Transformers: More Than Meets The Eye – You Bet!

07.03.2007

It is the year 2005. The treacherous Decepticons have conquered the Autobot's home planet Cybertron. Now from secret staging bases on two of Cybertron's moons the Autobots plan to take back their homeworld.
*****

“Until the day, till all are one” Transformers: The Movie (1981) rocked my world. It was through that movie that I learned the meaning of the words “fatal” (Perceptor, “I fear the wounds are… fatal” – when describing Optimus Prime’s condition after his fight with Megatron to save Autobot City on Earth). There were so many things that were great about that movie, the script, the one-liners (“One shall stand and one shall fall” - Optimus Prime), the story and the soundtrack!
I just watched it again the other day and the script is even better now! Some of the best lines in the movie can be found here: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092106/quotes
But some of my favourite quotes are:
Unicron: I have summoned you here for a purpose.

Megatron: Nobody summons Megatron.

Unicron: Then it pleases me to be the first.

Megatron: Welcome, Laserbeak. Unlike some of my [thinly veiled sarcasm towards Starscream]

Megatron: *other* warriors, you never fail me!

Kup: Don't act hostile, I'll use the universal greeting.

Hot Rod: "Universal greeting"?

Kup: Watch, I'll have them eating out of my hands. Bah weep granah weep ninni bong.

Hot Rod: "Bah weep granah weep ninni bong"? Sharkticons: Bah weep granah weep ninni bong.

Kup: See, the universal greeting works every time.

Starscream: Who disrupts my coronation?

Galvatron: Coronation, Starscream? This is bad comedy.

Starscream: Megatron? Is that you?

Galvatron: Here's a hint! [transforms and shoots Starscream. Starscream crackles and falls to dust]

So you can imagine the expectation for the movie. The teasers and trailers were all rather interesting and gave us an insight into the design for the Transformers but sitting on the second row seeing them transform in the big screen in a film rather than a cartoon is SO COOL!
The movie is action packed and although there are pockets of slow dialogue, it is necessary to glue the story line together. Bumble Bee, one of my favourite Autobots (my fav is Hot Rod – not present in this movie but if he was it would mean that Prime dies so it’s alright) takes center stage at the start as he gets acquainted with Sam (not Spike as in the cartoon).
You can find the storyline on Wikipedia here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Transformers:_The_Movie> *spoiler alert*
All in all I am not disappointed, in fact it has left me anticipating the next 2 (yes they the big studio has signed on another 2 installments of Transformers) movies which rumour has it they will be bringing more Transformers including Soundwave who is epitomized repressed cool.
The soundtrack didn’t have as big an impact on me as the cartoon movie. I mean who can forget the song ‘The Touch’ by Stan Bush when Optimus Prime arrives to “bust some deceptir chops” and save the day “at all cost” or ‘Dare’ also by Stan Bush? Now thanks to YouTube and other Transformer fans out there, we can find the videos for those incredible songs that inspire courage and heroism. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30BFrLl07r4>
I’m glad they made it into a movie, it’s broken some box office records already and I hope that encourages the studios to pump more money into the next installment to our enjoyment. And with that, I leave you with the universal greeting.

Bah weep granah weep ninni bong.