Transformers One movie review: refreshing origin stories of Optimus Prime and Megatron

(From left) D-16 (voiced by Brian Tyree Henry), B-127 (Keegan-Michael Key), Elita-1 (Scarlett Johansson) and Orion Pax (Chris Hemsworth) in a still from Transformers One.

3/5 stars

The origins of Optimus Prime and Megatron are laid out in Transformers One, a new animated prequel adventure from Josh Cooley, the director of Toy Story 4.

Chris Hemsworth, Brian Tyree Henry, Scarlett Johansson and Jon Hamm headline an all-star voice cast in a film that reinvigorates a franchise that had languished for too long under the questionable stewardship of Michael Bay.

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While Bay and Steven Spielberg remain listed as producers, Transformers One could not be further removed from the chaotic live-action spectacles that fetishised fast cars and scantily clad babes over the adventures of feuding alien robots.

Transformers One relocates the action to their home planet of Cybertron, to explore how a pair of best friends became sworn enemies and why the fate of their homeland was thrown into existential peril.

Long before Optimus Prime fled to Earth, assumed the appearance of a Freightliner articulated truck and befriended a young boy named Sam Witwicky, he was a simple, non-transforming miner known as Orion Pax (Hemsworth).

Together with his best friend D-16 (Henry), he spends his days on Cybertron mining precious minerals and idolising the heroic Transformers - high-status citizens with the ability to change into fast-moving vehicles.

After illegally taking part in a high-stakes race for Transformers, Orion and D-16 are reassigned to waste disposal, where they make a shocking discovery that puts their existence into question.

Teaming up with Elita (Johansson) and the motor-mouthed B-127 (Keegan-Michael Key), they set out to uncover the truth - about themselves, their benevolent leader Sentinel Prime (Hamm), and Cybertron itself.

Despite the relative upswing in the quality of recent films in the franchise such as 2018's Bumblebee, returning to its more modest animated roots does the Transformers brand a number of favours. Primarily, it frees the series from the burden of human characters, about whom fans of Autobots and Decepticons alike could not care less.

Consequently, the robot characters are now given more personality and agency. B-127 in particular - who will later become Bumblebee - proves to be a frequently hilarious crowd favourite.

The first chapter in a planned trilogy of animated prequels, Transformers One brims with energy, colour, humour and a surprising amount of metal-on-metal violence, and is at a scale that feels better suited to a show originally conceived as an elaborate toy commercial.

While never more than meets the eye, Transformers One is fresh and funny enough to win over a new generation of fans while simultaneously rewarding those who have been on board for decades.

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