The Transformers: The Movie

The Transformers: The Movie is a surprisingly cruel film that hides its desire to get rid of the old toys and market a new wave of Transformers toys in a briskly paced adventure that's one of the most 80s movies ever made and a lot of fun. A film that definitely doesn't play it safe and properly moves the story forward.

Peter Cullen will always be perfect as Optimus Prime, a stern but gentle presence who always feel like the ideal leader because of his kindness rather than his stoicism. Judd Nelson as Hot Rod is a worthy successor, he has the ideals and heart of Prime but the maturity isn't there yet, a perfect contrast.

The biggest downside to the film is the few comic relief characters who mostly consist of talking nonsense at a very fast pace, usually in a high pitched voice to make them even more grating. Eric Idle is probably the best and definitely the least annoying but still a real waste of talent on what could've been a genuine scene stealer.

Nelson Shin's direction is really good, it peaks early on with a first 30 mins that's one extended battle sequence with genuine stakes and the transformations are so satisfying and comprehensible. The animation looks good overall, maintaining the look of the show with a bigger budget but struggles in a few places.

The soundtrack is amazing, the most 80s songs ever created will just randomly play whenever action happens and it enhances rather than detracts. The Touch and Dare appear twice simply because they're the best and the Transformers theme itself is just beautiful.

I thought it was perfect for its time. I recently acquired a VHS and enjoyed the movie all over again. The over rocked song, extra dramatic statements, the whole bit sent chills up my spine when I first saw it in 1986 and again in 2004. The animation wasn't the best, even for then, but that was not important. At the time I was a teenager and I enjoyed every bit of it. Transformers was my favorite cartoon, right after Voltron (the lion one). I liked the new characters, it didn't matter. It was a perfect 80's over sentimental, over rock tracked, bravado of a male ego movie aimed at little boys, even down to the vehicles, Semis, race cars, dump trucks, construction vehicles. Nowadays it wouldn't wash, with the violence and destruction (Unicron) but those were the 80's. Now everything is sanitized.

They should, however do a 2004 or 05 version revisiting OptPrime and MegaT - Imagine Pixar or whoever doing this movie it would look serious. Dinobots forever, (I dislike with a passion that stupid animal transformer series where Optimus Primal has to twist his whole body to transform. He looks rather stupid.

The Transformers, the animated cartoon from the 1980's, was a typical cartoon: cheesy and childish, things we would not recognize until we were grown. But when Transformers: The Movie was released in 1986, when I was 11, the movie scared the hell out of me. But so did Superman and Star Wars, which was exactly its intention.

As when Batman came to the big screen in 1989, the filmmakers took something old and made it new again. In the case of the Transformers, the movie was dark, loud, and very adult considering the fact that it springs from what was another silly fad the children of the 80's latched onto.

I don't know how people older and younger than I will perceive it, but the film is Shakespearean in its beauty. The 1980's soundtrack works surprisingly well, even now, unlike other 80's attempts, like, say Heavy Metal.

The movie picks up in 2005, or about 20 years after the cartoon supposedly took place. Young Spike is now older and has a child of his own, and all the Autobots and Decepticons are back, with some new faces. In the opening moments, Unicron (Orson Welles), destroyer of worlds, eats a planet of peace-loving people (supposdely robots, but still eerily reminiscent of our Earth populi), killing millions. Decepticons don't just plot against the Autobots-- they murder them in cold blood (er, oil?)

This is the equivalent of the X-Files movie getting made, and Cigarette Smoking Man getting to use dirty words. It is a true expansion to the big screen, an intelligent version of the TV show, made not to pander to their audience, but to elevate it.

This movie is impossible to find in the States, but if you ever watched the TV show, it will bring you to a new level. If you've never heard of the TV show... it's still a great Anime-yarn, and a helluva lot better than that X-Files flick.

As a kid in the 80s this was probably the coolest and most awesome movie ever. As an adult in 2023 with few previous experiences with the Transformers franchise this movie is just campy 80s action, and it is a blast. This movie is like 80 minutes long, and at least 60 of those minutes are giant robots fighting in space and you can only go so wrong with that. The voice acting is over the top in the best way, and there's a lot of talent including Casey Kasem, Frank Weller, Scattman Cruthers, and Orson Welles. Having no knowledge of Transformers, I didn't know any of the characters names except for Optimus, Megatron, and Starscream for some reason and I didn't know or care what the story was because I was just having a ton of fun. Also the soundtrack is awesome, filled with sick 80s songs and badass instrumentals. Both times The Touch came on I was grinning ear to ear, easily one of the most underrated movie songs ever.

In 2005, years after series 2, the Decepticons rule Cybertron. The Autobots are limited to bases on Cybertron's moons and Autobot City on Earth. Optimus Prime is planning a massive assault on Cybertron, but Megatron has similar ideas, and launches an attack on Autobot City, nearly decimating the entire Autbot force before retreating. Of course, this being a movie, things get complicated: Unicron, the devourer of worlds turns up, and is heading for Cybertron. Now the Autobots have to reclaim a relic from the Decepticons while defending Cybertron from a giant transforming planet that eats other planets.

Simple, no? Couldn't follow that? Stop reading now, this movie is only for fans.

Essentially, this a feature-length toy commercial. The story is cool. After all, its about giant robots that transform into cars. Awesome. The movie just follows these robots along as they spend most of the 84-minutes fighting. All the new characters are introduced by having an established character say to the new character "Hey! (new guy) Blow up that thing!" or, "Hey! (new guy), attack those bad guys!". Awesome. I love movies where fights aren't disrupted by petty things such as plot details or character introductions, it makes things much more fun.

The animation is generally better than it was in the TV series. Add to that an 80s soundtrack, consisting of only 80s pop and hair-metal. Awesome. Of course, not everyone is going to like the soundtrack. In fact, I'm willing the bet that a majority of people would loathe the soundtrack, but that is not important, because the soundtrack is awesome. Plus there are some really cool quotes. Yay.

9/10 - Only for fans (of either Transformers or 80s music)