My Review of "Transformers One"

Transformers One is a movie that I was a little hesitant to watch at first. I didn't want to watch it in theatres but a friend of mine came to me with glowing praise. It piqued my interest. Still, I thought to myself, I can't get over the art direction in the trailer. Boy was I happy that I forgot about my doubts about this movie and checked it out. There's a lot to like about this one and it was way better than I had anticipated.

The movie starts off with Orion Pax. He's in some forbidden area looking to find more information for a mythical artifact known as the Matrix. When he gets found out he's in a bit of a chase and saved by his best friend D-16. The two are very close but they have a very wild dynamic. D-16 is the straight partner who follows the rules whereas Orion is a bit of a rebel.

The two constantly get into trouble because of Orion but in the end each of them have a good time because of these antics. The bigger overarching story that's going on is that D-16 and Orion work as coal miners. They are mining for an energy source. Their supreme leader Sentinel Prime is trying to find the Matrix so that the energy source can once again flow freely throughout the planet. Their job is to continue to supply the world with the energy source until Sentinel can find the Matrix and ultimately save the world.

This is the plan but of course there's deceit and mystery involved with Sentinel. Through the many adventures of Orion and D-16 they somehow stumble upon information that will change themselves for the rest of their lives.

I thought this was a pretty well laid out story for this cartoon. Going into the movie I thought they were going to rewrite everything behind the Transformers lore of the past. Instead, they honored a lot of the past in this new rendition of the origins of the Transformers that we know today. Watching this, I could tell that the writers really knew the franchise because they had very obscure jokes within the dialogue that referenced the original cartoon movie of the 1980s. I know a lot of kids today won't get it but adults that know the original cartoon will have a riot with some of the dialogue in this movie.

That's not to say that the kids won't like it either. I think the story was done in a nice simple manner where kids can keep up. It really is a family friendly movie with some interesting moral dilemmas that the whole family can talk about later on after the movie. I think even adults themselves can have those type of discussions after the movie. Despite being a family friendly movie they were able to put some interesting debates behind it.

The animation and the art direction grew on me as well. Again, I was hesitant at first about it but I was really blown away with the scale and grandeur of the set pieces and the wild action sequences. I was able to watch this in 3d and it was probably the clearest I've ever seen a 3d movie in a theatre. I'm not sure if that's a testament to the theatre or the actual movie. The soundstage was really well done but that's kind of to be expected with an animated feature. The combination of the visuals and the audio really make it a theatre worthy experience.

Overall, I thought this was a really well crafted movie. The audio and visuals were outstanding. I really liked the story and the dialogue as well. My expectations were blown and I really think that you should see it in the theatres while you still have the chance to. I'm glad I was able to have the chance to check it out when I could. I have to give this movie an 8 out of 10.