Review Tuesday: The Transformers: The Movie 1986

 

 

THE TRANSFORMERS

The Movie

1986

After the Decepticons conceive a clever ambush of the Autobots, it seems like the entire universe could end up consumed by the goliath Unicron.  

I was a teen in middle school when this movie first came out. For whatever reason I wasn't able to see it, despite being a huge fan of The Transformers. Hell, I even owned Transformers #1 by Marvel Comics! So for 35 years I have kept telling myself I had better get around to seeing this movie and FINALLY did!

 

As I am trying to recall the original series, it seems this takes place years after those events. Spike is an adult working with Bumblebee on a moon base, and his son Danny is back on Earth with Hot Rod. Decepticon spies determine that the Autobots are in a dire situation and it's the perfect time for an ambush. During the course of the battle a surprising number of the original cast of characters buy their farms. By the end of that battle, the Decepticons are forced to retreat with a severely wounded Megatron. The Autobots, having sustained severe casualties end up losing their leader, Optimus, but not before he hands off the matrix of leadership to Magnus.

 

During their escape, the Decepticons, being loosely lead by Starscream, dumped dead weight so that they may have enough fuel to reach Cybertron. Of course, Megatron was among those ejected into the void of space.  At that time the castaways were visited by Unicron, a giant transformer that devours planets for their resources. Unicron struck a deal with Megtron. He must destroy The Matrix and in return receive a new body, minions, and even a fleet. This much is only around 10 or 15 minutes into the movie, which is under one and a half hours long. 

 

The rest of the movie is about the Autobots trying to survive, in doing so, preventing Galvatron (formerly Megatron) from fulfilling his end of his bargain with Unicron. 

 

The movie was fun to watch for the sheer nostalgia value of it. Once you put that aside, you realize the story moves slowly, the script is pretty weak, the scenes dragged on too long, and was victim to shoddy writing. Usually I prefer to go into everything with ZERO expectations and this still managed to let me down. The poor writing hurt things enough, but there was also the aspect that it seemed like the writers were just trying to clean up shop and kill off as many original characters as possible.  

In conclusion, I am glad I finally got around to seeing this, even though it wasn't that great. Oh, and the soundtrack is horrifically 80s. Probably the worst part of the movie...

 

You can find it FOR FREE on YOUTUBE