So I just rewatched the 1986 Transformers Movie...

Comics, cartoons, movies and fan stuff.
Post Reply
User avatar
Blackjack
Posts: 9112
Joined: Sat May 03, 2008 1:04 pm

So I just rewatched the 1986 Transformers Movie...

Post by Blackjack »

Man, I forgot how much iconic scenes this thirty-year-old movie had.

I mean, you'd think all the Dreamwave and IDW regurgitation of every single scene in the movie over the past decade would make me forget, but a couple of years of not touching a single Transformers comic (and IDW's later material had shied away from TFTM references anyway) has kind of wiped the slate clean somewhat.

I know what happens in the movie, of course -- what self-respecting Transformers fan doesn't? But I don't think I've watched the entire movie in a single sitting, just bits and pieces of it over the years.

I'd imagine it would be probably a very strange time in 1986 to be watching that movie, though, to have almost the entirety of the cast of the cartoon/comic you've been following for two years suddenly either get killed or shoved into the background... only the Dinobots and Perceptor hang out with the main cast out of the old main characters, while everyone else is a new character. Honestly, I'm not sure why people don't hate the '86 cast on principle. I read the comics first before getting introduced to the cartoon continuity so I wasn't super-shocked, but you'd think having literally the entire cast of the cartoon you're excited to see the movie for getting absolutely massacred in one way or another (Optimus, Megatron, Starscream, Ironhide, Brawn and half the season one cast die, and there's a point where it looks like Jazz, Cliffjumper, Spike and Bumblebee bit the dust too).

I mean, the plot just has us run from one locale to the next, following loosely-interconnected, vaguely Star-Wars-inspired cool action scenes as everyone scrambles for the magic disco ball that solves everything, the cool side characters doing next to nothing (what is the point of Springer or Blurr in the movie even?), while the irritating ones -- freaking Daniel -- keep showing up in every scene. Galvatron's got a very cool Leonard Nimoy voice, though not having him screaming every line and shooting Cyclonus in the face every second scene is a bit jarring. Season 3 Galvatron is definitely far more superior to Movie Galvatron, I'm afraid.

Hot Rod's honestly very boring all throughout -- I don't think it's until the cartoon's third season or the comics that Hot Rod actually becomes interesting. He's at least inoffensive, though, and Kup's a very nice old dude to bounce dialogue off of. The likes of Springer, Magnus, Arcee et cetera do a lot less than I remember them doing, actually, and after their huge intros neither Wheelie nor Wreck-Gar really do much. Also, man, I totally forgot how much of a doofus cartoon Grimlock is.

Random rock music showing up every two scenes or so and taking up a small chunk of the scene is a bit odd, though it's part of the 80's package? The Touch still fits the movie well, as corny as it can be. I'm not sure the simple scene of Hot Rod driving up to Lookout Point deserves a whole rock music sequence, though.

Also, shit, TFTM suffers from a lot of the same problems that Revenge of the Fallen is accused for, actually -- inconsistent plot only salvaged by good action scenes; cool side characters introduced and then doing nothing; randomly jumping across the world; main villain (Unicron/Fallen) is bland, needlessly cryptic and gets killed very quickly with a plot device; secondary villain (Galvatron/Megatron) is just strung along by the main villain is more of a glorified thug with a cool voice; Cyclonus and Scourge have as much personality in the movie as freaking Long Haul does; Blurr and Springer have as much personality as Movie Sideswipe or Ratchet do; Daniel is as irritating and ever-present as the Twins; the entire movie just hinges on getting the plot device that everyone runs around trying to get; Jolt is equivalent to Snarl, elusively disappearing and reappearing; Optimus Prime takes on an army of Decepticons before dying; the plot device randomly giving a power-up that wins the day... hell, you even have Spike doing some unnecessary swearing. Though I guess TFTM doesn't quite have robot testicles, so it wins on that part.

Ahem. Where was I? Ah, yes, TFTM. Definitely had a fun time rewatching this -- the battle at Autobot City is still I think the best part, with it being fast-paced and having a lot of pretty awesome set pieces. The rest of the movie dragged on a lot until Unicron attacks Cybertron, with the scenes of them shooting each other in space, and the whole Junk stuff being the weaker parts of the movie. I have no idea why I like the Quintessa scenes (sans Wheelie) so much, but I do.

There's no way in hell I'm rewatching G1, not without getting severely inebriated beforehand, but TFTM's a decent hour and a half to burn. A pretty messy movie, yes, but definitely enjoyable.
User avatar
Warcry
Posts: 13934
Joined: Fri Aug 23, 2002 4:10 am
Location: Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

Post by Warcry »

I find it almost impossible to evaluate (or even discuss) the movie on it's merits. I rented, watched and re-watched it so many times as a kid that every frame of animation, line of dialogue, musical note, character, voice, animation error and story beat are burned permanently into my brain. I can seriously close my eyes and replay entire scenes in my imagination with near-perfect accuracy, and stitch together almost the entire thing front to back just from memory, and have been able to for as long as I can remember. So I'm afraid I can't argue many of your points. It's not even a movie to me anymore, it's...I don't even know. A constant of reality, almost, as stupid as that sounds.

I'll say this, though. TFTM has one big advantage over the Bay movies: it doesn't overstay it's welcome. The first live-action movie was already pushing things, and each subsequent instalment has gotten longer and longer, leaving audiences burned out by the time they finally reach the end. The animated movie was just the right length for what it was, and finishes well before you reach the "oh god will this ever end?" stage.
User avatar
Blackjack
Posts: 9112
Joined: Sat May 03, 2008 1:04 pm

Post by Blackjack »

Warcry wrote: I rented, watched and re-watched it so many times as a kid that every frame of animation, line of dialogue, musical note, character, voice, animation error and story beat are burned permanently into my brain. I can seriously close my eyes and replay entire scenes in my imagination with near-perfect accuracy, and stitch together almost the entire thing front to back just from memory, and have been able to for as long as I can remember.
Neeeeerd!

What I mean to say I understand completely. The 2007 live-action movie is that for me. Maybe the robot half of ROTF since I tend to fast-forward the whole 'Sam goes to school' portion. Not so much the two newer sequels simply because I haven't quite rewatched them that many times.
Warcry wrote:The first live-action movie was already pushing things, and each subsequent instalment has gotten longer and longer, leaving audiences burned out by the time they finally reach the end. The animated movie was just the right length for what it was, and finishes well before you reach the "oh god will this ever end?" stage.
It was a bit dragging on during the Junk planet scenes, but you're right. The 1986 Movie runs for one and a half hours... but the length difference honestly isn't a problem until the fourth movie. 2007 TFTM ran for 145 minutes, ROTF ran for 150 minutes, DOTM ran for 152 minutes -- not that much longer. It's AOE that really ballooned, running for 165 minutes.

I feel that the length of the movie isn't the real problem of ROTF, DOTM and AOE, though. It's the length of their climax. The first movie had Megatron wake up at around the one hour mark, leaving less than half an hour for the battle at Mission City, and even then we move back and forth to the action at Hoover Dam or Optimus at the highway, and we have some time at the end for an epilogue.

ROTF had the Egypt battle start at around the 1-hour-35-minute mark, having a climactic battle that lasted for around 30+ minutes. DOTM starts even earlier, with the battle for Chicago lasting just shy of fifty minutes. Add the extra 5-10 minutes that ROTF and DOTM have compared to the 2007 movie, and the lack of epilogue scenes, and the climax ends up having such a long, long ending fatigue feel to it.

Age of Extinction is different, because it has three points where you could say the climax began. Was it when Cade starts fighting the Cemetery Wind agents? Was it when Hound and Bumblebee began battling the KSI army? Or was it when Lockdown returned to Hong Kong? Either way, it ran for easily an hour's length of Hong Kong running and battling.
User avatar
Blitzwing
Posts: 3659
Joined: Sat Sep 16, 2000 4:00 am
Location: British Columbia

Post by Blitzwing »

Warcry wrote:I find it almost impossible to evaluate (or even discuss) the movie on it's merits. I rented, watched and re-watched it so many times as a kid that every frame of animation, line of dialogue, musical note, character, voice, animation error and story beat are burned permanently into my brain. I can seriously close my eyes and replay entire scenes in my imagination with near-perfect accuracy, and stitch together almost the entire thing front to back just from memory, and have been able to for as long as I can remember. So I'm afraid I can't argue many of your points. It's not even a movie to me anymore, it's...I don't even know. A constant of reality, almost, as stupid as that sounds.
Doesn't sound stupid to me, that's almost the exact same experience I've had with TF:TM. I even have the soundtrack memorized because I've played the CD in my car so many times. When I was in high-school I would type out the entire script word-for-word onto my graphing calculator while I was bored. I'm pretty sure I made it past the Optimus death scene all from memory.

With all the other Transformers media that we've had over the last decade, I haven't bothered to re-watch TF:TM in that entire time. I guess what newer fans might not realize is that for a long time, TF:TM and maybe Season 1 of the cartoon was the only physical form of Transformers TV that you could actually own. We had Beast Wars in the 90's, but unless you taped the reruns (which I did for some key episodes), there wasn't much else to go by.

Last year I started to re-watch all of my G1 episodes on DVD, I got about half way through Season 2 before I got distracted by other things and haven't gotten back to it. Hopefully I can pick it up again at some point, and then I do plan to watch TF:TM in between Seasons 2 and 3.
User avatar
Cyberstrike nTo
Protoform
Posts: 4186
Joined: Sat Mar 16, 2002 5:48 pm
Location: In the Dead Universe known as Indianapolis
Contact:

Post by Cyberstrike nTo »

I literally quoted every spoken line of dialogue in TF:TM from memory once.
Please visit Outlaw Colony my new message board it's a fun site for fun people.
Post Reply