 | 
|  |
| | |
Well here it is..the first part of the review for Transformers the movie. Before we get started, here is some technical info for any die hard TF fans lurking out there...
-release date: August 16, 1986(nationwide)
-animation company: Toei animation who spent two yrs creating it(they also animated G.I.Joe the movie). Toei was founded in 1951 and hailed as the first animation studio around. Another point of interest about animation is that about the time that WW2 had ended, Japan started creating it's own animation stlye that would one day become known as Manga or anime. The entire reason this got started was that Japan was still very mad at the U.S. for losing the war, so they looked at our Disney animation like Bugs Bunny, Donald Duck, etc and created their own versions of them to piss us off. You will notice a very distinctive stlye here. Both have over exxaggerated eyes with smal necks and distorted body proportions. So that is a brief run on how manga was created. So I guess Disney did something good after all..and it was all because of WW2 that we have japanese animation that it is today...
-Produced by: Sunbow and Marvel productions and released in theaters by De Laurentis Entertainment Group.
-Director: Nelson Shin who also co-produces. Nelson also was the excutive in charge over the series
-writer: Ron Friedman who also wrote G.I.Joe the movie.
TF the movie opened up to negatively scathing reviews nationwide due to it's violence and language. I was also considered a finacial bomb by movie standards. It opened up on 990 screens and came in 14th place. On the opening weekend it did 1,779,559 which was okay at first but it never picked up. At the time James Cameron's Aliens was kicking ass in the box office in it's third week of release doing 5,779,352 and would go on to do 81.9 million overall. Not bad for 1986 and even better since James made the movie for only 18 million overall.
And as a very sad note, at the same time TF came out, Howard the Duck(a very bad movie) was in the box office at 2,719,620 in 6th place over TF the movie. Howard the Duck was also produced by George Lucas.
Transformers the movie only took in 5.8 million dollars overall which is terrible. The way movies make money is both the movie companies(like 20th century Fox, Universal, International Pictures,etc) split the profits in half with the movie theaters. The only exceptions are big highly expected movies like Phantom Menace, Terminator 2, Mission Impossible 2, etc, are split 70/30 instead of 50/50 in favor of the distributor. Well the point is that since Tf movie made slightly under 6 million, they had to split it half which means we made under 3 million in profit. Not too good...
There are animation sequences that never made it into the movie which are referred to as Director's Cuts. Not too many exist because unlike mainstream film, the animation company needs to animate each and every film cell...
some footage that was cut:
-More footage of Unicron eating the Planet Lithone at the beginning
-more transformations of Autobot City which was original colored all white and used in the commercial for the movie. This was before they decided to use the gold color scheme.
-Kup and Hotrod losing control on their shuttle as they are being shot down over Quintessa
-Ultra Magnus in his shuttle screaming. He is colored differently that as we see him in the movie. His color scheme matches his Diaclone toy from which he came from.
-a 3 second transformation of Unicron
-Blitzwing getting knocked over by Prime in Autobot City..
there are a few other cuts as well but these are the major ones. When the movie was released to video cassette, the swearing by Spike saying "Oh Shit! What are we going to do now?" was trimmed and Ultra Magnus's "Goddammit!" was changed to just plain old "Dammit!". Canadian versions still have the swearing intact.
another point of interest is that the original script for the movie was the one that was used for the movie adaption for Marvel Comics. So this is why Unicron devours planets with a crimson red mist instead of consuming them like in the movie. Also the copy i have watched was the released version of the movie by Rhino which has a very bad voice over by the narrator in which he just reads what is on the back of the box.In the original copy, it has the credits of the voice actors instead which are now gone..
TF the movie may be very well animated but there are still constant animation flaws everywhere. Since I'm trying my best to keep this review short, i cannot cover all of them.
-Well as we all know, the year is 2005 and many things are subject to change. The second season left off in 1985 and now Autobot city has been constructed, new Autobot recruits from Cybertron are here, Cybertron has two(possibly a third)moon bases that the Autobots occupy, The Decepticons have been driven from the Earth and control Cybertron, and Megatron now knows about the Matrix of Leadership.
The movie opens up in deep space with Unicron coming into view. The begining sequence was handled breathtakingly with a musical score to fit perfectly. Few movies ever caught my attention like this opening sequence.
The planet Lithone is Unicron's target. Lithone is a bit like Cybertron: inhabited by transformable beings with a setting that looks like Cybertron except that it has not been ravaged by war. The Lithones are a peaceful people and some fans have suggested that they may share a distant lineage with the Transformers.
At any rate we see Kranix and Arbulus as the main characters here. According to his tech specs(technical specifications) Arbulus is a bit of a coward with the quote of "He who lives and runs away will live to run another day". Kranix is Arbulus's best friend and has a over extensive personality chips which makes him emotional and personified. Autobots who have met Kranix say that Kranix is more human than most humans they know. In the original script, both Kranix and Arbulus can transform.
Unicron comes into view and begins to consume the planet.
"Arbulus, Look! It's Unicron!" screams Kranix. What's funny is that we see Unicron coming into view and he overlaps a tower in the foreground which makes him very small.
"Get to the ships! It's are only chance!" they scream as Unicron tears the planet apart.
Kranix manages to escape while Arbulus in his ship gets sucked back by Unicron's gravity field suction. I would invite all TF fans to slow motion Arbulus's ship going thru Unicron's maw. We can see very briefly Arbulus at the controls looking terrifed.
Kranix flies off into deep space being the only survivor of his race left. This sequence was stunning animated with alot of backlighting done giving it a sureal feel to it. Very haunting to watch a entire planet being destroyed. In the original draft, Unicron consumes Lithone by a red mist and the planet cracks open like a egg and out pours red lava. Arbulus gets consumed by the mist and Kranix transforms and flies off...
Now the opening credits come into play. Like i said earlier, Kid Rhino screwed things up by removing the credits and putting in a useless narration from the back of the box...
Now the movie begins: It is the year 2005. The trecherous Decepticons have conquered the Autobot's homeplanet of Cybertron. But from secret staging grounds from two of Cybertron's moons, the valiant Autobots prepare to retake their homeland...
Laserbeak flies into view. There are alot of similarites from this sequence and the one at the beginning of MTMTE pt 1 which was used as a reference.
Laserbeak flies past a equipment line manufacturing weapons. The Dinobots are standing guard. He then flies near the Autobot command center with Optimus Prime and Ironhide there. Gears can be seen here very briefly as the guy sitting next to Ironhide. Laserbeak activates his head camera to spy.A point of interest here is that the camera he uses now is a different model he used in episode 'A Prime Problem', 'Transport to Oblivion', 'Desertion of the Dinobots', 'Dinobot Island', and in 'Arise Alantis Arise'. Not to mention his camera came out of his exaust manifolds in 'Divide and Conquer'.
I would also wonder just how laserbeak can get so close to the Autobot's main command center without being detected? I mean, we humans have the capabilites of detection better than this.. At least Ravage can absorb massive amounts of radar which renders him invisible to scanners but Laserbeak has no such powers.
Well Laserbeak overhears that the Autobots are low on Energon and Prime is sending a detachment to Earth to retrieve more energon cubes. It's nice to see that the Autobots are using energon cubes now regularly unlike in the first two seasons.
When Ironhide says "Everytime I look into a monitor Prime, my circuits sizzle! When are we going to start bustin' Decepti-chops?" we can see Starscream flying in his monitor right in front of him. Maybe Ironhide should have paid more attention to his scanners instead of belly aching or he might not have died..
We hear that Spike(who according to the script is 35 yrs old) had a son named Daniel. Jazz reports that no Decepticon "shinanigans" are around and it's all clear...well execpt for Laserbeak who is spying on them. heh.
Cliffjumper begins the countdown which is a inside joke in the script since Kasey Casem does his voice and he also does the "top 40 countdown" on the radio nationwide.
The shuttle called "the lancet" takes off for Earth.
"Now all we need is a little energon, and alot of luck" Prime says gravely. Very odd, since in the background we see both Jazz and Cliffjumper standing right there next to him. Didn't he just contact these two a second ago from another part of the moon??
Laserbeak takes off and reports back to Megatron on Cybertron. Really weird is that if you notice the camera angle on Laserbeaks video, we see that his camera was right in front of Ironhide's face which would be impossible for him to get.
When Megatron says "more than you imagine Optimus Prime!" , take a look at his Decepticon symbol. It's really screwed up.
Well the Lancet comes into view flying through space en route to Earth. In the orginal draft, the Lancet is flying through a asteroid field which would explain why the Autobots aboard didn't detect them. Even in a earlier version, the Autobot shuttle almost hits a comet and the Decepticons use that distraction as a means to attack.
Well the Decepticon attack is on! The interior of the shuttle explodes inward as Megatron rips away at wires. The Interior of the shuttle must be a total vacume since if not, the Autobots inside would have sucked into space instantly.
IF you also pause to notice is that many of the Decepticons are not there(Astrotrain, Ramjet, Dirge, Thrust, Blitzwing,etc.), This is because they will meet up with the onboard Decepticons later.
At any rate, Megatron makes quick work on the Autobots. Brawn gets shot right through the upper left portion of his chest. If you slow motion this you will see that the blast goes through him and exits out his back. In the original draft, Brawn is blown completely in half.
Prowl gets taken out by Scavenger. Scavenger? Scavenger's firepower is a 6 on his tech specs and he has shot at Autobots numerous times before in the past without doing this type of damage. Prowl gets struck in his mid chest area and firery smoke pours from his mouth. He falls over and is consumed in flames. Poor Prowl.
Next up is Ironhide and Ratchet. Technicaly Ironhide gets blasted before Rachet does but they both go down easily. In the original script, both ironhide and ratceht are "fused together and then are blown into small glowing bits" egad..
It would seem odd that the Autobots did not attack together and if they did, they may have still died but at least they would have taken some Decepticons with them. I can understand Prowl not attacking suddenly as a quick check to the tech specs indicates the unexpected can scramble his logic circuits, but the others.....?
And maybe i can understand Megatron's fusion cannon taking out the Autobots rather easy...almost too easy as fans complain. Megatron shot Brawn in 'Fire on the Mountain' and didn't kill him. He shot Gears at pointblank range in 'Changing Gears', he shot Ironhide in 'The Immobilizer' and 'Transport to Oblivion'and a slew of other Autobots over the course of the first two seasons. A quick check to Meggy's tech specs indicates that his fusion cannon is more powerful in space than of earth but still...it seemed all to easy.
hmm, another point i'd like to make is that since Optimus Prime, Megatron, and the other Transformers crashed into Mt. St. Hillary and laid there for 4 million Earth years and were revived by Teletran One, why can't these Autobots be reactivated as well?? If you look closely in MTMTE pt 1, you see the camera pan across the floor of the Ark with some of the TF's torn in half and busted up bad.
After Megatron finishes explaining his plan to Starscream, ironhide musters his last bit of strength and grabs Meg's foot.
"Such heroic nonsense!" Megatron says as he blows his head off. Megatron was probably right. What was Ironhide thinking? That he was going to take out all the Deceps by himself with a gaping wound through him? It would have better if he had tried to conserve his energy..but he probably would have died anyway. The Lancet did crash when the Deceps exited to attack autbot city any way. and the wound he had went right through him so it was probably fatal. well, long live Ironhide....
Now we see Earth. But before we do i would like to point out that there was a symbolic transition here. The movie opens up with the old guys(Ironhide, Cliffjumper, Jazz, Ratchet, Prowl, and even Spike). But now we make the transition from old to new as we see Hotrod and Daniel(both new characters) at Autobot City(which is new). This is a symbolic passing from old to new as the old guys are killed off.
Writer Ron Freidman wanted to keep as much a distance from the old guys to the new. he wanted to portray the new generation of Autobots as seperate as possible. This is why lines were changed from the original script like when Daniel says "Look Hotrod! Ironhide and the shuttle is coming! Let's watch it land." to "Hotrod! The shuttle's coming! Lets' watch it land!" And when Hotrod descovers the hole in the shuttle he screams out "This is for Ironhide!" as he opens fire.
Well both Daniel and Hotrod are fishing by a lake. Fans always complain about how annoying Dainel is but since Voltron had those dancing mice that were always playing practical tricks on the team and Evangelion has the playful penguin as comic relief, I think we got off rather light with Daniel.
Both Hotrod and Daniel go up to 'Look out' mountain to get a better peek of the Lancet which is now descending over Autobot City. Kup along with Huffer and a few other Autobots are putting up a roadblock as Hotrod comes smashing through. This gives indication of Hotrod's youthful nature and his indifference to authority figures and rules.
Daniel sees the hole in the shuttle and Hotrod opens fire.
"What's that darn fool doing" Kup asks. In the background we see Hound, Sunstreaker and another Autobot that's colored a bit like Bluestreak(although it's not Bluestreak). This is a mistake since we see Hound and Sunstreaker come off of 'the Vindicator' with Prime later on as reinforcements.
Megatron relizes his plan is exposed and begins the attack. His forces flee the exploding shuttle and begin their advance on Autobot City.
"A cursory evaluation of Decepticon capabilites inducates a distinct tactical defecioncy" Perceptor babbles to Ultra Magnus. "In other words..we're outnumbered!" Springer comments as Starscream shots a missle at them. Outnumbered?? Let's examine this for a minute...
The Decepticons have 1.) Megatron 2.) Soundwave 3.)Starscream 4.)Thundercraker 5) Skywarp 6) Rumble 7)Frenzy 8) Ravage 9) Laserbeak 10) Ratbat 11) Astrotrain 12 Blitzwing 13) Reflector(seen in one scene briefly) 14) Bombshell 15) Schrapnel 16) Kickback 17) Dirge 18) Thrust 19) Ramjet 20) Scavenger 21) Scrapper 22) Long Haul 23) Hook 24) Bonecrusher 25) and 26) Mixmaster. okay that's twenty six.
The Autobots have 1)Ultra magnus 2) Blurr 3)Kup 4) Hotrod 5) springer 6) Arcee 7) Perceptor 8) Blaster 9)Rewind 10) Eject 11) Ramhorn 12) Steeljaw 13) Huffer 14) Wheeljack 15) Windcharger 16) in the scene when Megatron blasts at a closed door we see 5 various Autobots running about 22) Grapple 23) the guy who is colored like Bluestreak. okay that's roughly 23 vs. 26. That's really not THAT much a difference.And in the original draft we see Ultra Magnus racing into battle with Sideswipe, Tracks, and Red Alert with him in his car carrier section. Red Alert transforms and gets blasted by Megatron in the back and dies. There are penciled animation cells of this but it was never completed.
And fans always ask me over the years just where is Omega Supreme, Arielbots, Protecobots, etc. Well these guys were introduced in the late 1985 in the gestalt wave. The movie already began production the year ealier so we didn't know these guys would have even existed up to this point. This also explains why the Stunticons, Combaticons, etc were not present.
The battle rages fiercely across Autobot City. Arcee seems concerned about Hotrod and Kup being trapped outside the city. Well what about Huffer and the other Autobots? I guess they were too old so she didn't care about them.
Springer and Arcee race to transform the city to battle station mode. I wonder why it isn't always transformed into battle station mode to prevent surprise attacks? In fact why do they even need a city mode for?
I like how Starscream gets his foot caught in a closing door vaults. He is forced to blast his foot off to avoid being crushed by two bigger blast doors closing. "Ow, my foot!" he screams but if you slow motion this scene of him flying away he see his right ankle area blasted and his foot is fine. What's more is that every other scene after this he is just fine.
Perceptor informs Blaster to contact Optimus Prime on moon base one for reinforcements. A nice scene here is when Soundwave's tapes fight Blaster's new tapes. Too bad Blaster's tapes pretty much played a non existant role in the third season lineup as well as soundwave's tapes with the exception of Ratbat.
Kup and Hotrod meet up with Springer who is pushing a giant rocket launcher into place to fight the Decepticons. First off we see Arcee dragging a very dead Windcharger across the floor. In the background we see a guy colored like Sideswipe. But if you blow this scene up and enhance it, it's just Wheeljack miscolored.
"Keep at it Springer my boy! Helps at hand!" Kup says. Rather odd since this is the ONLY time Kup and Springer ever talk in the entire Transformers series.
I also wonder why the rocket launcher was aimed at the wall to begin with?? Why wouldn't you always have that thing pointed outward?
"I have better things to do tonight than die" Springer says which is a classic TF line. Springer's personality was based off of Indiana Jones with his dry sence of humor and witty attitude and toughness. he is definately the best of out of the three Autobot Triplechangers.
Well the launcher launches it's bombs against Devastator with not much effect. Devastator throws a giant wall into the launcher as the Autobots scatter.
The battle rages all night long and into the morning. I wonder how long does it take Prime to get to Earth? In the third season it doesn't take long at all for both Autobots and Decepticons to get from Cybertron to Earth in episodes like Five Faces of Darkness, Ghost in the Machine, Burden Hardest to bear, etc.
Finaly Optimus Prime arrives on the shuttle called Vindicator which is well named for the occasion. "Dinobots! Destroy Devastator!" prime commands. "Me Grimlock, loves challenge!" Grimlock says as he and his Dinobots(minus Snarl for some odd reason) transform and attack.
I also wonder just how many doors does a Autobot shuttle have? the Dinobots exit through a bottom hatch, Ultra magnus and the Autobots board the shuttle when Galvatron attacks in a side entrance, Prime leaves Cybertron in another side entrance in the Rebirth, Prime, Sunstreaker and Hound are standing on a ramp when the Vindicator lands, and Blurr and Wheelie exit the top of the shuttle through ejection seats in 5 Faces of Darkness. sheesh, that's alot of doors...
The Dinobots are overwhelmed by Devastator's brute force like they were when they first clashed back in Heavy Metal Wars in season one.
"Megatron must be stopped..no matter what the cost" prime gravely states as he transforms and races in to the city. At this point i wonder if Prime had any premontion that he was going to die by the way he says it.
Prime runs down pretty much the entire Decepticon army in one sweep. If you noticed carefuly, Prime has a mini Autobot symbol on his steering wheel. rather cool looking.
I might as well point out that the interior of Prime's cab is quite a bit different than in epsiodes S.O.S. Dinobots, Fire in the Sky, City of Steel, Triple Takeover, Dinobot Islandpt 2,and Master Builders. Gee, Prime gets alot of interior makeovers doesn't he?
The Fight! "One shall stand and One shall fall" Prime says. Many do not know this but he is quoting 'measure of a man' by Shakespeare here.
Megatron and Prime begin to fight. Overall rather nice but i wish it would have lasted longer to match the damage they both received. In the fight, Megatron grabs a lightsaber type weapon which is a tribute to Nelson Shin(the director and co producer) since he is the one who developed the effects to the lightsabers used in the original Star Wars.
Hotrod interfers and Prime doesn't want to shoot to run the risk of shooting him which is far more heroic and dramatic than having him get blown up in a video game like the comic book did. Ugh.
Megatron blasts away at Prime's open wound in his left side. Prime falls and Megatron states his famous words "It's over Prime!"
Prime musters up enough strength to knock Megatron over the platform and he falls hitting various wreckage.
In the orginal movie, there is a ominus shadow over half the screen when Hotrod says "Forgive me, Optimus.." But in the Kid Rhino release it's gone. Too bad as it really added to the mood of the moment.
As Hotrod cares for Prime, down below a major contrast happens when Starscream kicks Megatron in the stomach area and mockingly says "How do you feel mighty Megatron?" When he says this, his chest area is colored all orange for some crazy reason.
"Astrotrain! Transform and get us out of here!" Starscream commands. In the original script Astrotrain transforms and runs over "several generic Decepticons in his way". That would have been nice to see.
The Decepticons board Astrotrain as Soundwave carries the battered Megatron and Rumble carries his fusion cannon. Rather humorous.
Astrotrain transforms into his shuttle modes and takes off for Cybertron..
Back inside the med bay, Prime lays dying on a table as Perceptor examines him and Kup watched his vital signs. "I fear the wounds are fatal" Perceptor says as he transforms.
Prime prepares to pass the Matrix on to Ultra Magnus who humbley protests. Prime also prophises about a Autobot who "shall one day rise from out ranks and use the Matrix to light our darkest hour".
Prime opens up his chest area and removes the covering for the Matrix.
I guess this is a good a time as any to tell us all that his chest area here bares no resembelence to his chest area in 'A Prime Problem', and 'Divide and conquer'.
Also if you slow motion this scene, you see Prime grabbing the crystal part of the Matrix and NOT the outer shell when he first grabs ahold of it.
The Matrix falls to the floor and Hotrod catches it. He gives it to Magnus and if you slow motion this scene, the Matrix hovers in the air for a second by itself before he puts it into his chest. Odd.
Also if you notice, Springer was not present during this scene when Prime dies. I guess he and Op weren't all that close. And as another pointless sidenote, in the comic book version of this scene, Sunstreaker can be seen standing in the background.
Well this concludes part one of the review of Transformers the movie. Hopefully i will conclude it all in part two as i hate creating a bunch of threads that nobody ever reads. So i hope you find this informative and i would welcome any feedback that anyone has as well as their opinions about the above scenes.
|
|  |  | | |  |  | 
| 
|
Recent News
