I know so many people have asked the question of which of the Transformers movies is better, and so many people are gonna want to respond in the same old "TFTM 86 is an awesome film, Michael Bay raped my childhood" response. Calm down, and think it through. I want you to look at each of these movies from a film-making perspective, and think it through. Each movie has things about it that are better or worse than the other movie.

Transformers: The Movie (1986)

Pros:
Robot Orientated story
Interesting design
Good voice acting
The Touch

Cons:
Kills off popular characters to promote new toys
Inconsistent plot
Occassionally messy Animation
Wheelie

Transformers (2007)

Pros:
Best visual effects in years
Unrelenting action
Great score
Great introduction to Transformers for non-fans

Cons:
Human orientated story
Not much story at all
Little Development with robots
Frenetic editing

So, lets have a clean, friendly discussion, about what makes each of these films good, and what makes them bad, and lets not resort to nostalgia as an excuse.

 

'86 movie.

Why.... I have watched it about 100 times while each time having a joygasm over the whole epic Daniel/Hot Rod transformation Dare sequence. It just tweaks my inner fan much better than the 2007 movie.

 

The music makes the film. I have the soundtrack in my car and reguarly listen to Dare and it rocks.

 

Dude, Dare is the most played song on my iTunes  

Yeah I totally agree the music made the film even more special even the theme song by Lion is incredible.

 

I can't decide they are both good 1986 was good in its day and 2007 was equally as good as the 1986 Movie

 

The nostalgia factor is hard to ignore. However, I will have to say 2007. It's faults have been discussed without end all over the Internet, but it is a thrilling ride and it reignited by fannishness.

 

I'll have to go with '86. The fact that there was story and character development makes it XD

 

1986 me. It's my Transformers. The 2007 movie is someone else's Transformers.

 

'86 is better. I thought there was too much of the "human story" in the '07 film. If I'm watching Transformers, I want to see them and not so much of the humans.

 

The '86 movie had Rodimus Prime. Advantage '86.

 

Both films had things I really liked and both films had things I just down right hated, but I've got to give the edge to 1986.

I like character and '86 was just easier to relate to the characters even the new characters that were introduced. Plus Prime was just a way cooler character in '86 being everything you could ever hope for in a leader, while I'm not sure I'd follow '07 Prime as a leader.

The story felt better in the '86 film as well. I can understand what they wanted to do in '07 with different stories coming together but it just felt like a mess and a lot of filler time thrown in to pad out the film. The '86 just has a smoother flow to me. It also felt like the good guys were really in a spot in '86 while '07 felt like a forgone conclusion that the good guys would win thus taking out the tension to the story.

I'm also a big fan of villains and it just seemed like the Decepticons got to do and say a lot more in '86 than in '07. '07 just felt like they kept Megatron on ice too long so it kind of hurt the film from a bad guy perspective to keep the main force of evil from doing nothing in the film until the end.

Oh and '86 had Dinobots vs Devastator, robot fights in '07 just seemed small compared to that. No shakey cam, too dark, or too close either in '86.

 

For some reason the 07 movie just didn't have the transformers feel to it for me. It was very entertaining, but nothing beats a classic.

 

1986 its hot sound track with its Iconic song "The Touch" together with its G1 goodness along with the introduction of the Chaos bringer just puts it so far into epic territory its not even funny

 

They both have their faults but i say 86

because its more transformerish and has Grimlock  

 

1986 FTW, (I'm such a slut for G1 =p)

 

86 movie for me. Both had a number of points that I did not care for, however it came down to 2 points.
1. 86 was animated......err.....aside from the boy and the Powermaster Prime that was shown when the film was aired on tv.

2. Fight scenes that I can actually see. I've watched the 07 movie a number of times and I still can't figure out what the heck was happening during a number of the fight scenes. Stop shaking the damn camera around so much so I can actually enjoy the fight!

 

I went with the '86 movie since it was what I grew up with though both movies have their massive flaws. If all other things were equal, the '86 movie would still win with it's WAY better soundtrack  

 

The 1986 movie.

 

'86, no contest. I like Transformers as main characters, actual plot and plot development, Transformer dialogue instead of plot exposition and modem hiss, characterization of the Decepticons, action sequences that aren't blurry or obscured, and a movie that lacks masturbation, sex, and urination jokes in my Transformers movies.

Additionally, there was nothing in the 2007 that said 'Transformers!' to me. Make a few changes to the CGI models and this could've easily been Go-Bots, the motion picture.