Tomorrow, the highly-anticipated sequel Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen hits theaters. I've already got my tickets for the IMAX version at noon, so expect a review sometime tomorrow afternoon. For now, however, I thought it would be fun to take a look back at Transformers; of course, there have been so many animated shows over the years that doing a retrospective on all of it would take a very long time. Instead, we'll be examining the two theatrical films based on the popular toy line. Everybody knows about the 2007 live action movie, but there was, in fact, an animated movie based on the eighties TV show that came out in 1986.

Now, let me just get this out of the way right now: both of these films are bad movies. I have no doubts about that. But you can't exactly judge a film about giant robots on the same level as you judge regular movies. The question is, how do these movies work as Transformers movies, films about big talking robots that beat the stuffing out of one another? To effectively compare the two, I've chosen five categories that are all important in a Transformers movie, and I'll be discussing how the two films compare in each category, crowning one film a winner for each section. Whichever film wins three (or more) out of the five categories is the winner.

But I don't want my choices to look too biased one way or another, so for this article, I've brought special guest writer Thomas Lack to tell us his choices in each category as well. So without further ado, let's get started!

1. STORY

Jonathan's Thoughts: This is a hard one, because both of these movies have problems in the plot department. The 1986 film's premise is fairly simple: a planet-sized Transformer, Unicron, is going around destroying worlds, and the Autobots must stop him while simultaneously dealing with the Decepticons. Other than that basic set-up, the whole movie is pretty much just action. But you never know where the story is going to take our heroes next, and the odds are constantly stacked against the protagonists, which makes it exciting. There's not much of a story here, but it's the perfect level of plot for simple, fun Transformers mayhem.

The 2007 live-action movie, on the other hand, goes way in the other direction. It tries really hard to have an in-depth, complex story, and ends up overcompensating. A kid buys a car; car turns into robot; robot is part of team of robots; other team of robots invades earth; big battle; end. That's really all you need in the introduction story, right? And that basic plot skeleton is there, but Michael Bay and his team felt the necessity to add in countless subplots about government agents tracking signals, an army squad getting attacked in Iraq, and a twist in the last act about a shady organization called Sector 7. None of these subplots are very interesting, and they just slow the movie down; the subplot about the analysts is totally useless and wastes probably a good half-hour that could be spent watching giant robots beat the crap out of each other. Anyway, the result of this overly-complex plot is that we don't see Optimus Prime for an entire hour. That's too damn long. Bay should have taken a page from the 1986 movie's book and kept things simple, because that would make for a more entertaining action movie. I don't watch Transformers for political intrigue; I watch it for the bots, and the plot of the 2007 movie keeps the bots out of the spotlight. Thus, my choice.
WINNER (According to Jonathan): The 1986 Animated Film

Thomas's Thoughts: The story of the animated movie was quite epic, with an awesome villain (an even bigger giant robot eating planets) whose one weakness lies in the chest of Optimus Prime: the Matrix. The story of the new film involves a cube that is more giant than the robots, but can be shrunk down, and has the power to create life. The decepticons want the all-spark cube because, well, they're evil, and the autobots want to stop them from getting the cube. Oh, I forgot about the real plot of the movie-a kid named Sam has annoying parents and a transforming car (that was old and then new) that helps him get a girlfriend. The plot in the old movie seemed more epic and more relevant to the transformers themselves. It did get side tracked a bit easily, and not a whole lot happens when I think about it, but I must say that overall, it has a better plot.
WINNER (According to Thomas): The 1986 Animated Film

2. HUMAN CHARACTERS

Jonathan's Thoughts: Since the beginning of the original animated series, humans have always been a part of the Transformers universe, providing a link between the audience and the action. And this category really is no contest; the 1986 film has the main human character from the series, Spike, held captive for most of it, and his son is the only major human character, but he doesn't do much. This film is more about the robots. The 2007 film, on the other hand, has a huge cast of human characters. Many of them are annoying (like the analyst with the ambiguous accent, or her hacker friend, or Jon Voight, or Jon Tuturro, or Sam's parents, or...well, you get it), but Shia LaBeouf is good enough as the main character, Sam Witwicky (they couldn't call him Spike because....why?) to make up for it. A lot of people give LaBeouf crap, but he's not a bad actor, and he certainly out acts the rest of the humans in this movie (Jon Voight phones it in at his campiest); his character is a good protagonist that everyone can relate to. Megan Fox plays his love interest, and some people say she gave a bad performance: I disagree. The word performance implies acting, and Fox certainly didn't have to act in this movie. She just had to run around looking gorgeous, and she excels at that.
WINNER (According to Jonathan): The 2007 Live-Action Movie

Thomas's Thoughts: The animated film is entirely about transformers with the exception of two characters (who are father and son) that hang around with the transformers. The audience almost thinks the one of them dies at one point, but without experiencing a lot of the show, I can't say I care too much other than "that's really too bad." The new film is more about the humans than the transformers, and it does a good job for the most part. But some characters are annoying, and at some points, I felt like I just wanted some of the human characters to die, or stop making jokes that aren't funny. Still, because of their level of involvement in the plot, I have to say that the new movie had better human characters.]
WINNER (According to Thomas): The 2007 Live-Action Movie

3. MUSIC

Jonathan's Thoughts: All movies need good music; that is a fact that applies to any movie, be it a drama or a robot action flick. And in truth, both Transformers movies have really good music. The 2007 film mostly uses a score by Steve Jablonsky that, while not extraordinary, fits the action perfectly. The Linkin Park song at the end is, in truth, a pretty bad song, but it works in the context of the ending. However, this category is no contest. The 1986 film has one of the best soundtracks ever. A mix of awesome, cheesy eighties rock songs and a kick-a** score by Vince DiCola really gets the blood pumping. No scene in this movie is without some awesome piece of music, and that really keeps things moving along at a frantic, exciting pace. The music does reek of eighties, and dates the movie in a way, but it really fits well and enhances the experience. If that wasn't enough, the 2007 movie loses simply because it doesn't once use the Transformers theme song, even as an instrumental in the background.
WINNER (According to Jonathan): The 1986 Animated Film

Thomas's Thoughts: The 1986 animated movie, to my recollection, had only one memorable piece of score music: the Unicron theme. The rest was done with 80's pop music and Weird Al's "Dare To Be Stupid." I like the song, but it has absolutely nothing to do with transformers. The only other song I actually like that was in the movie was "The Touch." The rest of the music was weird, irrelevant, and I found it annoying. The new movie didn't have a phenomenal score, but it fit well with what was going on. It had only one glaring problem: the theme of the transformers was completely missing. As disappointing as that is, there isn't a scene in the movie I can think of that could use it well.
WINNER (According to Thomas): The 2007 Live-Action Movie

4. ACTION

Jonathan's Thoughts: This is a tough one, because both films have great action that thrill, excite, and wow in equal measure. But the action in both is flawed, so I guess this category comes down to a comparison of problems. The 1986 movie is limited by a low animation budget, and while the fight between Megatron and Optimus is incredible, the rest of the action is a bit clunky. In fact, there's so much action in this movie that the stand-out bits get lost in the flood of fighting; the amount of battles start to dilute the action, and makes it less memorable. The 2007 film features much less action, making each set-piece more notable. My main problem with this movie's action is how Michael Bay directs it in extreme close up. There are almost no full body shots of the Transformers, which crowds the screen and makes the action hard to follow. It's obnoxious, and I hope that this problem was fixed for the sequel. Still, despite this setback, the 2007 film manages to impress on just about every other level, and I was certainly on the edge of my seat in the theater. It's close, but the winner is clear.
WINNER (According to Jonathan): The 2007 Live-Action Movie

Thomas's Thoughts: If I were to simply compare the action in the two films, I'd probably have to say that the action in the 2007 film is superior, with giant robots smashing each other and people in the military that I don't care about shooting at the giant robots, whilst they are attempting to smash each other. However, I have to take into account the limitations of the time when I compare the animated film to the live film with CG. For both, I really have to say that they could've done much better than what they did: the old film's action included all the transformers, which was cool, but there was so much action that some scenes felt insignificant. The new film didn't have enough action for a long time, and when it did, the characters that it had spent the entire film developing were not in enough danger to make it thrilling (until Sam is attacked by Megatron at the end). The human characters in the military are in more danger, but I didn't really care if they lived or died, thus making it less thrilling than it could have been. The only reason I really cared about the transformers was because they were the transformers, which automatically made it at least somewhat more exciting. One of the best parts about the animated movie is that the audience really cares what happens to the characters. Also, in the animated movie, it was much easier to see what was going on. In the new movie, the CGI is framed too close to the robots, making things hard to see.
WINNER (According to Thomas): The 1986 Animated Film

Let's take a look at the standings. For both Jonathan and Thomas, the score is 2-2, a tie. This next category decides it all!

5. USE OF THE TRANSFORMERS

Jonathan's Thoughts: This one is an absolute no-brainer. As I've discussed above, the 2007 movie features so many pointless human characters that the Transformers' screen time gets drastically reduced. Optimus and the other Autobots don't get introduced until the hour mark, and Megatron doesn't even come in until the last act! Heresy! Apart from Bumblebee and Optimus, you don't really ever get to know any of the other robot characters, and the decepticons are drastically under-used, which is disappointing. The 1986 film, on the other hand, is all about the robots, and features some great moments for all of them. Optimus finally defeats Megatron, but dies in the process; Megatron becomes Galvatron (voice by Leonard Freaking Nimoy!); the dinobots get to kick some butt, and there's Unicron, an incredibly imposing, menacing villain. There's no contest: the 2007 film has great CGI and the fact that they hired Peter Cullen is awesome, but it doesn't hold a candle to the 1986 film when it comes to use of the Transformers themselves.
WINNER (According to Jonathan): The 1986 Animated Film

Thomas's Thoughts: The animated movie added new transformers to the story, and killed many of them-even the two leaders. All of the characters in the old movie are Transformers, and they're all pretty cool. Conversely, the new movie is only somewhat about transformers. There really isn't much more I can say about that.
WINNER (According to Thomas): The 1986 Animated Film

OVERALL WINNER: With a score of 3-2, both Jonathan's and Thomas's choice for the better movie is The Transformers: The Movie (1986), though we had different thoughts on different categories.

What are your thoughts on this debate? Readers should feel free to post their thoughts on each section in the comments section! I'd love to hear your thoughts!