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Really That Good: Transformers the Movie

The Matrix was designed to automatically accept the next transformer that touched it. If Hot Rod had let it hit the ground the Autobots would have actually gotten a competent leader instead of him.
 

SOLDIER

Member
The Matrix was designed to automatically accept the next transformer that touched it. If Hot Rod had let it hit the ground the Autobots would have actually gotten a competent leader instead of him.

This was my theory for years.

It was also funny in retrospect how Galvatron would always obsess over Ultra Magnus being his rival after the movie. Like it didn't even matter to him that Rodimus kicked his ass, that's how little he thought of him.
 

UberTag

Member
Man, I wasn't expecting to just take that 47-minute retrospective in one uninterrupted viewing.
Bob Chipman knows how to keep an audience engaged. Gotta give it up to him.
And yeah, as a 9-year-old kid who caught it in theaters, Transformers the Movie did a great job of blowing my mind... and selling me a whole host of new toys.

Say what you will about Transformers '86, but Bayformers is repugnant on multiple levels. I don't feel like I'd need to take a shower after watching the animated movie.

It actually had a female Autobot character that didn't die after saying two words.
Bayformers is absolute garbage. As someone who grew up with the franchise and owned over 80 of those action figures, bringing those films to live-action should have been an easy win for me. I haven't even watched the last three... and I'm a movie enthusiast. I seek out anything that's good. Which says it all right there, doesn't it?
 

bionic77

Member
Man, I wasn't expecting to just take that 47-minute retrospective in one uninterrupted viewing.
Bob Chipman knows how to keep an audience engaged. Gotta give it up to him.
And yeah, as a 9-year-old kid who caught it in theaters, Transformers the Movie did a great job of blowing my mind... and selling me a whole host of new toys.
It is such a good movie that for a few years it tricked me into liking Hot Rod and accepting him as a suitable replacement of Optimus Prime.
 

btrboyev

Member
I never got the toy commercial vibe from the movie at all when I was a kid and I still don't at 39.

Yes, they had a new line of toys, but it's not like the movie felt that way..I mean shit they killed off one of the new toys right in the middle. (Until he is rebuilt, anyway)

It's a great movie.
 

MattKeil

BIGTIME TV MOGUL #2
The Matrix was designed to automatically accept the next transformer that touched it. If Hot Rod had let it hit the ground the Autobots would have actually gotten a competent leader instead of him.

Nah, that goes against the Chosen One prophecy. You have to traditionally get that wrong first, then discover the right One. Magical objects of destiny don't let you call dibs.

I never got the toy commercial vibe the movie at all when I was a kid and I still don't at 39.

Yes, they had a new line of toys, but it's not like the movie felt that way..I mean shit they killed off one of the new toys right in the middle. (Until he is rebuilt, anyway)

It's a great movie.

If you talk to the people who made the show, they weren't trying to make high art, but they were definitely trying to make something that wasn't just a brainless toy ad. Some real talent worked on those cartoons back in the day, and voice director Wally Burr ran a crazy tight ship to get the performances he wanted out of the voice cast in a way that simply wasn't done before these shows came along. Part of this was due to the fact that the shows had fairly large budgets for syndicated cartoons, because the budgets came from the toy companies' marketing funds, so Burr tried to give them their money's worth on the acting. I'd say he succeeded, and in the process changed how voice acting was done for commercial products, including videogames.
 

JCHandsom

Member
I will add that I never get tired of Bob talking shop about how Reagan essentially invented modern culture through the changes he wrought.
 

jett

D-Member
You should actually watch the OP's video :p

Okay.

The way this dude speaks nonstop at 100 miles an hour is annoying, and there's something wrong with the video production of this guy, why is every element so low resolution and jagged, particularly the two massive watermarks. I cannot watch this for 48 minutes.
 

MattKeil

BIGTIME TV MOGUL #2
Okay.

The way this dude speaks nonstop at 100 miles an hour is annoying, and there's something wrong with the video production of this guy, why is every element so low resolution and jagged, particularly the two massive watermarks. I cannot watch this for 48 minutes.

Yeah, yeah, and Film Crit Hulk's caps hurt your delicate eyes, I'm sure. Everyone always has an excuse for passing up quality criticism these days.
 

Cheerilee

Member
It is hilarious that Hot Rod fked up big and showed no leadership acumen yet got awarded the mantle.

Hot Rod brought the right things to the table. He was a youthful fuckup, but he had heart and creativity and courage and inventiveness.

Optimus Prime was the greatest Autobot warrior, whose greatest strength was not even in his own combat ability, but in his ability to lead lesser Autobots and bring out the best in them. But by the end of his story, he had reached his limit and (after Megatron fucked up Autobot City and killed all those Autobots) he couldn't tolerate even one more costly back-and-forth sparring with Megatron, so he bet everything he had on one last all-or-nothing battle (one shall stand, one shall fall), which risked the future of everyone who still depended on him for leadership.

Ultra Magnus was the second best Autobot warrior. A pale imitation of Optimus, with the heart and mind of a soldier, and very little true leadership ability.

Optimus chose Ultra Magnus to be his successor because at face value Ultra Magnus was the best out of many bad options, and Optimus Prime wasn't some kind of prophet, he couldn't see everything.

The Matrix confers the strength, experience, and wisdom of all previous Primes. Add that to Ultra Magnus and you merely get a stronger, smarter Ultra Magnus. Add that to Hot Rod and the boy becomes a man, a fresh new Prime ready to lead the Autobots into a brand new age.


Also, Hot Rod's rulebreaking is the only reason Autobot City (and Ultra Magnus) survived Megatron's assault long enough for Optimus to arrive and save the day, since Hot Rod broke into Lookout Point to watch the shuttle land and was able to observe the Decepticon raiding party, immediately launching into attacking it, which foiled Megatron's Trojan Horse plan, buying the Autobots the seconds they needed to get their defenses up.

The Matrix was designed to automatically accept the next transformer that touched it. If Hot Rod had let it hit the ground the Autobots would have actually gotten a competent leader instead of him.
Ultra Magnus dropped the ball. He missed his chance. If Hot Rod didn't catch it, it would've either bounced and hit somebody in the leg (that time-honored method of leader selection) or Autobot City would've become the Autobots new leader.

Also, "first one to touch it" doesn't fit with how Optimus got the Matrix in the first place (Orion Pax was a youthful fuckup, who was saved from mortal wounds by Alpha Trion, who apparently healed him by delivering him the Matrix).
 

Shaanyboi

Banned
It's a piece of shit. A piece of shit that's easy to make a reference to and that a lot of stupid kids feel attached to because their favorite toy died. But it's still a piece of shit.
 
I can't be objective about this movie's quality at all. I absolutely adored the Transformers and as embarrassing as it is to admit I loved Optimus Prime as I saw him as a father figure. His death in the movie hit me hard as it was the first time I had ever experienced death in any capacity, and with my favorite show and my favorite character and a de facto surrogate father to boot.

What I will say is that I agree that despite the intentions of the movie, it grew into so much more. Optimus' death changed the Transformers from a simple Weekday morning cartoon show into a formative part of my and many others' lives. I saw every movie this video mentioned, and aside from G.I. Joe the movie (which i've watched recently as it is great on a campy level and has the best intro to any movie ever created) I can't remember a single solitary thing about any of them. Yet the Transformers movie has stuck with me into adulthood. That has to count for some measure of quality.
 
Yeah, yeah, and Film Crit Hulk's caps hurt your delicate eyes, I'm sure. Everyone always has an excuse for passing up quality criticism these days.

People are right to skip Hulk's bullshit

Fuck Hulk.

It is funny how Birth Movies Death is basically the last semi-legitimate enthusiast press outlet that still indulges that dumb-as-fuck AICN-era nickname/gimmick bullshit.
 

DiscoJer

Member
It had a really good soundtrack.

The title song in particular. The group that performed it, Lion, never really caught on despite putting out some pretty good albums, but for whatever reason they got a lot of soundtrack work
 
Hot Rod brought the right things to the table. He was a youthful fuckup, but he had heart and creativity and courage and inventiveness.

Optimus Prime was the greatest Autobot warrior, whose greatest strength was not even in his own combat ability, but in his ability to lead lesser Autobots and bring out the best in them. But by the end of his story, he had reached his limit and (after Megatron fucked up Autobot City and killed all those Autobots) he couldn't tolerate even one more costly back-and-forth sparring with Megatron, so he bet everything he had on one last all-or-nothing battle (one shall stand, one shall fall), which risked the future of everyone who still depended on him for leadership.

Ultra Magnus was the second best Autobot warrior. A pale imitation of Optimus, with the heart and mind of a soldier, and very little true leadership ability.

Optimus chose Ultra Magnus to be his successor because at face value Ultra Magnus was the best out of many bad options, and Optimus Prime wasn't some kind of prophet, he couldn't see everything.

The Matrix confers the strength, experience, and wisdom of all previous Primes. Add that to Ultra Magnus and you merely get a stronger, smarter Ultra Magnus. Add that to Hot Rod and the boy becomes a man, a fresh new Prime ready to lead the Autobots into a brand new age.


Also, Hot Rod's rulebreaking is the only reason Autobot City (and Ultra Magnus) survived Megatron's assault long enough for Optimus to arrive and save the day, since Hot Rod broke into Lookout Point to watch the shuttle land and was able to observe the Decepticon raiding party, immediately launching into attacking it, which foiled Megatron's Trojan Horse plan, buying the Autobots the seconds they needed to get their defenses up.


Ultra Magnus dropped the ball. He missed his chance. If Hot Rod didn't catch it, it would've either bounced and hit somebody in the leg (that time-honored method of leader selection) or Autobot City would've become the Autobots new leader.

Also, "first one to touch it" doesn't fit with how Optimus got the Matrix in the first place (Orion Pax was a youthful fuckup, who was saved from mortal wounds by Alpha Trion, who apparently healed him by delivering him the Matrix).

There's also that fan theory that Ultra Magnus is Dion rebuilt like Orion into Optimus and Ariel into Elita-1

All the complaining of Rodimus also comes down to Season 3, not the movie. I can understand what they were going for with the whole "inexperienced new leader trying to deal with difficulties of leadership" but ultimately they fucked up. It was ambitious of them to try. Had they done better in conveying that, Rodimus might be better viewed within fandom.
 
It's the gimmick + his lack of editing. His bullshit is some of the most overwritten navel gazing out there.

(this is me saying this. I know)
 

JCHandsom

Member
I have a fondness for people who write absurdly long videos/essays/reviews that tend to ramble on.

This is not surprising to anyone who has talked to me at length.
 
I didn't grow up in Transformers' heyday. I was born just after, and I got my fix with their "Generation 2" reruns in the late 80's and early 90's and my parents buying the VHS of the movie for me.

This movie was a huge one in my childhood. The old VHS my dad bought for me at an insanely high price from Suncoast stopped working about 3 years after we got it because I used to watch it at least once a week.

I oddly never knew that this movie was near-universally hated until now...
 
I didn't grow up in Transformers' heyday. I was born just after, and I got my fix with their "Generation 2" reruns in the late 80's and early 90's and my parents buying the VHS of the movie for me.

This movie was a huge one in my childhood. The old VHS my dad bought for me at an insanely high price from Suncoast stopped working about 3 years after we got it because I used to watch it at least once a week.

I oddly never knew that this movie was near-universally hated until now...

It's not near-universally hated. It's a very small subset that hate the movie. Mostly those that came around after the transformers heyday in the 80s.
 
I never got the toy commercial vibe from the movie at all when I was a kid and I still don't at 39.

Yes, they had a new line of toys, but it's not like the movie felt that way..I mean shit they killed off one of the new toys right in the middle. (Until he is rebuilt, anyway)

It's a great movie.

Yup. If anything the dumb ass bayformers movies feel way more like toy commercials. The fucking worst toy commercials ever.
 

Cheerilee

Member
All the complaining of Rodimus also comes down to Season 3, not the movie. I can understand what they were going for with the whole "inexperienced new leader trying to deal with difficulties of leadership" but ultimately they fucked up. It was ambitious of them to try. Had they done better in conveying that, Rodimus might be better viewed within fandom.

Movie-Rodimus was written by Ron Friedman, while TV-Rodimus was written by Flint Dille.

Friedman argued against killing Optimus because Optimus was an icon, the moral and virtuous core of the Autobots that other characters mixed with to create interesting stories. But Hasbro ordered him gone, so Friedman had to play with the cards he was given, choosing to give him a powerful death that had meaning. Friedman also chose to have Rodimus represent Optimus' "natural" path to immortality, which is passing on everything that is good about him (his wisdom and morals), and having the son grow up to become the father, as opposed to Megatron's "unnatural" path to immortality, which was selling his soul to the Devil.

Friedman's Movie-Rodimus was Optimus 2.0, while Dille chose to take that freshly-minted character and give him flaws, because flaws allegedly make characters more interesting. But then, Dille's flawed TV-Rodimus was unable to fill Optimus Prime's shoes as the moral and virtuous core of the Autobots.

It's also worth noting that for all the flak Transformers the Movie gets for taking a shotgun to the toybox, Flint Dille wanted to do it with more carnage and less emotion. Which isn't to say that Dille's a bad writer, but Rodimus was inevitable, and Friedman got Rodimus right, while Dille got Rodimus wrong.
 

Soapbox Killer

Grand Nagus
This movie is hot steamy toy-sale driven trash.

This is the worst opinion I have ever read!!

The soundtrack ruins the movie for me.

I stand corrected, THIS is the worst opinion I have ever read.


Thins a great movie with the most kick-ass soundtrack of all time and I'm not sure it's ever close on the latter. Both have the greatest of all replay value.



Also, Dare might be better than The Touch
 

ash321

Member
A lots of hate for this cartoon movie in this thread lol.

It's a pretty good animated film for it time with a lots of memorable quotes.
 
Movie-Rodimus was written by Ron Friedman, while TV-Rodimus was written by Flint Dille.

Friedman argued against killing Optimus because Optimus was an icon, the moral and virtuous core of the Autobots that other characters mixed with to create interesting stories. But Hasbro ordered him gone, so Friedman had to play with the cards he was given, choosing to give him a powerful death that had meaning. Friedman also chose to have Rodimus represent Optimus' "natural" path to immortality, which is passing on everything that is good about him (his wisdom and morals), and having the son grow up to become the father, as opposed to Megatron's "unnatural" path to immortality, which was selling his soul to the Devil.

Friedman's Movie-Rodimus was Optimus 2.0, while Dille chose to take that freshly-minted character and give him flaws, because flaws allegedly make characters more interesting. But then, Dille's flawed TV-Rodimus was unable to fill Optimus Prime's shoes as the moral and virtuous core of the Autobots.

It's also worth noting that for all the flak Transformers the Movie gets for taking a shotgun to the toybox, Flint Dille wanted to do it with more carnage and less emotion. Which isn't to say that Dille's a bad writer, but Rodimus was inevitable, and Friedman got Rodimus right, while Dille got Rodimus wrong.

Flaws are good if you also give your characters strengths to counteract those otherwise your characters come off as whiny & incompetent. Dille forgot that and Rodimus ended up suffering under his hands.
 

Toxi

Banned
Yeah, yeah, and Film Crit Hulk's caps hurt your delicate eyes, I'm sure. Everyone always has an excuse for passing up quality criticism these days.
I gave up on FilmCriticHulk when I realized I was reading the same damn thing from him near every article. Far too often he falls into the same schtick of talking about how "honest" he perceives a movie as being and trying to psychoanalyze the director for their motives.

And I used to really love FilmCriticHulk. That love just kinda wore out as I realized that he was a one trick pony.
 

Kremzeek

Member
This movie is an endlessly rewatchable and eminently quotable classic. And it features one of the best soundtracks of all time.

I agree! I love rewatching it. I've always hated Wheelie though.

When I saw it originally in the theater I was totally unprepared for tearing up at a freaking Transformers movie. I was SO excited to see my Transformers up on the big screen!
 

mr jones

Ethnicity is not a race!
Not a fan of the movie as a man in his 40s.

However the animation still kicks ass, and the soundtrack....

I love that it conversations always start with "Transformers, or The Touch?"
 

Eusis

Member
Not a fan of the movie as a man in his 40s.

However the animation still kicks ass, and the soundtrack....

I love that it conversations always start with "Transformers, or The Touch?"
I have to admit, it's probably mainly the animation, soundtrack, and 80s vibes (and by proxy nostalgia) that make me still think fondly of it. Take all of that away and you probably would be left with something more remarkable for its willingness to kill off major characters so readily in a kids movie than anything else.

I'd still happily get it on blu-ray at an opportune time though.
 
r_hoc-starscream+crown-43.jpg


Exit is that way, pretender.

...Wait a minute.

Bionic77 is a transformer in the disguise of a human being!
 
I have to admit, it's probably mainly the animation, soundtrack, and 80s vibes (and by proxy nostalgia) that make me still think fondly of it. Take all of that away and you probably would be left with something more remarkable for its willingness to kill off major characters so readily in a kids movie than anything else.

I'd still happily get it on blu-ray at an opportune time though.

You should. Picked mine up earlier this year and love it. The only problem is the extras that they ported over from the DVD don't look so good.
 

GamerJM

Banned
I like this series of videos, and this one was no exception (despite having not seen the movie), but.....at this point it feels like he just kind of uses it as a way to talk about movies he likes that he has a lot to say about, and not movies that are "really that good". Because he admits that this one is deeply flawed. It feels like something that would better fit his "GEM: Good Enough Movies," series, except he has a lot more to say about this movie here than could fit into the average length of one of those episodes.
 

JCHandsom

Member
I like this series of videos, and this one was no exception (despite having not seen the movie), but.....at this point it feels like he just kind of uses it as a way to talk about movies he likes that he has a lot to say about, and not movies that are "really that good". Because he admits that this one is deeply flawed. It feels like something that would better fit his "GEM: Good Enough Movies," series, except he has a lot more to say about this movie here than could fit into the average length of one of those episodes.

RTG is less of an examination on the critical quality of movies and more an analysis into why popular films became popular in the first place and stay popular. Being "really that good" just means that when all the hype is died down there is still something there worth recommending. Even the films he's covered in RTG before Transformers were of varying quality; like, I doubt he would say that Independence Day or National Lampoon's Family Vacation are just as good as Die Hard or Ghostbusters.
 
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