As long as they’ve been around, the “Transformers” have been a marketable commodity for Hasbro. After a period of relative disarray, the franchise has dropped their longstanding CGI film tradition to try their hand in 3D CG instead.
Making their way to the public eye in 1984, the robots capable of shapeshifting into different vehicles have had some form of entertainment attached to their names since the original toy line released alongside comic books and a tv show. As marketable and popular as they started out, however, these cash cows garnered somewhat of a negative reception in past years; the general consensus being that several of the cgi/live-action movies created during the span of 2007-2023 hampered the intellectual property’s success. Now, Hasbro has pivoted, creating a 3D animated reboot. Is this the reboot the Transformers needed?
To start out, this film has a star-studded cast, with actors such as Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson and Jon Hamm, along with several more familiar faces all being featured in very prominent leading roles. The stars do a fantastic job from the vocal standpoint, and it is evident as the storyline progresses, the characters themselves grow into refreshed iterations of their predecessors’ beloved vocal cues and catchphrases. In particular, Chris Hemsworth’s performance from Brazen Orion Pax, to the cookie cutter definition of a leader Optimus Prime, shows the character’s voice coincide with his mental and physical growth.
The story itself, while predictable in some aspects, was charming and very engaging to watch. It should be noted that spoilers are ahead, you’ve been warned. The film is not your average depiction of the robots in disguise, instead opting to start at the beginning of Optimus Prime’s and Megatron’s respective storyline. Before adopting the names and main traits they are known for, the two characters begin the story as friends who are working class citizens of a robot civilization on the planet cybertron. The movie explores this timeframe in a very calculated manner, slowly showing sparks of familiar characters and embracing their most recognizable selves at the story’s end.
The plot points for certain character’s embracing their dark sides are predictable for those who know the franchise, but are compelling nonetheless. The emotional beats as well as the visual ones are masterfully crafted and the humor is very endearing towards all demographics of audience age levels. One potential hang up is the use of minor curses that feel oddly jarring within the PG rating however.
Overall, the film is very well done, and well received with an 89% critics rating and a 98% audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The catch remains, however, the film is only being well received by those who care enough to watch, with many sites writing it off as already being worthy of a so-called box office flop. Whether the term flop applies in this case is up for debate, with Transformers One having only released September 20th. With its fate up in the air, only time will tell if the audience and fan reception are enough to truly stake the movie’s claim as a new standard of how reboots are to be conducted.
