The gang from ‘Transformers One’.
TRANSFORMERS ONE ***1/2 (104 minutes) PG
At a guess, it’s doubtful anybody was losing any serious sleep over the origin story about how the Autobots and Decepticons came to be, with particular reference to the rivalry between Optimus Prime (the good transformer robot) and Megatron (the not-so-good one).
Yet Transformers One does such a good job filling in the blanks to the backstory you might end up feeling guilty you didn’t care more.
Boasting absolutely superb state-of-the-art digital animation and loads of humour, Transformers One is a knockout dose of mass-market entertainment and one of the best entries yet in the mega-franchise created by Michael Bay and Steven Spielberg.
Deploying an age-old device we’ve seen in everything from Star Wars to Planet of the Apes to The Bounty, the pair are presented to us as good friends, young robots working the mines of the artificial planet Cybertron.
Unable to transform because of the missing cog in their chests, they set off on a mission with several friends to the surface hoping to prove themselves worthy by delivering some critical information.
Or something like that. Plot-wise, the film is a scramble of intersecting story threads that can be a tad hard to track, but no matter.
What matters here is how the big appeal is just how terrifically character-driven the piece is.
Robots they all may be, yet much emphasis is put on the importance of their inner cogs and the “spark” that exists in their core – presumably the intergalactic robot equivalent of possessing a heart and soul.
These bots have been thoroughly anthropomorphized, their expressive faces in full view before their character transformations necessitated the wearing of those iconic maskies.
The upshot of all this is that, as great as all the action is, the story is propelled by the friendship between the main robots and the in-built tension stemming from the inevitability of it fracturing.
As for who the film is intended for, it’s boisterously clear the creators – director Josh Cooley (Toy Story 4) and screenwriters Gabriel Ferrari, Eric Pearson & Andrew Barrer – were fully aware that if they made the film exclusively for kids the whole thing would collapse in a heap quicker than a transformer with a broken spring.
Blessedly, the film embraces children of all ages.
Indeed, the grown-ups who take kids to see Transformers One probably grew up with the cartoon Transformers from the 1980s – and heartening it is to learn how those primitive renderings were used as a reference point for the marvellous animation on display throughout.
And what sumptuous, widescreen eye candy it is. Kudos to the pioneering Industrial Light & Magic, the FX shop whose work with all the Star Wars, Transformers and Jurassic films – with many others besides – established visual effects as an artform.
But hang on. Isn’t this movie just another glorified product showreel designed to sell toys and associated merch?
Ah, phooey to such pointless, boring cynicism. So what if people who enjoy a film get something to enhance the experience? So long as it’s quality stuff.
Movie merchandising has been with us for a century now. Anyone who still objects – time to deal.
Opens 19 September, with sneaks this weekend.
Footnote: An earlier version of this review credited Industrial Light & Magic for the VFX in the Planet of the Apes films. That pioneering work was in fact done by WETA (Lord of the Rings; The Hobbit; King Kong) Apologies.