Gladiformers

This movie is terrible, it's a blatant rip-off of Transformers, and the last review was by a 5-year-old.

I have seen plenty of truly awful movies but this may be about the worse thing I have ever seen. What it is essentially, is a slideshow from Brazil made to take advantage of the first live action transformers movie was. So, its robots fighting gladiator battles, but what you actually get is endless pans around the same environments, and digital robot models (no actual animation) with occasional animated shots of an announcer, transformation sequences, and attempts at fight scenes. The filmmaking is nonexistent. The only thing i would really compare it to is those 50s b movies that are essentially edited together stock footage.

For some reason, a distributor picked this up and got actual professional voice actions to dub this, and while it is amusing at first to hear the voice of yu-gi-oh, your mind will quickly melt when you hear endless bombastic nonsense dialogue (probably what anime sounds like to someone who has never seen an anime before) that has barely any relation to what is onscreen. As a radio drama it would have been bad but like a coherent product, as a film it's so bad it's embarasing.

As much as it sounds like I don't take any pleasure at all in disliking intensely the work of Video Brinquedo, but it is like with The Asylum(which Video Brinquedo have been compared to and for a reason) that you keep watching to see the fuss is all about and to see whether they make anything worthwhile. The bottom line is that Video Brinquedo's output is as bad as it is said to be and none of it is remotely good, the worst of it terrible. Whether Gladiformers is their worst is debatable, for me it's still Ratatoing, but it is most definitely one of them. The animation is really poorly done(not a surprise, Video Brinquedo's animations all contain some of the worst animation there is), the colours manage to be flat and garish, the backgrounds are both sparse and scrappy and you'd be hard pressed to find stiffer-looking robots anywhere else. The music ranges from generically forgettable to nightmare-inducing, some of the placing can also be inappropriate. The dialogue is far too talky and none of it is interesting, it's all cheesy exchanges, juvenile humour and awkward exposition that leads absolutely nowhere. The characters, starting with some of the most uninspired names you can possibly think of, are either annoying, dull as dishwater or both, you relate to absolutely nobody and they don't even really do all that much. The voice acting is very creepy sounding too, if a child watched this they would most likely be traumatised by some of the voices for the robots. But the worst thing about Gladiformers is the story, a case of too much talk and not enough action. And the occasional flashes there is of action are choreographed and animated very clumsily and with no excitement at all. The story is not just a bore but it is also incomprehensible to the extent that you don't have a clue as to what is going on, one thing that actually sets it apart from a lot of Video Brinquedo stuff. All in all, really painful with all the attributes that make Video Brinquedo have the reputation they have and makes the additional mistake of being incoherent. The three live action Transformers films are all far preferable to this as are the worst of the Transformers animated shows. 0/10 Bethany Cox

Overall, there are two main points that people criticize in this film: which is a cheap copy of Transformers, and that the quality of the animation is horrible. let's take an overview in the film:

1- The relation of this film with Transformers is pure marketing ploy, the story and the characters have nothing in common (except for the protagonist's name being Julius Drive), everything is more for an inspiration aiming to make money with the idea. Anyway, lose 1 point for that

2- Is a film made with a low income and in a small studio, with that, the animators modeled the structure having reference in the graphics of the ps1 games. It doesn't have a lot of quality, but it sure is the best animation from Vídeo Brinquedo. - 6/10

3- There is something that is undeniable, the soundtrack is excellent. With a song (repeated exaggeratedly throughout the film) by the Brazilian band Angra and with several songs by the incredible Kiko Loureiro, it leaves everything in an agitated and heavy atmosphere, the edition manages to fit the songs in the most tense moments of the film. - 9/10

4- The action is pretty bad, although it has cool and brutal moments. The good thing is that they don't even focus on it that much because they know that the best point is the dialogues and the story itself. - 4/10

5- The story is good, yes. The whole arena environment is already known, slaves forced to fight for survival while others have fun and profit from their battles, but the interesting thing is that the structure of the plot manages to make everyone have a reason to fight and sacrifice, even if whether by ego, revenge or justice. Overall, it's all about loyalty and greed. - 7/10

6- Now the best part of the film, the characters, Yes! It is surprising that a movie of less than an hour can develop such charismatic and memorable characters: The great companion and fool Dante Logus, the vengeful and tormented Magnum Tutor, the brutal and manipulative Korjo Displo, the confident and dignified Project One, the heroic and bold Maita Gortin (best character), the faithful and innocent Mora Jarte, the wise and frustrated Patrion Tokal and the just and righteous Julius Drive. All with a great dubbing (at least in Portuguese) and very engaging, too bad it does not have much time to have more sympathy for them... - 9/10

Making the average, the film gets 7.5 points (-1 point): 6.5 in total. I give 1.5 more because it is a film I watched in childhood, I like it, etc. Thanks for reading.