Rated PG

TRANSFORMERS ONE is a prequel that shows the origins of hero Optimus Prime and villain Megatron. The story goes back to their home world when they were young robots who fought together against an oppressive leader.

I don’t care how much the other movies have made, having a Transformers movie free of the chaos and beer-commercial filmmaking of Michael Bay is a breath of fresh air. Sure, it’s still noisy, cluttered and bombastic, but at least this movie is coherent.

As an animated film, it taps into the sugar-cereal-fueled excitement of Saturday morning cartoons, so it should be a winner for the kids that have these any of these various toys.

It has a limited reach to the adults in the room, but it mercifully doesn’t overstay its welcome… unlike most of the bloated live-action movies in the series.

Come for the robots, and stay for the child-like fun. TRANSFORMERS ONE gets three Autobots out of five. I’m Kevin Carr, and that’s the way I see it.

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