*Directed by Nelson Shin
*Starring Judd Nelson, Orson Welles, Lionel Stander, Susan Blu, Leonard Nimoy, Gregg Berger, Robert Stack, Peter Cullen, and Frank Welker
The Plot: Taking place in the future in the year 2005, a planet by the name of Unicron who eats other planets is on the move and in the meantime, the battle between the Autobots and Decepticons ensues. The Decepticon leader Megatron is then captured under the clutches of Unicron, who upgrades him as Galvatron and sets him off to destroy the one artifact that could destroy Unicron called The Matrix of Leadership. With the Matrix under the protection of a small band of Autobots, they must partake in a battle against Unicron and his forces of evil to prevent Unicron's attempt at gaining immortality by destroying the Matrix itself.
If you were a fan of the original cartoon as a youngster of the 80s there's no doubt you were a fan of this film. Transformers were definitely at a great popularity high with an attraction to the toys branded by Hasbro and the cartoon that came out of it. Now this movie bridging the gap between seasons 2 and 3 of the original show and with only seeing the first 4 or 5 episodes of said show, which I really enjoyed and being disappointed with the recent incarnations in the Michael Bay-directed series there's no doubt I was very interested in seeing this film. Safe to say that even though I'm not the biggest fan of the cartoon having not seen every episode I've grown a strong appreciation and love for this movie. Yes folks, in my personal opinion, this is the only great Transformers movie in existence.
First off, the major strength this movie has that the Bay films didn't is that it was about the robots period and these robots are actually really well-done characters. There were hints in the Bay films at interesting lore in the Transformers mythos, but this time around you really get to experience it in a very true blue fashion. Sure, there are a couple human characters in Daniel Witwicky who has a prominent role and his father Spike, but it's not like they used these characters to overshadow the robot characters. Each character I feel has a fine balance and the small band of Autobots we follow in this movie are a great ensemble of characters.
With this band of characters featuring Hot Rod, Kup, Daniel, Arcee, Ultra Magnus, and the Dinobots what's a breath of fresh air is that there is enough to these characters and enough personality to really make you care about them in the action. You could argue that it's merely a fun film to look at with colorful animation and insanely fun action sequences, but if you don't have good characters in a conflict to feel for them, then this would be a hollow animated science fiction film.
I bought into Ultra Magnus having an uncertainty to become a leader and that Kup was a worn out war veteran who had clever tactics up his sleeve and was a mentor figure for Hot Rod. Hot Rod's arc though is by far the best character arc showcased in the whole film, which I will not spoil considering I know most of you have not seen it, but the resolution to it all was nothing short of awesome. Also, Grimlock in this movie, the head of the Dinobots, is so hilarious and had some of the best lines in this entire movie. I loved him so much.
That's the biggest problem I have with Bay's films is that it lacked that soul. Even though I was one of the few who enjoyed the third installment Dark of the Moon and liked it the best out of the four films I agree it could've been a much better film with the characterizations and utilizations of these robots. This film takes so much advantage with these characters and for that reason succeeds with more of an attachment to the actual property of the Transformers themselves.
I mentioned earlier the colorful animation and for today's standards, I'd say this film still really holds up on that spectrum with astoundingly well-orchestrated hand drawn animation. It might not be as fluid as the animation of a Disney film considering it was animated by a Japanese animation studio, there were still some really impressive sequences to look at. It certainly does have that anime look and feel with an American flare to it, but there's no doubt that this film was another instance that makes me appreciate the art of 2-dimensional hand drawn animation when it's done right. Also, the quality is brought out beautifully on Blu-Ray. I own the 30th Anniversary Blu-Ray with what I've also come to understand was the official home release of the original widescreen format. To see it in the original preservation was definitely a major plus and the release showcases the film in the best quality.
I also really dug the villains in Unicron and Galvatron as his servant because these two actually felt like villains who had a purpose and objective for themselves. They were, of course, menacing and brutal when they needed to be, but it really could've been easy for them to be one-note villains that just want to wreak havoc to get a conflict going. You understand why Unicron sends Galvatron on this mission and that he's only in it for himself. He has that greedy factor and for that reason alone it gives him as a villain such added depth to make me dislike him. The same even goes for Galvatron and because of these two almost opposing sides it makes the negotiations between them a bit more enticing, which, to me, makes these villains the best they could be on screen.
The film can be seen as hokey and the dialogue might not always hit with some people, but I just see it as a kind of characteristic for films and shows of this era. I'd be foolish to not acknowledge that it does have some rather goofy moments, but for me personally I think that's part of the fun in my viewing experience of this film. I think the only major negative I have is that even though I think the sound design is very good and the soundtrack by Vince DiCola is amazing with great Stan Bush tracks in the mix of it, the sound mixing did not blend well at certain points in the action scenes. In fact, it gets really bad to the point where the dialogue isn't particularly audible. What you're viewing and seeing on screen is fun, but they really could've made the effort to bring out the sound especially this time around with a remaster.
All that said The Transformers The Movie is what I could ever want out of a great Transformers movie with characters I actually cared about, a conflict that made sense and had meat to it and outstanding action sequences throughout. I haven't seen a lot of the show, but this movie made me so fascinated by the lore and these characters that I want to watch and read as much as I can get my hands on. In my opinion, this is as great as it's gonna be for a Transformers movie unless new installments prove me wrong.
Verdict: A
Well, looks as though Transformers The Last Knight is upon us this week and if that doesn't turn out well, there's always this animated gem to watch as often as we want. Look forward to my review of that film in about a couple days and for more updates be sure to follow me in the social media links below as well as a link to my retrospective of the Bay directed Transformers films:
Transformers Series Retrospective
Twitter and Instagram: @alexjcorey
Thank you so much for taking the time to read my review and as always be sure to see some movies and all that good stuff.
Take care. :-)
Thank you so much for taking the time to read my review and as always be sure to see some movies and all that good stuff.
Take care. :-)
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