A Review of ``Transformers One'' by Josh Cooley

I've been fond of ``Transformers'' for a few decades, though I stopped caring to watch Michael Bay's
films after the first two.  This film is, from what I've gleamed, the newest in a new line of films.
This review will try to remain halfheartedly vague about the film's plot, but it's rather simple and
what will happen rather predictable after the film finishes introducing its setting and simple cast.

This film compares favourably to the first animated ``Transformers'' film plotwise, given its dearth
of disruptions to an established plot, but that's mostly the benefit of hindsight and starting over;
this film contains jokes about previous entries, but not to an obnoxious degree.  By animation, this
film represents the prolonged abandonment of traditional animation in favour of computer-generation;
while the animation was technically impressive and well done, I've no doubt whatsoever that this was
done purely as a cost-cutting mechanism, and I found myself wondering just what kind of software had
been used to remove as much of the human touch as possible for landscapes, faces, and whatever else.

The film follows Orion Pax, the original name of Optimus Prime taken directly from the old cartoons,
alongside his friends as they unravel a conspiracy.  The first third or half or so of the film makes
it unclear exactly what will happen, but the general plot is fairly easy to guess nevertheless.  The
film does give a convenient leap that allows the conspiracy to begin unraveling slowly, but it's not
particularly egregious.  My primary criticism of the film would have to be the stereotypical way its
cast behaves after gaining their magical powers, stumbling and happening upon the correct actions by
chance in some cases; it's tired to see such things, and I would expect the writers to have picked a
side between living technology and life merely technological to the viewers, but this is also muddy.

The film takes place before the well-known Autobot and Decepticon factions have formed, and is quite
littered with retcons: An example is Megatron's name being derived from a great warrior, Megatronus.
These things are sometimes subtle, sometimes used as the punchlines to jokes, and sometimes blatant.
I was surprised and delighted to see some graphic violence, after the film had tactfully avoided it.
Whether any continuation in a similar vein will be made, or if this will be left to rot, is unknown.

The film's worth watching despite its flaws; I'm particularly glad it featured no humans whatsoever.
.