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The Transformers - The Movie Director: Nelson Shin Number of Items: 1 Picture Format: Pan & Scan Format: Color, Animated, Dolby Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested) Running Time: 94 minutes Studio: Rhino Video Region Code: 1 Product Group: DVD Release Date: 2000-11-07 Buy from Amazon |
 "Only for the nostalgic and the die-hard."Having collected Transformers toys and comics for almost 20 years now, they've always held a soft spot in my heart. But nostalgia aside, let's face it, the Transformers movie has not aged well. Even back then, it was not the cinematic tour de force that many now hail it to be. It was released at a time when most fans were beginning to outgrow the series. The toy line had grown so huge and convoluted that nobody with middle class parents could hope to keep up and each month more bizarre and, frankly, stupid characters were coming out (Pretenders, Headmasters, and a whole army of robots that combined to make bigger robots). Keeping up and remaining a fan became increasing difficult and frustrating and Hasbro was losing much of their core fan base at the time. This movie represented the end of an era, too little too late, a funeral toll for a generation's love for the "Robots in Disguise", arguably driving the final nail in the coffin and removing Transformers from popular culture for nearly a decade until the Beast Wars resurrected, in a twisted manner, the original concept which has now, more or less, come full circle with the modern toys and cartoon. If anything, the one clear mistake was to kill off Optimus Prime (sorry to spoil the surprise but if you didn't know that already, you're exactly the person this movie would hold no appeal for). For a nation of young boys having grown up with this champion-of-good robot/semi-truck as the latter-day John Wayne role model figure, it was nothing short of traumatic to witness his demise and have it all glossed over with the introduction of some cheesy nobody called Rodimus Prime. The manner in which the movie attempted to excuse it all with a series of bad 80's glam rock ballads about hope and light was just plain insulting. Moreover, to witness the death of other such integral characters like Starscream and the effective death of such pivotal roles like Megatron (okay, sure, he's bigger, badder, and meaner, but he's just not the same anymore as Galvatron), was like watching your whole childhood come unraveled. Mind you, these cartoon robots formed for many of us a sort of modern substitute for the mythologies of old, and to watch it so grotesquely rewritten in the course of a single film was nothing short of blasphemous. But all childhood memories aside, it's just a bad movie. The storyline is bizarre, introducing characters and settings so quickly and randomly you get the feeling it was written during an overnight drinking binge. The pace is haphazard, with cheesy, "feel good" scenes alternated by grim and heavy scenes which attempt to convey gravity and seriousness but just come off maudlin and melodramatic. All accompanied by a perfectly awful guitar opera soundtrack with which to watch all your most beloved characters die, only to be replaced by paper-thin, gimicky substitutes (okay, so this guy talks really fast, this guy always talks in rhyme, and this guy quotes commercials... got it. Whatever). An all star cast of voice talent, including Leonard Nimoy, Orson Welles, Eric Idle, and, oh yeah, that guy from the Micro-Machines commercials, does nothing to save this plodding dud and, in retrospect, seems a bit over the top. In short, this film left a whole generation of boys feeling jaded, jipped, cheated, and insulted. It's no wonder the whole genre died shortly after, as fans grew up and discovered cars and girls. For nostalgia sake alone, it's worth a single viewing, and for the pop-culture value, it's worth owning. But if you were born in the 1980's or after, just rent it and have an older mentor help you through the confusing and muddling parts. And be patient and understanding if he seems a little bummed out afterwards.  "It shouldn't have been like this!"I was five when the Transformers came out.It was my favorite show.All of the characters were cool.Optimus Prime,Megatron,Prowl,Bumblebee,Skywarp,Ironhide,and yes...even Starscream.So when I heard that there was going to be a movie,I was exstatic.Then I saw the movie.I was seven then.And I was absoulutely horrified!Prime,Prowl,Ironhide,Ratchet,and others bit the dust.Isn't it funny that when someone was shot in the series,they only suffered minor injuries.Yet,when the movie comes along,all of the heroes from the original series(Except for Jazz,Bumblebee,Perceptor,and Blaster) die horrifying deaths.The worst was when Prowl is shot and has smoke coming out of his mouth and eyes,and when Megatron blows Ironhide's head off!It was probably a little too much for young kids at the time(Remember,this is before parental groups complained about "desensatized children"),myself included.But now that I'm all grown up,I criticize this movie,not just for that,but for how everything went.Epic battle...Yes!Death of all of the originals....No!Plus,the audiance is expected to like Hot Rod,Ultra Magnus,Kupp,and the rest on the spot!At least T.V. fans got the chance to get to know and like the Star Trek:Next Generation crew! We didn't get that luxury in this movie.Now,other than those major objections....it's a decent film on it's own.The introduction of Unicron(played by the late great Orson Wells) is a good concept.But,really,this thing could've been better.  "You can't pass this one up!"The movie brought back a lot of old memories from my childhood. I bought the movie for my girlfriend's son who is four and he absolutely loves the movie. The only thing you have to watch it the few little curse words that fly out. Other than that, the movie is great and will keep your child, or yourself if you are a fan, highly entertained. "An honest review of TFTM."Ah, Transformers: The Movie. I'll admit it, I *like* TFTM but that's because I was fond of the movie as a child. Generally, 99.9999% of the reviews are "This is the Greatest Film Ever." Those people are either totally blinded by nostalgia or are too heavily medicated. This is no 'Dumbo.' 'No Bambi.' This isn't even a 'Rescuers: Down Under.' It's one of the poorer animated films, released as a major motion picture, from the last half of the twentieth century. Where to begin? It's obvious that TFTM is an hour and a half commercial for the 1986 line of the Transformers toys, so that's barely worth mentioning. The biggest insult of TFTM is that it took characters whom children had bonded with over the past two years and needlessly and mercilessly slaughtered them so that they could start more or less from scratch with the new wave of toys. Filled with painfully cheerful and worthless hair rock, the soundtrack adds very little to the actual film. It's only another layer of dead skin that you have to tear off to reach the actual core of the movie. That core is...quite thin. It's the archetypal hero story. It's possible that the writers didn't understand what an archetype was, as the plot of the movie was plucked directly from 'Star Wars.' The animation is sub-par, riddled with dozens and dozens of errors. If you're a fan of the series and you weren't scarred by it as a child (as _many_ were) you may enjoy this. If you're not a fan of The Transformers, do yourself a favor and skip TFTM. "Transformers The Movie""It is the year 2005, the treacherous Decepticons have conquered the Autobot's home planet of Cybertron. But, from secret staging grounds on two of Cybertron's moons, the valiant Autobots plan to retake their homeland." Ok, those reading this have probably already seen this movie, so I see no reason to describe it, I would rather answer some retorical questions: Q: Why isn't the Aerialbots and Stunticons and Combaticons or Jetfire in the movie? A: The script was being written when we were still watching the first 16 episodes of Season 1 in 1984 on Saturday mornings. It wasn't until sometime during the second season that we started to see trailers for the movie due to come out in 1986. Therefore some of the characters didn't exsist when the film was near completion. Q: «One thing I didn't understand, if they could fix Kup and Ultra Magnus when they were hurt, why couldn't they fix Prime and the others?» A: When Optimus Prime and other Autobots who died were shot, they wern't blasted apart, but fatally hit in vital circuts, much like a human being shot in single vital organs like the liver. Kup and Ultra Magnus was mearly torn apart and could be repaired by skilled hands. A truely lifeless Transformer has dark grey metal skin and colourless eyes. Now those who complain about the music, remember this is a kids movie made in the 1980's and I'm sure many of you have bought the soundtrack even if it's rather cheesy by today's standards. It's not that bad really. I give this DVD 3 stars out of five, while I give the movie 5 stars. My reason for only 3 stars, is that the DVD was rushed rather than taking the time to insert the extras we were hoping for like the deleted scenes and 'The Touch' music video or Trailers and the lack of subtitles and language features. The other reviewers were right, we would see these if Rhino Studios were true Transfans rather than cashing in on popular pop culture. But look on the bright side, it's better than the VHS release. Good things come to those who wait. You might have also heard that the rumour of a live action Transformers movie has been confirmed and is starting production soon. |
