As earlier reviews certainly indicate I have never been much of a fan for the Transformers.  It remains astounding to me that several live action films from Michael Bay and others about the Hasbro toys come to life have been globally popular.  They have all given me headaches, what with the fast and furious action scenes which unfurl so rapidly and chaotically that one cannot keep track of all the transforming and steel clashing and bones crunching.  They’re not my thing.  So imagine my surprise when I sat through the new animated Transformers movie and I actually liked it.

Josh Cooley’s film is an origin story, explaining how the robots who became Optimus Prime and Megatron were miners and best buds on Cybertron before learning about the real ways of their world, being devastated by the lies surrounding their existence, growing into their destinies and ultimately facing off against one another.  It’s a story that is actually told clearly, straightforwardly and even touchingly.  Even I, who wouldn’t know an Autobot from a coffee pot, am able to follow and enjoy their imaginative story.

Of course it helps that Cooley takes his time so that things are as clear as can be.  It helps that easy-to-recognize and appreciate celebrity voices are behind the very human-looking robots (Chris Hemsworth, Brian Tyree Henry, Scarlett Johansson, Keegan-Michael Key, Steve Buscemi and so on).  It helps that the story, while tragic in many ways, is humorously told, or at least that the characters retain humor about them.  And it helps that the Autobots are oppressed in a rather universal way, one that pretty much demands we take their side in the fight to come.  There might even be some parallels between the duplicitous leader and a certain public figure in our time, but that may not be as intentional as it seems.

I’ve never been a fan of the Transformers, a series of toys which appeared long after I left childhood behind.  Hot Wheels were my thing.  But I must say that if this movie had been the first one to appear (and yes, I am discounting the 1984 animated film, one which I actually showed in a theatre I was managing), I might have been much more amenable to the series.  Especially since this one doesn’t involve the endlessly annoying Witwickys and doesn’t give me headaches.  ☆ ☆ ☆.  31 September 2024.