Producers: Mark Fasano, James Henrie, John Blanford and Dan McDonough   Director: David Henrie   Screenplay: Cornelius Uliano and Bryan Schulz   Cast: Mason Thames, Julian Lerner, Abby James Witherspoon, Noah Cottrell, Nora Zehetner, Patrick Renna, Emma Fasano, Ashley Trisler, Gary Weeks, Bobbi Baker, Lilah Pate, Nico Tirozzi, Kelly Collins Lintz, Kevin James, Lorraine Bracco and Mel Gibson   Distributor: Pastime Pictures  

Grade: C

There’s a throwback quality to this pedestrian youth-oriented lite-horror flick directed by actor David Henrie, best known for his role as Selena Gomez’s brother in the long-running Disney sitcom “Wizards of Waverly Place.”  Set in 1997, it aims for the nostalgic vibe reminiscent of a movie like J.J. Abrams’ “Super 8,” but it winds up feeling more like something Mick Garris might have made in the 1990s—“Hocus Pocus,” for example.  (That’s not intended as a compliment.)

The main kid character is Noah Reed (Mason Thames, of “The Black Phone”), who’s grieving the absence of his journalist father after several years have passed; his mother Abby (Nora Zehetner) runs a guest house catering to summer visitors at Martha’s Vineyard (though the shoot actually occurred in North Carolina).  Noah has a trio of close friends: Ben Driskel (Noah Cottrell), the star hitter on their Little League team, Eugene Wexler (Julian Lerner), smaller and more nervous; and saucy Sammy Devers (Abby James Witherspoon). 

Noah wants to follow in his father’s footsteps, and has gotten Edgar Palmer (Kevin James), the editor of the local paper, to consider publishing an article he’ll write.  But Palmer’s interested in some puff piece to cater to his readers, not the juicy stuff—like a piece about a possible peeping Tom—that budding investigative reporter Noah writes up. 

But Noah soon has a problem bigger than a rejection of his article.  Ben winds up in a near catatonic state after nearly being drowned by a weird hooded figure during a nighttime swim with cute Ellie Evans (Lilah Pate), and Noah is convinced that his condition was caused by some evil force, likely a crone Ellie saw that was probably a witch. Noah figures it might have been Miss Halverson (Lorraine Bracco), a strange woman who’s just moved into the Reed hostelry.  His pursuit of proof against her proves a disaster, however. 

Meanwhile Noah has made the acquaintance of Gene Carruthers (Mel Gibson), a crusty, reclusive fellow he’d considered writing about because he and his friends have heard rumors about the guy’s involvement in the disappearance of his wife and young son years before.  It turns out that Gene is a retired cop who has a special interest in villains who prey on children, since his own boy (Nico Tirozzi) was actually kidnapped and never found.  Though he dismisses Noah’s suggestions of witchcraft out of hand, Gene suspects that the attack on Ben might be connected with the child abductions he’s recorded over the years, and particularly with the recent case of Ronnie Harlow (Spencer Fitzgerald) in New Hampshire, who was left in a much-changed state similar to Ben’s.  And when another local kid, Kevin (Gavin Bedell) winds up missing, Carruthers becomes determined to investigate, and Noah refuses to give up on his theories either. 

Eventually everything winds up at a house where Noah, Eugene and Sammy have tracked the person Noah has identified as the prime suspect.  Fortunately, Gene has come to the same conclusion via a different route.

“Monster Summer” isn’t an awful Halloween-related flick for kids, though it would likely be too scary for very young ones and too tame for more jaded teens and adolescents, who are accustomed to things more viscerally exciting nowadays.  Though the other youngsters are rather bland, Thames, as in “Phone,” makes a fine young protagonist, and Gibson seems to be having a good time playing a grouchy but committed old guy who learns some important lessons from his new friend in the end.  Bracco is pretty much wasted, and James must have accepted his tiny part as a favor, but Patrick Renna and Ashley Trisler get a chance to chew the scenery down the home stretch.  Technically the movie is okay—Elliott Glick’s production design is decent despite a few clunkers (what’s the local theatre doing showing “Casper” and “Hook” in 1997?), as is Larry Blanford’s cinematography and Robb Sullivan’s editing, though Frederik Wiedmann’s score is bombastic.  Henrie’s direction suggests that he learned the craft from his cable TV sitcom work in his younger days.

Indeed, a kid-oriented cable station would be the more appropriate venue for this mildly spooky, determinedly old-fashioned boys’ adventure story, but perhaps Saturday afternoon theatrical screenings will attract some desperate family audiences. But a “Goonies”-level classic it is not.

Producers: Lorenzo di Bonaventura, Tom DeSanto, Don Murphy, Michael Bay, Mark Vahradian and Aaron Dern   Director: Josh Cooley   Screenplay: Eric Pearson, Andrew Barrer and Gabriel Ferrari   Cast: Chris Hemsworth, Brian Tyree Henry, Scarlett Johansson, Keegan-Michael Key, Steve Buscemi, Lawrence Fishburne, Jon Hamm, Isaac C. Singleton Jr., Vanessa Linguori, Jason Konopisos-Alvarez, Jon Bailey and Evan Michael Lee    Distributor: Paramount Pictures

Grade: C

Though better than one might expect, “Transformers One” is little more than a solid piece of fan service, and as such of marginal interest to anyone outside the base.  

The latest in the franchise that began with Michael Bay’s mediocre live action-computer animated 2007 feature and continued through four more similar installments from the director before reviving to some extent with Travis Knight’s good-natured “Bumblebee” in 2018, only to revert to Bay-quality form with Stephen Caple Jr.’s “Rise of the Beasts” last year, “One” marks an improvement, first of all, by opting for full animation, like the “Transformers” efforts that preceded Bay’s takeover—the 1980s TV series and 1986 feature.  That saves human actors from trying to interact with the clanking alien robots—not a problem, perhaps, for many of the real folks with limited acting ability but an embarrassment when someone like Anthony Hopkins was involved.  To be sure, the animation, from Industrial Light & Magic with a production design by Jason Scheier, has a synthetically metallic look, but it does the job.  And as directed by Josh Cooley (“Toy Story 4”), edited by Lynn Hobson and scored by Brian Tyler, the action proceeds efficiently (and at Bay-level volume).

The script, however, is an old-as-the-hills rerun, an origins tale about two best buddies who wind up as antagonists by.  They’re Orion Pax (voiced by Chris Hemsworth) and D-16 (Brian Tyree Henry), who meet as miners of Energon in below-the-surface Iacon City on the planet Cybertron.  It’s a place dominated by class distinction; the ruling caste, led by celebrated Sentinel Prime (Jon Hamm), is composed of the bots equipped with the cog that allows them to transform, while all others, being cog-less, make up the servile majority.  Sentinel is the only surviving Prime, the rest having perished, in his telling, in the invasion of the planet that also resulted in the loss of the Matrix of Leadership, the key to replenishing the supply of Energon and providing cogs for the servant bots.  

Orion, hoping to advance in society, signs D-16 up with him for a race—a big action set-piece—which, even though they lose, brings them to Sentinel’s attention.  It results in their demotion, along with their boss Elita (Scarlett Johansson).  But their relocation to a lowly smelting station not only introduces them to B-127 (Keegan-Michael Key), who serves as a comic sidekick, but provides them with a clue both to the possible location of the Matrix and to the truth about the defeat of the Primes.  It leads the four to make their way to the planet’s surface, where they locate the sole surviving Prime, Alpha Trion (Laurence Fishburne).  He reveals the treachery that led to defeat against the invaders and gives them the fallen Primes’ transforming cogs.  He also provides a sage reflection: “a transformer is not defined by the core in his chest, but by the spark at his center.” 

But Orion and D-16 disagree about how to proceed after encountering a group of rebel bots led by Starscream (Steve Buscemi), and when they return to Iacon City it is with purposes in mind that prove incompatible.  In the resultant melee acquisition of the Matrix proves decisive, though getting it involves considerable danger.

There’s certainly nothing radical or reformist in this scenario, which offers at most minor adjustments to traditional narratives (there are, after all, more than one).  But familiarity appears to pose no impediment to enjoyment for dedicated adherents; at a pre-opening screening, more than half the audience yelped, cheered and applauded as Orion emerged as Optimus Prime, and booed lustily when D-16 claimed the title of Megatron and declared his intention to lead the Decepticons to victory over his Autobots.  And there’s nothing much to complain of in the animation or voice work, though the dialogue is pretty stale and the attempts at humor—especially by B-127—don’t rise above a juvenile level. 

So the audience division is likely to be pronounced with “Transformers One.”  Devotees will enjoy it vociferously, while the rest will either find it banal or just skip it. You might say that “One” runs like a well-oiled piece of “Transformers” machinery, but lacks the spark that would raise it beyond fan-friendly formula.  If the past history of the franchise is any indication, however, it’s likely to serve as the first in a rebooted series of animated installments that will find mildly adjusted ways of retelling the same old story.