I also finally got around to watching “Transformers: One” and it was
fine. Not outstanding, but fine. An entirely reasonable movie.
Easily one of the best Transformers movies, with the only competition
being Bumblebee.
D-16’s character arc was a little clunky. He and Orion kind of papered
over their differences until right near the end, and it really would
have benefitted from a few scenes with them clashing beforehand,
starting small and building. Instead we have D-16 slowly getting angrier
and angrier, and no one really remarking on it.
And then there are the three key moments of D-16s turn – dropping Orion,
declaring the end of the Primes, and his rage at the appearance of
Optimus.
I didn’t buy D-16 saying “I’m done saving you,” in large part because we
didn’t really see D-16 saving Orion all that much, and he never seemed
to bristle at it. The friendship was well established, as was their
willingness to save the other. Orion as the rule-breaker and D-16 as the
more orderly one was an interesting switch.
Orion falling into the center of Cybertron might have been intended as a
2001 homage, but it really looked like a Star Trek: The Motion Picture
homage (which itself had a 2001 homage). It made me want to see ST:TMP
again.
“The era of the Primes is over!” kind of came out of nowhere for someone
who practically worshiped Megatronus, met up with Alpha Trion, and
destroyed a fake Prime. (It wasn’t 100% clear to me whether Sentinel was
a Prime that betrayed everyone, or a lesser robot who betrayed everyone
and then usurped the title… either would work). D-16 was totally into
Orion’s desire to find the Matrix and restore Cybertron, with the only
real difference between them was Orion being the instigator, and D-16
hoping to get patted on the head for giving the Matrix to Sentinel
Prime.
Megatron’s rage at Optimus Prime emerging was… clunky. It seemed out of
character when he let go of Orion’s hand, and it seemed out of character
for him not to be glad to have his friend back. A friends-to-enemies
plot needs more than a single turning point.
Megatron’s turn towards evil seemed really tacked on. Like Magneto’s
turn in the final minutes of “x-men: first class.” No need to rush it
and tack it on, that’s what sequels are for. (Not that there is likely
to be a sequel…).
Ok, this is the second best Transformers movie. Bumblebee was better
because it didn’t have this type of problem.
I would have liked D-16 to not deliberately drop Orion. Just have an arm
fall off or whatever, so it’s an extension of D-16 accidentally shooting
Orion.
“The Era of the Primes is Over” speech then becomes partly about the
rage he feels towards himself for shooting Orion, towards Orion trying
to save Sentinel, and towards Sentinel’s betrayal all at once.
Sentinel’s life wasn’t worth Orion’s death, and D-16 would be angry at
everyone involved.
I would have liked Orion to be dead for a while. And then have Optimus
emerge much later, once Megatron has taken over, and be confronted with
the dystopian hellscape that Megatron has created, where his desire for
revenge and order. And only then shift to enemies, when Megatron knows
that he will never have Optimus’ approval. Whether that is after a time
jump, or in a second movie…
(If they were going for a trilogy, I would have wanted it structured
with One being the defeat of Sentinel and the death of Orion (maybe end
with Optimus getting the Matrix in the heart of Cybertron, to make it
more hopeful). Two would be Optimus emerging after a time skip, and a
very strained relationship with Megatron as they fight the Quintessons,
and Three being the final break. During that time skip between One and
Two, Megatron would have taken command, and be struggling to not be as
bad as Sentinel, and when Optimus arrived there's tension between the
Idealist Optimus, and Megatron who is trying to get things done)
(Given that the biggest expense is celebrity voice actors, I wonder if
making sequels at the same time would have made sense, despite One doing
poorly – how much more expensive is a bit more of Steve Buscemi’s time
once he’s already there? If you drop the cost of movies Two and Three,
they might be successful given their lower cost)
Also, why give Orion and D-16 lips if they aren’t going to kiss?
But, it was perfectly fine. The animation was decent, if a little bland.
It was never a struggle to figure out what is actually happening on
screen (no Bayverse gray balls of sharp bits randomly beating on each
other). The voice acting was great, and the story was ok.
I mostly have nitpicks, and that one big complaint about D-16’s turn.
Onto nitpicks…
The one thing that was really missing was robots in disguise. I get that
it’s set on Cybertron, but robots hiding on an inhabited planet is a key
element of Transformers. It just feels weird not having that be a part
of the story. Having the High Guard hiding mostly in plain sight, rather
than in their lair might have given us that.
They did manage to make Transformers a fallen culture, with the Primes
being dead, the surface uninhabitable, Energon not flowing…
Of all the media in America, I think only Animated really branched from
the “Cybertron is ruined, the Autobots are refugees” pattern, and they
accomplished something similar by having the cast cut off from Cybertron
for the start. Actually, BW did the same, with the same workaround –
plus the Predacons were in tatters before the cartoon started, but it
took them a while to establish that.
Transformers are sort of like the Jewish diaspora, whether that was an
intentional decision made early on when creating the first stories or
not, and it works well for the brand as a whole. The different fictions
have changed what drove the Transformers out into the universe, but it
is almost always a major cataclysm (sometimes self-inflicted, which
makes the connection to the actual Jewish diaspora fairly stretched, but
it’s the most familiar diaspora).
(Battlestar Galactica, on the other hand, is very explicitly intended to
be Space Mormons looking for the promised land — Salt Lake City. And
Revival Era Doctor Who has a diaspora of one...)