Film Preview: Transformers One (2024)

Film Poster

Page Revisions:

(April 28, 2024) Original
(September 15, 2024) New Posters (#6-#22)
(September 22, 2024) New Trailer (#2)

Release Date:

September 20, 2024

Synopsis:

From IMDb: “The untold origin story of Optimus Prime and Megatron, better known as sworn enemies, but once were friends bonded like brothers who changed the fate of Cybertron forever.”

Poster Rating: C+ / C (4) / C / C+ / C / C (2) / C / C+ (4) / B+ / C / C+ / C+ / C- / C- / B

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Review: (#1, C+) Bulky figures with cheap-looking grins and an unimpressive background just doesn’t scream “watch me” to fans of the franchise. (#2-#5, C) While the colors to these character posters are generally unique, as are the figures, the backgrounds almost look too similar in places, which makes it hard to see any sufficient effort put into them.

(#6, #8, C) These designs don’t differ terribly much from one another, which makes them feel a bit unnecessary. (#7, C+) While it is slightly better than the previous four I mentioned, it isn’t terribly different color-wise. This one stands out for having a nice visual balance between images without allowing too much empty space to distract. (#9-#10, C) These two character posters are incredibly dull with minimal background info and while the shadows include weapons that aren’t evident in the foreground, there’s nothing interesting about the way they are arrayed. (#11, C) This is a unique design for this film and that deserves some praise but it’s soo monumentally bland that it can’t earn much more praise. (#12-#15, C+) A dull array of character posters that at least have unique settings and color schemes and seem to be trying to set each apart without being copies of one another. That said, they still don’t spark interest as they all feel rather dull in execution and color balance. (#16, B+) Finally, a unique design that sparks interest in the viewer. It’s original in that it avoids the computer-generated simulacrums that have been overwhelmingly employed while featuring all the characters in an array a drawing that reminds favorably of the original source material in ’80s cartoons.

(#17, C) These two designs try to tone down the excessive use of vibrant colors in the prior designs, which helps the primary figures in this stand out starkly. (#18, C+) Dolby’s designs must always employ the logo in unique ways and that makes this effort pop against other designs for various formats. That it doesn’t have much detail in itself is a bit of a disappointment. (#19, C+) The effort is appreciated but the end result is something of a blur of colors that don’t work incredibly well together, at least as so blurred here. They look like something an inexperienced artist put together thinking the gradients in their programs were good starting points. (#20, C-) There is very little to this other than a light axe attachment that doesn’t look very cool or threatening. The background, despite being detailed, still feels empty and the face-off concept simply doesn’t excite. (#21, C-) Another generic fight design but one that has an almost empty background and nothing much interesting in the foreground either. (#22, B) This uses a similar style to design #16 but employs a lot more empty space, which knocks it down a notch.

Trailer Rating: C- / C

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Review: (#1, C-) The leaden humor makes this trailer feel like a poor attempt to bring Transformers fans to the theater with their kids without providing anything for those ’80s kids show fans to enjoy. That and it seems odd that these transformers found car forms before even identifying Earth and trying to blend in with that population through vehicles that are “more than meets the eye,” a tepid reference to which is made early in the trailer. The vocal work is also mediocre, which makes this trailer ultimately disappointing.

(#2, C) A little bit funnier than the first trailer, the action isn’t as compelling nor are the story beats, which are presented almost as an afterthought to telling the viewer that it’s a Transformers first and only.

Oscar Prospects:

While it’s tempting to think that every major animated feature could have Oscar potential but this is an origin story for a series of live-action films based on a Saturday morning cartoon. This has the makings of fool’s gold.