Film Talk: Avengers alumni back together for Transformers One
They were robots in disguise, and we all wanted to be them.
For a child of the 80s, Transformers were the ultimate in playtime paradise. Intricate and imaginative, they were the toy that kept on giving, bringing smiles to millions across the globe.
I will never forget when six-year-old me was introduced to an Autobot that could turn into a fighter jet. I only put it down for the first time when I was 20, and this was only because Cybertron’s finest were about to make their ‘live-action’ cinematic debut.
Following the 2007 Transformers flick, Optimus Prime, Bumblebee and the rest of the gang have graced the silver screen a further six times, and now they’re back with lucky number seven in the form of an animated adventure.
With an all-star voice cast, Transformers One drops today to give audiences the origin tale of Prime and his arch-nemesis Megatron. And who doesn’t love to lap up a good origin tale? They’ve worked jolly well for Marvel over the years, and it is in fact one of the MCU’s favourite sons who is leading the charge here.
Bringing his fabled guns to the gun show of all gun shows, Chris Hemsworth is lending his vocal chords to the cause, opposite Brian Tyree Henry and fellow Avenger, Scarlett Johansson.
But does the man who so very much possessed the power of Thor have what it takes to step into the shoes of another hallowed cult icon? And how does the franchise handle a swerve to full animation?
For the kid in all of us, this one represents a good time to be alive, but does it do justice to our beloved childhood memories?
Autobots/Avengers, assemble. It’s time to get our Cybertr... on.
TRANSFORMERS ONE (UK PG/ROI PG, 104 mins)
Released: October 11 (UK & Ireland)
Before Batman, there was millionaire playboy Bruce Wayne. Before Wolverine, there was 19th-century Canadian outcast James Howlett. And before Bananaman, there was unassuming schoolboy Eric Wimp.
Many fictional superheroes rise to greatness from humble or tragic origins and the same is true for the hardworking robots of Transformers One, which burrows deep beneath the surface of planet Cybertron to unearth the formative years of Autobot and Decepticon leaders Optimus Prime and Megatron.
Directed at a brisk pace by Josh Cooley, this slick and entertaining computer-animated prequel serves up a fizzy cocktail of turbo-charged action, humour and heartfelt emotion.
Screenwriters Eric Pearson, Andrew Barrer and Gabriel Ferrari fire up the circuit boards of familiar characters from the long-running series including Bumblebee, Starscream, Soundwave and music-loving Jazz, fraying bonds of brotherhood until lifelong friends become sworn enemies and unresolved conflict neatly lays the groundwork for Transformers Two and Three.
A plot twist is clearly telegraphed and won’t surprise anyone old enough to recall the 1984 animated TV show which supported the launch of the original toy line.
Digitally rendered visuals spark pangs of nostalgia for that bygone small screen incarnation. Keegan-Michael Key gleefully scene-steals as a motormouth automaton, who has created a trio of imaginary friends from scrap metal.
He banters to delightful effect with an A-list voice cast spearheaded by Chris Hemsworth, Brian Tyree Henry and Scarlett Johansson.
Orion Pax (voiced by Hemsworth) and best friend D-16 (Henry) are mining robots in the city of Iacon, who proudly harvest Energon from the core of planet Cybertron to power their subterranean world and serve noble leader Sentinel Prime (Jon Hamm).
He is sole survivor of an epic battle between the first Transformers, the Thirteen Primes, and invading alien race the Quintessons.
Since this cataclysmic skirmish, robots have lived beneath ground while diabolical victors rule the surface of the planet.
Flanked by loyal spider-like lieutenant Airachnid (Vanessa Liguori), who transforms into a jet, Sentinel Prime leads expeditions on the surface to locate a fabled artefact called The Matrix Of Leadership and tip the balance of power back in favour of robots.
A twist of fate propels Orion Pax and D-16 above ground in the company of robots Elita-1 (Johansson) and B-127 (Key).
The plucky quartet stumbles upon ancient sage Alpha Trion (Laurence Fishburne), who bestows the Thirteen Primes’ cogs to them so Orion Pax, D-16, Elita-1 and B-127 can finally shapeshift.
Transformers One out-muscles every live-action outing of the robots in disguise except for 2018’s delightful coming-of-age story Bumblebee.
Stakes feel satisfyingly high, even with the certainty that key characters must survive to preserve the franchise’s 40-year legacy.
Cooley’s animated odyssey shifts smoothly through the gears, building to a thunderous final action sequence that would be prohibitively expensive as a live-action spectacle.
BUFFALO KIDS (UK PG/ROI G, 82 mins)
Released: October 11 (UK & Ireland)
Boundless optimism and naivete cocoon two stranded siblings from the harsh realities of 19th-century life in a Spanish computer-animated escapade co-directed by Juan Jesus Garcia Galocha and Pedro Solis Garcia, which has been cheerfully dubbed into English for family audiences.
Expanded from the award-winning 2014 animated short Strings, which was inspired by the relationship between co-director Garcia’s daughter Alejandra and youngest son Nicolas, who had severe cerebral palsy, Buffalo Kids plucks heartstrings with the same eagerness as a banjo on the rootin’ tootin’ soundtrack composed by Fernando Velazquez.
Touchingly, the film is dedicated to Nico’s memory.
Scriptwriters Jordi Gasull and Javier Lopez Barreira, working with English language script consultants Neil Landau and Hawa Macalou, canter roughshod over common sense and realism.
Somehow, a wee scrap of a girl vertically lifts a boy in a wheelchair onto a raised platform without assistance, gun-toting bandits possess the engineering nous to construct a crank-driven 30-foot mountainside wall to conceal their covert mining operation, and three characters conveniently lodge in the same place at the same time to facilitate a dewy-eyed reunion.
Such unremitting sweetness may cause dental cavities.
The two directors apply a gentle touch to deeply personal material, while lightly addressing the reluctance of some parents to adopt a child with disabilities.
Orphaned siblings Tom (voiced by Conor MacNeill) and Mary (Alisha Weir) arrive in 1886 New York City from Ireland aboard the ocean liner Alexandra just as the Statue of Liberty is unveiled with a pyrotechnic-laden fanfare.
The youngsters have come to America to live with their uncle Niall (Stephen Graham) but their relative fails to materialise at the docks, leaving the tykes stranded with a stray dog which they christen Sparky.
Unperturbed, the children plan to travel by train to Niall’s home in Sacramento and they sneak aboard the Express Coast Railway among a group of travelling orphans under the care of governess Eleanor (Gemma Arterton).
As the train chugs towards a first stop in Omaha, Mary befriends a non-verbal boy in a wheelchair named Nick, who has cerebral palsy.
Dastardly outlaw Wilson (Sean Bean) and his men hold up the train and Tom, Mary and Nick orchestrate a daring rescue plan with the help of Cheyenne tribal chief Yellow Wolf and his granddaughter Red Moon.
Buffalo Kids harnesses the luck of the Irish to slalom around plot holes and neatly extinguish tension between the United States Army and indigenous peoples without a single careless pull of a trigger.
Scenes of mild peril shouldn’t disturb the young: one child limps after incurring an animal bite, another lingers briefly between life and death following a selfless act of heroism.
Explosive flatulence ultimately saves the day and jeopardy is gone with the wind.
TIMESTALKER (UK 15/ROI 15A TBC, 90 mins)
Released: October 11 (UK & Ireland, selected cinemas)
A fateful infatuation ripples across space and time in writer-director-actor Alice Lowe’s wildly ambitious comedy drama, which ricochets through seven eras including brief flashes of a Paleolithic age when feral cavepeople wrestle with primal desires.
Lowe’s heroine Agnes is condemned to squander her life in pursuit of a man who does not return her admiration.
Repeatedly dismissed as a fusty-lugs mopsy, Agnes only comes to her senses after she lingers briefly in heavenly limbo.
Timestalker could leave many in limbo between amusement, admiration and bewilderment, yet serves as an original, genre-melding vision of emancipation, female empowerment and generational trauma, spiked with deadpan humour.
Lowe’s script appropriates the plot mechanics of Groundhog Day to allow Agnes to return after impalement, decapitation or a squelchy close encounter with the wheel of a Victorian horse-drawn carriage.
