A Review of Transformers One - If He Did That To Me, I'd Hate Megatron Too
Oooh such fancy transies.
Transformers One, Hollywood's greatest attempt to make a Transformers movie that would rival the original Transformers the Movie (1986). If you're from my generation and saw that first film back in 1986, you would understand how difficult of a task that might be.
Transformers the Movie took place in the future from where the original series was set. Spike grew up and got a body suit that let him fight alongside his Transformer friends. His son Daniel was kicking it with Hot Rod and tearing up the scene on his sweet hoverboard. The Transformers had become superheroes on Earth as new Autobots took the fight to new Decepticons. Through it all, Optimus Prime and Megatron were still fighting like they always did... for the first 20 minutes.
That is when Megatron is mortally wounded but manages to finally kill Optimus Prime.
For us tiny tots, nothing had ever been more tear-jerking. This main character of a show we loved died. He was gone. One of the best parts of Transformers the Movie (1986) is that Optimus Prime stayed gone and left newer characters like Hot Rod, Arcee, Springer, and Kup to finish the mission of stopping a world-eating threat without him.
Megatron was jettisoned from his escape ship by Star Scream who finally took over as the leader of the Decepticons. Unfortunately for Mr. Scream, the great planet eater Unicron "transformed" Megatron into Galvatron and Galvatron blew Star Scream into star ash. Unicron also set Galvatron on the path of destroying The Matrix of Leadership that had been given to the remaining Autobots after Optimus Prime’s passing. At that moment the Transformer’s future looked so cold.
Wow... That's extremely sad.
Yes, it was. We were all devastated in that moment. As kids, we all knew that Megatron was evil. His whole job was ordering his crew around and threatening Star Scream to see what would happen if he tried to take his power. Megatron was the “Deebo from Friday” of the Transformers Universe. Star Scream would talk hot mess until Megatron showed up again. Nobody messed with Megatron or they'd get a load of the massive cannon on his arm.
What we never found out from the Transformers television show or Transformers the Movie was why was Megatron like that. What happened in the past to turn this bot into such a bastard? Megatron and Optimus fought like Itchy and Scratchy for a million years, but why? What made that Mega that mad? Transformers One seeks to answer this question.
How is it going to do that?
Dare to "look" stupid is not a song by Weird Al Yankovic but a thing that's happening in this picture.
Transformers One takes us back to the beginning. When and how Optimus Prime and Megatron met long ago. Back then their names were Orion Pax (Chris Hemsworth) and D-16 (Bryan Tyree Henry). They were energon miners on Cybertron. Energon is food for Transformers so they always need it, but after a war with the Quintessons 50 cycles ago, their unlimited energon source, The Matrix of Leadership, disappeared and stopped their supply. Now someone had to work to get more. To make that possible, their leader, Sentinel Prime (Jon Hamm) uses a lower class of bots without the transformation ability to go down into the dark places and take on the dangerous job of pulling energon out of Cybertron.
Orion Pax and D-16 are in that class and mine energon all day. It's been 50 Cycles since the Great War, so Orion Pax and D-16 could have been there the entire time. More than that, they're mistreated by the upper echelon of those who can transform which includes many punches in the face.
Pax is a little too distracted to be a great miner though. He's always sneaking into the "archive room" for data on the Matrix of Leadership and putting his partner D-16 in situations of saving Orion from bigger, badder Transformers that want to kill him. Still Orion Pax and D-16 they've become the best of friends and always manage to have each other's backs when things go bad. This becomes a real problem for D-16 when Pax forces him to take on the IACON 5000 a.k.a. the Indianapolis Grand Prix F-Zero Championship for Transformers.
Yet, neither of them has the power to be more than meets the eye.
Due to jet packs and amazing amount of guts and trickery, the two miners get very close to winning the Iacon 5000! It is epic... until the end of the race when they get crashed into by the real winner while Orion Pax was carrying an injured D-16. Just before they get up to finish that last leg of the race, everyone else passes them and they lose.
Despite going along with Pax's scheme and being the first miners to almost win this historic race, D-16 is upset at their situation. He wishes he stayed on protocol, shut up, and kept mining. That's when we see the hero of Cybertron and the most worshiped Transformer for the last 50 cycles, Sentinel Prime (Jon Hamm) who... praises them for their efforts! They feel very special just before Darkwing (Isaac C. Singleton Jr.) dumps them down 10 levels below the levels everyone knows about. They thought there were 40, but there are actually 50. They are stationed below the trash collectors and in the furnace room where they meet B-127 a.k.a Bee a.k.a BADASSITRON (Keegan Michael Key) and his room of robot pieces that look like real robots. He's nice, but a little nutty.
Down in the depths, Orion Pax and B-16 have their first bit of luck and find an old message from the Great War asking for help and giving off a location. Orion Pax wants to go to the surface of Cybertron and try to find The Matrix of Leadership, but D-16 is a negative nelly about it. Bee has been watching the furnace burn things for so long that he is just happy to have friends to do anything with. With that, they pump themselves up the trash chute, make their way onto the trash train, accidentally trap an angryElita-1 (Scarlet Johansson), and make their way to the surface.
Wow... I'd be angry if that was me. What sets off Megatron?
What did they do to make that Mega so mad.
For these transformers, the surface of Cybertron might as well be a myth. This is the first time any of them have ever been. The surface world is unique and beautiful as well as dangerous and unforgiving. Once the train crashes, this foursome has no choice but to keep going. They need to see if this beacon will help them find the Matrix, but when they get to the section of the distress call, they find something much much worse. They find the areas where all of the Prime Transformers died. The Primes were the battle-hardened protectors of Cybertron. One of them still has some spark remaining so with a small piece of energon, they bring Alpha Trion (Laurence Fishburne) back to life and he shows them the real story.
These new, bots without the ability to transform find out life-shattering things about their world and the person running it:
Sentinel Prime was an intern of the Primes who betrayed and killed them along with the Quintessons for power and "the ability to live like a king."
All Cybertronians are meant to be born with the ability of transformation.
Sentinel Prime stole that ability from all of them before they came online.
Alpha Trion, an actual Prime showed them this with his awesome smoke powers. Then, from their cave, they see Sentinel Prime and Airachnid (Vanessa Liguori) bow to the Quintessons and hand over all the energon that been mined by bots like them. The Quintessons aren't even happy with the take, put Sentinel in a tentacale choke hold, and threaten to kill him on the spot if doesn't get them more energon. So he yells back to the crew to triple the mining shifts and get more for his Quintesson masters.
That is what sets D-16 off. That is what makes him want to kill Sentinel Prime. That is what turns D-16 into Megatron before he even gets the name. Rage from having his power stolen while he was in the crib. Rage from his life being nothing but mining day after day with no way out. Rage at being struck by the imperial hand that set his entire life up to be worth nothing. What would you do if you were in that situation?
At this point, I'm surprised Orion Pax wanted to "do the right thing," and NOT kill Sentinel Prime. Pre-Megatron says he will never be a being without power again, and as soon as Alpha Trion gives him the ability to transform, all Pre-Megatron can focus on is revenge. So while the rest of his buddies want to go out there and save their planet, all Pre-Megatron wants is his hands around Sentinel Prime's robo throat.
I'm not saying he should have done it... but I understand.
Should I Go See Transformers One?
Absolutely!
Unless you hate kids and all movies made for kids. I got the most interesting comment last night when a friend who had seen Transformers One called me and asked, "Was this movie made for kids." I responded to this question, "Yes... Of course it is."
Transformers One has robots fighting robots violence that is easier to enjoy for people who don't like human-on-human violence because all the blood is sparks. That's why Transformers as a property is kid stuff. Many adults are too "mature" to enjoy animated movies despite how good they might be. I've certainly been that person over the years. I still haven't seen Frozen or Moana yet. Though I thought Lilo and Stitch was chef's kiss good.
I don't know if this Steven Spielberg & Michael Bay-produced movie will teach kids about the costs of injustice, but all the ones watching alongside me at the Drafthouse last night seemed to be engaged. This movie is funny, violent, and has a few adult situations with fingers in particular. I think it's really good all-ages fun. Due to the injustice portrayed in this film, this might be a must-watch.
While it seems that the good guys "win in the end," I don't think they do. We go from one Great War to 50 cycles of injustice to another Great War between the Autobots and Decepticons. The wars do not stop, just like real life.
How does Transformers One hold up against Transformers the Movie?
For guys like me, who got to watch the death of Optimus Prime in 1986, seeing the birth of Optimus Prime in 2024 is a real treat. Looking back at my experience with Transformers One I hope kids today get a similar feeling to the one I had in the long long ago. It's been 36 years since there has been a Transformers movie that opened in theaters. While the music was much better in the Transformers the Movie due to the string of rock songs and triumphant moments in which they were used, it's tough for someone like me to think of this as better than the original. Still, Transformers One carries the torch very well.
I'm excited to see the touch of the Transformers in the future.
