‘Transformers One’ Review: Josh Cooley’s Funny, Cool Cybertron Prequel Finds Chris Hemsworth in his Optimistic Prime

With endless franchises and origin stories, it is rare to encounter a film that brings a fresh perspective to both. Transformers One, the new animated film from Josh Cooley (an Oscar winner for Toy Story 4 and a nominated writer for Inside Out), is one rare and surprising gift, particularly to fans who have been there since the beginning.

Long before the Autobots and Decepticons brought their war to our world, two miners were best friends dreaming of a better life in the underground city of Iacon, far below the surface of their planet Cybertron. 

Orion Pax (Chris Hemsworth) is plucky, endlessly optimistic, and thirsty for knowledge. We first meet him in an attempted heist, but his target is not money or goods, it’sit is history. D-16 (Brian Tyree Henry) is valiant, though his pragmatism limits his willingness to do anything that could get him in trouble. Which, for D-16, makes a friendship with Orion Pax complicated. A mining accident early on leaves them both punished when Orion disobeys orders to save a teammate and we can see from the beginning that the foundation of this apparent brotherhood is already cracked and fragile.

Through well-crafted exposition, we learn the leader of Iacon City, Sentinel Prime (Jon Hamm) has been sending teams of Transformers to the surface in an attempt to locate the missing Matrix of Leadership, lost during a long ago war. If found, the Matrix would enable them to restore life to their dying planet and return to the surface. 

After another failed expedition, Sentinel Prime knows what to do to raise morale: the Iacon 5000, an anything-goes, 500-mile race for prizes and fame. The biggest and strongest Transformers line up to compete for their chance at glory. Watching from high above, D-16 is excited about their great vantage point until Orion surprises him with a jetpack and they crash the party, two tiny underdogs against hundreds of giants. Miners, after all, were not born with the cog that allows them to transform and these two are no match for their outsized competition. 

Because of its Cybertron setting, Transformers One gets to do something other franchise entries have never really done before: explore their home world. Cooley brings his Pixar experience to Paramount to explore a world that feels lived in and full of history. Every frame of Iacon City and later the surface of Cybertron is impeccably designed. As recent “live-action” Transformers films have been increasingly dependent on CGI, not one has looked so vibrant or lively.

The numerous action sequences are also exquisitely crafted as we journey with Orion Pax and D-16 deeper into the planet and eventually all the way to the surface where they go in search of the lost Matrix of Leadership. But they don’t go alone and are joined by their supervisor Elita-1 (Scarlett Johansson) and new friend B-127 (Keegan-Michael Key) – whose friends call him Bee. At least, they would if he had any friends. In the course of their mission they meet new allies and enemies and learn new truths about their world and about themselves. As they go, the precarious friendship between Pax and D starts to erode in noticeable and understandable ways.

The major challenge of a film like this one is how to tell a believable story about two sworn enemies who used to be as close as brothers. How do you write the origin of a villain as dastardly as Megatron in a way that audiences can like him, but also not feel conflicted when he becomes the bad guy? Writers Andrew Barrer, Gabriel Ferrari, and Eric Pearson succeed in finding the emotional core of the story while infusing a surprising amount of comedy and fun. We get enough of the political background and history to understand the implications of what is really happening, but in a way that is entertaining for a broad audience of all ages. And this movie is very funny. With jokes about GoBots, Key & Peele memes, and so much more, there will be plenty of clever bits to catch on repeat viewings. 

The voice cast, which also includes Steve Buscemi and Laurence Fishburne, is surprisingly good, given that studios prioritize celebrity stunt-casting over trained vocal performance. Hemsworth in particular has the impossible task of stepping into a role that has only ever been voiced by Peter Cullen. The much younger, pre-Optimus Prime eternal optimist is not bogged down by the weight of billions of years of fighting, and so it makes sense for Cullen to step aside. Hemsworth isn’t perfect, but to his credit he doffs his Australian accent and finds a voice for Orion Pax that does sound like it could eventually age into a wise and battle-weary leader. 

Despite continuing to make a lot of money, the Transformers movies have been on a steady decline in quality for years. Josh Cooley and team revitalize the franchise in the medium it was always meant to be: animation. Transformers One channels the joy that first brought audiences to this universe back in the 1980s and proves there are still good stories left to tell. 

Grade: A

Paramount Pictures will release Transformers One only in theaters on September 20, 2024.