This Is Still the Best Transformers Movie (And It’s Not Even Close)

The Transformers movies have an erratic track record quality-wise, at best. At their worst, installments like Revenge of the Fallen (with its incoherent writing and editing) and The Last Knight (with its nauseating flurry of aspect ratio changes) reflected the very nadir of mainstream American blockbuster sensibilities. Even 1986’s The Transformers: The Movie suffered from slapdash plotting and an overabundance of noise, though at least that mixed bag a movie had Grimlock and an Orson Welles vocal performance to put it over, say, Age of Extinction.

Still, that doesn’t mean the nearly 40 year history of Transformers on the big screen is entirely devoid of merit. 2018’s Bumblebee finally delivered a quality live-action Transformers movie, for instance, thanks to newcomer director Travis Knight shrinking down the scope to more intimate levels. However, far and away the best Transformers movie is the only one that dared to focus exclusively on the titular robots (ironically, it’s also the only box office flop in the franchise). Transformers One didn’t shatter records in theaters, but it’s easily the high point of these robots in disguise in their movie career.

Why Is Transformers One So Good?

There are no humans in sight for Transformers One. Instead, the focus is just on various robots living in a hierarchical society on Cybertron. Future Transformers icons Optimus Prime and Megatron are best buddies, and they go by the names of Orion Pax (Chris Hemsworth) and D-16 (Brian Tyree Henry), respectively. While other Transformers movies turn all the robots into blurs indistinguishable from one another, there’s immediately interesting defining traits between Pax and D-16. To boot, the robotic society they inhabit is also more specifically defined, particularly in how it’s clearly corrupt from the outset.

While the Michael Bay Transformers movies were often odes to traditional power structures, Transformers One wrings compelling material out of Orion Pax and D-16 realizing that their hero, Sentinel Prime (Jon Hamm), is actually a devious soul. Leaders aren’t to be followed blindly in Transformers One. Challenging the status quo is a heroic virtue here, which just makes the action sequences and character material all the more absorbing to watch. Whereas previous Transformers movies (even the 1986 feature) didn’t care much for the interiority of these robots, figures like D-16 radiate with tangible complexity in Transformers One.

Shockingly, more of the celebrity voice work also works better than one might expect. Chris Hemsworth doesn’t totally vanish into the role of Optimus Prime, but he does fine work conveying a warm aura that fits his character. Most impressively, though, is the sheer weight Brian Tyree Henry lends his proto-version of Megatron. Henry’s always been an actor who can effortlessly lend such emotionally rich qualities to his line deliveries in titles like If Beale Street Could Talk and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. That gift is perfectly utilized here to make D-16’s descent into Megatron villainy all the more captivating.

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Transformers One Is An Actually Interesting Origin Story

An especially interesting virtue in director Josh Cooley’s vision for Transformers One is how it tees up Orion Pax and D-16’s later mythic reputations as Optimus Prime and Megatron. As a prequel, Transformers One has its share of the standard cutesy “explanation” moments for famous franchise lore that many modern prequels indulge in. However, its best function as a prequel is in demonstrating why Autobots and Decepticons would follow Optimus Prime and Megatron anywhere.

Each of these robots gets a big scene in Transformers One’s third act where they demonstrate leadership qualities. For Orion Pax, it comes in giving a rousing speech to his fellow miners. For D-16, it’s in standing up to Sentinel Prime even when he’s in chains. In both cases, each sequence has a grand mythic atmosphere that accentuates how important these refutations of the status quo are. They work perfectly well as standalone moments of drama in Transformers One’s runtime. However, in the larger mythos, it’s easy to see these acts of defiance being whispered about by Autobot and Decepticon soldiers for years to come.

That kind of thoughtful material already puts Transformers One heads and shoulders above other prequels. These scenes also show an affinity for these robots that’s a breath of fresh air for past Transformers movies that only saw these characters as being useful for urinating on John Turturro. If you want a feature-length movie that really excels at making the Transformers world and its metal inhabitants dramatically involving, Transformers One is easily your best choice. The fact that its competition includes Revenge of the Fallen and The Last Knight makes it even more obvious why it’s easily the best Transformers movie to date.

Transformers One is now streaming on Prime Video and Paramount+.