TRANSFORMERS ONE

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.