Geek For E Grade: A-

(NO SPOILERS) This should have been a live action movie.  I said it.  That said, it was probably better served being the first digitally animated Transformers tale.  This is an origin, and for fans of the Transformers toys and movie franchises, you get a nice origin easter egg in the form of Optimus and Megatron.  We’ve always known them as the leaders of dueling factions, but the idea that they didn’t start that way, and even more strangely that they started as friends – is intriguing.  And even if they were friends, what could have possibly happened that was so bad, so dark, so cruel as to turn two friends into enemies for life?  Well, more on that in a bit (no spoilers for now).  Transformers One blasts into theaters everywhere on FRI 09.20.24.  Running time is 1h 44m, and the film is rated PG for intense action sequences, and thematic violence.

(SMALL SPOILERS…and the plot)  For fans of the Transformers various storylines, you’ll need to absorb a new one with this prequel of sorts.  At this point in the timeline, there is no Megatron and there is no Optimus Prime.  Instead we have Orion Pax and D-16.  (Chris Hemsworth as Orion Pax and eventually Optimus Prime, and Bryan Tyree Henry as D-16 (eventually Megatron).   In addition, the idea of Cybertron/transforming has been changed.  In the early days of Cybertron when new robots were made they were made (or stripped0 of their center ‘transforming core.’  You can see it in the animation and ads for the film, but essentially if you have a ‘core’ you can transform, and you’re cool, and society loves you.  If you don’t have a core, you can’t transform, you’re a ‘lesser’ citizen, and you’re probably a worker-bee miner who toils daily in caves for energon (the power source for all Transformers).  D-16 and Orion are both core-less miners.  And while D-16 revels in the daily doldrum of a scheduled and regimented day of mining for energon, his buddy Orion Pax longs for more…adventure, action, something more than meets the eye.  Now, because Orion is not the Optimus/Leader we know – just who is running things on Cybertron?  That duty falls to a shiny, charismatic and fully cored transforming bot named Sentinel Prime (Jon Hamm). 

Now in a Cybertron world where a mining bot can’t be anything, D-16 and Orion Pax plot to change that and they do so by entering a great race whose participants are all full-core’d transformers.  With the odds stacked against Orion Pax, and a reluctant D-16 who wants only to stick to the rules in tow, they enter the race and draw the attention of Sentinel Prime.  When Sentinel recruits them as ambassadors to the miners of Cybertron, Orion and D-16 get pulled into a deeper story…a deeper conspiracy that affects all bots, and all of Cybertron. 

OK, no more spoilers and I won’t even touch the D-16/Megatron transition.  If you’re a true fan of the Transformers lore, you want to discover that for yourself.  If you’re clever, you can pull it from what you just read above.  Just check this one out!

This flick comes recommended for a great family outing, any fan of the Transformers toys and movies, and I can’t forget the pre-tweens who will love ‘Bad-Ass-itron!’

Last bit:  Whenever you’re watching an animated movie with a slew of stars, its inevitable that you’ll hear a voice that you recognize.  In this case, it’s easy to spot Scarlett Johansson (voice of Elita-1), Keegan-Michael Key as B-127 (aka Bumblebee), or even Laurence Fishburne as Alpha Trion – but what caught me (and I know his voice from the 1980’s), was James Remar as Zeta Prime.   For fans of Remar (48 Hours, 2 Fast 2 Furious, Tales From Darkside), it was a welcome and comforting reveal to have his voice on the big screen.