformers: The Movie in 1984. This film came out in 2024 and stars Chris Hemsworth, Brian Tyree Henry, and Scarlett Johansson and was directed by Josh Cooley. So without further ado let’s get right into it.
Transformers One tells the story of how miners Orion Pax and D-16 became Optimus Prime and Megatron with different views on how to save Cybertron.
Transformer One is an animated action origin story. It has similar vibes to Hercules, Transformers, or X-men.
Transformers is a franchise that has been around for a long time and they pump out so many movies and I have seen my fair share of them. All the Transformers movies I’ve seen take place on Earth and always include humans and I loved seeing one taking place on Cybertron and giving us an explanation as to what happened with the planet that made the robots go into hiding and also how some of the most Iconic Transformers come to be. Going into this movie I didn’t really look at the voice cast but throughout the movie, I was shocked at how many voices I noticed.
Chris Hemsworth was probably the only person I knew was going to be in this movie and then I saw he was playing what looked to be Optimus Prime and I was worried that he would be able to take on such an iconic character with an equally iconic voice. The movie starts before he was Optimus Prime and was just Orion Pax who was a miner who aspired to be so much more. Orion proved that you don’t have to stick to a mold, you can be different and just because people are telling you that you should be doing something, it doesn’t mean you have to. He might not have been the smartest or strongest but he had heart and a dedication to make things better for everyone and treat people fairly. His goal was to find the Matrix of Leadership and deliver it to Sentinel Prime but on this journey, he realized that sometimes these so-called leaders are lying to you. He had no want to lead but it ended up being thrust upon him which some may argue is what makes a letter better because his goal isn’t to be a leader but to help people live a better life. You could see good leadership qualities in him because even after learning of the betrayal of Sentinel Prime he wanted him brought to justice for his crimes but did not want him murdered in cold blood. In the end, a selfless act that gets him killed makes the Primes decide to pass the Matrix of Leadership to him which makes him a prime and he assumes the name Optimus Prime.
The film let me know a little more history of the primes and how they were fierce warriors dedicated to protecting the planet and fought to the very end. There was a battle with the Quintessons and they tried their best to protect the planet and might have succeeded if they were not betrayed. Before this movie, I thought Prime was like a family name but we come to find out in this movie that it’s actually more a sign of leadership that you cannot just take, it has to be given.
D-16 is played by Brian Tyree Henry and I love how we see his growth into this villain. At the beginning of the movie, he seems content with his life and has no interest in shaking things up unlike his friend Orion Pax. I feel like the mixture of learning about Sentinel Prime’s betrayal and gaining power really tipped him to the dark side. In his mind destroying Sentinel Prime and everything he stood for was the best way to go about this which led to increasing clashes with Orion Pax. He kills Sentinel Prime and starts destroying stuff that Sentinel did before Optimus Prime steps in to stop him because he is also endangering the lives of the citizens. He thought his way was right and removed anyone in his way to prevent them from stopping him.
One of the coolest things to me was finding out that Megatron comes from the fact that D-16 idolized one of the primes named Megatronus. The symbol of Megatronus happens to be one that might be familiar to Transformers fans as it is the logo of the Decepticons which gets engraved into D-16. In the end credits, they show Megatron coining the name Decepticons for him and his followers. I found it particularly interesting how Megatronus wasn’t even a bad robot and was renowned for his fighting but as we will come to see his symbol will become synonymous with being evil.
Keegan-Michael Key plays B-127 who will later be known as Bumble Bee who will not stop talking and was a hilarious addition. For people who watched Key and Peele, you may remember a skit about student names where he calls one A-Aaron and in this movie, he has a robot called A-Atron which I thought was a funny callback. I loved how vocal he was when he was learning new things once he could transform and how it brought him a small bit of horror but a lot of excitement.
Scarlett Johansson plays Elita-1 who is the boss of Orion Pax and D-16 who gets in trouble and eventually becomes a very good ally of Orion Pax. She was very by the book and always had a plan which made her an asset, especially in battle. She states to Orion that she’s the best at nearly everything but motivating people to do something out of their norm and to take a chance and make their lives better is something best left in his hands. I love how quickly she adapts once she can transform and her fighting style of using wheels like skates was dope to see.
Alpha Trion was played by Lawrence Fishburne and he helped fill in the gaps of what happened with the primes and helped the team figure out their potential. He was a sage and when I saw the way he mixed his magic with his fighting I was impressed and I am now interested in seeing more Transformer Sages.
Cogs play a big part in this film as we learn this is what lets these robots transform. Many of the miners are told they were born without them as a tactic to suppress them but we find out Sentinel Prime removed them. It was cool to see how these robots could live without their cogs but it would be at a detriment. It was inspiring to see that with or without these Cogs, the miners still decided to fight back for what was right.
I always find it funny how movies that are pushed towards a younger audience use these different words to replace curse words. This movie has a few but it’s cool how they are words that would be used in tech or engineering like Glitch instead of the other word that starts with a B and ends with itch.
My favorite part of this film was the scene of them right after they got their cogs and the ability to transform and all of them struggling. I think it’s great to show that it wouldn’t be perfected after the first time but also how it may look simple but it’s not. It led to a funny scene in which they take down their enemy but it seems that they did it by accident because none of them really knew what they were doing. We see later how they get better and how the transformation becomes an extension of them and when they need weapons they appear they fulfill their needs. Their fighting style before the cogs seems to be improved after they got their cogs.
Transformers One offers up a great origin story of a great rivalry. The voice cast was amazing and the film serves as a reminder not to put blind faith in a leader. There is still so much to explore considering every story hasn’t been resolved yet so hopefully we get more films.
