About one month ago, I got to watch The latest Transformers movie, Transformers: One with my friends. To be frank, It was quite literally amazing. I loved it. From the action, to the emotional storytelling and the soundtrack. It was a rollercoaster of a movie, but it was a really good one.
One of the many things I love about this movie is the relationship between the familiar main leads, Orion Pax, soon to be Optimus Prime, and D-16, soon to be Megatron. They have such a complex relationship in this movie, and which so so different then when I think about the original generation one origins of these characters. D-16 is a miner, and so is Orion Pax throughout this movie, and the class struggle they both face, being the essential ‘working class’ of cybertronian society is incredibly important to the movie, and also serves in great contrast when richer bots like Sentinel Prime or Airachnid are introduced (Especially Sentinel, who has statues of himself plastered all over cybertron.)
I love Megatron’s (or d-16’s) pretty obvious class struggle, and his dichotomy with Optimus Prime (orion-pax). You can especially see this when Sentinel Primes betrayal of the original thirteen primes is revealed. In contrast to Optimus’ noble talks of saving “them” and “our home” (cybertron), Megatron centers himself in the discussion emphasizing his personal pronouns with the use of “he took everything from me” and how he wants to put sentinel in chains. It is saddening, but the writers really did want us to slowly see d-16 turn into Megatron, and you can quite literally see it, even with his eyes darkening throughout the movie.
Its brilliant details like this that really make me love this movie even more, I mean, how can someone come up with this? It still makes me tear up a little.
It is also apparent how much faith the general public put back into transformers after this movie came out. I mean, even in my theater, the entire audience clapped when the movie was over. It was that good. It is just such a good feeling to know that the casual fan is just as hyped as someone like myself-a Transformers obsessed person.
Honestly, the most profound and heartbreaking moment for me was at the very climax of the movie, when Megatron shoots Orion Pax, and then after grabbing his hand to prevent him falling-the last time we see a glimpse of d-16 still left inside of him-he then drops Optimus, letting his old self go, and embracing his evil. At the same time, Optimus Prime also rises, and we see him go from a miner to a great leader, all while Megatron is doing his own monologue. This is just another example of the brilliance in this film, and I love it so much.
Overall, Transformers: One is an amazingly good movie and I think everyone reading this should watch it. It is totally worth the hour and a half of viewing.
