Baby’s First Marxist Manifesto: More Than Meets the Eye (A Review of Transformers One).

What a massively pleasant surprise this was. I was beyond iffy on the voice cast when they were announced. That said, by the end of the film, I think they all really grew into and started to own their roles. Hemsworth as a young, cocky Optimus was a little jarring at first but once the character grows up a bit and starts transforms (I regret nothing) into the more classic iteration of Prime…oh boy does that Thor voice really start to work for me. Ending the film on a classic monologue transmission by Optimus was perfection. Just needed a fire track by Linkin Park to bring it all home (keep in mind: the Linkin Park end scene needle drops are the ONLY thing I’m nostalgic for from the Michael Bay films). While Hemsworth is no Peter Cullen, he did well with forging his own identity as another iconic hero.

Beyond Hemsworth as Pax Orion/Optimus Prime, however, who really surprised me and wound up being fantastic was Brian Tyree Henry as D-16/Megatron. His initial role as best friend and straight man to Hemsworth’s cocky charm and subsequent into a wrathful anarchist willing to betray his brother in arms was just chilling. The build up to the fall out between Optimus and Megatron and the catalyzing of their iconic rivalry was the real master stroke of the film.

Scarlet Johansson and Keegan Michael Key are fun as the precursors to Arcee and Bumblebee. Bumblebee doesn’t really get much narrative focus or even an arc, instead being relegated to comedic relief…and it mostly works. It makes for a fun in joke within the meta structure of the franchise. Now we know why they took away Bumblebee’s voice and gave him soundbites to talk with…because he never shut up when he was young haha. Arcee, mercifully, wasn’t shoved into a thankless love interest role and maintains her agency as a character for the most part, she has a fun dynamic with Hemsworth’s Optimus that never tries to make her a romantic prize for him. She has a nice arc, evolving from a capitalist cog just trying to get her piece into a full on revolutionary alongside Optimus and Megatron. It’s quite cool.

Ultimately, it’s a film about the repressive systems of capitalism: specifically war profiteering and the power of propaganda in controlling the working class. Optimus and Megatron both learn the bitter truth of their society’s subjugation under a charming despot, but their reactions to this knowledge is what forms the schism between two brothers. Optimus recognizes the need for revolution and reform, but seeks to maintain humanity and a sense of justice in his pursuit of it…Megatron sees a system too broken to be saved and wants to burn it all to the ground in order to start anew. Keep in mind: these themes are barely subtext, and the general DNA of the film’s story is fairly basic and broken down to a child’s understand level. Still, they tried to tell do something interesting but still familiar and it’s really done. I really enjoyed the little nods and winks to the classic 86 film and overall franchise. The way they wove classic lines into the dialogue without derailing whole scenes for nostalgia bait was really cleverly done. In general I really loved this film and find it to serve as a great prequel/origin story for the classic Transformers mythology.