Transformers: The Story So Far

Now I know what some of you may be thinking. Why the hell am I doing another installment of Rhode Island Movie Corner’s ‘Story So Far’ series, in which I go over the events in a franchise’s previous outings to catch people up on the overall story in time for the latest installment of that series, for… Michael Bay’s Transformers films? These films have NEVER been known for their writing, so why am I doing it for a series that’s been all over the place plot-wise? Well, first off, for obvious reasons; the new Transformers film, Transformers: The Last Knight, is coming out this weekend so this is meant to tie into that film’s release. And to be honest, I couldn’t think of anything else to do for it. I mean, there’s no way in hell that I could’ve done an ‘In Defense’ post for these films because I’d just be laughed off the internet if I had even attempted that. So instead, I figured that by doing this, I’ll be saving some of you folks the trouble of having to re-watch the previous films, which I will be doing. Because as I’ve made it clear in the past, I am a fan of these films; yes, even the critically-maligned sequels. Obviously, though, I’m in the extreme minority on that. However, despite being on par with the Star Wars prequels as one of the most critically despised franchises in recent years, these films still manage to be huge hits at the box-office, with the last two entries even going over $1 billion worldwide. Thus, it seems to me like no matter how much critics and film buffs rag on them, a lot of these folks will still go watch them regardless of their hatred for them. With that in mind, hopefully, this is helpful in some way, shape, or form; if not, well… I don’t know what to tell you because I’m no miracle worker. Thus, let’s look back on the ‘infamous’ saga that has been Michael Bay’s Transformers series.

(Disclaimer: I’m aware that quite a few other websites and YouTube channels have done exactly what I’m doing now, from Collider to io9 to Screen Junkies. With that in mind, I’d like to assure you, folks, that there was absolutely no intent on copying what those other sites have done in their respective posts/videos that recap the events of these films. Heck, as someone who does like these films, I’d say that this does give my post a different spin to it compared to others.)

TRANSFORMERS (RELEASED: 2007)

The film opens with narration from Optimus Prime (voiced by the character’s original voice actor from the 1984 TV series, Peter Cullen), the leader of the Autobots, a group of ‘autonomous robotic organisms’ from a planet named Cybertron who can transform into any mechanical object that they’ve analyzed, hence the name of the series, Transformers. Optimus explains that their planet had been destroyed following a long and intense war with a rival faction known as the Decepticons, led by the evil Megatron (voiced by Hugo Weaving). Part of the war was over an ancient Cybertronian artifact known as the AllSpark, a cube-like object that contains the power to create life by giving the Transformers their ‘soul’ AKA their ‘spark’. When the planet was destroyed, the Cube was lost as well, leading to both sides traversing across the galaxy trying to find it. It isn’t until quite sometime later when both sides learn that the Cube now resides on the planet Earth. In the present day, Decepticons Blackout and Frenzy attack a U.S. military base in Qatar and Air Force One, respectively, to acquire information about the Cube’s whereabouts. This information comes courtesy of an old pair of glasses that an old explorer named Captain Archibald Witwicky (W. Morgan Sheppard) wore when, on a mission into the Arctic Circle in 1895, came across the body of Megatron, who had crash landed on Earth when he tried to find the Cube. Witwicky’s encounter with Megatron led to the cube’s coordinates being imprinted on his glasses.

Back in the present, Archibald’s great-great-grandson Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) ends up buying his first car; an old 1976 Chevrolet Camaro. However, he soon discovers that the car is in fact one of the Autobots, Bumblebee, who can only communicate via radio/TV recordings due to damaged vocal cords (He does have a few spoken lines at the end of the film, in which he’s voiced by Mark Ryan, but then goes back to using radio/TV audio to speak in the subsequent films) and has been appointed the role of being Sam’s guardian. After being pursued by several Decepticons who are looking for his great-great grandfather’s glasses, Sam and his classmate/love interest Mikaela Banes (Megan Fox) come across the other Autobots; Optimus, first lieutenant Jazz (voiced by Darius McCrary), weapons specialist Ironhide (voiced by Jess Harnell), and medical officer Ratchet (voiced by Robert Foxworth). The Autobots inform them of Megatron’s plans to use the AllSpark to create a new army and take over Earth. But when the two go to get Archibald’s glasses for them, they are arrested by a government group known as Sector Seven, led by agent Seymour Simmons (John Turturro), that has been monitoring alien activity on Earth for several years. When the group ends up at Sector Seven’s headquarters, hidden inside the Hoover Dam, they discover the still-frozen Megatron AND the AllSpark locked away inside it. However, the Decepticons soon start to attack, allowing Megatron to awaken from his frozen slumber. With the aid of a group of Army Rangers who had survived the attack on the Qatar base, including Captain William Lennox (Josh Duhamel) and Sgt. Robert Epps (Tyrese Gibson), Sam, Mikaela, and the Autobots head to the nearby Mission City to try and get the AllSpark away from Megatron.  

During the intense battle that follows in Mission City, the protagonists manage to defeat most of the Decepticons. However, Bumblebee ends up losing his legs after an attack from Megatron’s second-in-command Starscream (voiced by Charlie Adler) and Jazz is torn in half when he tries to fight Megatron. Bumblebee ends up giving Sam the AllSpark as the latter tries to get it away from Megatron. But Megatron soon comes after Sam, resulting in him being saved by Optimus, who tells Sam to push the Cube into his chest to destroy it, even though it would mean his death as well. Sam instead forces it into Megatron’s chest, killing him. Thus, with the AllSpark destroyed, save for a small shard that Optimus collects from Megatron’s body, the Autobots end up taking refuge on Earth. The U.S. government disbands Sector Seven and the remains of the deceased Decepticons are disposed of (for now, at least) in the Laurentian Abyss. The only surviving members of the Decepticons are Starscream, who escapes into space, and Barricade, who would later cameo in the third film where he is killed by human soldiers during the big final battle in Chicago… and yet, he is apparently set to return in the new film despite this. Ah well, anyway, Sam and Mikaela begin a new relationship and Bumblebee opts to stay with Sam. The film ends with Optimus sending out a message to his fellow Autobots who are still out there, “taking refuge amongst the stars”, to join them on Earth. “We are here… we are waiting…”   

TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN (RELEASED: 2009)

First off, let me answer the one question that I’m sure you all have right now… yes, Revenge of the Fallen has a plot. I know that it may seem unfathomable, but the critically reviled second installment of this Transformers series did indeed have one. It’s just that the film doesn’t get into it until more than halfway through its 2 ½ hour runtime; trust me, I legitimately timed it when I re-watched this film in 2014 prior to the release of Age of Extinction. Anyway, the film begins two years after the events of the first film. The Autobots have joined forces with the U.S. Military to form a special task force known as the Non-Biological Extraterrestrial Species Treaty (NEST) to deal with any surviving Decepticons still on Earth. During their latest mission in Shanghai, one of the Decepticons that they’re hunting, Demolisher, warns them that “The Fallen shall rise again”. When they get back to base, National Security Adviser Theo Galloway (John Benjamin Hickey) scolds them for the chaos that they’ve caused in Shanghai and suggests that the reason why Decepticons are still on Earth is that they’re hunting the Autobots. He also suggests that perhaps it is time for the Autobots to leave Earth once and for all so that humanity will no longer be attacked by the Decepticons. Meanwhile, the Decepticons steal the AllSpark shard that Optimus took from Megatron’s body and use it to revive their fallen comrade at the bottom of the Laurentian Abyss. Once resurrected, Megatron heads into space to meet with his master, The Fallen (voiced by Tony Todd), an ancient Decepticon who seeks to conquer the planet that he had tried to take over once before. Because as we see in the opening scene, which is also noted by Optimus in his traditional opening narration, Transformers existed on Earth long before the events of the first film and The Fallen was one of them.

Meanwhile, Sam is about to head off to college in Philadelphia. However, this also means that he’ll be leaving behind Bumblebee (because freshmen can’t have cars on campus) and Mikaela, who he promises he will stay faithful to but has trouble when it comes to saying the three words that truly matter (‘I love you’). While getting ready to make the move to college, Sam comes across a second AllSpark shard that was lodged within the clothes that he wore during the battle in Mission City. When he inspects it, he is suddenly inundated with Cybertronian information. After dealing with a bunch of kitchen-appliance Transformers that came to life via the shard’s power, which also results in his house being destroyed in the process, Sam gives the shard to Mikaela for safe-keeping. Once he gets to college, however, this new information that he has starts to materialize via symbols that he starts to see all over the place. But when Optimus comes to warn him of the impending threat, Sam insists that he wishes to live a normal life and that “this isn’t [his] war”. Soon, though, Sam, Mikaela, and his eccentric roommate, conspiracy blogger Leo Spitz (Ramón Rodriguez) are captured by Megatron and the Decepticons, who try to extract the information that Sam has from his brain. The Autobots manage to come in and save them just in time, but during the subsequent battle in a nearby forest, Optimus is killed by Megatron. With no one left to stop him, having previously noted that only a Prime can do so, The Fallen begins his plan of world domination and demands that Sam is delivered to him with the information that he has.

This forces Sam into hiding with Mikaela, Leo, Bumblebee, and Autobot twins Mudflap (voiced by Reno Wilson) and Skids (voiced by Tom Kenny). Sam deduces that the symbols that he’s seeing are a map that leads to a new source of Energon, the Transformers’ energy source. Leo then proceeds to bring them to someone who could help; a rival blogger known as ‘Robo-Warrior’. As it turns out, ‘Robo-Warrior’ is Agent Simmons, who now works at his mother’s deli since the disbandment of Sector Seven. It is through Simmons that the group learns about the Seekers, a group of ancient Transformers that still reside on Earth. They end up finding one, Jetfire (voiced by Mark Ryan), at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington D.C. and revive him with Sam’s AllSpark Shard. Although they are initially concerned to find that Jetfire is a Decepticon, he informs them that he has since switched sides. Likewise, Wheelie (also voiced by Tom Kenny), a Decepticon spy that had tried to steal the AllSpark shard from Mikaela and was subsequently brought along for the ride, switches sides as well once he learns about this new information. After transporting them all to Egypt, Jetfire informs them that The Fallen seeks to restart an Energon machine known as the Sun Harvester that absorbs energy from stars. And in this instance, he plans to use it on Earth’s sun. Jetfire also instructs them to find the Matrix of Leadership, the artifact that is used to start the Sun Harvester but can also be used to revive Optimus… which also basically makes this film a live-action adaptation of 1986’s The Transformers: The Movie since the Matrix appeared in that film as well and there was also a scene in which Optimus dies after a battle with Megatron.

Sam and the group then travel to Petra (AKA where Indiana Jones found the Holy Grail in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade), where the Matrix of Leadership is supposedly located in an ancient tomb made from the bodies of the Primes who had first stopped The Fallen from destroying Earth back in the day. While they do manage to find the Tomb and, supposedly, the Matrix, it evaporates into dust in Sam’s hands when he tries to pick it up. Meanwhile, they manage to convince Lennox and the NEST team to fly Optimus’ body and the other Autobots out to Egypt, despite not really having the means to revive Optimus just yet. Of course, the Decepticons then proceed to attack them, resulting in another long and intense battle. During this fight, Sam is supposedly killed by Megatron; however, in death, he is approached by the Primes who inform him that he’s earned the right to use the Matrix. Thus, he is revived and the Matrix materializes in his hands, which he immediately uses to revive Optimus. Jetfire then volunteers to sacrifice himself so that Optimus can use his parts to defeat The Fallen before he’s able to start his machine. Optimus does so, destroys the Sun Harvester, hidden within one of the Pyramids at Giza, and then kills The Fallen. Megatron and Starscream then proceed to flee the battle but vow that they will return. Victorious once again, the Autobots and their allies return home. Sam returns to his normal life and his relationship with Mikaela stays strong, especially after he finally tells her ‘I love you’… for now, at least. Which brings us to…

TRANSFORMERS: DARK OF THE MOON (RELEASED: 2011)

After helping the Autobots stop the Decepticons from taking over the world twice, Sam has since graduated from college and is gearing up to find a new job. However, it’s revealed that Mikaela has broken up with him for ‘reasons’ (i.e. Megan Fox was basically booted off production after an incident in which she called Michael Bay ‘Hitler’). Luckily, for Sam, he’s found a new girlfriend in Carly Spencer (Rosie Huntington-Whiteley), an assistant curator. Sam manages to get a job at a telecommunications company, Accuretta, later learning that his employers had gotten a letter of recommendation courtesy of Carly’s flirtatious boss, Dylan Gould (Patrick Dempsey), who happens to be one of the company’s board of directors. The stress of this close relationship between his girlfriend and her boss, along with the disappointment of being nothing more than a mail carrier at work, begins to put more and more pressure on Sam, who wishes that he was out there working with the Autobots instead and doing stuff that truly matters. Meanwhile, the Autobots and NEST have continued to monitor alien activity on Earth while also assisting the military in other global conflicts. On their latest mission to the abandoned facilities of Chernobyl, they come across a fuel cell which Optimus recognizes from an old Autobot ship known as the ‘Ark’.

The film’s opening sequence reveals that during the final days of the war on Cybertron, the Ark, captained by Optimus’ mentor Sentinel Prime (voiced by Leonard Nimoy), was severely damaged in battle and subsequently crash-landed on the Earth’s moon. Once this is discovered by NASA in 1961, they use the iconic Apollo 11 mission to the moon as a cover for investigating the crashed ship. Inside it contains the comatose Sentinel and a series of artifacts that he created known as the Pillars, which can teleport matter between two points via a space bridge. Optimus and the Autobots then proceed to collect the Pillars from the Ark and revive Sentinel with the Matrix of Leadership. While this is going on, Megatron and the other Decepticons, who know about the Ark and have apparently laid a trap for the Autobots, start to eliminate various humans who were involved in the manned missions to the Moon to investigate the Ark. When Sam and Simmons, along with Simmons’ personal assistant Dutch (Alan Tudyk), investigate further into the matter, they learn that the Decepticons have already collected several other Pillars from the Ark and were simply waiting for Optimus to revive Sentinel, the only one who knew how to use them. And to make matters worse, Sentinel then reveals that he has joined forces with the Decepticons in their plot to use the Pillars to transport Cybertron to Earth and use Earth’s resources to rebuild their planet. He then kills Ironhide and uses the Pillars to bring several Decepticons hidden on the Moon to Earth. When Sam tries to warn Carly, they learn that Dylan is also in league with the Decepticons. Carly is taken prisoner and the Decepticons coerce the world’s governments into forcing the Autobots to leave Earth to allegedly prevent any future conflicts. However, the Decepticons then proceed to destroy the Autobots’ departure ship and invade Chicago to begin the process of transporting Cybertron to their current location.

Sam, meanwhile, embarks on a personal mission to save Carly with the aid of Epps, who had left NEST after the events of Revenge of the Fallen, and some other former members of the task force. While initially overwhelmed by Decepticon forces, they are eventually saved by Optimus and the Autobots, who reveal that they weren’t on the main section of their ship when it was destroyed. Sam manages to save Carly and the group begins to fight back against the Decepticons, later aided by Lennox and NEST once they’re able to successfully infiltrate the city. During the battle, they manage to temporarily halt the Pillars’ transportation process until it is restarted again by Dylan. The subsequent confrontation between him and Sam results in the former being killed when he gets electrocuted by the main Pillar. The Pillar is then subsequently destroyed by Bumblebee, preventing the transportation of Cybertron from occurring and resulting in the planet’s apparent destruction. Meanwhile, Carly manages to convince Megatron to turn against Sentinel by making him believe that Sentinel will overtake him as the leader of the Decepticons if they succeed in rebuilding Cybertron. Megatron then attacks Sentinel before he manages to kill Optimus, who then proceeds to kill Megatron by removing his head and spine from his body. Optimus then kills his former mentor, bringing an end to the devastation in the Windy City. Sam and Carly reunite and affirm their love for one another while the Autobots once again embrace Earth as their home. And thus, Dark of the Moon officially concluded the arc of Sam Witwicky, the boy who became a vital part of an intergalactic war when he bought a car that turned out to be an alien robot (“Who knew?”). But this ultimately wasn’t the end for this series, as it continued in a new direction in…

TRANSFORMERS: AGE OF EXTINCTION (RELEASED: 2014)

Age of Extinction served as a ‘soft reboot’ of the franchise, focusing on new characters while still taking place after the events of Dark of the Moon. Since the big battle in Chicago, the truce between the Autobots and the U.S. government has ended, as the former now find themselves hunted by an elite black ops group known as Cemetery Wind, led by government official Harold Attinger (Kelsey Grammer), who views all Transformers as a threat to mankind, and field agent James Savoy (Titus Welliver), who claims that he lost a sister during the Battle of Chicago. They’re also aided by a neutral Cybertronian bounty hunter named Lockdown (voiced by Mark Ryan) and immediately establish themselves as a serious threat when they find and execute Ratchet, who refuses to reveal the location of Lockdown’s primary target, Optimus. Meanwhile, in a small town in Texas, widowed inventor Cade Yeager (Mark Wahlberg) struggles to make a living and provide for his teenage daughter Tessa (Nicola Peltz), who’s about to go off to college. When he and his business partner Lucas Flannery (T.J. Miller) come across an old, rundown semi-truck in an old theater, the three learn that the truck is, in fact, Optimus, who was severely wounded after an encounter with Lockdown in Mexico City. This then results in them being attacked by Savoy and Cemetery Wind, but they all manage to escape with the help of Tessa’s boyfriend Shane (Jack Reynor), a rally car driver. During their escape, however, Lucas is killed by Lockdown.

Now fugitives, Cade and company, along with Optimus, meet up with the surviving members of the Autobots; Bumblebee, commando Hound (voiced by John Goodman), tactician Drift (voiced by Ken Watanabe), and paratrooper Crosshairs (voiced by John DiMaggio). They discover that a robotics company named K.S.I. is working with Cemetery Wind in their efforts to eliminate the Autobots. In return, K.S.I. CEO Joshua Joyce (Stanley Tucci) is given a rare metal alloy, which he and his associates call ‘Transformium’, to build his own robots. This includes Galvatron, who was created via data from the deceased Megatron (fittingly enough, Galvatron is voiced by Megatron’s original voice actor from the 80’s animated series, Frank Welker, who will finally voice Megatron in The Last Knight after the character had been portrayed by Hugo Weaving in the original trilogy), and Stinger, modeled after Bumblebee and touted as a ‘superior’ model to Bumblebee’s annoyance. After infiltrating K.S.I., the group is attacked by Galvatron and Stinger, as the former conveys some of Megatron’s sinister qualities and subsequently breaks free from Joyce’s control. Eventually, Lockdown enters the picture and takes Optimus prisoner, claiming that he plans on bringing Optimus back to those who created him, the ‘Creators’ AKA Lockdown’s superiors. Tessa gets captured as well, resulting in Cade, Shane, and the Autobots having to save her and Optimus before Lockdown’s ship leaves Earth per the agreement that he had with Cemetery Wind, who are given a device referred to as a ‘Seed’ that they subsequently give to Joyce, who intends on using it to create more Transformium. After saving Tessa and Optimus from the ship, along with dealing with a few enemy forces in Chicago, the protagonists learn that the ‘Creators’ used these Seeds to terraform planets and create Transformium, which also resulted in the destruction of all life forms on the planets that they used it on.

After convincing Joyce of the Seed’s dangerous capabilities, the group heads to Hong Kong to get it away from Lockdown and Cemetery Wind. Meanwhile, Galvatron, now fully reincarnated as Megatron, takes control of the other robots in K.S.I.’s inventory, fully intent on using the Seed to take over the world. After initially being outnumbered by the Decepticons, Optimus and the Autobots manage to gain a leg up on them with the aid of ancient Transformers known as the Dinobots that were previously imprisoned on Lockdown’s ship, with Optimus riding Dinobot leader Grimlock, who transforms into a Tyrannosaurus Rex, into battle. Meanwhile, Cade manages to kill Savoy as revenge for all the harm that he and Cemetery Wind have caused to him and his daughter. After the group manages to get the Seed to safety and away from Galvatron and Lockdown, Optimus ends up in a fight with the latter. Cade and Attinger get involved as well, resulting in the latter being killed by Optimus, who had previously vowed revenge against the human responsible for the deaths of his comrades. Optimus then manages to kill Lockdown with the aid of Cade, Tessa, and Shane. Galvatron then proceeds to retreat, once again vowing that he’ll return. And thus, with his faith in humanity restored thanks to Cade and his family, the film ends with Optimus heading off into space (with the Seed in tow) to finally confront his Creators. In his final narration, he warns them to “Leave planet Earth alone…” and that he’s coming for them, thereby setting up the events of this week’s new release, Transformers: The Last Knight.

And, thus, that’s the ‘Story So Far’ for the Michael Bay-directed Transformers films. Thanks for following along and you can expect a review of Transformers: The Last Knight sometime in the next few days. Given my track record with this franchise, I’m predicting that I’ll probably be one of the few people crazy enough to like it even when it inevitably gets slammed by critics. Only time will tell…

Transformers Trilogy (2007-2011) Reviews: Michael Bay Retrospective Part 2

A few days ago, I looked at the almost-complete directorial filmography of Michael Bay from his first film, 1995’s ‘Bad Boys’, to his most recent, 2013’s ‘Pain and Gain’. I say ‘almost complete’ because I skipped over a certain trilogy of films that he directed between 2007 and 2011 because I wanted to save these three for another post that would be published a little bit closer to the debut of Bay’s newest film, which just so happens to be the follow-up to the trilogy of films that I’m looking at today; Michael Bay’s live-action Transformers trilogy based off of the toy line and subsequent media franchise developed by Takara Tomy and Hasbro. This new film, ‘Transformers: Age of Extinction’, is the fourth film in the series but features a brand new cast of characters taking over for the cast of the original trilogy, taking place a few years after the events of the third film. It is also reportedly set to be the first in a new trilogy of films however it’s unclear if Bay will return for the next two films, meaning that it’s likely that this will be Michael Bay’s last Transformers film (and on that note, without saying anything further about it, I already know how a lot of you would react to that if that happened considering the typical reception towards these films).

Now I’m going into this new Transformers film with an open mind and that is due to the three films that precede it or, as I like to call them, the most hated film trilogy since the Star Wars prequels. Sure, the first film got decent enough reviews from critics but then came the sequels, both of which have been universally bashed by pretty much everybody in the world. So to those who really, really dislike these movies… prepare to disagree with me quite a bit. Now I’m going on record and saying that when I was younger, I really enjoyed all three of these films and I even passionately defended the two sequels against their harshest critics. Did I think that they were perfect? Absolutely not, but at the same time, I never thought that they were the worst films in the world and I’ve heard plenty of people declare them to be the worst films of all time which for the record I find to be a little too much exaggerated, just like the whole thing that I mentioned last time about Bay being the ‘worst director’ ever. But you see… this is where things start to get interesting for this is actually the first time in a few years since I’ve seen all of these films. I’m very interested in seeing if they hold up as well as I had once thought of them. Will my opinion of them change? Well, you’re just going to have to keep reading to find out.

But first, I’m adding in a little bonus and will be starting this retrospective with a review of the ‘first’ Transformers film… and no, it’s not the one that Bay directed.

THE TRANSFORMERS: THE MOVIE (1986)

Easily one of the most famous cartoons from the 1980’s, ‘The Transformers’ ran for four seasons as it followed the war between the two factions of alien robots known as the Autobots and Decepticons. Midway through the series’ run, there came ‘The Transformers: The Movie’, which some like to refer to as an 84-minute toy commercial. In a way, it probably is but even with that in mind, there are still some pretty interesting aspects about this movie that do make it worthwhile to check out. For one thing, most of the Autobots in this film are actually killed off, including Optimus Prime, which I’m pretty sure must’ve come as a major shock for fans of the show. As for that scene where Prime dies, while I never really watched the original series that much (though I did watch a few episodes before watching this movie), I will admit that this scene is a legitimately sad moment. You really have to give this movie credit; it has major cojones for killing off most of the characters that audiences had grown attached to through the TV series. Because of this, a new set of characters were introduced in this film and became the new main characters of the TV series for the rest of its run.

This movie also has some pretty good voice acting from the likes of Judd Nelson as Hot Rod (who’s sort of the Luke Skywalker of the film… yeah, this film has a lot in common with ‘Star Wars’, by the way), Leonard Nimoy as Galvatron (the revived form of Megatron), and Orson Welles in his final film role as Unicron. While it has been reported that Welles wasn’t too enthusiastic about the project, his voice (which for the record had to be synthesized in post-production because it was very weak when he recorded the dialogue… he died only five days after he finished working on the film) actually is a really nice fit for the role of the planet-sized Transformer. In fact, I would really love to see Unicron appear in the live-action Transformers movies. That would be awesome. As for this film’s soundtrack, which is the very definition of an 80’s film soundtrack, there are a lot of good tunes in the film though at the same time, some feel rather distracting at certain points like during some of the fight scenes. Still, ‘The Transformers: The Movie’ is a pretty solid animated film and while I may not have grown up watching the original TV series this is based on, this will definitely serve as a nostalgic trip down memory lane for those who did.

Rating: 4/5

TRANSFORMERS (2007)

When it first came out in 2007, the first live-action ‘Transformers’ film received generally decent reviews from critics. I mean to be more specific, not all of the reviews were positive but at the end of the day the reviews for this film were much better than the reviews were for its two sequels. However, I kind of get the feeling that the reaction towards this film became a bit more negative after its sequels came out. I really don’t get why that is because, I’m just going to say it… this is a great movie. Nearly a decade after its release, this film still holds up incredibly well. The biggest reason for this is that most of the problems that a lot of people had with the sequels aren’t as big of a problem in this film. The writing is pretty solid in regards to establishing the lore and the main characters and while the film may focus more on the human characters more than the Transformers themselves (something that I’m well aware has been a major disappointment for fans of the franchise), there are at least a few decent character arcs in this film (I’ll get into why that becomes a problem later on in the series when I get to the third film) so it’s not like the human characters in this are completely bland. The acting, for an action movie, is solid enough in this one and in the lead role of Sam Witwicky, Shia LaBeouf actually does a pretty good job here, again mostly because his character does have a solid arc and in this film LaBeouf actually does manage to make the character sympathetic and relatable.

As with any Michael Bay film, the action sequences in this are fantastic and amidst all of the CGI in this film (which for the record is still really good CGI), you do have to appreciate the fact that there were also quite a lot of practical effects in this film as well. My personal favorite sequence of the film would have to be the opening scene where the Decepticon Blackout attacks the U.S. Military at their base in Qatar. This to me was a phenomenal way to start off the movie though again all of the action scenes here are excellent. Also, while this film may be nearly two and a half hours long, the pacing in this is actually pretty good and I never felt that the film dragged at any point. So, with all of that said, the first of Michael Bay’s ‘Transformers’ films still holds up very well upon re-watch and if I were to rank my Top 10 favorite films from 2007, I guarantee that this film would have easily made my Top 10 as I find it to be one of the best action/sci-fi films of this past decade. Even if you didn’t like this film’s sequels, one thing is for certain; this film doesn’t deserve the same hate as those films because it truly is the best of the trilogy and as such, I believe that it is one of Michael Bay’s best films, if arguably not his best.

Rating: 5/5!

TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN (2009)

I know that last time I said that I believe that ‘Pearl Harbor’ was Michael Bay’s most hated movie because it was based on an actual event in U.S. history and not a toy franchise aimed at kids. But you know the more that I think about it… really there’s no denying it. I think it’s safe to say that ‘Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen’ has to be the most universally despised summer blockbuster in recent memory, if not all time. I mean, not even the ‘Star Wars’ prequels, for as reviled as they are, got this much criticism. I guarantee you that it will be very hard to find someone who actually likes this film and I’m not talking about the few critics who gave it positive reviews when it came out. I mean someone who actually really likes this film in the five years since it was released… well, guess what… you’ve already found one of them. Now before any of you stop reading this post (and let’s be honest, I’m fairly certain some of you have already done that once you read that I did like this film), let me be clear about something. While I do still really like this film, I don’t necessarily ‘love it’ as I too agree that it has some noticeable problems but to me these problems aren’t really the ones that everyone likes to point out (and believe me, they have done so quite a lot these last few years).

Obviously the main problem with the film lies within the writing but while some have said that this movie’s plot is incomprehensible and that it makes no sense, I feel that it’s a different problem entirely. For you see, the first half of this film is actually quite aimless. There is ‘some’ remnants of a plot in this part of the film, but they literally don’t explain what it is that the Decepticons are looking for, the Matrix of Leadership (the same object that the two factions fought for in ‘The Transformers: The Movie’, by the way) until halfway through the movie (believe me, I’ve timed it; just under one hour and thirty minutes). I mean, that is quite amazing actually that a film this big in scale could go on for nearly one and a half hours and yet have nothing much going in regards to developing the plot. I mean, they do indicate that the Decepticons are looking for a new source of Energon, the Transformers’ main source of energy, but again that doesn’t really become relevant until the movie’s half-way over. But really when it comes to this film’s shortcomings in the writing department, I mostly attribute this to the fact that the filmmakers had to deal with the Writers Guild of America strike that took place from November 2007 to February 2008 so I can see how it makes sense that this film ended up being a little rushed because of that. I bet that if they didn’t have to deal with this strike then the movie could’ve possibly turned out to be much better.

But with all of that said, why then do I still like this movie? Well, to put it bluntly, it’s the main reason why I like most of Michael Bay’s films in the first place; I still found this movie to be very entertaining and again I was never bored by it, though I will say that the final fight in Egypt does go on quite a bit too long. It’s still an awesome action sequence but it could’ve really been trimmed. I never really felt angry while watching this film, and that’s saying a lot considering the multiple aspects of the film that have negatively received by almost everyone who’s seen it, one of the most infamous being the twin Autobots Mudflaps and Skids for ‘embodying racial stereotypes’. Now, I never want to address anything racism-related when it comes to movies because quite frankly I just don’t want to do it so I’m not going to say anything further about these characters. So in short, while I don’t think that this movie is perfect and ultimately the first of Bay’s ‘Transformers’ films is the highly superior movie, I don’t think this one is as bad as a lot of people put it out to be. And hey, if you don’t like it, that’s fine; I’m not trying to spite anyone here by saying that I like this movie. I’m just saying that I still enjoy this movie and most of the problems that people had with it didn’t really bother me that much.

Rating: 3.5/5

TRANSFORMERS: DARK OF THE MOON (2011)

So even though ‘Revenge of the Fallen’ got trashed by critics and audiences, it was still a big success at the box office, meaning that those who really hated it… apparently saw it more than once, which I find quite a bit odd because why then would these people see it again if they hated it so much. This becomes even more peculiar when discussing the next film, ‘Dark of the Moon’. Now the reviews for this film were a bit better than the previous film but for the most part they were still rather negative… and yet this film grossed over $1 billion dollars worldwide. While I’m always glad to see films do successful at the box office, I’m still wondering how this one managed to get into the billion dollar club. Because again, I’ve heard plenty of people say that they hated this film, some of whom hated it just as much as the last film. Well, with that said, if these people hated it so much… why then did they apparently see it at least twice in theaters? It just makes no sense. Now, I was one of those people who did see this movie twice in theaters (both times in 3-D… which was actually well-worth it by the way because while I’m aware that a good chunk of the film was post-converted into the format, at least seventy percent of the film was shot in 3-D so the film was at least intended to be filmed that way) but unlike a lot of people, I did like the film when I first saw it. Having watched it again, I still like it. I like it more than ‘Revenge of the Fallen’ but still not as much as the first film.

This film thankfully improves on the story problems that plagued the previous film. This time, the plot for the film was actually pretty interesting, revolving around how an old Cybertronian spacecraft that had crash-landed on the moon resulted in the Apollo 11 mission, which in this movie was a cover so that the ship could be properly investigated. The ship contained the original leader of the Autobots, Sentinel Prime, and his inventions, a bunch of Pillars used to create a space bridge to transport matter between two points. After Sentinel Prime is awakened, he is then revealed to be working with the Decepticons so that they could restore their planet Cybertron to its former glory. I must say that this whole plot development with Sentinel was actually a pretty interesting one because his betrayal was genuinely unexpected and we did see that it affected Optimus quite a lot because he trusted Sentinel so much. I thought this was all handled very well and that Leonard Nimoy did a great job voicing Sentinel. Though as some have already pointed out, there is kind of a glaring issue when it comes to the first three ‘Transformers’ films; for you see, all three of these films literally have the exact same general plot-points; the Decepticons are looking for an artifact so that they can win the war, Sam Witwicky ends up getting involved in one way or another, etc. Hopefully ‘Age of Extinction’ doesn’t follow the exact same beats as these three films did.

But whereas the story for this film was better than in the last one, this time it comes at the expense of good character development. As I said before, I found that the first ‘Transformers’ film actually did have a decent amount of character development, which is quite impressive actually especially when considering the fact that this is a film about giant robots fighting each other. But basically all of those arcs were already completed after that film so by this point, it becomes rather pointless that a lot of these characters are still around after their arcs were already completed in previous films. Like remember in the first film how Captain William Lennox (Josh Duhamel) was trying to get home to his wife and their newborn daughter? Well, while Lennox does still play a major role in the action for the next two films, his family is never seen again for the rest of the series. As for his friend Epps (Tyrese Gibson)… well, in this film Epps literally doesn’t show up until halfway through the movie. I’m guessing this might’ve been because Gibson was also working on ‘Fast Five’ at the time, but still these two are just there to be a part of the final battle and really nothing else.

Then we get to Sam Witwicky whose character arc was already completed in the first film so at this point he really has nowhere to go having already helped save the world twice. I’ve never been that critical of Shia LaBeouf’s performances in these three movies, but here I will agree that he does start to get a bit too annoying but again, that’s just because he quite frankly doesn’t have much to work with in this. There are multiple times in this movie where Sam complains about how he should be working with the Autobots and not having to live a normal life instead… even though at the beginning of the second film, he was actually looking for things to return to normal for him. Why all of this changed… I have no idea. This movie also kind of hastily switches girlfriends on him, though this is mostly because of a behind-the-scenes incident where Megan Fox reportedly called Michael Bay ‘Hitler’, resulting in him and Spielberg kicking her off the project, replacing her with Rosie Huntington-Whiteley. Though to the filmmakers’ credit, this change is actually handled pretty well considering the whole situation they were in and while I’m not saying that Whiteley does a ‘great’ job in this, I actually like her more than Fox because I felt that her character Carly came off as being more likable and that her and LaBeouf actually had pretty good chemistry.

But one of my biggest problems with the film actually isn’t anything within the actual film itself. It is actually in regards to how the film was marketed. Before the film came out, I remember watching interviews where the cast and crew were saying that the film was going to be much more serious in tone. Bay even said that the film was going to be like ‘Black Hawk Down’ but with ‘Transformers’… which could’ve been really, really cool. But guess what… that’s not the case with the final product. It’s just another Michael Bay ‘Transformers’ film that does have a fairly large-scale final battle but doesn’t have the emotional depth that those involved were claiming that it had. I feel that some of the main characters should have died in this. Now, the death of Ironhide did work because it was unexpected, but aside from him, only a few of the protagonists are killed off. Maybe they could have killed off Lennox or Epps if only just because, like I said earlier, they were just there to be a part of the action; they already went through their character arcs. But nope… instead, the majority of the main characters survive just as they did in the previous films. This movie tried to be much more serious and while I do give it credit for attempting to do so, it could’ve done a lot better in trying to establish a more serious tone.

But yet again, I never found the film to be boring. The final fight in Chicago is easily the highlight of the movie, which is greatly benefitted by the 3-D. This fight thankfully never feels like it drags at any point which as I said earlier was the main problem with the finale of ‘Revenge of the Fallen’. And yes, the majority of the action is actually reserved for the finale whereas the first half hour of the film is mostly reserved for the story but even then I still found the movie to be pretty engaging. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again… Michael Bay’s movies are never boring. So ultimately, I feel that ‘Dark of the Moon’ is a superior sequel to ‘Revenge of the Fallen’ but due to some issues it’s still not as good as the first film. I do kind of feel like this movie got some unfair flack, if only because I feel that some were a little biased towards it because of their hate for ‘Revenge of the Fallen’. I’m just going to say it… this film is not ‘Revenge of the Fallen’. It is easily better than that film but again, if you still don’t like this film that’s fine. I still really enjoyed ‘Dark of the Moon’ and I’m eagerly waiting to see ‘Transformers: Age of Extinction’. I know I said earlier that I’m going into that film with an open mind, but in reality I’m actually really excited for it and that is because I love this trilogy of films.

Rating: 4/5