Jeri Jacquin

Coming to theatres from director Josh Cooley, Hasbro Entertainment and Paramount Pictures is the story of how it all began with TRANSFORMER ONE.

Orion Pax (voiced by Chris Hemsworth) works the Energon mines in Iacon City with buddy D-16 (Brian Tyree Henry) on their home planet of Cybertron. Pax believes there is so much more to them than just working day after day digging up the mineral to keep their planet going. The leader of the Autobots is Sentinel Prime (Jon Hamm) who constantly motivates the beings to keep mining. Pax gets the idea to be a part of a race and enlists D-16 and that gets attention of the other miners as well as Sentinel.

Thinking they would be celebrating their accomplishment; they are thrown in the deepest level of the planet where they meet B-127 (Keegan-Michael Key). Thrilled that he finally has company after being alone for so long, Pax and D realize he probably would know a way out.

Finding an escape up to the surface, Pax, D and B run into Alita (Scarlett Johansson) who wants to report them for getting away. That is until Pax shows her information that he believes leads to finding the Matrix of Leadership. Instead, what they discover what happened to the Prime’s and awaken Alpha Trion (Laurence Fishburne). Trion tell the group the truth about what has happened on Cybertron and D is outraged. Before they can get back to Sentinel, they meet Starscream (Steve Buscemi) who also wants Sentinel taken care of.

That party is crashed when D and B are taken to Sentinel, now Pax and Alita must find a way to get to their friends. D-16 is can not contain his anger and Pax wants to put a cog in every Autobot so they can find their own potential and Sentinel wants to destroy them both.  Who will succeed?

Hemsworth voices Orion Pax giving the character a very ‘animated’ and personably transformer who is curious about everything. Pax wants something more and, as we all know, be careful what you wish for. Each step he takes brings him closer to the secrets being kept from them all and Hemsworth’s voice takes us on that ride. Henry as D-16 knows he shouldn’t follow Pax on his mad plans but does so because that’s what a good friend does. When he learns along with Pax what has been taken from the Autobots, a change comes over him in a way that no one could have imagined. Henry gives us good friend vocal vibes – until he doesn’t. Nicely done.

Johansson as Alita believes in doing everything by the book and doing it right. Leading her group, it is in hopes that a promotion is in her future. A strong female Autobot who is a tad hardheaded is just what the group needs to stay focused. Key as B gives us a very good reason to understand why he eventually goes silent. A talkative (sometimes babbling) Autobot is not good for any sentient beings’ ears! He is funny at times though so he gets that.

Hamm as Sentinel is both funny and scary at the same time. During his moments of humor, it is easy to see how the Autobots would believe what he has to say, although personally I’d question that gaslighting voice from jump. Hamm does sound like he is having a great time. Buscemi as Starscream is just on it. Personally, I’m a huge Buscemi fan from way back and to hear his voice of an angry Autobot just brought a smile to my face because he can be charming and then twist the knife, although I think angry Autobots would rather just use their cool weaponry to handle it.

Fishburne voicing Alpha Trion gives us his best deep Morpheus voice and it works beautifully. Telling Pax, D, B and Alita what they needed to hear, he does so in a way that kept my interest from start to finish. Thrilled he took on the voice of Alpha Trion absolutely.

Other cast include Isaac C. Singleton Jr. as Darkwing, Vanessa Liguori as Airachnid, Jason Konopisos-Alvarez as Shockwave, Jon Bailey as Soundwave and Evan Michael Lee as Jazz.

Paramount Pictures is the longest operating and remaining major studio in Hollywood that has been on the ground floor of every major development in film. From the advent of motion pictures to the emergence of television, through the digital revolution, Paramount Pictures has been there. During our 100-year history, we have served as the production site for thousands of notable movies and television shows. For more please visit www.paramountstudios.com. 

Hasbro Entertainment is a production and distribution company owned and operated by American toy and multimedia company Hasbro and succeeds Allspark, previously known as Hasbro Studios, as Hasbro’s primary media production and distribution company and Entertainment One.

I will be honest, I raised four kids in the early years on Transformers cartoons and having my house covered in Autobots everywhere large and small, I didn’t know what to expect from the film. I did enjoy the 2007 TRANSFORMERS and kept following the films all the way through that vision of the franchise. So, TRANSFORMER ONE is just keeping the generational fun going with my grandkids.

The animation is pretty spectacular from start to finish and even with the dark underground city; it doesn’t affect the films action sequences at all. Instead, it is hyped up action that gives and gives and gives and trust me when I say this family was all for it. These are not stiff Autobots but fast and gracefully fluid for being made of metal.

The film also has a lot of humor and fun mixed into the history of where the Autobots came from and how the Decepticons came to be. It isn’t a pretty story because, as we know, absolute power corrupts absolutely, but you can be sure this won’t be the last we will see as Optimus Prime and Megatron have a long history that needs to play out. That being said, I’m all for TRANSFORMER 2.

In the end – witness the origin!

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