How much do you like the original movie?

Post by **spiderfrommars** » Thu Jul 28, 2005 12:27 pm

Do you love the movie unconditionally? Do you think its ripping entertainment? Was it a missed opportunity? Misjudged? A pile of ****?

Share.

Brendocon · Post by **Brendocon** » Thu Jul 28, 2005 12:33 pm

I think it's ripping entertainment for an eight year old. But seeing as it falls to pieces under any form of scrutiny, I'd have to rank it as a pile of crap.

Looks stunning, but then so did Revenge of the Sith.

Definitely misjudged what the audience wanted/expected/needed for it to be a commercial success.

3/10.

Stormwolf · Post by **Stormwolf** » Thu Jul 28, 2005 12:37 pm

It could have been very good if they focussed on the story and the characters instead of promoting new toys.

Post by **spiderfrommars** » Thu Jul 28, 2005 12:52 pm

Vote!

Brendocon · Post by **Brendocon** » Thu Jul 28, 2005 12:56 pm

spiderfrommars wrote:Vote!

But the score I give it isn't one of your options!

I grade films out of 10.

Autobloke · Post by **Autobloke** » Thu Jul 28, 2005 2:38 pm

For a movie of a toyline - promoting MANY new additions to the toyline - it did well to hold together when other toy movies of the time were completely lacking.
It was one of the first films I ever bothered dragging my ass to the cinemas to see, and watched it daily for months when it came out on video.
That said, I think I was more into it for the nice animation, rather than the actual story.
Unfortunately it also gave us Rodimus Prime, the now overused Unicron, and the totally dire season three of the cartoon (seasons one and two being fairly nice as timewasters). It also perverted the Matrix from a Creation one to a Leadership one - a crime that has been continued since then.
Still, it had that cool fight between Prime and Megs, the flashy creation of Galvatron (and troops) - just dying out to be redone with CGI, Starscream finally getting what for, Unicron transforming, and the amazing character of Daniel.

Hmm... forget that last one.

I think the good balances out the bad, which is why I went for the central option of 3/5.

And why not?

Impactor returns 2.0 · Post by **Impactor returns 2.0** » Thu Jul 28, 2005 4:12 pm

I love it loads!

Señior's Covenant · Post by **Señior's Covenant** » Thu Jul 28, 2005 4:17 pm

Movie? Yuck. Despite what it brought to the fandom in the forms of usable items like Unicron and the Matrix, still yuck.

I can forgive the music partially due to the time the flick was made. Animation errors were ugly, non-sensical tidbits abudant, too easy a plot. Bleh. Did like it back then, don't like it now. I hated Daniel always. Considering (other than my real life and web-based friends that is) everyone has always called me by my middle name of Daniel, I hated him. I never liked Hot Rod or Rodimus, and Blurr was always annoying. Plus, it was the cartoon, just an extended commercial.

Impactor returns 2.0 · Post by **Impactor returns 2.0** » Thu Jul 28, 2005 5:03 pm

I think its cool - its looks good, the music is cool, it has some good voice acting, its not to anoying and its all very gung-ho - IMO theres [composite word including 'f*ck'] all wrong with it, apart from the dancing.

your unlikely to see a kids toyline recive a film as decent as TF:M again.

Señior's Covenant · Post by **Señior's Covenant** » Thu Jul 28, 2005 5:09 pm

Impactor returns 2.0 wrote:...it has some good voice acting...

True that. I shouldn't have overlooked that.

BB Shockwave · Post by **BB Shockwave** » Thu Jul 28, 2005 5:14 pm

For some reason, I usually watch the movie up until Galvatron returns toEarth and the Bots flee... I lose interest afterwards.

Must be that all of the old chars have been killed off by then, and the rest of the movie is dedicated to the new cast...

Hound · Post by **Hound** » Thu Jul 28, 2005 5:18 pm

The first half of the film is rip-roaring, but it gets very stale after.

I think it would have benefitted from a better balance of old/new charcters.

The animation is still stunning though.

Impactor returns 2.0 · Post by **Impactor returns 2.0** » Thu Jul 28, 2005 5:36 pm

yeah I admit the first half is much better then the second half.

Some of the animation is wicked, I love the artwork. Prime looks solid, proper hard, galvatron is priceless - Unicron is brillant. I could go on all day, it looks great

Kup_1 · Post by **Kup_1** » Fri Jul 29, 2005 1:57 am

I gave it a 4 out of 5. Why?

It was just great, for what it was.

It wasn't designed to be a classic film by any stretch, it was a great Transformers full length cartoon. :-)

KingMob · Post by **KingMob** » Fri Jul 29, 2005 6:43 am

^Totally. It's not a very good film, but it still rocks pretty hard considering its origins. As a shiny and lound piece of entertainment, it's fine.
Also agree on first half being the best.

Autobloke · Post by **Autobloke** » Fri Jul 29, 2005 7:36 am

Although the very end with the Unicron battle (yeep! Armada!) was quite nice.

Brendocon · Post by **Brendocon** » Fri Jul 29, 2005 8:53 am

Kup_1 wrote:I gave it a 4 out of 5. Why?

It was just great, for what it was.

It wasn't designed to be a classic film by any stretch, it was a great Transformers full length cartoon. :-)

Oh, as an episode of the TF cartoon goes, it deserves a 4/5.

But scoring it as a movie, 4/5 puts it on a par with The Untouchables. And that's just wrong.

The Last Autobot · Post by **The Last Autobot** » Fri Jul 29, 2005 1:18 pm

Mmmmm. I gave it a 4 out of 5. Comparing to the rest of animated american flicks of the time is quite good. Certainly has a lot (really a lot) of stupid things going on not only in the visual aspect but in the story(Characters and involvement, somethings didnt quite fit). But at the end, the animation and voices are mostly well handled.

If the action would have been consistent through out all the movie, it could have been better

Dead Head · Post by **Dead Head** » Fri Jul 29, 2005 1:31 pm

"For being the best animated Transformers movie of 1986, I give it 5 out of 5."

Autobloke · Post by **Autobloke** » Fri Jul 29, 2005 6:13 pm

Dead Head wrote:"For being the best animated Transformers movie of 1986, I give it 5 out of 5."

Way to sit on the fence, pal.

jboyler · Post by **jboyler** » Sat Jul 30, 2005 5:44 am

I think it's great. It's not a perfect movie by a long shot; there's lots of things that could have been improved and it's aimed at kids. But every single scene and every line just stick in your memory. It's one of the few movies that I'm willing to watch over and over and over. Even if I'm not actually watching, I love having it on for background noise. I might be on the other side of the room, lip-synching the lines.

Great stuff. Fantastically memorable.

-J

FlowBizkit · Post by **FlowBizkit** » Sat Jul 30, 2005 11:58 am

I saw the movie once in my childhood and could only remember some scenes so I bought it some weeks ago in hope of hearing the original voices from the series - ********. New voices, not worse but not what i expected!

Now you will say - new voices? Japp, i watched the german Version

I think the movie is too short, (the story and the characters don't evolve) to let itself transform into a memorably animation.
It's just for fans of the series so the storyline doesn't allow the beginning of "becoming a fan".

I hope I didn't write too much **** cuz my English is rusted :-)

Autobloke · Post by **Autobloke** » Sat Jul 30, 2005 12:33 pm

FlowBizkit wrote:the characters don't evolve

Well, Megatron became Galvatron and Hotrod became Rodimus Prime.

FlowBizkit wrote:It's just for fans of the series so the storyline doesn't allow the beginning of "becoming a fan".

Yeah, the movie kinda just assumed that we all knew what Transformers were. But then again, who was more likely to be going to see the film anyway? That's something the new movie has to keep in mind, and not spend half the film telling people what TFs are.

FlowBizkit wrote:I hope I didn't write too much **** cuz my English is rusted :-)

Ain't nothing wrong with your English, pal. If you hadn't mentioned it, I wouldn't have noticed any problems. Although I prefer 'cos to cuz - but that's just me.
And write as much as you want - we all write pages and pages of stuff sometimes. As long as it isn't just waffle though - that's my job.

Scraplet · Post by **Scraplet** » Sat Jul 30, 2005 11:24 pm

It was my favouite film for many years, and I watched it thousands of times as a child / teenager. But I can't watch it all the way through now. It gets too dull in the middle (as many people have said), and parts make me cringe (like the way Magnus and Kup are just slotted back together - if its that easy, why was Ratchet always moaning!).

If I stick the DVD on these days it the first half-hour (until "Astrotrain, take off"). Then, Megatrons meeting with Unicron ("I have summoned you here for a purpose"; "Nobody summons Megatron"!; "Then it pleases me to be the first")

Then the final battle scene (pausing to cringe at the whole 'Daniel saves the day bit') and the end credits.

Its the sound-track thats left the biggest impression on me - its probably steered my music tastes towards metal. And there is no way that I would have discovered Lion and Stan Bush otherwise.......

Autobloke · Post by **Autobloke** » Sun Jul 31, 2005 11:22 pm

Scraplet wrote:If I stick the DVD on these days it the first half-hour (until "Astrotrain, take off"). Then, Megatrons meeting with Unicron ("I have summoned you here for a purpose"; "Nobody summons Megatron"!; "Then it pleases me to be the first")

Then the final battle scene (pausing to cringe at the whole 'Daniel saves the day bit') and the end credits.

You need a specially edited copy.

Scraplet wrote:Its the sound-track thats left the biggest impression on me - its probably steered my music tastes towards metal. And there is no way that I would have discovered Lion and Stan Bush otherwise.......

First album I ever bought. I even sang 'Nothing's Gonna Stand In Our Way' at a talent contest (I lost). In fact, I didn't even bother listening to music until the TF movie soundtrack. Then I started buying Michael Jackson albums. Oh dear...

It gets worse. I started doing Michael Jackson dancing at talent contests. And won every time.

Must find embarressing photos...

Impactor returns 2.0 · Post by **Impactor returns 2.0** » Sun Jul 31, 2005 11:26 pm

I edited out the dance sequence on my DVD - oh and used a colour adjustment tool to make it look like it erm should...

Scraplet · Post by **Scraplet** » Mon Aug 01, 2005 12:21 pm

Autobloke wrote: You need a specially edited copy.

Good idea! Impy, are you busy....?

Autobloke wrote:In fact, I didn't even bother listening to music until the TF movie soundtrack. Then I started buying Michael Jackson albums. Oh dear......

How do you get from the TF soundtrack to Micheal Jackson?! My only guess (tell me if I'm right) Weird Al Yancovich, dare to be stupid - appeared on the same album as "fat" (his very-funny-at-the-time cover of "bad"), which led you to check out MJ? Otherwise, I'm lost......(no change there

)

Autobloke · Post by **Autobloke** » Mon Aug 01, 2005 2:25 pm

I had to test the 'Bad' album for my sister - liked it and...kept it.

Did anyone ever get the TF movie soundtrack on 12" LP? I never was able to locate a copy. Got three copies of the CD soundtrack though - and one on cassette.

It was a good movie soundtrack wasn't it?

Professor Smooth · Post by **Professor Smooth** » Mon Aug 01, 2005 2:48 pm

If TFTM hadn't been made simply to sell toys, it could have been a much better movie, imo. Using classic characters in place of the newly created ones might have made for a better take in the cinemas.

However...TFTM did something that few other TF series have managed to do since. It discarded the old characters in favor of new ones. How many times has that happened? We don't see Cheetamus Prime running the show these days, do we? How about Terratron leading the Decepticons? Nope. Ever since TFTM we've had a Prime, a Megatron, and a revolving cast of renamed stooges. I give Hasbro some props for actually killing off some of their best selling characters (ill advised as it may have been). I imagine that must have gone something like this.

1986
Hasbro guy 1: Do we ever want to use guys like, Optimus Prime, Megatron, or Starscream again?

Hasbro guy 2: Well, they sold a lot of toys, and they're absolutely crucial to both the comic and cartoon...

Hasbro guy 1: True, but let's try something new. We can't rely on Optimus Prime, Megatron, and Starscream forever, now can we?

1987:

Hasbro guy 2: Bring back Prime. Make Starscream a ghost so you can NEVER get rid of him again, and Megatron's still sort of around, so we'll keep going with that.

Hasbro guy 1: Anything else?

Hasbro guy 2: Oh, yes. You're fired. Getting rid of Prime, Megatron, and Starscream?!? Get out!

Metal Vendetta · Post by **Metal Vendetta** » Mon Aug 01, 2005 3:07 pm

Well it's something the Japanese did year after year quite successfully...introducing new Cybertron and Destron leaders every series, that is, though even they seem to have gone back to basics with "Flavour of the month Convoy" and "Insert Prefix Here Megatron"

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How much do you like the original movie?

How would you rate the movie?