Fans were given a chance to see the 1986 Transformers film on the big screen again last week (with some more showings still available in international markets). What was not advertised was the bonus featurettes that would be shown as well including a scene from the Bumblebee movie.
I went with my 3 year old daughter and I will share my thoughts, along with hers on the experience, freebies and bonus featurettes, with other fellow Seibertronians pitching in.
Event freebiesA poster of the new Blu Ray cover by Livio Ramondelli was available for those who wanted it. At my showing they were stacked on a table for anyone to take. It made my daughter happy.
The sun was in her faceFeaturettesAfter the standard current trailers (I got a Star is Born with Lady Gaga, what did you all get?), fans were treated to some Bumblebee movie themed goodies. The first was a featurette with the director Travis Knight and the cast talking of the film one at a time intercut with quick shots from the movie.
We got a real treat right after that though where they actually showed a completed scene from the movie. It is the fll version of the scene in the trailers where Bumblebee transforms for the first time after Charlie sees his visible head underneath the car. We see more comedic elements not shown in the trailer like objects falling on Bumblebee's face as he tries to hide in the corner. Charlie introduces herself and after seeing that the robot does not know what his name is, she chooses to call him Bumblebee due to the buzzing sounds he makes with his broken voicebox and comments on how that also matches his colour.
I loved seeing this, since the only other way of seeing this before was to be at SDCC. It did surprise me a bit just how goofy some of the gags are but I will take pratfalls aimed at kids over Wheelie humping Megan Fox any day of the week. The scene resonated with my daughter so well that when we were walking out of the movie and I asked her what her favourite part was, she referred to the live action Bumblebee footage. I guess I could have just stayed at home and watched the trailer instead. Kids these days, such ingrates.
The Main EventFrom what I am told, this rendition of the 86 movie looked mostly the same as the recent Blu Ray we got but for some reason the errors on that Blu Ray were made even worse here. Like how blurry it is when we first see with Hot Rod and Daniel.
Just to say how bad it was, I thought there was a mistake with the film projector and was thinking the guy handling it fell asleep or went for a piss. But then I remembered that this isn't 1998 anymore and it's all digital.
If anyone is curious as to the quality, here is a video comparison I found. I personally don't notice anything that different.
Here are some more technical based feedback from our staff:
Scotty P wrote:The sound mix was awful and a movie so recognizable by its soundtrack deserved better. Voices and effects were mostly fine but needed a bit more channel separation for some lines, Unicron especially as his words got garbled in places. The music? Sounded like it was coming out of someone's 1986 cassette player, one of the ones without any kind of low-end, maybe mono.
As for the movie itself, watching it on the big screen was fun. I wasn't born in 1986 and neither was my 3 year old, so it was our first time viewing it this way. And it was also my first time really paying attention to this film and seeing it from beginning to end in one sitting. The animation and details are really stellar at time. The first twenty minutes are basically the greatest G1 episode of all time.
Some more notes:
- It is indeed obvious that not only Optimus turns grey when dead, as we do see a colour change for Prowl as well.
- I love Ironhide, so much
- Not too keen on how Wheeljack was killed offscreen like that, reminded me of Admiral Ackbar in The Last Jedi.
- I did find it odd how close Optimus is to Ultra Magnus on his deathbed, when no backstory was given to him in this film, especially not in his relation to Prime.
- Yup, that "Cyclonus and his armada" part truly is confusing.
- My daughter completely tuned out when Hot Rod and Kup end up on their own adventure with the Quintessons. The movie does take a really odd turn there, introducing a bunch of new and nonensical things all at once (a tiny rhyming bot, floating heads that mean the opposite of what they say)
- She was confused as to what happened with Bumblebee and Spike, since we don’t see them for a loooooong time, she was also confused at Snarl's disappearance.
- The audio for the Junkions sounded worse than I remember. I couldn’t make out much.
- I forgot how badass Springer was in the film. Reminded me of the recent portrayal of Orion Pax in IDW flashbacks.
- I do like how Galvatron still is Megatron, keeping all his memories. They do a pretty good job at showing how this is an evolved version of a character we already know and his actions and words do have callbacks from who he used to be (especially how he taunts Hot Rod at the end).
- There is a really beautiful shot of Hot Rod seeing the Matrix lighting the darkness in Unicron before we see that it is still attachd to Galvatron's neck. Now i am sure the similar scene in Autocracy when Optimus find the Matrix is in reference to that.
Stan Bush featuretteThere was some bonus Bush once the movie was finished. Here are thoughts from the staff
Scotty P wrote:The Stan Bush vignette after the credits was very fun and the acoustic renditions of The Touch and Dare were a neat listen despite aforementioned and ever-present sound quality greebles.
Rodimus Convoy wrote:I liked the Stan Bush interview.
