'Transformers': Won!
The franchise reboots with a new animated origin film
"Transformers: One" is a successful attempt at rebooting the franchise.
This origin story takes place on Cybertron, the home planet of the Transformers. It follows Orion Pax (known to fans as Optimus Prime), D-16 (also known as Megatron) and miners as they mine for crucial power sources in order to keep Cybertron alive.
Due to an unfortunate accident, Orion and D-16 find themselves lost on the surface of Cybertron and come across an artifact that grants them powers never seen by a living transformer. Together they work against the clock to save Cybertron and protect their home from unforeseen forces of evil.
This movie really surprised me with its mature tone and and cutthroat action. This movie is for both kids and adults alike -- especially Transformer fans!
There are so many cleaver bits of dialogue and little touches in the background that's sure to make any transformer fan happy. They even reference Go-Bots, believe it or not! (If you know, you know.)
Chris Hemsworth, besides some small controversy, did a fantastic job voicing a young Optimus Prime. He masters the growling-but-pleasant voice Peter Cullen is famous for, while putting his own spin on it.
Brian Tyree Henry is also fantastic as Megatron. He really embodies the chaotic anger Megatron is known for; and I really enjoyed both their performances.
Scarlett Johansson was good as Alita-1. She's mostly a side character to help Optimus realize who he was meant to be, but doesn't do much else besides be a badass.
Keegan-Micheal-Key plays Bumblebee and ends up being the comedy relief of the movie. His voice acting is fine, but doesn't scream Bumblebee to me.
Some negatives I have about the film was that some of the action mimics "shakey cam," a style Micheal Bay is notorious for. It occurs when the camera is super focused on one specific thing happening in the action, but not focused on it at the same time.
That style of camera work can be disorienting, and sure made me feel dizzy at some points.
I also needed to adjust to the animation style. It's not the worst, but at some points in the movie, the characters look off-model.
That being said, this is a great -- perhaps even the best -- "Transformers" movie to be released. Admittedly, this is a very vague review because it's very easy to spoil the movie when talking about the film, so suffice it to say it's best go just go check it out.
I'd give "Transformers: One" an 8.5/10!
Carter Salley is Central Michigan Life's resident film reviewer and co-host of the popculture podcast "Raving Geeks." He is majoring in media arts.
