Transformers One

Posted on September 25, 2025 by Tennyson

Vampire Owl: So, we are getting back to the transformer robots again.

Vampire Bat: Well, there have been too many infinite transformers for my liking.

Vampire Owl: Yes, and the first three seemed to have worked the best.

Vampire Bat: The first one is nothing less than a classic.

Vampire Owl: The youth who liked the robot cars fully supported them.

Vampire Bat: It was a new concept for our audience then in that age.

Vampire Owl: For this age, it is all about too much information and OTTs.

Vampire Bat: OTTs have brought so much in front of the new generation.

Vampire Owl: This includes a lot of Transformers too.

Vampire Bat: At least, there are no Vampire Robots, at least not yet.

[Gets a thattu dosa and three cups of Yercaud tea].

What is the movie about? :: Beyond the stars, Cybertron is a planet formed through technology from the deity known by the name Primus and is occupied by sentient robots. Their life is sustained by a substance called Energon without which most of them would cease to exist. With only Sentinel Prime (Jon Hamm) remaining among the Primes who were supposed to rule the planet, there is no Matrix of Leadership, without which Energon has stop flowing, forcing the robot miners to extract it. Sentinel has been telling his people about this loss and how the battle with alien invaders called Quintessons has left the surface of their planet not good for life anymore, leaving them to survive underneath all the time. The fear of Quintessons coming back for Energon, and the lack of the same resources have left their world quite a dull one. The newly established hierarchy based on whether robots possess a transformation cog that allows them to shapeshift, decides if the citizens would be miners or something in the higher hierarchy.

So, what happens with the events here as we just keep looking? :: Orion Pax (Chris Hemsworth) and D-16 (Brian Tyree Henry) are best friends among these miner robots without the transformation cog. They live in the lower level of the long hierarchy where they mine for Energon to sustain the people of their world underground while Sentinel Prime and his army led by Airachnid (Vanessa Liguori) travels to the surface in search of the Matrix of Leadership, and any trace of aliens. The unit of Orion and D-16 for mining is led by Elita-1 (Scarlett Johansson), an arrogant mining supervisor who is so focused on following the protocols that she feels that one day she will be promoted. But due to Orion’s compassion for another miner Jazz (Evan Michael Lee) leads to a breach of protocol to save the person during an accident, which leads to Elita-1 being demoted and D-16 getting punched on the face by their overseer Darkwing (Isaac C Singleton Jr) while defending his friends. Orion, being optimistic, promises to find a way to do something bigger.

And what more happens around here in a world of chaos? :: This is the time when Sentinel Prime returns and once again tells them that the Matrix of Leadership could not be found and Energon should continue to be mined, with a need to work harder. He still calls for a race for some entertainment, and in between the transforming robots, Orion and D-16 enters, and gets close before losing it. An impressed Sentinel Prime promises them a reward only for a defeated Darkwing to blame them and throws them to the garbage incineration level. There they meet B-127 (Keegan-Michael Key) who has been working there for a long time, at what would be one of those lowest levels of hierarchy. There they find the message of a Prime known as Alpha Trion (Laurence Fishburne) who seems to have put the coordinates to the Matrix of Leadership there. Now, the three are determined to take this message to Sentinel Prime or if possible, investigate all of these by themselves. But are they good enough to do that?

The defence of Transformers One :: This movie seems to qualify for the position for the best Transformers movie ever with the quality that it displays on the screen, and the known idea about autobots and its leader which it further spreads so well here. The journey into the past of past of autobots and decepticons is supported by rich storytelling which starts from the lower level, and also explores class divides in the process. The movie also talks about how the influential ones, and governing people manage to hold the commoners on the leash and also create an even lower class to work for them without much given in return. The idea of thinking process being manipulated is also seen here, and there is also that entertainment which is provided to the crowd to keep silent, and the telescreens which display only what the rulers wish for them to see. There is also that life underground prohibiting everyone from going outside in the name of danger – all of these seem to point to one thing, deception, and in other terms, a dystopian world; for these robots there are enough twists in store.

Positives and negatives :: The idea of this movie might be well known, but the elevation of the same here is much notable. The origin story of autobots and decepticons also gets a twist here, and this including Sentinel Prime goes for another path. The world here is shown more for a forced illusion for the crowd who are just dumb fans like people who celebrate celebrities in our world and would believe anything they say and are ready to die for them – a matrix to keep the order. We are given the feeling that there is something greater to come and mysteries to be revealed, with scope for rebellion present all the time. The beautiful animation helps the process, with the world here being too beautiful to compare to any animated film of Hollywood. The voices serve the purpose nicely, especially that of Chris Hemsworth. The high ratings are a reflection of the movie’s qualities, as all the action nicely adds on. There are still some predictability elements and the character development of newly formed villain that got some struggles.

How it finishes :: Transformers One is that Transformers movie about which most of us had no idea about when it was releasing. Usually, the Transformers movies come with some huge hype that would surround them as if they are Avengers or Jurassic Park, but not in this case – maybe it is because of the animated side, but we know how well the animated movies have been doing too. With so many movies with imaginary characters made in an epic format here, it has been difficult for big movies to make an impact among the audience, and that might have affected this one too. Looking at this movie, we can still be sure that there are better movies from one side, and most of those which we had around here in the name of epics were just copies. This one surely feels too good with what is shown on the screen and despite a little of the feeling that we have seen most of this before as much as the idea that is repeated. But we also know that this is such a great movie. This one will stay with us for long, even if late, as something even better than the live-action ones that came right at us.

Release date: 20th September 2024
Running time: 104 minutes
Directed by: Josh Cooley
Starring: Chris Hemsworth, Brian Tyree, Henry Scarlett, Johansson Keegan-Michael Key, Steve Buscemi, Laurence Fishburne, Jon Hamm

<<< Click here to go to the previous review.

@ Cemetery Watch
✠ The Vampire Bat.

The Last Knight

Posted on December 4, 2018 by Tennyson

Vampire Owl: This particular alien species seems to have too many movies about them.

Vampire Bat: Yes, these days, they have a lot more than vampire movies.

Vampire Owl: They even have so much of box-office collections.

Vampire Bat: It is strange, isn’t it? We, vampires have existed on Earth long before these people, and nowadays, we rarely have movies.

Vampire Owl: Some time ago, we were the trend. Even my zombie minions were trending.

Vampire Bat: That age seems to be gone. Even local superheroes trend more these days.

Vampire Owl: Even people from myth, like Thor are converted into huge box-office success.

Vampire Bat: Captain America, Iron Man, Spider-Man, Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman – they are all success; even as the teams of Avengers and Justice League.

Vampire Owl: Even X-Men with their Wolverine, Deadpool and more.

Vampire Bat: We should be back soon, and take whatever is ours.

[Gets three cups of cardamom tea with Nice biscuits].

What is the movie about? :: The last Transformers movie, Transformers: Age of Extinction had ended with Optimus Prime (Peter Cullen) ending with sending a message to his creators that he was coming for them. Lockdown (Mark Ryan) as well as Galvatron (Frank Welker) were defeated, but things haven’t really changed much. Transformers continued to be declared outlaws by human government, and a new military wing known as the Transformer Reaction Force (TRF) is now in action against all those new transforming robots, both autobots and decepticons which keep falling on our planet. There is the possibility of an alien invasion being asserted by all governments, and there is nothing more than a threat as far as the alien transformers are concerned. With Optimus Prime having left to meet the makers of transformers, things are the worst situation for his kind that are left on Earth, being hunted and destroyed by humans and their drones at will.

So, what happens next in the movie? :: An orphan Izabella (Isabela Moner) tries to save a few transformers in between, with Sqweeks (Reno Wilson) as the last one left on her side. They are about to be captured by the human troops, but are saved by Bumblebee (Erik Aadahl), Hound (John Goodman) and Cade Yeager (Mark Wahlberg) who are leading the resistance of autobots, hiding themselves far away from trouble, with Crosshairs (John DiMaggio), Drift (Ken Watanabe), Wheelie (Tom Kenny) and the randomly visiting scavenger Daytrader (Steve Buscemi). A talisman is attached to Cade by a transformer knight before dying, while they were trying to save Izabella in the area which was more like a transformer graveyard. The team of decepticons are aware of the same from Barricade (Jess Harnell), and comes looking for them at their hiding place, a junkyard, as Megatron (Frank Welker) with his team, launches an attack which pushes the autobots out of hiding.

And what is to follow next in this adventure? :: At the same time, there is the history of humans coming together with that of transformers on Earth. Sir Edmund Burton (Anthony Hopkins), the twelfth Earl of Folgan, who is an astronomer and historian, is one of the experts in the same. There is the unknown tale of King Arthur (Liam Garrigan) and his knights struggling in a terrible battle against the Saxons who got them almost defeated. Edmund’s version of history says that it is the Knights of Iacon, a team of twelve Transformers who were hiding on Earth that helped Arthur and his knights to triumph over the Saxons as they transformed together into a dragon. But what remains from those days is an ancient staff which holds unlimited power. Meanwhile, Optimus Prime meets their maker, Quintessa (Gemma Chan), a Cybertronian Sorceress who brainwashes him into destroying Earth to rebuild their home planet of Cyberton. So, with enemies all around, can autobots and Earth make it to a safer situation?

The defence of Transformers: The Last Knight :: You are going to praise the visuals of this one too, as that quality is maintained with ease here – all that you see on the screen will have your attention. The universe of this movie is nothing less than breath-taking, as we have all those things which could light up the screen with ease. There comes the question about what you really need with this movie, and if it is this escapism into a world of chaos and destruction which looks great on the screen, with big action sequences, there is not reason why you shouldn’t choose this movie. These movies will not be banned here either, as nothing from Indian history is made to be related to the Transformers – lets hope that the other movie makers also take a lesson from the Padmavati episode, and deviate, combine or transcreate through history, myth and fiction. You will notice that Mark Wahlberg is very good in this avatar, and Laura Haddock is lovely, and she might be the best leading actress in this franchise so far as far as acting is concerned. Isabela Moner is good young talent while Anthony Hopkins is once again joy to watch.

The claws of flaw :: Transformers: The Last Knight needed more ideas, and a better tale to go with this kind of a thing which has existed for so long. But here, they have added so many things without taking much of care about dealing with them in the better ways. It is as if they are attributing everything to Transformers, and the victory of King Arthur or Saxons is just one of them – there are the wars, discoveries, inventions, assassinations, mysteries, and all that have important places in history being credited to the Transformers and their actions. The movie is long, rather too long, and there are so many moments which could have been cut off from this one. We are also tired of having this Optimus Prime saying the same thing again and again, and Bumblebee being a special Transformer for no reason – at the same time, Megatron goes through varying degree of powers; there is no consistency at all, with this one. They used to have a weapon specialist called Ironhide giving him the best moments of the first movie, and then they successfully kill him in a dumb sequel.

How it finishes :: Transformers: The Last Knight never really makes the franchise any better. It is not better than Transformers: Age of Extinction, and is only better than Transformers: Dark of the Moon, which is undoubtedly the worst movie of the whole franchise which seems to continue to try for more of similar kind of movies without focusing on anything new. The first movie had everything going in the right direction, but for some reason, the franchise refuses to go any higher or even keep the same level. You will find this movie in the Transformers franchise to be an entertaining one too, but there is that certain question about how far the series can go, as there seems to be the problem of running out of ideas. If we think about it, that would be kind of depressing, and so, lets go on watching these movies, and hope that there would be change with one of those movies, and Transformers would get bigger with the story rather than anything else. You can actually watch this one as a stand-alone flick without having watched any other flick from the series.

Release date: 21st June 2017
Running time: 154 minutes
Directed by: Michael Bay
Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Laura Haddock, Isabela Moner, Josh Duhamel, Stanley Tucci, Anthony Hopkins, Jerrod Carmichael, Santiago Cabrera, John Turturro, Glenn Morshower, Liam Garrigan, Mitch Pileggi, Tony Hale, Gil Birmingham, Peter Cullen, Jim Carter, Erik Aadahl, Ken Watanabe, Omar Sy, John Goodman, John DiMaggio, Reno Wilson, Tom Kenny, Steven Barr, Steve Buscemi, Mark Ryan, Frank Welker, Jess Harnell

<— Click here to go to the previous review.

@ Cemetery Watch
✠ The Vampire Bat.

Transformers IV

Posted on June 28, 2014 by Tennyson

Vampire Owl :: Isn’t this the movie in which your Chevrolet Beat transforms?

Vampire Bat :: No, it doesn’t. The best it can do is to transform into a Titanic on on our roads on a monsoon season giving company to the other cars.

Vampire Owl :: Shouldn’t the movie at least feature you?

Vampire Bat :: Why me? When was the last time I transformed?

Vampire Owl :: It is named Age of Extinction. I think Vampire Bats are going extinct. Nobody really likes you. Even Poe prefers a raven at night.

Vampire Bat :: No, that is not true. There are people who like me, like Count Dracula, Batman, the cute zombie girl next door and twelve thousand two hundred and fifty three normal vampires. I might even have a candlelight dinner with Countess Dracula.

Vampire Owl :: I hope you take this lightly, but Countess Dracula is dead.

Vampire Bat :: What? When?

Vampire Owl :: I am not sure, but that should be about four hundred years ago or so?

Vampire Bat :: It is difficult being immortal; you have to watch good people suffering and bad people thriving.

[Enters the movie hall].

What is it about? :: Years have passed since the last battle between autobots and decepticons which left the city in ruins and so many people dead, making it difficult for the government to rebuild it again, and as a result, all the aliens were declared fugitives and there was not going to be any combined efforts between humans and the autobots anymore. Another transformer called Lockdown who belongs to neither of the two factions is shown to help the government in doing the same, with a promise of something in return for the capture of the autobot leader, Optimus Prime. Meanwhile, the human research on dead transformers is progressing, and there was the discovery of transformium, a metal which is unstable and can transform, creating more of such robots which can replace human soldiers in the case of a war. With the help of a captured Brains, they are slowly using this metal to build transformers which accept command from the humans, including Galvatron, Stinger and Junkheap. At the same time, Cade Yeager (Mark Wahlberg) and his friend Lucas Flannery (T. J. Miller) purchase an old truck in hope of helping Tessa Yeager (Nicola Peltz) in her studies with the money they can get from selling the parts. But that truck would be Optimus Prime in hiding and things will take a turn.

The defence of Transformers: Age of Extinction :: The movie has great battles, as robots collide and fight against each other in a war which lets sparks fly and makes things come towards you in 3D which is a nice visual extravaganza. The special effects nicely compliment the action sequences, and the chaotic world is nice to watch with transformations to come with the same. There are the nice cars to which the robots transform which look better than ever. The best scene is that which involves the huge spaceship which wanders in the sky, and also uses its powers with all the possible awesomeness as far as a movie like this is concerned. The destruction is also taken to another level. The transformations also take a twist, with dinobots having robots transforming into giant dinosaurs as well as the human constructed transformers having their own way of changing, all of them contributing in a different manner. The three machines which are better than the others are the Optimus Prime and Galvatron (Pacific Rim‘s Gypsy Danger’s evil twin) trucks along with the cars of Lockdown and Stinger. There is a lot for the Transformers fans to cheer about, as the awesome heroes once again go on their mission to save planet Earth with the support of a very few human allies. The human greed and the inherent evil are also nicely shown.

The claws of flaw :: The movie suffers from the usual problems with the plot which we can associate with all the Transformers movies which try to follow the path of the original with one villain at a time, Megatron, Fallen and Sentinel Prime who were in the previous movies make way for Lockdown, and Megatron is once again here being the secondary villain, just in another form. There is also the old truck Optimus Prime who refuses to stay in the grave and comes back from the dead as the metallic zombie which I have always hoped to have stayed dead or refusing to die at all. Bumblebee continues to be overrated and lives, while the kill off the last interesting robot from the first movie, Ratchet, something which they already did to Jazz and Ironhide. The robot design is also more complicated, but at the same time, horribly flawed, as we no longer see the usual robot faces, but creatures with face of Japanese Samurai and those with beard and smoking cigars, something which looks so dumb in the detail. The plot gets predictable by the second half, and the addition of dinobots is nice variety, but the way in which they are introduced is lame. The movie is also too long and has too many repetitive fights which often makes the viewers wonder if they had already seen all these. The characterization is another case for downfall.

Performances of the soul :: Mark Wahlberg is rock solid in this movie, and it is good to see him instead of the usual cast that we had, because he is always one of those nice action stars who are suitable to play this kind of role which involves being the hero and yet not being the strongest one around. Here he is, being the mechanic, father and action hero all at the same time, and makes it work even as his character is not without flaws. Nicola Peltz is more about being the beauty among the population which are mostly robots or action heroes, and being the one with teenage girl problems and having problems with her father. She looks great and proves that one thing. Sophia Myles and Li Bingbing also contributes to the overall beauty, having nothing too much with their characters. T. J. Miller provides some comic side which is there only for some time. Stanley Tucci’s partially villainous character also provides some comic relief during the intense action, but it only works partially – not something which the Transformers franchise haven’t tried before and often succeeded; other times proving the inherent dumbness. Jack Reynor has a nice presence, as what can be called the supporting actor, but as a need for our girlfriend to have a love interest. Kelsey Grammer is a nice villain, but not fully utilized and forced to come second. Titus Welliver also comes up with a strong performance.

Soul exploration :: The movie leaves with hope for a sequel, but the question remains if it has a soul to work on. It had the always-ready-to-die Optimus Prime with an ideal, but that is actually less worked on now. The autobot-decepticon enmity has also gone the wrong way. At the same time, the movie has given us an idea about how bad the effects of science and technology can be, and there are secrets that should be left alone, for there are other things that humanity should focus on, as they are that species which are infested by greed, hatred, lust and envy. The technology is rarely safe in the hands of man, as they are incapable of handling the same due to the presence of their inherent evil nature. When the movie goes on to be a massive success story at the box-office, the one thing we have to think about is how well it has portrayed humanity and the problems caused by its pride. Even a robot knows better than humans who are blessed with better teachers throughout the centuries, and even with all the knowledge that they have gathered, man fails to be good, and it is a case of shame. Then in finding the creators, they are indeed Prometheus infested.

How it finishes :: I had considered Transformers: Dark of the Moon as the worst Transformers movie of all time, and I will stick to the same, but I would still think that our movie here has got more problems in its story-line than the others, but it does make up with the better special effects and action sequences, plus Mark Wahlberg who looks very well suited for this kind of role. Still, except for the first Transformers movie which I have watched so many times already, I wouldn’t dare to watch another one of this franchise again. I would suggest you watch the robots of Pacific Rim rather than watch the aliens of this movie if given a choice. But there is no denying that this movie is pure entertainment, except for the fact that its lack of brain and the repetition, along with the terrible length makes the situation a bit intolerable to a few. Transformers fans should like this movie a lot, and the new additions can impress a number of viewers. This is one of those non-superhero Hollywood movies which are running houseful right from the day it was released, and one can be sure that this is not the end for this franchise, and this sequel is going to collect a lot of money.

Release date: 27th June 2014
Running time: 165 minutes
Directed by: Michael Bay
Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Nicola Peltz, Kelsey Grammer, Stanley Tucci, Jack Reynor, Sophia Myles, Li Bingbing, Titus Welliver, T. J. Miller, Melanie Specht, Victoria Summer