The Transformers: The Movie (2024)

A Disappointing Continuation

it is the rare 'crazy' movie that actually has something to say.

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

With the announcement that the transformers the movie will be hitting theaters for a limited time in the fall I thought I'd write my review of the beloved film. Man I LOVE IT. It's ones of those films that you know isn't that great but you watch it any way. The animation is Truely a specifical and the music by Vince dicola is a soundtrack that I listen to over and over again aaaah it's an amazing score. The plot is pretty simple and bearbones it's nothing special but one thing you won't be while watching this is bored like I said it's one big ball of 80s fun just listening to the soundtrack alone. If your a transformers fan A MUST WATCH. An animation fan A MUST WATCH. Or just a hardcore 80s nostalgia attict A MUST WATCH. But due to the below average not engaging story gotta give it a 6/10

In hindsight that's the most significant comment I could make about this movie. If you compare Transformers the Movie (1986) to the Transformers films they made from the mid 2000's and onward, you've got it all laid on a silver platter for you: the difference between the 80's/90's golden age period and the sort of bland disposable pop culture that is the bread and butter of today's world.Transformers the Movie wasn't just a cult series cartoon turned into a full-length film. It had a number of things that made it totally distinct and memorable, which couldn't be said about the later iterations on the silver screen. It had a monumental soundtrack with Vince Dicola and his superb atmospheric 80's prog-metal composition, it had superb style visually with a very realistic plain thick color filter with incredible detail. It had some of the most bad-ass memorable scenes from any film of that era, a good 6 or 7 scenes are absolute hair-raisers. It had an engaging powerful plot at the center of it, with a great moral (the Matrix) and a powerful grave, epic tone to it that made what was a mere cartoon into a realistic experience. Add a little bit of cheesy but likable humor to give characters depth... also it introduced some very creative characters like the Sharkticons and Quintessons or the Junkions, not to mention Unicron that helped forge a most unique, distinct universe for the film.Transformers the Movie was an experience that nobody will ever get to enjoy again. It had all the wonder and spirit and inventiveness and pop-culture genius of the 80's where everything that comes out today is political formulaic and disposable imagery.

There are no words to describe how awesome this movie is. Me and my brother have grown up with the Transformers toys, the Michael Bay movies and the cartoons and we remember watching the movie for the first time around in either 2006 or 2007, when the first live-action Transformers movie was released. Nonetheless, this is the first animated Transformers movie from 1986, which was 30 years ago.One of the things we love about this movie is the stellar voice cast, especially for the great Orson Welles in his last film before his death in 1985 (rest in peace) and Leonard Nimoy as the almighty Galvatron, who is, by far, the best performance of his career since he was Spock in "Star Trek".Probably the emotional scene in the whole movie is when Optimus Prime dies earlier in the movie, which had my brother in tears just by watching it the first time. And here's the best part: the soundtrack. The soundtrack was phenomenal. Lion's rendition of the Transformers theme song, Stan Bush's "The Touch' and Weird Al's "Dare to be Stupid" are all great music we can listen to.Overall, Transformers is a great film, and if you haven't seen it, shame on you because me and my brother highly recommends it to anyone who is a Transformers fan like us or just a fan of animation like I am.I would give this a 10 out of 10, but since this is more than meets the eye, I'm giving this a 11 out of 10. To quote Nick Fury, "'Nuff Said!"

SPOILERS AHEAD!I'm going to go through the most common criticisms for this film:1) They killed off the main cast.This is more something that angered 80's fans. Most people today would call it bold. There's a gravity to it... that later seasons of the cartoon decided to contradict that by bringing them back to like. However, they still managed to respect Optimus' death. Sort of life Gandalf the Grey coming back as Gandalf the White, his death in this movie was a setup for a victorious return.2) The animation is cheap.Computer-animating those shots to such detail would have already been a nightmare, so imagine how much manpower was put to bringing them to life by hand?3) There is no plot.The purpose of this film isn't to confuse little children with complex twists. The purpose was to expand The Transformers universe with an intergalactic adventure, depicting the fictional societies, politics, and technologies of several alien races, obviously including the titular Transformers.4) There is no character growth.Hot Rod was a young, innocent, but impulsive soldier who got Optimus killed. Optimus left the Matrix with Ultra Magnus, whose tactical leadership style is invaluable to the Autobot cause, but he would later find that the Matrix was never his to use. Meanwhile, Starscream usurps the Decepticon leadership from his injured commander, but Megatron is reborn as Galvatron, an almighty warrior who gradually admits to himself that he is only a pathetic slave to Unicron. The prodigy Hot Rod returns as Rodimus Prime and redeems himself by unleashing the light of the Matrix and destroying Unicron. That growth is pretty philosophical.5) There is no dramatic tone.If you didn't react when the movie opened with Unicron devouring a planet, when Optimus died, when Galvatron finally executed Starscream, when Daniel thought his father died, when Unicron transformed into a giant robot, when Galvatron failed to use the Matrix to escape Unicron's control, or when Hot Rod became Rodimus Prime and blew up Unicron, you must be no fun to talk to.Obviously, I'm also going to praise the excellent voice cast, the spunky rock soundtrack, some of the best one-liners I've ever heard, and the overall fun of the movie.