Few owners may apply Transformers Movies for Thunderous Stupidity. It tends to take on storytelling niceties like plot coherence and character nuance with a giant metal fist (with added bazooka attachments). It provides an often overwhelming and goofy viewing experience that feels like trying to cross the road during a monster truck rally. It is loud and aggressive. That's great, I think. Sometimes all you need from a movie is a bunch of self-aggrandizing metal monsters smashing rivets into each other.
With its legacy of painted dumb-assery and its loyal and defensive fan base (I received death threats from a reader. Michael Bay's 2007 film), the Transformers Franchise is not an obvious competitor to reinvention. But the latest installment, slick animation and sharp script Transformers are oneExploring the never-before-told origin story of Optimus Prime and rival Megatron, it feels like a refreshingly new breed of Autobot adventure – one that's noticeably souped-up in the brain department.
First animation Transformers 1986 movie Transformers: The Movie (voiced, incidentally and unexpectedly, by Orson Welles), the film benefits significantly from having Pixar alumnus Josh Cooley at its helm. The director Toy Story 4Cooley knows a thing or two about leading a beloved owner; And as one of the writers Inside outHe is no slouch when it comes to comedy based on ideas. I didn't expect to be recommending a robot-car battle animation as my film of the week – and there's a caveat to the omission of mainstream movies. Joker: Folly a Deux And beefy arthouse titles were cherrypicked in an unusually thin week for London Film Festival-style releases. But Transformers are one It's genuinely interesting and refreshing – it's a comedy film that doesn't shy away from poking fun at itself – while also fueling a series of visceral metal-monster-smash thrills.
The story unfolds long before the Autobot-Decepticon war. On the desolate planet Cybertron, the Autobots live underground – Cooley's first notable success was a vision of the subterranean Iconic City, in which jagged skyscrapers sprout from the ground but hang down like stalactites. It's a glossy, hyperrealistic style of computer animation designed to make this world of metal interesting. But not everything on Cybertron is polished and perfect. Long ago a war with alien Quintessian invaders lost the “Matrix of Leadership”. (I know. It's hard to believe that a movie called the Matrix of Leadership could be anything but risible, but you have to believe it.) Without the Matrix, Cybertron's life force, called Energon (again, I know), would have stopped flowing. The leader of the Autobots, Sentinel Prime (Jon Hamm), ventures across the planet's surface in search of the missing Matrix. Meanwhile, a lower class of contract laborers toil in the dangerous and unstable Energon mines. But one of the miners, Orion Box (Chris Hemsworth), has dreams beyond grinding, transforming the walls of the Enercon pit, and his best friend D-16 (Brian Tyree Henry), his former boss Elida-1 (Scarlett Johansson). ) and Carolus tag-along P-127 (Keegan-Michael Key), who heads to the surface to find the Matrix.
One of the things that makes this an unexpectedly satisfying piece of storytelling (besides the obvious improvements in comedy quality) is the way the film digs into the fabric of Autobot society. It's a harshly stratified world, somewhat reminiscent of a caste system: Miners – Autobots born without critical transformation – are predestined to undertake the grim work of supporting high-ranking Transformers. They have no say in their future, essentially providing slave labor for the benefit of the wider community. Meanwhile, a ruling class – the Prime Ministers – automatically provides the leadership of society. Which is fine, as long as the anointed Autobot dictator is benign. However, this, we soon learn, is not always the case. Faced with corrupt leadership, there are limited options for removing powers – the Autobots have yet to discover democracy, so voting for those in control is not an option. With this in mind, one begins to realize that violence is inherently difficult in Autobot culture.
At that level, the film is unlikely to disappoint the seasoned audience Transformers Fans: For all its self-deprecating humor and exploration of the strains of the friendship between Orion Box and D-16, the film lacks action. In a thrilling opening scene, the streets of the iconic city are transformed into a racetrack for an epic Transformers stock car rally. In another, Orion Box rescues a fellow miner from treacherous rocks with teeth like teeth on his limbs. And only one scene goes by where an Autobot isn't punched in the face. Something for everyone then.
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