Transformers Ranked
Year: 2007-Present
Entries: 6
The Transformers series is little more than explosions strung together with a series of really awful jokes, but you know what? Some of them I find really fun to watch. Are any of them good films? Not really, the best ones are merely ok action films, but regardless of the quality it's a series I find myself returning to often simply due to the outrageous audacity of it all. So here we go, the live action Transformers films from worst to best!
#6 Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009, Directed by Michael Bay)
#6 Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009, Directed by Michael Bay)
Kicking off our list is the frankly abysmal Revenge of the Fallen, the second film in the Michael Bay canon. There are no redeeming features about this film at all and I would happily consider this among the worst films I have ever watched. I even had to get drunk during the viewing where I watched for the review that's on this website in order to make it through the whole thing. Avoid, at all costs!
#5 Transformers: The Last Knight (2017, Directed by Michael Bay)
#5 Transformers: The Last Knight (2017, Directed by Michael Bay)
So we go from abysmal to slightly less abysmal now. Much like Revenge of the Fallen, The Last Knight has practically no redeeming qualities about it. The final film directed by Michael Bay sees him mess up his own established chronology and timeline, as well as throw out any filmmaking skill he had left. With aspect ratios that change in almost every shot, as well as camera placement that is simply nonsensical, as well as dialogue that makes you want to deafen yourself so you don't need to listen to it. Again, avoid at all costs.
#4 Transformers: Age of Extrinction (2014, Directed by Michael Bay)
#4 Transformers: Age of Extrinction (2014, Directed by Michael Bay)
Ok, the first film in this series I wont say it completely awful...just the first two hours of it. Age of Extinction has a collection of the worst plot devices and characters I've ever seen in a film, and it concentrates almost completely on them for two hours! Thankfully though the final forty minutes of the film is almost entirely robots beating the living daylights out of each other with no plot, and then some robot dinosaurs show up too! It's great! Highly recommend the final act and that's about it.
#3 Transformers (2007, Directed by Michael Bay)
#3 Transformers (2007, Directed by Michael Bay)
Who'd have thought that Michael Bay getting his hands on the Transformers franchise would be a bad idea, almost everyone funnily enough! But I'll give credit where it's due, for kids and young teenagers that just want to see robots fighting each other with an easy to follow plot, you could do much worse than Transformers...I mean you could watch any of the sequels I've listed above. The first film holds its own competently enough for the most part, but in the grand scheme of things it's nothing more than glossy CG fight scenes for people with explosion fetishes.
#2 Bumblebee (2018, Directed by Travis Knight)
#2 Bumblebee (2018, Directed by Travis Knight)
Well we are at the number 2 spot and I can finally say that we are on to the good Transformers films! (Or maybe just the only genuinely good one on second thoughts) Bumblebee is a reboot the franchise desperately needed ever since Michael Bay got his grubby hands on the property back in the mid 00's. Directed by Travis Knight, Bumblebee is a relatively touching story of a girl and her car bonding over both being outcasts. Whilst the film isn't particularly memorable, I will say that it was a good time and Hailee Steinfeld delivered a great performance in the leading role.
#1 Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011, Directed by Michael Bay)
#1 Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011, Directed by Michael Bay)
So despite how much I trash talk the Transformers franchise, particularly the Michael Bay films, it's Dark of the Moon that reminds me why I love them regardless of how bad they are. I'm sure for many Dark of the Moon is going to be an awful film, but for me I love almost the entire thing. I know it's bad, but it's exactly the right kind of bad that I feel like I'm watching a great comedy, rather than a bad film. Add to this the action scenes are actually pretty good and easily the best in the entire series (apart from maybe the final 40 minutes of Age of Extinction...maybe). Dark of the Moon is definitely not a good film, but I have a hell of a great time with it every time I watch it.