So I thought this was a reboot of the disastrous Michael Bay live-action flicks (after the last movie finally flopped), but low and behold this animated kids flick is actually a prequel (yes prequel) to the entire franchise! This is the origins tale of all the classic characters that originated on Cybertron, in animated CGI form, for kids, that apparently leads into the Bayformer movies. Get your head around that!
Now I'm no Transformers expert, but I did grow up with the franchise through the 80's and have a basic idea of the lore. This new movie is essentially its own thing; it's not based on any comicbook origins storyline or the origin animated series etc...It appears to be a bit of a mish-mash of various ideas woven into this unique entry. Is that bad? No not really, Transformers tends to be flexible with its origins tales and generally all routes follow a similar path.
The story is set billions of years before the events of the live-action movies and essentially explores how Orion Pax and D-16 go from friends to becoming the legendary Optimus Prime and Megatron. In this new lore both robots are energon miners who are unable to transform. After finding a chip containing a distress message from Alpha Trion (one of the first Cybertronians), Pax, D-16, Elita-1, and B-127 (all energon miners) find their way to the surface of the planet only to discover that their current leader Sentinel Prime is a traitor and cahoots with their enemies the Quintessons. Sentinel Prime is giving up energon to the Quintessons whilst stopping its natural flow on Cybertron. They also discover that Sentinel Prime created the subrace of miners by having their transformation cogs removed before being brought online. Now, along with help from another rebel faction, the lowly miners must try to expose Sentinel Prime to the masses.
One of the big problems with this iteration of the Transformers lore is the fact that this movie doesn't really explain everything for the viewer. For example, I know about the Quintessons, but this movie doesn't explain anything. There is no explanation as to who or what they are, what they want, why they need energon, where they come from etc...For people not in the know it will seem a bit sketchy. There are also some things which I didn't quite get myself. Why would Cybertron have robotic wild deer-like lifeforms on the surface? Seems totally nonsensical when you think about it. What was happening on the Cybertronian surface? It looked like the surface was shapeshifting? Why are Prime robots so big and all other regular robots so small? Why do robots grow in size simply by having their transformer cog inserted? Why are they small without it? Etc...
I also had a bit of an issue with the start of the plot when Pax and D-16 enter this moral-boosting race for all transforming robots (transforming robots can transform into vehicles). Both of them illegally enter this race using jetpacks to compete. But the stupid thing is why the race was allowed to continue the minute they were both discovered (which was straight away). Surely the race would have been stopped, but oh no it carries on with these two fools literally running and jumping their way across the course. I get its a young persons movie but this was just too dumb and really kicked off the movie in a childish way, strange too considering the rest of the story is actually quite sensible.
Aside from the plot the movie looks pretty solid despite the character designs being something of a hodge-podge. Whilst some characters are clearly recognisable from the G1 era, others not so much, whilst some are clearly (unfortunately) based on the Bay movies. Why Bumblebee has to have that crappy neo-Bayverse design I don't know. Of course the various vehicle transformations are different to the Earth bound designs and for the most part they suffice. Cybertron looks as you would expect and, alas, showcases nothing much in terms of originality. Think basically along the lines of Coruscant and you're there. I didn't understand how their trains worked with the tracks that just materialise out of thin air in front of the moving train. There is still the issue of battling Transformers looking way too kinetic and messy when in full flow. Its not as bad as the live-action movies but it can still be hard to follow.
The character growth between Pax and D-16 is definitely a well worked highlight of this young persons movie. We see this duo go from being strong friends as humble miners, to friends fighting together, to friends torn apart by truth and anger. Pax starts out as the energetic risk-taking rebellious type who doesn't think too much about consequences; where as D-16 is much more careful, a thinker, not wanting to rock the boat or cause any trouble. As the plot evolves Pax becomes more of a strategic leader whilst D-16 is slowly consumed with anger over the treason committed by Sentinel Prime. We also see the formation of what will become the Autobots and the Decepticons, the latter ironically starting out as rebel fighters against Sentinel Prime and helping Pax and co. Add to that the voice acting for both characters isn't too bad either. Chris Hemsworth pulling off a pretty decent Peter Cullen-esque young Prime voice towards the end.
I didn't have my hopes up too high for this I gotta be honest. Just going by the visuals alone this looked childish (think of the various animated Star Wars ventures we've seen recently). I had no confidence in this at all and after the first 30 minutes or so I thought my fears had been confirmed. But wait! In a glorious turnaround this movie does actually get much better quite rapidly. Aside from some design choices and the silly moments of Pixar-esque humour the plot does start to solidify and engage you. I found myself rooting for both Pax and D-16 (more so D-16 actually) with everything coming together nicely to form a pretty good origins tale of rebellion. There's nothing overly original here, rebelling against a system, friends who become enemies etc...It's all a bit cliche admittedly but it was enjoyable.
6.5/10
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