Nerds That Geek Movie Review – ‘Transformers: The Movie’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

One of my favorite memories of childhood, was being able to sleep in on the weekends, and by weekends, I really just mean Sunday. Because Saturday morning meant I had to set my alarm for extra early. Not for chores, or for homework, oh no. There was only one reason to give up sleep; Saturday morning cartoons.  

Let's face it, despite how tired any of us were, we were up as early as possible to get that bowl of Fruity Pebbles ready before enjoying the amazing adventures that awaited us. Those cartoons had us hooked, and it only made logical sense that the next step for those shows was to escape the confines of our televisions and bring to us the biggest story possible on the silver screen. But out of all the big screen adaptations of those thirty-minute vignettes, one stands out in my mind as the Dawn of the Dead of Saturday morning motion pictures; The Transformers: The Movie.

The Civil War of Cybertron between the Autobots and Decepticons comes to a head as the evil Megatron leads a massive assault on Autobot City. It is a costly battle that leaves both sides in near ruin with the losses of Optimus Prime and Megatron. In the aftermath of this devastating conflict, Megatron is remade into Galvatron by a mechanical monster and eater of robotic worlds known as Unicron, in the hope that Galvatron can hunt down the remaining Autobots and bring to him the one weapon that could stop Unicron's conquest of the galaxy...The Matrix of Leadership.  

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So, let's get down to the nitty and gritty about this movie. I love film. I always have, and I always will. I love to break it down and study it because film is truly magical. It evokes a response in us, and when it strikes a chord in our hearts, good or bad we will forever look upon it in a special light. That's exactly how I see Transformers. In no way will this film be remembered for incredible screenwriting, direction or acting. This was a kid's movie and it will forever be remembered as absolute fun.   

The reason this movie sticks with me is the fact that it was so epic. I mean come on; major characters were killed off before our eyes. Did eighty-sixing major characters before introducing new ones serve as a cash grab when the new characters action figures arrived in stores? Hell yes, and it worked. I had Galvatron and Rodimus Prime figures no less than a week after this movie came out. But I applaud the movie for the scope of adventure it presented us with, and the fortitude it had to wax Optimus Prime and Megatron.  

They pulled out all the stops, top notch actors in Leonard Nimoy, Judd Nelson and even Orson Welles and action sequence after action sequence that left my jaw dropped. Should you see it? If you love the 80's and nostalgia, yes. If you want to see a surprisingly bold kid's film that actually lived up to the last part of its tagline, yes. But enough gushing, in fact if you'll excuse me there's a bowl of Fruity Pebbles calling my name, and a DVD copy of this movie that I need to watch again.  

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