Movie Review - TRANSFORMERS ONE

[GoktimusPrime]

Today is the day when the movie discussion embargo ends, so now we can talk about the movie.
Needless to say that this thread will contain SPOILERS - so you have been warned.

PART ONE: Non-Spoiler Thoughts

PROS:
+ Very well-written story with a clear beginning, complication, resolution and conclusion.
+ The story is driven by character development, specifically that of Orion Pax and D-16.
+ The story is 100% about the Transformers; there are zero scenes for humans.
+ Movie is chock full of fan-references and Easter Eggs.
+ Soundtrack is brilliant; love the score.

CONS:
- There is one piece of exposition which doesn't canonically make sense (details in spoiler thoughts below)
- As with any prequel, and especially as an origin story. the end result of the story is predictable. Still a great movie though; it's like how the end result of Star Wars Rogue One is predictable, but that's my favourite Disney Star Wars movie.
- Having only Cybertronian alt modes = no robots in disguise
- Not a fan of the swearing joke (details below)

OVERALL:
Best. Transformers. Movie. Ever. Go see it already!

[GoktimusPrime]

SPOILER Review Part 1
(this board won't let me post this as one, so I'm breaking it up)

N.B.: I watched this movie 2 months ago and have yet to have a second viewing - apologies if I've misremembered anything.

The story

"Built as brothers, forged into enemies" is the tagline for this film, which accurately sums up its premise. We see Orion Pax and D-16 as the best of friends and the bond between them is quite sweet and innocent. The story begins with Cybertronians living under apartheid in underground Iacon. It's been some 50 years since the Quintesson War, which most Cybertronians weren't around for. The Primes sacrificed themselves to end the war, but in doing so the Matrix was lost, resulting in Cybertron's natural Energon reserves to stop flowing and an inhospitable surface not fit for habitation. Sentinel Prime is the sole surviving Prime, who leads dangerous expeditionary quests to find the Matrix in order to restore Cybetron. In the meantime, Cybertron's underclass who have no transformation cogs and are physically smaller the Transformers, perform dangerous work in mining for Energon. D-16 is a big fan of the Primes, his favourite being Megatronus Prime. He is also a fan of Sentinel Prime and happily works to suppport the cause. Orion Pax is more skeptical and sneaks into data archives; he's nearly caught by security, but D-16 covers for him. Orion Pax found a Megatronus Prime insignia sticker (Decepticon logo), which he gifts to D-16 because he knows how much it means to his best mate. Orion Pax and D-16 also serve under the command of their mining operations captain, Elita-1.

The miners obviously hate being treated as second class citizens. D-16 bears it as he believes this is only a temporary situation; so long as they continue to work hard to support Sentinel Prime, he will eventually find the Matrix and restore Cybertron, allowing all Cybertronians to be free and equals. Orion Pax isn't so sure. Pax also wants to prove to the general population that the miner class are also just as good as the Transformers. He sneaks both himself and D-16 into the Iacon 5000 race. No non-transforming Cybertronian has ever won this race, but Orion believes that if he and D-16 can win this race, then everyone will see their worth. He brings rocket packs. Orion Pax nearly wins the race, but he stops to retrieve a fallen D-16, as he refuses to leave his friend behind, which results in them coming last. They are arrested and detained by security forces before being greeted by Sentinel Prime. D-16 is starstruck at meeting Sentinel who reassures them about the important role that they play. He leads them to believe that things will get better for them, but instead, they are both demoted to waste management, where they meet a very lonely and eccentric 'bot named B-127. And Steve the foreigner. They discover a distress signal from Alpha Trion, which they believe may be where the Matrix could be found. D-16 wants to give this information to Sentinel Prime, but Orion Pax convinces him that if they were to find the Matrix and deliver it to Sentinel, then everyone would finally see that cogless miners are worthy.

Orion Pax, D-16 and B-127 sneak aboard a train bound for the surface to dispose of waste. They are discovered by Captain Elita-1 who tries to report them, but she ends up being stranded with them on the surface. There, they discover a Quintesson cruiser. They don't understand why Quintessons are on Cybertron so long after the Quintesson War had ended. They see Sentinel Prime arrives with his forces and assume that he's going to attack the Quints, but instead, Sentinel Prime kneels in front of the Quintesson High Commander. The train delivering waste turns out to be delivering the Energon that the miners had worked so hard and risked their lives to obtain. It is at this stage that our protagonists realise that they were never mining Energon for Cybertronians, they were feeding the Quintessons. This angers D-16, who had placed so much faith in Sentinel Prime and his cause.

They discover a cave with the fallen remains of the Primes. They discover Alpha Trion who has been depleted of Energon but his Spark had not yet been extinguished. B-127 donates an Energon cube which is used to reactivate Alpha Trion who then goes on an exposition dump, explaining that Sentinel Prime had betrayed the Primes by secretly allying himself with the Quintessons. He led the Primes into this cave which was a trap. They were ambushed by Quintessons and then Sentinel Prime suddenly began attacking and killing his fellow Primes. Sentinel Prime attempted the seize the Matrix for himself, but as he was unworthy, the Matrix disappeared. Trion explains that Sentinel Prime then lied to the Cybertronians and has been governing Iacon while in secret, working for the Quintessons. Trion also points out that Sentinel Prime has removed the transformation cogs of the miners. He gives them transformation cogs from the fallen Primes, allowing their bodies to finally develop beyond their juvenile cogless forms into much larger bodies with vehicle mode kibble. They were then suddenly attacked by Sentinel Prime's forces. Alpha Trion tells them to go back to Iacon with a data disk that proves that Sentinel Prime is a traitor - to go back to Iacon and expose the truth. Alpha Trion makes a last stand to buy them time before being killed by Sentinel Prime.

During their escape, the data disk is destroyed, meaning that they no longer have any evidence to prove Sentinel Prime's guilt; but the mission continues to at least spread the word about the truth. However, they are captured by another faction of Cybertronians who turn out to be the former Cybertronian high guard. These were the surviving soldiers of the Primes who served valiantly in the Quintesson War. But they too were betrayed by Sentinel Prime and have been waging a guerilla resistance against Sentinel Prime and the Quintessons ever since. These guards are led by Starscream, but D-16 usurps leadership from him. They are attacked by Sentinel Prime's forces, who capture D-16, B-127, Starscream and a number of other guards, leaving the rest of the guard (including Shockwave and Soundwave) behind with Orion Pax and Elita-1. So their mission is now to both spread the truth and rescue their captured comrades. Orion Pax assumes that Elita-1 would take charge as she outranks him, but Elita-1 explains that while she is superior to Orion Pax in everything, Pax has an inextinguishable sense of optimism which she lacks, and would better serve them as leader in these dark times. Orion Pax can give him to those who have none.

The captives are forced to kneel in front of Sentinel Prime and unconditionally surrender, however, D-16 refuses to comply. Sentinel Prime beats him up, but D-16 still refuses to kneel. Sentinel then rips off Megatronus Prime's sticker and then mocking carves the symbol of Megatronus into D-16's chest (which is agonising). Humiliating and torturing him, Sentinel Prime thus inadvertently teaches D-16 the value of applied violence. Elita-1 and the remaining guards allow Orion Pax to sneak back into the mines of Iacon where he gathers the miners around and tells them the truth, inspiring them to rise up against Sentinel Prime and his forces. The miners then revolt, and Elita-1 leads the guards in an assault, thus forcing Sentinel's forces to fight on two fronts.

Elita-1 captures Airachnid who sees and hears all. She then connects Airachnid's mind to a terminal and plays back memories of Sentinel Prime working with the Quintessons, proving to everyone that he's actually a traitor. D-16 breaks free and begins beating up Sentinel Prime. Orion Pax arrives and tells D-16 that their plan worked; Sentinel Prime has been defeated - he will never rule Iacon again. The need for fighting and violence was now over. D-16 on the other hand believes that Sentinel Prime must pay for what he's done in betraying his own world and people, he points out that many of their miner friends have needlessly suffered and perished because of Sentinel Prime, and then proceeds to kill him. Orion Pax attempts to save Sentinel Prime by taking the blast from D-16's fusion cannon, which fatally wounds him and knocks him off a ledge. Pax begs for D-16 to save him, but D-16 says that he's sick of saving Orion and justice must be served... while he doesn't actively kill Orion Pax, he refuses to save him, allowing Pax to fall into an abyss. D-16 then kills Sentinel Prime and upgrades himself and renames himself Megatron.

Meanwhile, Orion Pax falls into the centre of Cybertron where the Matrix materialises before him. Pax is told that he is worthy of being the next Matrix bearer, and he is restored and given a new name; Optimus Prime. Optimus Prime then returns to the surface with all of the discarded transformation cogs, returning them to the miners and allowing them all to become the Transformers that they were meant to be. Optimus Prime battles Megatron and defeats him. He allows Megatron to take the high guard and banishes them all from Cybertron. He declares that he and the other free Iaconians are henceforth, "Autobots." Megatron calls upon the high guard to rise up to safeguard Cybertron from deception, thus calling themselves "Decepticons."

[GoktimusPrime]

Spoiler Review, Part 2

PROS:
+ The story is driven by Orion Pax and D-16's character arcs; as the best of friends to becoming bitter enemies.
+ The movie works well in appealing to both kids and adult audience members. There's lots of humour and fun action for the kids, but the core story is quite sophisticated, with several plot points drawing clear inspiration from the IDW comics and Aligned Continuity Family.
+ The cast all did a great job, but Brian Tyree Henry's portrayal of D-16/Megatron stood out to me.
+ Loooove the loads of fan references and Easter Egg, especially Soundwave's mind-reading abilities; which is something mentioned in Soundwave's original G1 bio written by Bob Budiansky and was sometimes seen in the Marvel Comics and one episode of the Sunbow cartoon ("Roll For It").
+ The story sets up Megatron as a relatable villain. Even at the end, Megatron and Optimus Prime don't actually hate each other. While their friendship is clearly gone and they don't have any love left for each other, it's not really personal. It's just that they've ended up on polar opposite ends of what is ultimately the same cause; the liberation of Cybertron. Both see themselves as the legitimate defenders of Cybertron, which is actually how civil wars work in real life. Sentinel Prime was a war criminal, and it's not beyond reason for people who commit war crimes and crimes against humanity to be executed.

[GoktimusPrime]

Spoiler Review, Part 3
(seriously, this board is forcing me to chunk my review into separate posts)

CONS:
- Okay, there is just one part of the story that doesn't make sense. Alpha Trion explaining what Sentinel Prime did after betraying the Primes. e.g. becoming ruler of Cybetron with the lies about the Energon, as well as removing the transformation cogs from the miners. How does Alpha Trion know any of this? He cannot know it, because he was already offlined and presumed dead when Sentinel Prime and the Quintessons left that cave. Alpha Trion should have a massive memory gap; one minute he's fighting off Sentinel Prime and the Quints, and the next second he sees three tiny cogless 'bots standing in front of him. In fact, whe Alpha Trion is re-energised, he immediately attacks because he was in mid-battle! From his POV, no time has passed. It would've made more sense for Trion to point out to Orion Pax & co. that they're all missing transformation cogs - that all Cybertronians are born able to transform, and that somebody appearas to have deliberately removed their cogs. Then they could later discover why (e.g. Sentinel Prime might brag about it to D-16 during the torture).
- The "bad (swear word) tron" joke that B-127 makes. Firstly, I don't think it's that funny. Secondly, even if it were, he makes this joke five times. Yes, I counted. Spike only drops the S-bomb once in The Transformers The Movie, and even Joshua Joyce only says the F-word once in Age of Extinction. I thought this joke overstayed its welcome. Please make it stop.

OVERALL:
The cons that I've mentioned are pretty small nitpicks. This movie gets way more right than it gets wrong. The advantage of being a Cybertronian origin story means that it's all about the Transformers. There is no story about humans that we see in the other Paramount TF movies. I consider Transformers One to be the best Transformers movie made thus far and cannot recommend it highly enough.

IS IT CANON?
Officially this movie is in the same continuity as Bayformers and is a prequel that takes place 3M years ago. One problem with this idea is that Sentinel Prime is killed by Megatron, which conflicts with the events of Dark of the Moon. But then again, Dark of the Moon conflicts with Revenge of the Fallen... let's face it, "continuity" is a loose term when it comes to Bayformers. At least Michael Bay has said that Bumblebee and Rise of the Beast are on a parallel timeline, meaning that they are in different universes in the same continuity's multiverse. Perhaps Transformers One is like this too.

[GoktimusPrime]

EVENT PHOTOS

25/7 Advanced Screening, Sydney Entertainment Quarter

Studio Series TF One Optimus Prime


Queue selfie


Cardboard and electronic posters


Video clips on big overhead screen


Posing in front of standee


Clean shot of standee


Posing in front of big wallpaper

Note that the standee and wallpaper shows these characters after they've received their transformation cogs; specifically Optimus Prime and Megatron, not Orion Pax and D-16

Statues

Note that these statues are of the characters in their dimunitive cogless forms. So these are Orion Pax and D-16, not Optimus Prime and Megatron.

11/9 Media event, Sydney IMAX Darling Harbour

Lorenzo di Bonaventura (producer)


Brian Tyree Henry (D-16/Megatron)


Christopher Hemsworth (Orion Pax/Optimus Prime)


Hemsworth, Tyree Henry, Joshua Cooley (director) and others


Chris Hemsworth's signature on my Studio Series TF One Optimus Prime toy. I've bought a second one since as a play copy as the signed one is now just going to be a display piece.

[Lint]

It's a solidly good film. While there are no spectacularly jaw dropping moments or iconic scenes there are also no real low points which I appreciate greatly and is in contrast to the live action films.

Things that I will note.

• Shockwave stans may be a bit offended by his portrayal in this
• I think they've finally nailed the amount of Bumblebee that is to appear in a film.
• Not a fan of Buscemi Starscream. Weakest voice in the entire cast.
• This is basically Megatron: The Movie and I like it
• Can someone tell me who actually won the Iacon 5000? I didn't immediately recognise the winner and if there was a name I may have missed the detail

Firstly, I don't think it's that funny. Secondly, even if it were, he makes this joke five times... ...I thought this joke overstayed its welcome. Please make it stop.

Yes it's not that funny but this is a kids movie and kids love crude humour. Badass is not a curse word and exclusively used to compliment or praise. Though I don't envy you potentially having to hear it being screamed across the schoolyard after this school holidays

[GoktimusPrime]

Yes it's not that funny but this is a kids movie and kids love crude humour.

This is true. From all reports, kids laughed their <expletives> off at this joke. Not sure if it had to be said five times though, but then again, kids do love to have stuff repeated ad nauseum. Skibidi Sigma!

Bad<expletive> is not a curse word and exclusively used to compliment or praise. Though I don't envy you potentially having to hear it being screamed across the schoolyard after this school holidays

Not all swear words necessarily have a negative context. "Effing A" is exclusively used as an expression of triumphant joy, and yet is still considered swearing.

[GoktimusPrime]

Just watched this movie for the second time, and it was better than I remembered!

And now I need to correct myself on some things...

CONS:
- Okay, there is just one part of the story that doesn't make sense. Alpha Trion explaining what Sentinel Prime did after betraying the Primes. e.g. becoming ruler of Cybetron with the lies about the Energon, as well as removing the transformation cogs from the miners. How does Alpha Trion know any of this? He cannot know it, because he was already offlined and presumed dead when Sentinel Prime and the Quintessons left that cave. Alpha Trion should have a massive memory gap; one minute he's fighting off Sentinel Prime and the Quints, and the next second he sees three tiny cogless 'bots standing in front of him. In fact, whe Alpha Trion is re-energised, he immediately attacks because he was in mid-battle! From his POV, no time has passed. It would've made more sense for Trion to point out to Orion Pax & co. that they're all missing transformation cogs - that all Cybertronians are born able to transform, and that somebody appearas to have deliberately removed their cogs. Then they could later discover why (e.g. Sentinel Prime might brag about it to D-16 during the torture).

Correction: Alpha Trion did not initially know all that stuff. He deduces that the Quintessons have become the rulers of Cybertron when a Quintesson ship flies overhead. He also only learns that Sentinel Prime is assisting the Quintessons in plundering Energon after Orion Pax & Co. return to the cave and tell him about what they'd witnessed. Alpha Trion does indeed look at their chests and points out that their transformation cogs have been removed. But he still tells them that it was Sentinel Prime who removed the cogs, despite none of these characters having a shred of evidence. This is the one thing that Alpha Trion would have no knowledge of. Everything else is fine. So this continuity error is not as bad as I thought.

- The "bad (swear word) tron" joke that B-127 makes. Firstly, I don't think it's that funny. Secondly, even if it were, he makes this joke five times. Yes, I counted. Spike only drops the S-bomb once in The Transformers The Movie, and even Joshua Joyce only says the F-word once in Age of Extinction. I thought this joke overstayed its welcome. Please make it stop.

<sigh> Six times. Although my daughter said that she thought that Bumblebee was hilarious. So yeah, kids like dumb jokes. To be fair, when I saw The Transformers The Movie in cinemas, the whole audience burst into laughter (myself included) when Slag said, "Excuse me."

But overall she was surprised at just how dark this movie is and considers it a tragedy.