Ps: Spoilers

On September 20th, 2024 the new Transformers One movie arrived in theaters. The recreated animated origin story for the Transformers storyline showed great skills in storytelling, visuals, and incredible voice acting.

It would start in Cybertron, like many other Transformer-origin movies and shows but instead of having Megatron and Optimus Prime living two separate lives; they were online (brought to consciousness) together as miners. The main difference from other stories was that the two main leaders of opposite sides started at the same level and converted from neutral to evil and grand, outlandish. Of course, I loved how they kept the same legend of having Primus, the first original Prime that created the planet of Cybertron, and their energy source, Energon as consistent as possible through different adaptations; this one included. Also with the myths of the legendary 13 Primes being Cybertron’s greatest warriors, lost to a grand enemy called the Quintesstions.

The beginning of the movie displayed an interesting view of how no matter how “utopian” a place may seem, there is always something beneath the surface.
The showing off of their societal caste system was portrayed well in the movie by making the nature of their situations look normal, in a Stockholm syndrome sort of way, even though they were cruel.

The main cast, Orion Pax, D-16, Elita, and B-127, were all part of the lower regions of Cybertron otherwise known as the cogless bots that can’t transform; doing all the dirty and hard work for a leader that was never even there.

Throughout a journey of disobedient curiosity and intriguing adventure, the two main characters and their buddies are set off on a wild exploration through both their corrupt system and the beautiful expanse of the world they were never allowed to see with their own eyes. (optics) The exploitation of their planet’s resources being found out by a group of simple spontaneous minor characters, (pun intended) and having no way of getting back to their original location added the suspense of the story and it gave it the rise in action the movie needed.

It was interesting seeing how they found out about the lies of Sentinel Prime, their last and only Prime leader.
How they found out about his horrid traitorous intentions of his and even better when watching how all of the characters reacted. Orion Pax, who would turn out to be one of the greatest known Primes, would express how they needed to tell their people and revolt as a whole to create a new and better world. On the other hand, D-16 took it as a personal attack on his beliefs and his whole existence. He started moving more toward his direction and submitted to the dark thought of getting rid of the corrupt leader himself and then creating a riot with all the mechs never trusting another “Prime” leader again. They both had seen what happened and both felt betrayed by their supposed grand leader and yet, they both took leadership in their command.

The progression of seeing D-16’s mental state decrease to become the new version of himself we all know of was very abrupt and kind of unnatural. In other movies and series where Megatron started as a gladiator with violence and deception as a motivation, showing how he had always had thoughts of defecting in his manner but, in the new movie he suddenly just had a mind-changing blow that altered the direction of the movie and his life.

After this climax, the main characters had to decide a little early on. They all had their own opinions on how to move forward with their new beliefs and morals.

They stumbled upon the cave where the Primes were all betrayed and killed. While they were there they managed to bring Alpha Trion out of stasis since his spark had not gone out completely. He then gave them the complete truth and let the main four transformation cogs from his downed companions.
With their new abilities, they had the choice of what to do next, whether it was for the best or not.

They meet up with a group of flyers after being found out by Sentinel’s top goon, Arachnid in the cave of deceased Primes. The group used to be Cybertron’s high guards before they were kicked out of the city. They were made up of mostly seekers. (Jets)

In this part, a glimpse of Megatron peeks past D-16 and he decides to take over their little group by defeating Starscream, their self-proclaimed leader, which then makes Orion Pax and Elita worried for their companion since he was showing violent tendencies for vengeance. They split up, broken by their morals and thoughts on what they had just gone through. Most of the High Guard with D-16 and B-127 got caught by Sentinel Prime and taken to get executed since Arachnid found their hiding spot once again.

Elita and Orion built a mini army out of the remaining High guard (who weren’t caught) and the lower level miners who Sentinel’s corrupt system had overworked after telling them how Sentinal himself took their ability to transform because he needed anybody else to do all the work for him. He felt the need to rise and lead a new cycle of Cybertron while also trying to get his friend back.

The revolution begins. D-16, now bearing the mark of his idol, Megatronus Prime on his chest plate has Sentinel as a hostage and starts fighting him one-on-one. I found the part where Sentinel gave D-16 a carved sigil of his favorite bot as a permanent kind of tattoo insane. That’s where he got the Deception symbol from and that’s how he created their name. Through violence, we fight against those who have shown deception.

The scene where the now D-16 tries to eliminate Sentinel with his new arm cannon and instead shoots at his “best friend”, who had gotten in the way of the blast believing what was transpiring was wrong. This part was actually kind of funny to me since the blast killed Orion, lost an arm and everything, yet still believed there was some good left in his old friend. Then he gets betrayed and is pushed off over the edges of Sentinal’s office building, a Mufasa and Scar kind of situation. D-16 along with Orion Pax, died together.

Orion gets pushed into the core of Cybertron and is then given what Sentinal was always searching for, the Matrix of Power by Primus himself. He becomes the newest Prime with a new given name of Optimus.

Megatron, who had promised Optimus that they would watch each other’s backs, had betrayed him and felt no remorse after pushing him off the building.
He (basically) rises from the dead to find that Megatron has killed off the traitor and has started a revolution with the remaining high guard as a group called the Decepticons. It’s a tragic way of saying they no longer want to be deceived by oppressive leaders and rules.

Having become the new Prime, Optimus was forced to banish his old friend and his group since all they would do was clash with each other and their beliefs.

This whole movie was a cinematic beauty. The colors and the plot were amazing and the fact that my favorite character had an appearance and an actual part of the story made me pretty biased about it as well. Apart from that, I loved the characters and their designs. The small, intricate details, like how Starscream had his voice altered, and how B-127 has been shown as a chatty overall cherry bot, even though in other movies, he loses the ability to talk altogether. Or also how Megatron got the Decepticon symbol from his favorite Prime and also took the base of his name from (Megatronus). Also, a version showing how he obtained all his followers from.

The comedic jokes made by Orion Pax, when he was still a kindled free spirit were depressing since they proved that Optimus was not born the leader; he was born the optimistic, somewhat naive mech that no one would have guessed would become someone so great. (He was foul on some of those jokes, like the middle finger one or in general his pretending to transform to get away from a situation).

The comparisons of how when each bot gained more power they changed not just physically but mentally. How the hatred of Sentinel Prime has transferred from backstory to backstory. Everything was just really thought out and creative.

It was a very fast-paced movie. It would have been hard to keep up with but since I already knew the lore behind the story I could manage. I can’t say the same about others, but since it was made so flowy, it made it easier to understand. The comedy peaked and the despair and betrayal tied everything together in a bundle of childish joy I had not experienced in some time.
It brought back many memories of when I would watch the old Transformers G1 show and it was a work of art I didn’t know I needed to indulge in.

As the first completely animated Transformers movie in a long time, it passed my expectations and it deserves recognition. I will probably never stop recommending this movie (especially since I need the next 2 movies to finish the trilogy) since it was mind-blowing and so nostalgic. It gave a great overview of the backstory of how the battle between the Decepticons and Autobots started and bled into the rest of the Transformers lore. I recommend it though! (Never will stop actually) It will still be in theaters for a while and it can be found on HBO Max in November. Grab your B-127 popcorn buckets and Orion Pax drink cups while you still can and enjoy a beautiful execution of a movie and a memory of better times.