"arguably the best Transformers film to date"

I grew up watching Transformers, Generation 1 and The Transformers: The Movie from 1986, have very special places in my heart, I’ve seen all the films, all the cartoons over the years etc. and I’ll be honest, when I first saw the art style for Transformers One, I wasn’t sold and the first trailer looked as though it was aimed squarely at Children, which is fine, if that’s the demographic they’re going for, who am I to judge, I was so wrong!

Transformers One from Director Josh Cooley, and written by Eric Pearson, Andrew Barrer and Gabriel Ferrari is nothing short of incredible, it is arguably the best Transformers film to date, it’s the first mainstream Transformers film to not have any human presence, and it has plenty of nods and easter eggs for the lifelong Transformers fan.

So Transformers One tells the untold origins of Optimus Prime and Megatron, who in this continuity were known as Orion Pax and D-16 respectively, cogless mining bots, mining the deep resesses of Cybertron for Energon, voiced by Chris Hemsworth and Brian Tyree Henry respectively.

What I liked about their voices for Optimus and Megatron is that they aren’t doing a caricature or parody of Peter Cullen and Frank Welker, instead they make these versions of the characters their own. Rounding out the cast is Scarlett Johansson as Elita -1, Keegan-Michael Key as B-127 aka Badassatron, Laurence Fishburne as Alpha Trion, Jon Hamm as Sentinel Prime. And in my opinion, Steve Buscemi as Starscream, is inspired casting, channeling Generation 1 whilst making Starscream his own. As always, Key brings the humour as the bot who will become the beloved Bumblebee, whist Johansson and Fishburne are wonderful as the strong and wise commanders.

Transformers One fulfils the promise of the opening of Bumblebee from 2018, by showing us a film that has the Transformers front and centre, showing their exploits on Cybertron, a film that has a clear message that anyone can make a difference.

There are some familiar beats with a liar revealed story, but that doesn’t detract from the enjoyment had with Transformers One, at a brisk 104 minutes, Transformers One is a triumph and it has been left open to a sequel, and I for one would like to see this story, this art style continue.