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Review of 2018 Big Screen Showing of 1986 Transformers Film with Bumblebee Movie Sneak Peek #JoinTheBuzz

Transformers News: Review of 2018 Big Screen Showing of 1986 Transformers Film with Bumblebee Movie Sneak Peek #JoinTheBuzz

Monday, October 1st, 2018 10:47PM CDT

Categories: Reviews, Event News, Site Articles
Posted by: william-james88   Views: 36,067

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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 freebies

A 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.

Transformers News: Review of 2018 Big Screen Showing of 1986 Transformers Film with Bumblebee Movie Sneak Peek

Transformers News: Review of 2018 Big Screen Showing of 1986 Transformers Film with Bumblebee Movie Sneak Peek
The sun was in her face


Featurettes

After 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 Event

From 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.

Transformers News: Review of 2018 Big Screen Showing of 1986 Transformers Film with Bumblebee Movie Sneak Peek

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.

Transformers News: Review of 2018 Big Screen Showing of 1986 Transformers Film with Bumblebee Movie Sneak Peek

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

- Where the hell is Snarl?

- 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.

Transformers News: Review of 2018 Big Screen Showing of 1986 Transformers Film with Bumblebee Movie Sneak Peek


Stan Bush featurette

There 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.


Transformers News: Review of 2018 Big Screen Showing of 1986 Transformers Film with Bumblebee Movie Sneak Peek

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Re: Review of 2018 Big Screen Showing of 1986 Transformers Film with Bumblebee Movie Sneak Peek #JoinTheBuzz (1987148)
Posted by chuckdawg1999 on October 2nd, 2018 @ 12:20am CDT
I'm really bummed that I missed out on the poster. It would've been nice if their availability was announced in advance. The Stan Bush stuff was nice but I think they're on the blu-ray. Touch works better acoustic than Dare.
Re: Review of 2018 Big Screen Showing of 1986 Transformers Film with Bumblebee Movie Sneak Peek #JoinTheBuzz (1987159)
Posted by Dinobot-Snarl on October 2nd, 2018 @ 3:41am CDT
Glad to hear that everyone who went had a nice time. Would have gone, but I fall asleep at movies these days. Getting old. :-D
Re: Review of 2018 Big Screen Showing of 1986 Transformers Film with Bumblebee Movie Sneak Peek #JoinTheBuzz (1987167)
Posted by no-one on October 2nd, 2018 @ 7:13am CDT
I really enjoyed the movie on the big screen with the booming sound system. It's pretty much rock and roll and murder from jump street and the pace never really slows. My wife fell asleep the first time we watched it at the house. I think she had more fun than I did. I would like to add that our theaters have bars in them and you can bring drinks into the theater (gotta love Louisiana sometimes). So we were a couple in before it even started.

Anyway, the new Bumblebee movie stuff beforehand was pretty awesome and has me even more stoked, well cautiously stoked to see it. The directory spotlight and the full scene were really cool.

I enjoyed the Stan Bush feature as well, even if it did seem to drag on uncomfortably long.

The Bee previews (Beeviews?), Stan Bush feature and the posters were truly some nice lagniappe.

I give the whole experience a healthy ;)^
Re: Review of 2018 Big Screen Showing of 1986 Transformers Film with Bumblebee Movie Sneak Peek #JoinTheBuzz (1987169)
Posted by Rodimus Knight on October 2nd, 2018 @ 7:22am CDT
It looks like the posters at your location were all flat, where at my location, they were all folded over.

I don't think they version they played on the big screen was the remastered version though. If you looked at the scenes they showed during the stan bush extra, they were clearer, and the color popped out more then when you watched the movie.
Re: Review of 2018 Big Screen Showing of 1986 Transformers Film with Bumblebee Movie Sneak Peek #JoinTheBuzz (1987178)
Posted by william-james88 on October 2nd, 2018 @ 8:17am CDT
carytheone wrote:The Bee previews (Beeviews?), Stan Bush feature and the posters were truly some nice lagniappe.


And there's my new word for the day.
Re: Review of 2018 Big Screen Showing of 1986 Transformers Film with Bumblebee Movie Sneak Peek #JoinTheBuzz (1987190)
Posted by paul053 on October 2nd, 2018 @ 11:02am CDT
Too bad I couldn't make it last week.

:-( :-( :-( :-( :-( :-( :-( :-(
Re: Review of 2018 Big Screen Showing of 1986 Transformers Film with Bumblebee Movie Sneak Peek #JoinTheBuzz (1987192)
Posted by Bouncy X on October 2nd, 2018 @ 11:16am CDT
I'm seeing it this coming Saturday here in Canada but I have no clue if we're getting any of the extra features or poster as I'm not sure if its a direct Fathom event for us.

but in the end, I just wanna see it on the big screen again after 32yrs so its all good if we don't!

either way i'll make sure to stay after the credits to be safe and bring a box of Kleenex for that death...you know, Starscream. :P
(I'm sorry Prime's never affected me the way his did and still does! heh heh)
Re: Review of 2018 Big Screen Showing of 1986 Transformers Film with Bumblebee Movie Sneak Peek #JoinTheBuzz (1987193)
Posted by Rodimus Prime on October 2nd, 2018 @ 11:42am CDT
I saw it in Tallahassee, Florida, and there were no goodies whatsoever. I didn't mind, because I think that poster (and the DVD/Blu ray cover) looks dumb. That's why I never got the 30th anniversary edition. The 20th anniversary edition DVD works fine for me.

I enjoyed the Bumblebee featurette, I just thought it would be longer than it was. The whole thing was maybe 10 minutes long. Afterwards, the piece with Stan Bush was okay, it just dragged out too much. The Touch sounds alright acoustically, but Dare does not.

Overall it was good experience, I got a short road trip out of it. Surprisingly, everyone else in the theater was older than me, and some of them brought their little kids, a couple of whom wouldn't shut up. Otherwise, it was fun.
Re: Review of 2018 Big Screen Showing of 1986 Transformers Film with Bumblebee Movie Sneak Peek #JoinTheBuzz (1987196)
Posted by william-james88 on October 2nd, 2018 @ 12:10pm CDT
Bouncy X wrote:I'm seeing it this coming Saturday here in Canada but I have no clue if we're getting any of the extra features or poster as I'm not sure if its a direct Fathom event for us.


the event described in the article was of a canadian showing, where I got my poster.
Re: Review of 2018 Big Screen Showing of 1986 Transformers Film with Bumblebee Movie Sneak Peek #JoinTheBuzz (1987199)
Posted by no-one on October 2nd, 2018 @ 12:45pm CDT
william-james88 wrote:
carytheone wrote:The Bee previews (Beeviews?), Stan Bush feature and the posters were truly some nice lagniappe.
And there's my new word for the day.
It's a good one, but hard to mix in to everyday conversation. It's pretty common here and used a lot in restaurant names. It's cajun french, you're canadian french, it should roll right off your tongue pretty naturally.

Let me help you with the pronunciation though: "Lan-Yap"

And use it in a sentence - "When I bought a dozen donuts, I got a lagniappe handful of donut holes. C'est si bon!"
Re: Review of 2018 Big Screen Showing of 1986 Transformers Film with Bumblebee Movie Sneak Peek #JoinTheBuzz (1987223)
Posted by Bouncy X on October 2nd, 2018 @ 3:24pm CDT
william-james88 wrote: the event described in the article was of a canadian showing, where I got my poster.




oooo then i have hope!
Re: Review of 2018 Big Screen Showing of 1986 Transformers Film with Bumblebee Movie Sneak Peek #JoinTheBuzz (1987305)
Posted by Regimus Prime on October 3rd, 2018 @ 3:34am CDT
41560103_172381593650979_5887248563523364666_n.jpg
I was able to get my tickets the day they went on pre-sale and one of my childhood friends and I got to join in the festivities. He saw it in theaters back in '86, while I had to wait until it was aired in chapters during season 4 with the life sized live action Optimus narrating it to that kid in '87. Then it hit my local video store around early '88 and I proceeded to rent it every two weeks or so when my parents got paid. Anyway watching it on the big screen was a nostalgic blast, however the sound was quite dissapointing despite it being advertised that it was from the recent remastered blu-ray release. I get far better sound and EQ on my home theater system when I watch it every month or so. We were fortunate enough to attend a theater that did offer the rather diminutive updated movie poster from the 30th anniversary. I would have loved if they would have offered a full size re-print of the 1986 theatrical poster for an authentic nostalgia effect, with every pre-sale ticket. Speaking of pre-sale tickets, my theater did offer a designated special seating arrangement for those that participated. I was disappointed that there were no additional merchandising purchase opportunities considering that this event on a Thursday evening at 7pm (awkward) was far more popular than even I had anticipated. The theater (however small) was almost completely full and everyone seemed to be having a blast, including my friend and I. :BOT:
Re: Review of 2018 Big Screen Showing of 1986 Transformers Film with Bumblebee Movie Sneak Peek #JoinTheBuzz (1987357)
Posted by NeonPrime on October 3rd, 2018 @ 5:49pm CDT
It's awesome to see everyone had a great time. Would've loved to see it on the big screen again (mom took me to see it after an afternoon of begging and pleading :-P ) with my kids. Unfortunately,the closest event was like 3 hours away on a Thursday night. Hopefully the success will open future doors. In the meantime...Hot Rod is PINK & ORANGE AGAIN!!! :APPLAUSE: :APPLAUSE: :APPLAUSE: I was worried they'd go with the remastered red :BANG_HEAD:

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