The untold origin story of Optimus Prime and Megatron, better known as sworn enemies, but who once were friends bonded like brothers who changed the fate of Cybertron forever.

The mention of ‘Transformers’ alongside ‘new movie’ may send a shiver down the spine of anyone beyond Michael Bay fanatics, so readers may be pleased to note this is not another Michael Bay explosionathon but an animated origin story based on the original comic books (themselves based on the toys). Confessing I’m not familiar with the story of the ‘Transformers’, having not seen more than clips of the previous live action movies, this was my first foray into this world and I have to say I was far more impressed than I expected to be with ‘Transformers One’.

The movie takes place on the Transformers planet Cybertron, which is constantly under attack from the invading Quintesson aliens, and follows a couple of miners called Orion Pax (Chris Hemsworth) and D-16 (Brian Tyree Henry) who discover their leader Sentinel Prime (Jon Hamm) has been keeping secrets from all of Cybertron’s inhabitants, when they take a visit to the rarely visited surface world. Those more familiar with the ‘Transformers’ series will likely recognise these character names and what happens to them in future, but for the few folks that entered this relatively blind, I’ll avoid further details. Orion Pax and D-16 end up leading an uprising against Sentinel Prime once they discover the truth, with the aim to free the inhabitants of Cybertron and deliver a better future for all.

This story unfolds with a great degree of clarity, even for someone unfamiliar with ‘Transformers’ lore, and it is well written with plenty humour and action all delivered by an impressive voice cast (Scarlett Johansson, Steve Buscemi and Laurence Fishburne amongst other important cast members). The central relationship between Orion Pax and D-16 is depicted well and has a clear arc over the journey of the movie, which will no doubt develop further in the planned sequels (should this be successful enough). Of course, you have to acknowledge that despite my slight jab at Michael Bay at the outset (and I do like some of his films – ‘Armageddon’ a guilty pleasure for one!), his movies have likely laid the path for this animated movie by bringing the ‘Transformers’ to a wider audience, and this had a pretty big budget for an animated movie to begin with. Certainly though, if this does well enough to earn a sequel, I’m now invested in continuing to follow this story.

Rating: 4/5

Directed By: Josh Cooley

Starring: Chris Hemsworth, Brian Tyree Henry, Scarlett Johansson, Keegan-Michael Key, Steve Buscemi, Laurence Fishburne and Jon Hamm

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt8864596/