Transformers Have Won?

People love lamenting the “stench of Marvel movies” in modern Hollywood, but I’d argue individuals like Michael Bay have done more damage. For one, he’s been directing and producing longer than The MCU’s existence, and two, while there have been many MCU entries in a short period, Bay’s movies have also been worse qualitatively. Sure, he has a more-noticeable “style”, whatever that means, but that alone can’t compensate for substance. For the most part, his movies are over-long exercises in patience and leave me confused once they’re over, and this is especially true of the Transformers franchise. After all, it takes effort to make a brand for children an edgy and needlessly-dark series for obnoxious teenagers. It’s gotten so bad that once Bumblebee came out, and the movies moved away from Bay, the damage had already been done.

I mention this as a way of saying that I wasn’t looking forward to Transformers One, which was marketed as an origin story for Optimus Prime and Megatron. It was new for the franchise, and it was animated, but the trailers practically gave away all the major plot beats. It didn’t help that prequels have a hit-or-miss track record qualitatively, made worse by people already knowing the end point. Still, it was from the director of Toy Story 4, and that wowed me in ways I never thought possible. Surely this couldn’t be too bad, and I was willing to give it the benefit of the doubt.

Fortunately, my instincts proved right. Not only is Transformers One great, it’s arguably one of the year’s best, right up there with Thelma and Inside Out 2. It appears that the change in mediums hasn’t only improved the directing, but the change in focus has also improved the franchise. It’s not as good as Bumblebee, but that’s a high bar. I’d gladly go for the runner up anyway.

The premise is as the trailers suggested: Optimus Prime, or Orion Pax, and Megatron, or D-16, were friends before they were enemies. When Orion drags D-16 into another attempt at a better life, one that lands them as outcasts, the two of them, together with unlikely allies, discover a coverup that shatters their realities. Orion, ever the optimist, feels an obligation to expose this, while D-16, the more cynical of the two, feels betrayed entirely. It’s their opposing views on the situation that pulls them apart and turns them against one-another. Incidentally, this is also the heftiest Transformers movie dramatically.

The best part of the film is, like I said, the relationship between Orion Pax and D-16. Yes, the side-characters are fun. And yes, the numerous references and callbacks are appreciated, especially since they aren’t forced. But if that dynamic hadn’t worked, then this movie would’ve fallen flat. But it doesn’t.

I appreciate how the trajectories of the leads feel natural. This is especially true of D-16’s transformation into Megatron. It’s pretty in-vogue for villains to be morally-ambiguous, having a degree of depth not previously seen, yet while many stories bungle this, this film takes its time developing the change in character. D-16’s choices feel logical in context, as opposed to rushed. And while, yes, there are liberties taken to get to the end point, they’re forgivable because this is a 90+ minute movie, not a season of television.

It helps that, beneath the darkness, this is a funny movie. There were several times where I laughed harder than most of the kids in the auditorium, much to my embarrassment. The best jokes were from B, the comic-relief character who canonically becomes voiceless. His quips are natural and amusing, and his use of “Badassatron!” as a nickname for himself is one the best recurring gags. Orion Pax and D-16 might’ve been the heart and soul, but B was The MVP. I mean that.

The movie’s also great visually. The world of Cybertron has clearly-defined geography, making the fight scenes look and feel coherent. Transformers One is also unafraid to get violent when necessary, including deaths that absolutely warrant the PG-13 rating. If anything, animation’s the best medium for Transformers in hindsight, as destroyed robots feel real and believable without being excessively-gory. This is something Bay’s Transformers movies couldn’t pull off.

I want this movie to do well at the box-office. Not only because its post-credits scene teases a sequel, but also because it’s that good. This is a funny, intense and emotionally-impacting movie, and one for pre-teens! It’s not as good as Bumblebee, like I said earlier, but that’s because Bumblebee was secretly a drama that featured Transformers. And like I said before too, this is a fantastic consolation prize.

Please watch Transformers One. I know moviegoers have been irony-poisoned by the cynicism of the Bay movies, enough to be burnt out on future entries, but this is a genuinely fantastic experience that’s also better than it had any right to be. And if you don’t believe me? Well, why not check it out yourself? That alone should be cause to see it!