Transformers: The Movie (1986)

[RobbyB1982]

I was born in 82, so I was young enough to watch Transformers when I was a kid, but not old enough to get dragged to the theater for it (I would have been 4 at the time?) so I never saw it. Beast Wars hit at just the right age, and interestingly, I had sort of the same insight as the characters there. I knew who Optimus and Megatron and Starscream were, but not the actual lore.

So when Starscream showed up and told a fake story, I bought it. And when "Unicron" showed up? I had zero context for why that was a big deal. And when Optimus Primal died for the season cliffhanger for a year... well, that was just Mainframe, they did the same thing to Bob in Reboot, and again in War Planets.

Then I saw the movie years later, when I was maybe... 20? I knew all about Optimus's death but was long past the point any of it would bother me. But the crazy part is, the dozens of onscreen named character deaths, were all meaningless to me. I thought they were just background filler. And then discovered from a friend later just how bad all that massacring was.... "Oh wow, these were all main characters? YIKES!"

weird experience that.

[Cheerilee]

Except... he really didn't do much of anything except open the magic box that the villain conveniently left easily within his grasp.

He didn't show any leadership qualities before that. He didn't strive to improve himself or take any hard lessons to heart. He just... opened a magic box that made him the leader.

I gotta jump in to defend my boy Hot Rod.

First of all, I think it should be noted that Hot Rod is basically an impulsive teenager. They paired him with Daniel because both of their "fathers" (Spike>Daniel, Optimus>Hot Rod) had gone off to fight the war and left them behind. I would suggest that most of the Autobots in Autobot City were misfits that were left behind in a short-staffed Autobot City as Optimus prepared to retake Cybertron (unlike the exploration mission which kicked off the series, which required a diverse range of talents, for the retaking of Cybertron, Optimus mostly just needed muscle).

Hot Rod absolutely foiled Megatron's plan and saved Autobot City (well, upgraded it from a complete and total massacre to a harsh bloodbath) by firing on the shuttle. I can't see how there was any better way for him to "raise the alarm" (maybe yell to Kup, but that's about it). And note that Ultra Magnus and Springer left Hot Rod and Kup outside to fend for themselves, over Arcee's objection.

After a dying Optimus drops the Matrix and everyone fails to catch it and only Hot Rod manages to prevent it from hitting the floor (and Chuck unreasonably jokes that Hot Rod is the one most likely to drop it), Hot Rod dutifully hands it over to the guy Optimus said it should go to. The visual effect doesn't seem to affect anyone, it's just there for the audience's benefit as it makes it clear that Hot Rod is the "Chosen One" Optimus was just talking about. When the threat of Unicron is introduced to our heroes, Ultra Magnus blindly theorizes that maybe the Matrix can defeat it (and foolishly greenlights what amounts to a suicide mission), and Hot Rod backs him up because he's the Chosen One and he intuitively knows that the Matrix can beat Unicron.

When the Decepticons come back for round two, Ultra Magnus sticks to his under-attack shuttle/Unicron plan instead of digging in and fighting them off first. He orders Blurr to load the Dinobots and Blurr says it's impossible, so he orders Hot Rod and Kup to do it instead, and orders everyone else to a different shuttle. One could say that Ultra Magnus just left Hot Rod and Kup to fend for themselves a second time. But Hot Rod makes a lasso and quickly/easily draws the Dinobots into the shuttle, and launches before Ultra Magnus. Meanwhile, Ultra Magnus launches without Arcee, leaving her to fend for herself (although she does manage to make it onboard).

In space, Ultra Magnus prematurely declares mission accomplished. And then Galvatron shows up and starts hitting Hot Rod's shuttle, and hitting Hot Rod's shuttle, and hitting Hot Rod's shuttle. Hot Rod's shuttle goes down, and Ultra Magnus can't deal with that right now. He pretty much just sacrificed Hot Rod, Kup, and the Dinobots to buy himself some more time (possibly for the second time). Then Galvatron moves on to his shuttle, and pounds it until Ultra Magnus realizes he can sacrifice 3/4 of his own shuttle in order to save the remainder.

Crashed on a hostile planet, Hot Rod beats a sea monster. Then he finds a bigger sea monster that just beat Kup, and he beats that sea monster too (and rescues Kup). Then faced with an entire hostile Civilization, Hot Rod breaks free and says "We can't hold out forever Kup, but we can give them one humongous repair bill." This kid won't quit. He'll fight until he has nothing left to fight with. And in his refusal to quit he bought himself and Kup enough time for Grimlock to come to his rescue.

Ultra Magnus meanwhile somewhat redeems himself by protecting his crew and facing the Decepticons alone, but like an idiot he has decided that this is the Autobot's darkest hour. Not Unicron eating Cybertron, but his own defeat at the hands of the Decepticon leader. When Optimus Prime falls, it's tragic. When Ultra Magnus falls, it's the end of the world. He doesn't even try to fight Galvatron, he fights the Matrix to try and pry it open so it can win his battles for him.

Hot Rod comes along and saves Ultra Magnus' crew from their own hostile Civilization, by giving Kup's peace technique a second chance when even Kup had given up on it and resorted to guns.

The Matrix was taken to Unicron, so Hot Rod is set on bringing the fight to Unicron. Hot Rod and the Junkions take two ships to get there, which I think explains something about why the writers had two ships leave Autobot City in the first place. The Junkion ship takes the first blow from Unicron, and is damaged. But Hot Rod's ship takes the second blow. Unlike Ultra Magnus, Hot Rod won't allow his support ship to get pounded until he has no more support, Hot Rod will spread the damage around so they can both keep fighting.

In the belly of Unicron, Hot Rod fights Galvatron, as no Transformer has ever fought Galvatron. Starscream, Ultra Magnus... both of them fell without ever putting up a fight. Hot Rod is clearly outmatched, but he's hitting, and running, and dodging, and blinding Galvatron with his headlights, and frustrating the heck out of his clearly superior opponent. And this is just Hot Rod. The same Hot Rod who opened fire on the Trojan Horse shuttle at the start of the movie. He isn't juicing on the Matrix. He's just a kid with heart. And then he got his hands on the Matrix, and it granted him strength and wisdom. Galvatron was no longer a concern at that point, and neither was Unicron, as Rodimus does his "Chosen One" thing.

I would question whether Hot Rod's story even fits the definition of the Hero's Journey.

And oh yea, even back then I knew Hot Rod sucked, and Rodimus Prime was a whiny useless jerk. His leadership skills sucked so bad, Optimus had to come back from the dead twice!

I would say that Movie Rodimus and Season 3 Rodimus are two entirely different characters.

Ron Friedman strongly disagreed with killing off Optimus, so he envisioned a "the son becomes the father" scenario (a natural sort of immortality, to counter Megatron's unnatural immortality, where Megatron sold his soul to the Devil in exchange for not dying), and flipping the switch from Hot Rod to Rodimus transformed him from a teenager into an adult, intended to be a dead-ringer for Optimus Prime (who himself had a less-than-ideal youth).

Flint Dille was responsible for season 3, and he saw Rodimus Prime as an opportunity to create a new leader-character, more interesting than Optimus Prime, with more flaws and more complexity. And it was precisely those flaws that everyone hated about Rodimus. I think that if Dille had stuck to Friedman's plan and created a "boring" heroic paragon of goodness and strong/wise leadership, Rodimus Prime would've had a chance to be respected by the fans.

[Madner Kami]

Nice dissenting view on the story and I subscribe.

[Steve]

Transformers titles for the post 9/11 generation has sucked just as badly as everything else for the post 9/11 generation.

What about Transformers: Animated?

[Rocketboy1313]

Flint Dille was responsible for season 3, and he saw Rodimus Prime as an opportunity to create a new leader-character, more interesting than Optimus Prime, with more flaws and more complexity. And it was precisely those flaws that everyone hated about Rodimus. I think that if Dille had stuck to Friedman's plan and created a "boring" heroic paragon of goodness and strong/wise leadership, Rodimus Prime would've had a chance to be respected by the fans.

I respect the effort.

That sort of character growth would be great NOW. In the age of streaming where this sort of long form writing and effort is put into series based around beloved IP that could work.

Transformers did not have the budget behind it then that it could have now.

The Optimus Primal of "Beast Wars" shows what a flawed, less than ideal leader in a situation he is unsuited for growing into the role could be.

But it didn't work with Rodimus. Up to and including the name.

[Madner Kami]

But it didn't work with Rodimus. Up to and including the name.

Some things need to be seen through the lense of a different time.

[AllanO]

This review convinced me to sit down and watch the Transformers DVD I had sitting on my shelf, and let me know the 4/3 is the more detailed rendering. I agree with Chuck's comment that the thing often has an 80s anime aesthetic, and parts look great. Also I am apparently a sucker for the 80s soundtrack of the piece (I was born in 79, I am not really much of a pop music fan, although I guess I am a Weird Al fan)....

I watched the cartoon on TV but did not see the movie until years (more than a decade?) later. So I remember the jump from season 2 to 3 and wondering who all these people (and plot points like the Quintessens) were. I seriously can not remember what if any reaction I had to all the characters being killed when I actually watched the movie, I seem to recall I had enough distance that I had not real reaction to the character death (I think I knew the movie by reputation before actually seeing it).

I was going to say that there are lots of instances where it is clear that Hot Rod is not just a screw up but Cheerilee covered most of those points (and a few others I had not considered). I would add two, I am pretty sure it was Hot Rod who came up with the plan to create a vortex in the Sharkitron tank and while that did not save Kup and Hot Rod it bought time for Grimlock and co. to save them. Also on the ship after initially leaving Earth Hot Rod is training with a sparing robot with an energy sword/ light saber and while that does not mean much, I still think it evokes the sense Hot Rod is like Luke Skywalker in the original Star Wars movie (perhaps unsubtly).

All that being said I don't think that saves Hot Rod, the problem is that Hot Rod has to somehow be if not as cool as Optimus at least in the same ball park and coolness being the ineffable thing it is there are no guarantees, it is not just about being competent and you definitely can not just be told someone is cool (but some characters are only cool because they look cool?). Hot Rod is like the step dad who is not cool enough to ever compete with real dad in the hearts of the kids. I suggest Hot Rod as screw up is a reflection of that kind of comparison he is suffering under (he is the Quickening of Transformers leaders?) rather than some object action etc. you can point to.

Just spit balling but one way they might have shined Hot Rod's image a little is if in his fight with Galivtron instead of getting a few good licks in and then being wrestled and saved by the deus ex machina power of the Matrix, instead it slightly varies, Hot Rod starts with the hit and run, Galivtron grabs a hostage and then Hot Rod is forced to put himself in danger freeing the hostage and we get the grappling + Matrix sparkle. So that Hot Rod getting caught grappling with Galvitron is not just a failure of his plan or abilities rather the cause of the tactical set back would be Hot Rod's heroic compassion and self-sacrifice, so even that misstep would be a plus. It could also create a stronger parallel between the Hot Rod/Galivtron fight and the Optimus/Megatron fight which might strengthen the thematic bonds (as long as it did not just remind people of how much cooler Optimus was). Presumably one could imagine ways to make Hot Rod's other heroic actions either cooler or more illustrative of character growth etc. exemplifying why there is something special about him.

Like I said though the coolness of a character comes down to a lot of hard to define stuff. I sort of wonder if Hot Rod looks too much like the hot headed 2nd in command to be taken seriously as the leader.

[Cheerilee]

This review convinced me to sit down and watch the Transformers DVD I had sitting on my shelf, and let me know the 4/3 is the more detailed rendering.

The storyboards for the movie are 4:3, but they had "cheat lines" marked on the storyboard templates indicating where the widescreen was going to go, so the movie was made in 4:3, but nothing important ever happens in the very top or bottom of the screen, because it was made in 4:3 for widescreen.



Which basically just means there is no wrong way to watch the movie. If you want to watch in 4:3 for more picture, that's good. If you want to watch in widescreen so it's big and beautiful theatrical-style on your HDTV, that's good too. Both versions are the intended version, and I'm very glad the recent release included them both.

[CharlesPhipps]

Optimus Prime is both the Obi-Wan and the Uncle Ben in this moment.

[Beastro]

Watched Chuck's recap finally and agree with it for the most part.

I rewatched the movie a good ten years ago, the first time since I did as a kid and was fairly underwhelmed, but I think it's the most that could have been done with the Transformers and how the cartoon was a series that shined beyond it's simple marketing of toys.

I disagree about a few things. The main was is the cold killing off of characters which I appreciate in a kids movie to have done given how kiddy gloved that sort of thing is handled in cartoons, and especially in the 80s.

It's a bold move and one that so easily establishes the grief and evil of war. All that time spent getting to know those characters and each one is gunned down without a moments attention given to their loss like any soldier, because every moment has to go toward winning the battle and making their deaths not be in vain.

Thinking over all of that, something came to my mind, that of the RN's battle conduct and culture they developed in the Age of Sail.

All was devoted to fighting and winning. Anything that could impair a crews ability to fight as effectively as possible had to be eliminated. Compared to their often met Catholic foes, the Spanish and French, who retained the bodies of the dead to be give them a proper burial at sea after a battle, or if possible, deliver them back to land and consecrated ground, RN crews would throw their dead overboard in the midst of battle as they died so as to not let the corpses impair people's mobility about the ship, especially in manning and firing the cannons below decks.

This practice went further than that, though. It extended to the mortally wounded who would be thrown over as they often begged and protested, if they could. This was the reason why, as he lay dying deep inside Victory, Nelson begged the ships doctor and the rest around him not let anyone throw his body over as the Battle of Trafalgar raged around them. That as noble and caring of those under his command as he was, that same human quality that made him so beloved by sailors resulted in a final conceit, that he didn't want to face an ignominious burial thrown into the endless ocean despite so many of his men having suffered such a fate. It was a request he never needed to make as so revered was the man that his remains were preserved and sent back to England as quickly as possible.

Going over the Battle of Autobot City one can see a similar pattern repeated, almost to the point that I wondered upon realizing it if it was modeled on Nelson's death in some way, even subconsciously. How all those noted and beloved characters were gunned down and left as corpses, only Optimus was given any time to focus on his dying and death, something befitting a figure who was to the Autobots as Nelson was to his own people. In the end I realized the similar treatment comes from the same human drive, that we honour the greater amongst us not simply because they are greater but also because of who they come to symbolize the whole, and the regard given to them as much given to that which they embody as to them specifically.

As for Hot Rod. I echo those that say the movie didn't give him time to grow into the role. His flaws were great and so the movie needed to devote more time to them all the greater. As it stood, the time frame would be been better suited to Ultra Magnus, a character that exudes a feeling of being a good leader, but someone too used to being a subordinate and is overwhelmed with being an indepdendant figure as we saw in the movie. The thing would be that most of his growth as a competant figure already preceded the movie and so his one big hurled is coming into his own and fully embracing everything else he already has within him.

None of that works with Hot Rod since he's an incompetant newbie with a long road of learning ahead of him, all of which on top of it all is never shown in the movie.

That then feeds into the aimless plotting of the movie Chuck pointed out at the end, something I feel could have been prevented with more of a restrained, toning down of the scale of epicness to the movie. One of the problems with Unicorn is he's this massive, eldrich horror that reeks of being something so much more than we realize, but what he does in the movie is fairly mundane and doesn't befit his position as the central antagonist especially when he is first introduced here and then killed off.

IMO, they should have completely left out the MacGuffin of Leadership, introduced him as a Q like figure who takes a break from his larger schemes to interfere with the Cybertronians and fuck with them for some amusement when he stumbles upon Megatron. He makes a deal with him in exchange for being made into Galvatron and expects him to hold to the deal even though the entire affair is a triviality to Unicorn. Megatron/Galvatron then remains the shows central antagonist who gets his revenge on Starscream and the Autobots while also trying to find a way to get out from under Unicorns boot. It eventually comes to Unicorn getting involved and an attempt to destroy him, it fails, but he's so amused by the effort and Galvatron's spunk trying to free himself that he stays his hand and wanders around leaving everyone with a warning that despite this they have all made the worst mistake they could have made: They've allowed themselves to be noticed by him and made enough of an impression that he'll be back to play some more in their affairs whenever he gets bored again while he goes about the greater business of his.

That would then explain his nebulous motivations. As for the Quintessons, I feel they need none beyond what we saw of them doing things for the fun of it as well. It was what we later on see of them when they ruled Cybertron and that very same behaviour is the reason that drove the Cybertronians into rebellion, and that after all this time, they run into each other again and nothing has changed. The only thing I wish they'd improved with them though is actually seeing them over the movie and Season 3 actually do some of the business they're so noted for since they feel like yet another hyperbolic caricature of Capitalists where their behaviour would leave them without any customers.