Transformers One
Transformers One – Best friends and mining bots Orion Pax and D16 work hard to keep Cybertron supplied in vial Energon. Yet when they are demoted after a cave in and smashed up after crashing a popular race, they find themselves stranded on the surface of the planet, where no miner is supposed to go. As they uncover dark truths about the nature of their lives underground, can Pax and D16 remain friends?
Transformers One (2024) – Director: Josh Cooley
Rating: PG
Running Length: 104 mins
Starring: Chris Hemsworth, Bryan Tyree Henry, Scarlett Johansson, Keegan-Michael Key, Jon Hamm
Genres: Comedy, Action, Science Fiction
REVIEW: ‘TRANSFORMERS ONE’
Tone is always an important and difficult factor. None least so than for any new Transformers release. Those born in the 80s who fell in love with the original iteration of the robots in disguise are now in their 40s and have the impossible wish list of wanting both nostalgia free from anything overly childish. On the flip side a younger audience is the ideal market for a franchise born purely from the concept that robots that transform into cars and planes is totally awesome! Despite the cash juggernaut of the knuckle dragging Michael Bay live action films, the success of Bumblebee and various Transformers TV shows prove that there’s still a market for a lighter hearted fare.
‘Transformers One’ smartly nails its tone. Set before the existence of the Autobots and Decepticons fighting their endless war across the stars (well, mostly Earth), the movie stays entirely on a Cybertron suffering an ‘Energon’ crisis. This once free flowing energy slash food source now resides purely underground to be dug up by an underclass of hard worked mining bots. They’re happy enough, content with the panacea of entertainment and charismatic leadership from the charming Sentinel Prime (Jon Hamm), who scours the surface for clues on how to return the Energon to it’s free flowing state. Among the miners are best friends Orion Pax (Chris Hemsworth) and D16 (Bryan Tyree Henry). Born without a ‘transforming cog’ (like all mining bots) Pax dreams of a world where he can prove that the miners can be equal to their transforming superiors, whereas D16 grounds him with the ethics of hard work and due diligence. Any Transformers fan will know exactly who these two are set to become (and the narrative path that it will take to get there is clearly laid out early on), but such jocular and supportive friendship starts things off in an infectiously light-hearted character driven story.
The character interplay is what makes ‘Transformers One’ really stand out. It has excellent energetic set pieces and a richly drawn setting both underground and overground to explore, but all would be for nothing if we didn’t really get behind the cast. Rounded out by the officious Elita-1 (a sadly underused Scarlett Johansson) and incessantly talkative B-127 (Keegan-Michael Key), the push and pull of different reactions to big revelations mean that even as the glib jokes keep coming (and good glib jokes, at that), when things take a turn for the deadly serious in the last act the power is all the more effective for the good groundwork laid early on. Strong bonds break so much harder and nastier.
Such darker moments are a delicate balance. Director Josh Cooley tries to keep a hand in each age range sector and manages to achieve this by giving all due seriousness to the splintering of a friendship. The result is that ‘Transformers One’ delivers a genuine family hit that proves that no matter how many times you switch from one form to another, there is still plenty of fun to be had in transformation.
CONTENT: IS ‘TRANSFORMERS ONE’ SUITABLE FOR CHILDREN?
During a routine mining shift there is a sudden explosion. Collapsing rubble lands on an incidental character’s leg leaving them trapped. Their rescue blasts the rock and pulls but this results in the trapped miner’s leg being pulled off. They do not appear to experience any pain and there is no ‘injury’ detail.
Orion Pax is irritated at being berated for his actions by Darkwing. He extends his closed fist and talks about how many fingers he can show. This is around a 10 second clip that clearly (to an adult) is winding up to the flipping the bird / middle finger gesture. However, the camera cuts away at the instant he is about to extend the finger. As a result of this D-16 tries to diffuse the situation but receives a forceful punch in the face.
After the events of the exciting Iacon race, Orion Pax and D-16 are sat dejectedly in a medical bay. They are mildly perturbed by the appearance of Airachnid who is an intense and scary looking spider shaped Transformer. This is a 10 second shot with foreboding lighting and a focus on her many eyes that line up the sides of her head. When the moment breaks the mood quickly lightens.
Orion Pax and D-16 meet the eccentric and very talkative B-127 who has been abandoned to work in garbage incineration. After introducing himself, B-127 references his ‘nickname’ that he created for himself, which is the “Badass-A-Tron”. He first says this in his normal voice but then clarifies that it is pronounced differently, which is simply repeating the name but in a much deeper voice and intense expression. This joke is reused two other times during the film.
An exciting train action scene sees the characters panic as their journey becomes heavily disrupted and dangerous. When the dust settles they are unharmed but concerned that they are stranded in an unknown and potentially dangerous place.
Several times throughout the movie to this point the Transformers war with the Quintessons is referenced. Once our main characters are outside of their normal environments they discover a looming large Quintesson ship travelling above them. Scared, they duck for cover. The ship blasts a laser as various deer-like creatures that had been shown to be ordinary ‘wildlife’, presumably killing them for no reason. This scene is tense as the ship sends down a laser beam to scan for life and our characters hide away from its touch. The whole scene lasts about a minute.
Our characters approach a scary looking cave with teeth like protrusions in the entrance. No-one is particularly happy to go inside. Even though this is dealt with glibly, B-127 frequently jabbers on about how scary the cave looks.
A room is filled with dead Transformers. These characters were mentioned earlier in a scene referencing past events but otherwise we never saw them ‘alive’. One has been impaled through the chest with a large spike. This detail isn’t lingered upon, and neither is the face of the character in question. It is mentioned that one of the bodies is still functioning but powered down. They give it a little energy and it suddenly reanimates in a jump scare moment.
During a flashback sequence a battle is played out. There are a large amount of scuttling Quinessons and the battle results in the death of the characters whose bodies are in the cave. One is shown to have been stabbed in the chest and another another beheaded, although for this moment the camera quickly cuts away at the point of impact. Others are blasted with powerful and lethal lasers. No suffering or detail is shown.
One large Transformer emerges from a smoky backdrop in the form of a lion like creature. Although we know this is a ‘good’ character it lunges directly at the camera with mouth open. It tears one opponent in half but this is done very quickly as part of an action sequence.
As the villainy of one character is revealed, they interrogate a weakened ‘good’ character. This is just question and answer, but once finished the camera switches to the downed character’s point of view looking directly up and the villainous character holding a large sword. This is plunged down directly into the camera’s line of sight, clearly killing the good character (although the impact itself is not seen).
One character struggles with the truth of revelations that shake their previous views. Once captured and held in front of the jet Starscream, they burst forth from their bonds and attack him. Starscream goads them on even as he gets punched repeatedly in the face, in an almost masochistic way. The attacking character strangles Starscream whose doesn’t seem too concerned until a large weapon appears on the attacking character, which causes Starscream’s expression to change to one of fear. The ‘choking’ lasts around 5 seconds and shows the fury in the attacking character’s face. Once released Starscream’s voice is altered, but otherwise is unharmed.
The villainous character gloats over a main character captive. He removes a stuck on insignia and instead uses a laser to ‘brand’ it onto the chest of his captive. The character grits their teeth and grunts in anger and pain.
A powerful shot is fired intended to kill. Another character jumps in the way. The blast punches a large whole in the side of their chest and totally destroys an arm. The stricken character topples over the side of a cliff before being caught by the attacker. However, grief gives way to anger and the attacker lets go, letting the stricken character plummet to the depths below.
The main villain is left with no chance to escape. The character that was earlier branded by them advances slowly, ignoring the bargaining and pleas for mercy. They lift up the villain and hold them with one hand on their upper half and one on their lower. The camera switches to behind the back of the held character and is shot in close up. They are slowly pulled apart over the course of a 5 second sustained shot until the face of the character ripping them in half emerges in the gap in the middle, their face a picture of fury. There are several snapping cables and separating ‘body’ parts as this happens. This is a graphic shot that might upset younger children. It is worth noting that the film has made it clear that these are metal beings and thus their physicality is different, and although the character who suffers this death is a ‘baddie’ the character who inflicts the death is also absolutely in the wrong. The context lessens the effect, but even so this is a narrative peak moment and nothing in the film before had gotten near to this level of dark tone or ‘injury’ shown.
CAN I SEE A CLIP?
VERDICT: IS ‘TRANSFORMERS ONE’ FOR KIDS?
For the vast majority of the movie, ‘Transformers One’ retains a light-hearted and fun tone that will appeal to all ages. The last 20 minutes are very exciting but as, by design, the movie is about the breaking of a friendship and the dark path that one character choses the culmination of this could be upsetting to younger children. We would therefore recommend this movie as suitable for ages 6 and up with no problem (depending on your thoughts on the content we described), but caution to age 5 and below.
- Violence: 3/5 (some nasty ‘injuries’ although these are metal bodies. the death of the main villain is strong compared to the rest of the movie)
- Emotional Distress: 3/5 (as a previously friendly character descends into anger and spite their friendship with another falls apart and both characters deal with this with all due emotional fallout)
- Fear Factor: 2/5 (a jump scare, the scuttling Quintessons look scary but don’t actually do anything scary, and Airachnid’s spider form is presented as threatening but no-one is really scared of her)
- Sexual Content: 0/5
- Bad Language: 1/5 (several uses of ‘Badass-A-Tron’)
- Dialogue: 2/5 (some threats, one character states “I want to kill him. I want him to suffer and die.”)
- Other Notes: Deals with themes of friendship, loyalty, betrayal, oppression of the working class, unfair authority, rising to be more than your roots, and fighting back against injustice.
Words by Mike Record
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