Movie Thoughts: Transformers One (2024)

• Released: August 30, 2024
  
• Directed by: Josh Cooley
• Running time: 1h 44min
• Rating 3.5/5

Synopsis

Four miner bots travel to the surface of their planet in hopes of saving their world. Here, they discover a terrible secret about their leader, Sentinel.

My Thoughts

Okay, so, originally I wasn't gonna see this movie. I saw the trailer and thought it looked, well, kinda stupid? The fact that robot xenofiction is something I usually I just cannot get into aside, the trailer had a lot of bad and cringe-worthy jokes in it that didn't sell me on the movie at all.

But then I saw several reviews of this movie and some were honestly quite favorable. So when I had some time off I decided what the heck, sure, why not? Let's give it a chance at least.

And honestly, I'm glad I did. No, it's not a perfect movie, but it's still quite solid. It has some good characters and character development, a plot that keeps the viewer invested and some really neat animation and action scenes.

The highlight of the movie really is the characters of Orion Pax and D-16, our two leads who end up growing apart over the course of the movie. Their bond feels really solid and realistic and seeing them eventually become enemies just really hurt, especially since they were so close early on in the movie.

As for B-127 and Elita-1, honestly I gotta admit I couldn't really get into these characters. B was a rather obnoxious comic relief whose jokes oftentimes didn't land or took away from the tone of some scenes, and Elita, while not a terribly written character, just feels like she's kinda "there" to just be another member of the gang, but she doesn't feel like she serves any big purpose until the climax of the movie. I'd have liked of these two characters to be integrated into the story a little better. They're not terrible (even B and his jokes could've worked with more competent writing), but they could've been used a whole lot more effectively.

The highlight for the movie really was the visual spectacle for me, though. The animation is very good and the visuals are some really nice eye candy. Particularly the action scenes can be really, really nice-looking and intense. 

The story also has plenty of twists and turns that kept me engaged. I was expecting it to be rather boring or uninteresting initially but nope, it was a genuinely engaging story which was completed by our two great leads in Orion and D.

So yeah, not much more to say. It's not a perfect film but I am glad I saw it. Doesn't mean I'll be exploring other Transformers media now or anything, but for what it is this is a solid flick. Give it a watch if it looks interesting to you, and please do not base your initial judgement on the trailer like I did at first.