User Reviews

**POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD**

I grew up in the 80s and Transformers were the best toy ever. To build on the Transformers empire, after various waves of toys, cartoon series and comics, came this movie.

Some people have their gripes with this film, but at the end of the day it's aimed at Transformers fans, not for someone outside that world. Characters don't need to be introduced, as anyone worth their salt will know who they are. And it doesn't matter if said characters are killed off within 5 minutes of their first appearance either.

Kudos to the awesome idea of having a Transformer who is a planet, who is seemingly indestructible. His name is Unicron. It's still jaw-dropping to see him transform even today.

The only thing that can stop Unicron is a power called The Matrix. Obviously it all comes to a head between the two.

The soundtrack is pure 80s cheese, but who cares. It goes very well with the film and is still memorable even today.

Thank god this film was issued onto DVD.

My kids grew up with the video of this movie. They loved it and I love it.

We all took it as a standalone film - the TV series slightly predated the kids, so we missed that.

And, as a standalone film, it is non-stop action and enjoyment. It is exciting, funny, moving, with great visuals, brilliant voice casting (I never thought I would encounter a film where Orson Welles stood side by side with Leonard Nimoy and Eric Idle), and some excellent songs. Really effective songs.

The science fiction is strong. But the humanity is strong too.

Highly recommended.

No this isn't the turdy Bayformer trash, this is the original animated movie from 1986. The original cartoon series that was based on the Hasbro toy franchise (before that a Japanese toy franchise from Takara) appeared on TV back in 1984 with a three-part miniseries introduction and then followed by the first season. After much success a second season followed that debuted in 1985. Once that had wrapped up along came 'Transformers: The Movie' which would lead into the third season.

Believe it or not but I have only recently managed to watch all of the first two seasons of the cartoon franchise (giving me insight into the story leading into said movie). The reason for this simply being, back when I was a kid I'd watch the cartoon but obviously I'd miss them from time to time. And being a kid you didn't really know about seasons/series or follow the stories that closely. You'd just watch the cartoon when you could and enjoy whatever you got, simple.

So basically, this movie takes place 20 years after the second TV series ended in the distant future of 2005 where the Decepticons have taken Cybertron. In the following battle on Earth the Autobots are virtually wiped out after a large-scale battle where they actually lose Optimus Prime. From there Autobot leadership passes on to Ultra Magnus as the Autobots try to regroup and hold off the Decepticons. In the meantime, a massive planet-sized being is making its way through space devouring planets. Eventually both Autobots and Decepticons must stand together (or try to) in order to stop the mighty Unicron from destroying their homeworld of Cybertron.

So despite the fact I hadn't watched half the cartoon series before seeing this movie it was still obvious that there were dramatic changes afoot. In the first battle on board a space shuttle, many of the regular Autobots that we had grown up with got wiped out! Yep that's right, Autobots Brawn, Prowl, Ratchet, and Ironhide all got blown away. Now this was shocking on many levels. Firstly it was shocking because we had been following these guys for what seemed like eons. We knew these guys, they were old school, we cared about them, sorta. To see them get shot down was quite astonishing frankly. Secondly, the fact that these guys got taken down with a few laser bolts was really really odd. Why? Because up to now all Transformers took laser blasts on a regular basis and either shook them off there and then or went to Ratchet for some medicare. Bottom line, up to this point Transformer warriors didn't die.

So we now had one-shot kills, plus Megatron mercilessly blew Ironhide's head off (gulp!), but another obvious change for this movie was the blatant introduction of various new characters. For two seasons we had a small selection of warriors that we had grown accustomed to. Admittedly I do recall it being a little boring just seeing the same old characters cartoon after cartoon and the obvious fact that I hadn't seen all episodes meant continuity was out of the window. Nevertheless, the introduction of new characters out of the blue was still welcome if somewhat confusing at times. Of course we all know now it was simply a cheap tactic to introduce a new line of toys. Ka-ching!

Of course, you can't help but ask where a multitude of old characters were and why they didn't show up in this movie. Where did the Protectorbots go to? What about the Combaticons? How about the Aerialbots? Where did Jetfire go? How about the Stunticons? Etc...Obviously it would be impossible to fit everyone in but it's also impossible not to wonder where the hell all these guys were. And I have to ask, why did Wheeljack and Ratchet make the Dinobots stupid? I never understood that. Dinosaurs were probably dumb creatures, but why make the Dinobots dumb also? Literally made no sense and served no real purpose to the Autobots.

Speaking of new characters, I never actually liked the new guys. The regular guys had a more angular look with traditional colours and vehicle modes. So apart from the odd cameo in various episodes (Dinobots, Insecticons etc...) many of the new characters we see on Cybertron have more futuristic vehicle modes with more outrageous colours schemes. Characters such as Arcee, Kup, Springer, Blurr, Hot Rod etc...all were visually unappealing to me then and still are today. The only new guy who seemed to keep a more retro appearance was Ultra Magnus and he was easily the best looking of the bunch, Things didn't get any better for all the other various robot characters we meet throughout. The Junkions weren't too bad but I have always hated the spikes thing they had going all over themselves. Looked a bit too Mad Max-esque to me.

I really hated (and still do) the Quintessons design as it just looks impractical on every level. Why the need for multiple faces?? The Sharkticons didn't look like sharks, just fat bulbous robots with dinosaur-like club tails. And finally, the new robotic forms that the Decepticons got from Unicron were ugly in my personal opinion. Again they were all crappy looking futuristic designs with too many silly additions like bat-like wings and facial hair. Why would robots have metallic facial hair?? Many of these designs didn't look like they could transform into the vehicles they should be. With the original guys you could almost see how they transformed, that's why they were so cool because they actually looked like they could actually work. The new guys just became outlandish in shape and totally unrealistic, if you get me.

Another aspect of this robotic universe I still can't get my head around is the apparent cannibalism and the fact that every lifeform seems to be robotic. So yeah, since when do robots need to eat other robots? Why would a robot need to eat anything? We know they need energon for 'food' or fuel so why do certain robots appear to eat each other? The Sharkticons seem to enjoy eating other robot lifeforms (at the behest of the Quintessons), but why?? Just for fun? For devilish pleasure? A fetish? Also, are the Sharkticons individual sentient beings or do they have some kind of mindless hive mentality? Unicron floats through space and eats entire planets, but why? Surely he only needs specific materials for food/fuel, not entire planets! Then there is the fact that every lifeform we see across multiple planets appears to be robotic, odd. Hell we even see a robotic Earth-like squid in one sequence.

Unicron himself was probably the most unique and impressive creation within this movie's new roster of characters. An entire planet sized transformer is pretty mindbloggling and the design was hella cool it can't be denied. Was kinda interesting in a perverse way to see that his innards was akin to a robotic hell of sorts. Obviously all sorts of mechanisms and whatnot but also lifeforms being executed in a huge vat of some bubbling erosive liquid was pretty disturbing. By this point the plot had gone somewhat awry truth be told and the ease at which the Autobots managed to destroy Unicron did seem rushed but hey. Have to point out that the death of Starscream was pretty epic here too. Again disturbing but also a real game-changer, much like the death of Prime, but we all know about that (it never bothered me).

Whilst I will gladly take this animated feature over any Michael Bay trash any day of the week, this was still a mediocre offering truth be told. Looking back there are many cool elements here, the animation is actually really sweet, and the fact that it is dark throughout does boost my overall rating. Add to that the stellar cast for voice work (Leonard Nimoy and Orson Welles!) alongside the stoic regulars and really this should and could have been a genuine classic. Alas things didn't really work out that way.

The plot is essentially nonsense and feels like 100% filler after the initial battle. Many characters are killed off for a new toy range...and that's it! They clearly struggled for ideas. Unicron should have killed everyone in the blink of an eye. Most extra characters are rubbish. The whole Quintessons part wasn't even needed really, that added nothing to the story. And to add insult to injury the soundtrack, despite being cool, felt completely out of place. Nostalgia is a curious thing isn't it. Don't get me wrong it's still a guilty pleasure of sorts and it's still better than anything Bay came up with. And when this movie kicks off to that rockin' 80's track over the opening credits, you'll swear to yourself that it's gonna be amazeballs. For some it will still be of course, but for me it doesn't quite hold up...on its own. Within the cartoon series it fairs a bit better, ahem, if you ignore continuity errors.

6.5/10

I saw this movie when I was about 12 and back then I thought it was great.

Now of course it's a bit dated and some of the subject matter is a little simple for me but it still holds the nostalgia factor for me as well as many of my transformer loving friends. I do wish how ever that not all the older transformers had meet with there untimely demise in such a crude fashion.

Another thing I have noticed is that the "special addition" of the movie is actually the "edited for time" version of the movie, it even has parts that fade to black and in the special features you can see story boards that show scenes that aren't in the final film. I hope that at some point Hasbro will release a full version of the movie, with some digital restoration.

Transformers the movie. What can I say about this movie? Well I guess I can start by saying that it is the most action packed animated film I have ever seen! That's technically what this movie is. It's just 1hr and 20min of non-stop shooting, explosion, fighting,and adventure. Well of course there's more to the plot. The film opens with a giant planet named Unicron that looks like the Death Star eating another planet. Then it shifts to the Autobots who're about to lead a shuttle to search for more energon cubes. Unfortunately for them, The evil Decepticons raids their ship and kill all the members. This really got a lot of fans angry because they saw a lot of their favorite characters die 10 minutes into the movie. The only reason they killed so many characters is so they can add new characters and release more toys. They were taking a big risk killing off so many characters. Anyway, the Decepticons takes over the ship and they are spotted by the Autobot Hot Rod. Hot Rod and some other Autobots attacks the ship, and an all out battle rages. During the battle, Optimus Prime (the leader of the Autobots)confronts Megatron(the leader of the Decepticons). They engage in an all out battles that left all fans cheering because they waited so long to see these two rivals fight to the death. After a while, It seemed that Optimus won, but Megatron played a dirty trick and wounded Optimus pretty badly. But Optimus with all the strength he had left gave Megatron one last punch that left him crippled. The Decepticons escape, and optimus with his last breath, gave the Matrix and his leadership to Ultra Magnus. Mean while, an injured Megatron gets betrayed by his minion Starscream and gets pushed off into space. There, he meets Unicron who makes Megatron one of his minions. In exchange, he gives Megatron a new and more powerful body and rename him Galvatron. He also gives Megatron 3 robots named Relector. With his new power, he kills Starscream and takes over the decepticons again. Now Unicron is forcing him to kill the Autobots and destroy the All Sparks. Now the Autobots have to face Galvatron and Unicron at the same time. I'm not gonna spoil the rest because this is where the movie gets really good. I'm a casual fan of Transformers, and I must say, this film really impressed me. Some people hate it because it had to much violent action, some random music use, and there's to many references to Star Wars. Yes there is a whole bunch of action, but that's what's awesome about it. How many movies have you seen where something blows up every 5 seconds? Yeah, sometimes the action can be a little uneven, and the animation might be laggy from time to time, but this was made in the 80s so give it some slack. There are many references to Star Wars however. Like the character Hot rod is related to Luke, Unicron looks like the Death Star, Arcee has the princess Leah hairstyle, Optimus Prime talks to Hot Rod in his ghost form much like how Ben Kenobi talks to Luke. But i didn't really mind that. So many movies copied things from Star wars up to the point that you don't care anymore. As for the music however, it is completely random. Like when Hot Rod opens the Matrix and the song "The Touch" starts playing in the background. It also has the most random use of Weird Al Yankovic's "Dare to be Stupid". They played that song when the Autobots where fighting some other random robots in some random planet. And after they made peace with those robots, they started dancing to the exact same song! Despite all these negative feature to this film, it's awesome and anyone will love it. I give it~

3.5/5 stars!

First of all I will admit that the level of animation is far, far superior to the frequently goof-ridden TV series and that Transformers: The Movie looks more like Akira or Ghost in the Shell than the TV show. It adds a whole new level integrity to the Transformer's universe but it's a damn shame that the story had to be crap of the lowest order and that there are still technical faults within the animation. I know there are always going to be goofs whether a movie is live-action or animated but Transformers has always had a shocking amount of them.

I know that many people are going to hate for this and call me cynical but this is not really a movie. It's an 85 minute toy commercial. Orson Welles was right. Many of the Autobots and Decepticon's die (including Starscream, thank God, he truly was irritating) but are soon replaced by new characters. It's like Hasbro was subliminally telling kids to throw out the old toys and go buy new ones.

Set in the unfathomably distant future of 2005, when we'll be living on the moon and skating around on hover-boards, the gobbledygook plot involves a giant planet-eating robot planet called Unicron (barely an anagram of a certain magical creature, for no reason) and his mission to destroy the 'Autobot Matrix of Leadership', which is obviously inside Optimus Prime. It begins with the Autobots and Decepticons doing their usual battle of blowing up each other's stuff but what is bugging is that in the show they rarely get hit and certainly never die if they do. But here loads of them are killed-off easily and without any particular attention. So many of them fall it's hard to keep up. The "story" moves so fast that it becomes almost completely incomprehensible.

None of these new characters have the same appeal. Once Optimus Prime is dead the new leader, Ultra Magnus, doesn't yield his authority or leadership with any special flair. Megatron is left to die, while floating in the depths of space and is reconfigured/evolved by Unicron into Galvatron, who doesn't seem to be any kind of eviler, just a new toy.

The Matrix of Leadership happens to be a glowing ball in Optimus Prime's chest and when Ultra Magnus get his hands on it the movie could have become a 'chase for the bland MacGuffin' kind of story. But it continues to meander and go in eccentric/weird directions. The subplot involving the junk planet and the shark-bots and the judge and jury who execute robots for being guilty AND innocent is just baffling. What the hell is all that about? And even worse is the guff with the dancing biker-type robots with the leader voiced by Eric Idle. I mean...what? Either I accidentally took an acid and went on a weird trip last night or this film is just random nonsense.

The main thing that makes this film so inaccessible is the almost total exclusion of human characters. An older Spike is in it for a few seconds and his son Daniel has a bit of character development. But where is Sparkplug? Where are any other humans? About 2 minutes of it is set on earth and everything else, set in space, seems kind of alienating (pun intended). I know we've seen the Transformers battle on Earth loads of times before in the TV show but this sudden switch of locale and whole new assortment of characters made it feel like something I had no familiarity with.

I realize that the transition between seasons 2 and 3 had to be steep and drastic (a 20 year story gap and loads of new toys...sorry characters) but it needs more time to develop than this and everything feels rushed and hasty with no focus on pacing, coherence or character. The constant 80s rock is kind of fun though and Vince DiCola's score is fun. I truly miss this kind of hedonistic music, it may not fit the film terribly well but it has a nice kind of nostalgia to it.

Vividly animated it may well be, but I found this film to be so asinine and dumb. I can only watch it with severely lowered expectations.

The Transformers The Movie is a loud attempt to reboot the series, but destroyed the originality and spirit of the original show. SPOILERS: The Transformers Movie manages to kill off almost every notable character from the show in the first 30 minutes. Actually, the Death count in this children's movie is so enormously high, it's insane. To top things off, Optimus Prime (The Flagship Character of the Franchise)is killed before the plot really gets going, a choice that haunted the franchise for years to come. It's completely obvious that the filmmakers and studio execs wanted to eliminate as many characters as possible so that they could sell new ones for new toys. In this way the film is defining, as it shaped the series for better or worse, but at the same time completely destroyed it.

This movie was the most blatantly exploitative ripoff production imaginable. After spending a couple of years getting kids "into" the Transformer characters via television, they announced a big gala Transformers Movie!!!--only to then kill off all the major characters (including Optimus Prime?!) in the first few minutes of same. They never returned; no, instead we got a whole slew of new characters introduced to carry on for the rest of the film...an obvious ploy to cynically generate sales of action figures of those new characters. I took my four-year-old son to see this movie; he was a big Transformers fan and looked excitedly forward to seeing the show translated onto the Big Screen; he was reduced to tears by what the movie showed him for his (actually, my) money. Nuff said.