Transformers One is a pleasant (if unimaginatively animated) surprise with palpable heart

"I'm Wang. Deep Wang."

 "No whoopee, Mr. Cade?"

"Hey, Professor, I'd do anything for an A!”

These are just a few of the “iconic” lines human beings are responsible for in the live-action Transformers movies. Emphasis on bro comedy informed these titles rather than exploring the automatons people came from. Save for John Turturro’s undeniably enjoyable delivery of the line “Tell Megatron, let’s tango”, these human characters only created either tedium or a deeply disturbing "Romeo & Juliet law" scene. When the Transformers were on-screen, aggression and exacting carnage defined these aliens. Optimus Prime’s greatest character trait across five original features was his love for shredding the heads of enemies.

Bumblebee in 2018 demonstrated that a modern Transformers movie didn’t have to be torture. Now Transformers One has arrived really showing the creative possibilities of this saga. Without any pesky humans around, the focus of the script is on fleshing out those famous robots as characters.

After exposition about Cybertron’s history and a brief chase scene, writers Eric Pearson, Andrew Barrer, and Gabriel Ferrari’s Transformers One script shift to something quiet. The camera focuses on future versions of Optimus Prime, originally named Orion Pax (Chris Hemsworth), and Megatron, initially named D-16 (Brian Tyree Henry), just talking on a train. There isn’t a need to have them simultaneously fight a big villain just to keep the attention of younger audiences. Instead, the emphasis on low-key conversations suggests solid character dynamics can engage any viewer. That welcome commitment to intimacy lets audiences truly understand the optimistic Pax and rule-follower D-16's long-standing bond.

These two robots drastically differ in many ways, particularly in exploring the surface world beyond their city of Iacon. However, they’re also always looking out for one another. You need as many friends as you can in Iacon, a city with a firm hierarchy in this domain. Folks like Cybertron leader Sentinel Prime (Jon Hamm) are on top. Non-transforming miner bots like Pax and D-16 are disposable beings. However, Transformers One’s central odd couple, along with B-127 (Keegan-Michael Key) and Elita-1 (Scarlett Johansson), find a way to possibly change their fate. After accidentally discovering possible coordinates to a sacred artifact, the quartet ventures to the surface. This risky mission, if successful, could put them on great terms with Sentinel Prime. On this journey, Pax and D-16 discover what they’re truly made of…and how some friends can become enemies.

Huzzah for Transformers One staunchly avoids the pitfalls of other origin movies. Traditional prequels like those Fantastic Beasts movies, Oz the Great and Powerful, or the Star Wars prequels are all about arranging everything in place for features you already know all about. Individual personality is sacrificed to set up familiar tales. Transformers One, meanwhile, seems to occupy its own continuity separate from the previous live-action Transformers features. This is not a motion picture teeing-up movie you’ve seen a thousand times. Transformers One is much more like Rise of the Planet of the Apes. The early days of a familiar world are the bedrock of a self-contained enjoyable narrative. That’s a lot more fun than endless explanations for how Yoda and Chewbacca once knew each other.

Pearson, Barrer, and Ferrari’s screenplay especially thrive with the Pax and D-16 relationship. This durable emotional bedrock for the proceedings gets further power from Brian Tyree Henry’s voice work. Rather than mimicking Frank Welker or Hugo Weaving’s turns as this Decepticon, Henry lends this robot a voice reminiscent of his own. This stripped-down approach gives D-16 such vivid humanity. When D-16 frets about getting demoted or expresses pained anger over betrayal, you don’t hear someone channeling past incarnations of the character. D-16 comes alive as a standalone figure informed by Henry’s distinctive acting choices, not Transformers' media of the past. Henry’s terrific performance even results in a monologue evoking the internalized torment he brought to his iconic kitchen speech in If Beale Street Could Talk.

The unexpectedly deep pathos of Henry’s D-16 performance is one of several lovely surprises Transformers One unfurls for viewers. Another welcome element is the feature’s willingness to not douse everything in irony. Orion Pax, for instance, is like a slightly more rambunctious Paddington Bear with his dedication to exhibiting kindness to others. There’s no hesitancy in framing this character as a well-meaning do-gooder. Happily, the story even eventually involves crowd-pleaser moments hinging on working-class robots collaborating. Anytime a modern motion picture channels heartfelt moments from Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man movies, I’m overjoyed.

Granted, some cringe-inducing “he’s right behind me, isn’t he?” snarky comments still creep into the script. Prepare to roll your eyes at B-127’s commentary on things like an ominous-looking cave or how many robots have “wave” in their name. However, Cooley largely executes sweeping emotional moments with a welcome straight face. Tension-laced sequences, like a collapsing mine or robotic skirmishes, play out without ham-fisted jokes undercutting the atmosphere. This approach lends an extra punch to grandiose set pieces like our four leads evading lasers from a hovering alien ship.

Also benefiting from this Transformers One's facet are parallel third-act scenes firmly depicting Pax and B-16 carving out their future reputations of Optimus Prime and Megatron. Without getting into spoilers, each of our two leads makes it clear to audiences why other robots will eventually utter their names in hushed whispers. There’s a borderline mythic quality to these sequences made possible through Cooley’s willingness to let dramatic elements simmer. Plus, B-16 getting this kind of sequence (which lends insight into his psychology) speaks highly of the film’s empathetic gaze. Transformers One wants us invested in the robot that becomes Megatron. That passion is hard to resist.

Unfortunately, Transformers One isn’t as fleet-footed visually as it is narratively. Industrial Light & Magic handles One's animation, making it the company’s third fully animated enterprise following Rango and Strange Magic. Certain resplendent backgrounds (like Sentinel Prime’s golden domicile) and more stylized elements (such as jagged crystals emerging from the ground somewhat resembling these Fantasia 2000 butterflies) are nicely realized. However, the Transformers themselves are underwhelming design-wise. Figures like Sentinel look too clean and plastic like they’ve escaped from a Batwheels episode. Attempts at giving these automatons lips are also a mixed bag. Juxtaposing decidedly metal beings with mushy mouths that look molded out of clay just doesn’t quite work.

It's also a shame that, in a post-Spider-Verse/Mutant Mayhem/Mitchells vs the Machines world, Transformers One largely eschews interesting stylized visuals rooted in hand-drawn animation. Granted, Transformers One has some flourishes reminiscent of that phenomenon. Soundwave emits frequencies that appear on-screen like Aquaman telepathically communicating to sea life. A pair of evil red robot eyes move around like a laser pointer beam. Sadly, these accentuations just make it more obvious how the rest of the character designs and backgrounds largely eschew expressionistic or impressionistic inclinations. Imagery on-screen is competent but so much imaginative potential remains on the table. 

Returning to the script, it too has similarly frustrating shortcomings. Chiefly, Transformers One’s story structure suffers from awkward transitions between key plot points and backdrops. The feature even renders the leads briefly unconscious twice within a single ten-ish minute timespan just to shuffle certain narrative chess pieces around off-screen! Also, nearly 20 years into the Transformers movie franchise, we’ve still yet to witness an interesting lady robot character. Elita is around either to serve Optimus Prime’s storyline or to be a straight man to wacky male characters. The complexities of the IDW comics versions of Arcee, for instance, continue to elude women-identifying robots in the Transformers films. My kingdom for one of these women bots to have Rachel Sennott or Patti Harrison's energy!

Transformers One is no Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem. Yet, in the theater, it’s difficult to care about that reality. Transformers One is a lot of grandiose sci-fi fun. I always wondered as a kid what a Transformers movie would be like that finally eschewed those irritating humans. Why couldn’t they just make a Transformers film that dared to focus on the robots conversing? Wasn't it possible these automatons had engaging personalities? Hollywood finally listened to 13-year-old Lisa and the result is a pretty darn good movie, even if Transformer One’s animation frustratingly doesn’t quite have the touch or power.