Transformers One (Josh Cooley, 2024) & Uglies (McG, Netflix, 2024)
In this issue I bring you not one but two feature films that deal with transformation: one from Lowly Miner to Optimus Prime, the other from Ugly to Pretty.
TRANSFORMERS (Josh Cooley, 2024)
Transformers One is the mostly satisfying animated prequel to the live-action series.
This origin story charts the friendship of Optimus Prime and Magnatron, back when they were still called Orion Pax (voiced by Chris Hemsworth) and D-16 (Byron Tyree Henry), working as lowly miners on the planet of Cybertron without the ability to transform.
The movie is directed by Academy Award-winner Josh Cooley (Toy Story 4), working from a script by Andrew Barrer, Gabriel Ferrari and Eric Pearson, experienced writers who worked on various Marvel-movies - the first two have Ant-Man and the Wasp on their resume, while Pearson is credited with Thor: Ragnarok and Black Widow.
Transformers One offers up a heady mix of action, comedy and drama set in an attractive science fiction setting, mixing crisp visuals with an effective but slightly predictable story.
Highlight of the first half of the movie is when Orion Pax and D-16 illegally enter the yearly Iacon 5000 race - and almost (almost!) take the W from the racing elite. Simply put, it’s breathtaking stuff.
This derring do seems to impress Cybertron leader Sentinel Prime (Jon Hamm, jamming it up rather gleefully), but pretty soon the daring duo find themselves worse off than before.
Together with Bumblebee (Keegan Michael Key) and Elita-1 (Scarlett Johansson) they really have to find a way to rise from the bottom to the top.
Once the fearsome (well…) foursome develop the power to transform, their personal transformation would seem to be over, but the movie has still some way to go.
The evil Sentinel Prime has to be fought, Orion and D-16 have to transform from friends to foes, while also having to transform into their future selves, since in the final stretch the buddy movie of the first half does become a real Transformers movie.
Transformers One is not as great as the Spider-Verse movies (or the Toy Story movies, for that matter), but compared to some of the live action Transformers-movies this animated movie often feels like absolute bliss.
UGLIES (McG, Netflix, 2024)
A committed performance by Jaime King is probably the best thing about Uglies, a science fiction movie about the battle between outer and inner beauty that mostly deals in surface amusements.
Uglies is based on the popular Young Adult novel by Scott Westerfeld, which spawned three sequels and a spin-off series.
It was adapted for the screen by Jacob Forman, Vanessa Taylor and Whit Anderson, and directed by McG, who once upon a time became famous because he directed two Charlie’s Angels movies (the ones with Drew Barrymore, Lucy Liu and Cameron Diaz) and then made his best work with the horror movie The Babysitter (starring Samara Weaving).
McG is one of those directors who likes to keep the pedal to the medal, and Uglies is no exception, which actually helps this relatively painless affair, compensating for a predictable story arc and performative messaging.
Uglies takes place a couple of hundred years into the future, on a planet Earth that was destroyed by fossil fuels and then rebuild with plant based energy.
In a world that’s still strangely obsessed with physical beauty, all teenagers get to undergo special surgery on their sixteenth birthday to enhance both their features and their futures.
Cause, you know, in a world filled with Pretty People there will be no more racism or other kinds of inequality. Yeah, right…
Tally Youngblood (King) has been looking forward to her transformation all her life, but her best friend Peris (Chase Stokes) will get there before her, as he is two months older. Her nickname is Squint, his is Nose, so those are the things that will be taken care of. Also, Tally’s face is asymmetric, you know, yeah, the horror.
Strange thing is, once Peris has had his transformation, it seems he’s not quite the same anymore, like he’s blanded out, not feeling very much anymore. Pretty people don’t have real feelings, right?
Tally strikes up a friendship with Shay (Brianne Tju), who tells her about The Smoke, led by the mysterious David (Keith Powers), a secret place in the wild, where a band of outsiders live, who choose freedom and independence over beauty and conformity.
Soon, Tally comes into conflict with supreme leader Dr. Cable (Laverne Cox), who tries to use the girl to get rid off The Smoke. It’s pretty standard stuff, but entertaining enough if you still have a craving for Young Adult franchises like Divergent or The Hunger Games (which is actually still going).
McG uses a lot of CGI to create his dystopian (and dysfunctional) future, but the cast carries the picture and King, who is in almost every scene, seizes the opportunity to make one of her dream roles come alive in a convincing fashion - with the distinct possibility of a sequel if viewing numbers are high enough.
Uglies is, ultimately, too derivative for its own good, but I have no doubt that the star of the Kissing Booth movies, who was actually pretty great as Prince in Bullet Train, will go on to star in, perhaps not bigger, but better movies.