The Transformers: The Movie: reviews

What the critics say average 5.3 from 12 outlets

• 9.0 CinefiedSteven Redgrave It was a basic plot with the sole purpose of selling toys ultimately, but it ended up selling us much more... compassion, empathy, and hope. Read
• 8.5 FilmInkErin Free ...has the feel of a massive, delirious acid flashback. Read
• 7.0 IGN As a piece of film history, Transformers: The Movie is pretty weak. But as an entry into the lexicon of popular Eighties culture, the Transformers phenomenon is on par with Matchbox cars, G.I. Joe and (at the time) queen Barbie herself. Read
• 6.7 The A.V. ClubNathan Rabin But as an '80s curio and perhaps the only film to feature the voices of both Welles and That Guy From The Micro Machines Ad Who Talks Real Fast, it possesses a kitschy, low-budget charm. Read
• 6.0 EmpireWilliam Thomas Something of a Gen X touchstone, this animated feature based on a TV show based on a toy line remains kitsch, charming, useless fun. Read
• 6.0 Time OutBen Walters The anime-inflected look is generally impressive too, although the power-rock soundtrack is unsalvageable. Read
• 5.0 New York TimesCaryn James These robots transform in a flash; the colors are shocking pinks and electric greens; the film is packed with one-to-one combat, large-scale battles and exploding planets. Despite these improvements, though, the movie is not for anyone too grown-up. Read
• 4.0 Chicago ReaderPat Graham A 1986 computer-animated feature based on a popular TV cartoon show, further inspired, no doubt, by the philanthropic desire of Japanese and American toy manufacturers to keep their kiddie customers rolling in robots.
• 3.0 Film ThreatAlan Ng This is yet another example of the Big Studio pushing out a film for the sole reason that they own the intellectual property and believe that we, like sheep, will see it because... well, we'll see anything because we're desperate for content. Read
• 3.0 The Globe and MailSalem Alaton There is so much action in the animated feature, The Transformers: The Movie, that you can't wait to get back into one of those Chrysler products whose vocabulary is limited to "A door is ajar," and "Thank you."
• 3.0 Los Angeles TimesCharles Solomon The Transformers has so many cuts that it looks like the film was developed in a Veg-O-Matic. Because it features ineptly blended drawn animation and computer graphics, The Transformers is billed as state-of-the-art. It seems more like state-of-the-marketing.
• 2.0 The Guardian Hard to believe that this barely watchable animated cash-in from the heyday of those Robots In Disguise was the cinematic swansong of Orson Welles.