Scarlett Johansson's 2024 Sci-Fi Flop Streaming On Prime Video Deserves A Second Chance

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The Michael Bay "Transformers" films' loud, obnoxious refusal to improve meant audiences grew tired of them. Come 2024, the animated prequel movie "Transformers One" became a box office disappointment. In a cruel twist of fate, "Transformers One" earned enthusiastic reviews from the people who did see it (read /Film's review here). But between a decade of "Transformers" as the nadir of Hollywood, and an underwhelming marketing campaign for "Transformers One," those good reviews probably sounded like the little bot who cried wolf.

While a "Transformers One" sequel is currently unlikely, the film can be enjoyed streaming on Prime Video (as well as Paramount+ and MGM+). Directed by Josh Cooley, it's set entirely on the Transformers' alien homeworld, Cybertron. The film answers questions like why Megatron's army calls themselves "Decepticons," or how Optimus Prime became a worthy leader.

"Transformers One" uses a celebrity voice cast, but they're all excellent. Chris Hemsworth plays Orion Pax (the young Optimus Prime), while Brian Tyree Henry is his best pal D-16 (the future Megatron). Scarlett Johansson plays Elita, manager of the Energon mining team Orion and D-16 are part of. After Orion disobeys Elita's orders to save their coworker Jazz (Evan Michael Lee) from a cave-in, she's demoted. She tags along on the duo's trip to the surface with B-127 (Keegan-Michael Key), where they learn the horrible truth of Cybertron's leader, Sentinel Prime (Jon Hamm).

Elita knows she's the smartest of our four heroes, but while she spends most of the movie dogging on Orion, she drags him out of his late second-act funk. "This blind optimism that you have is why you make such bold and courageous choices ... that are also extremely stupid," Elita tells Pax. "You're inspiring. You can envision a better future that no one else can see." 

The spark of "Transformers One" is Orion Pax, D-16, and the destruction of their friendship. In most modern "Transformers" stories, Optimus Prime and Megatron share a history like Obi-Wan Kenobi and Darth Vader in "Star Wars" or Professor X and Magneto from "X-Men" — once friends, now bitter enemies. In keeping with that comparison, "Transformers One" is similar to "Revenge of the Sith" or "X-Men: First Class."

At the beginning, both Orion and D are "cogless," meaning they (and other miners like Elita) can't transform. While they're on the lowest rung of Cybertronian society, they both want to be recognized for more. Orion is an adventurous soul who wants more out of life and will break the rules (though never anyone else) to get it. D, who's always rescuing his buddy from trouble, thinks diligence and following the rules are the way to get ahead.

Then, they learn the truth: Sentinel killed the true Primes, sold out Cybertron to alien invaders (the Quintessons), and had the miners' cogs removed before they came online to enslave them. Orion wants to set things right, while D-16 wants revenge. That anger splits them apart, but it builds to a crescendo of a third act that elevates "Transformers One" from "fun kids movie" to a story that reaches greatness.

D-16 tells Orion, "I'm done saving you," as he lets his friend fall to his doom. It gives me chills every time I watch it. This leads to the movie's peak, as D-16 tears Sentinel apart before all of Cybertron and proclaims himself Megatron, while the ghostly Primes bestow the Matrix of Leadership on the dying Orion. As Elita said, he's a hero because of his optimistic spirit, and so he becomes Optimus Prime.

"Transformers One" is filled with allusions to 1986's "The Transformers: The Movie," the spin-off movie of the original cartoon. While that movie featured the last battle between Optimus Prime and Megatron (crafted with some help from famed Batman writer Frank Miller), "Transformers One" shows their origins. In doing so, it redefines pieces of "Transformers" lore to give them new weight.

Take transformation itself; the best "Transformers" stories give the concept more depth than just a cool action figure gimmick. In "Transformers One," transformation — or a robot reshaping its own body — is tied to personal autonomy. Sentinel Prime stripped away both the miners' literal transformation cogs and their capacity to decide who they are. Optimus Prime's historic motto is that "freedom is the right of all sentient beings," and "Transformers One' shows why he holds to that.

The 1986 "Transformers" movie also introduced an Autobot rallying cry: "Till all are one." (It could be read to mean the end of the Autobot-Decepticon war, or final reunion in the afterlife, or both.) In "Transformers One," Orion becomes a leader when he inspires the miners to rise up, together, as one: "I'm offering you your first real choice: You can work a 23rd shift and mine yourself to death, or fight back against Sentinel with me, right now!"

Conversely, the Decepticons believe in a different power of one: "The strength of one bot over another." D-16 realized he'd been deceived into willing servitude and refused to let anyone else control his fate but himself. The other Decepticons fall in line behind the will of the strongest one, compared to Optimus Prime, uplifting the miners into free and unified Autobots. 

"Transformers One" is streaming on Prime Video.