As a big fan of Transformers: The Movie, Few films in the upcoming calendar fill me with as much excitement as Transformers One. Directed by: Josh Cooley (Toy Story 4)the first animated play Transformers The film since that 1986 masterpiece arrives on September 13th, and at CinemaCon Paramount unveiled footage for the first time ever.
Set exclusively on Cybertron, the film tells the story of how the two most famous Transformers, Optimus Prime and Megatron, went from best friends to mortal enemies. Chris Hemsworth and Brian Tyree Henry provide the voices of Prime and Megatron, only they aren’t called that at the beginning. They are called Orion Pax and D-16 respectively. The cast includes Scarlett Johansson as Elita-1, Keegan-Michael Key as B-127 (who becomes Bumblebee), as well as Steve Buscemi, Laurence Fishburne and Jon Hamm.
So what did it look like? I have to say I was disappointed in several ways. The CG animation somehow seems more familiar to me – exactly the kind of simple “robots walking around” that you immediately imagine when I say that. The tone seemed aimed at a very, very young audience. And any hints of this promised feud and betrayal are completely absent. Apparently, Transformers is based on toys and is, at its core, a children’s franchise. But after decades of violent live-action adaptations and iterations of the gritty animated original, it has, at least by reputation, developed a slightly more serious tone. Not entirely serious, but a mix of humor and seriousness. Transformers OneAt least based on this initial footage, right?
We meet Prime and Megatron as young, humble worker robots who lack the ability to transform. They fool around, fight, and act like teenage brothers. It’s also important to note that they don’t look like the characters we know and love. They are almost similar to a base model robot without any upgrades. They don’t even have face plates, so each character has a complete face: eyes, nose, mouth. Aesthetically speaking, this was, as they say, a choice.
After exploring the depths of the planet, an epic journey takes the friends to the forbidden and deadly surface of Cybertron. At some point we see them gain the ability to transform, but it doesn’t happen immediately. The footage shows the characters trying to figure out how to use their powers, often botching them in the process. Prime tries, but then just hides his head. Bee turns into a car but can’t figure out what wheels he has and falls down a cliff while screaming that he has no wheels.
Later, a major villain appears and the group decides to use their newfound powers to stop him. But they still haven’t gotten the hang of it and seem shocked and surprised when they develop things like laser hands and face shields.
Basically the whole thing looks like a bunch of stupid kids slowly growing up and taking on responsibilities and making lots of mistakes along the way. One assumes that things will change at some point, as we know that the film sets up a lifelong rivalry between the main characters. But there was very, very little of that in the footage.
Even an extended scene in 3D that 100% enhanced the experience was focused more on humor than action. The plot just seemed to happen so that the characters could feel their way through it in a way that was more funny than exciting.
So yes, Transformers One may not be the spiritual sequel Transformers: The Movie we hoped it would be so. Or maybe it will be once we see more of it. However, it was absolutely clear from the footage shown that this is the case Transformers is not aimed at 40 year olds who collected the original toys and were shocked when Optimus Prime died. It’s aimed at their 10 year old children who couldn’t care less. It’s probably a smart move in the long run, but today, at CinemaCon, it came as a bit of a shock.
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