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Ranking the Transformers Movies

Discuss anything and everything related to the Transformers Live Action Films franchise, which are directed by Michael Bay. Join us to discuss the movies and stuff up to date with news for the 2017 release of Transformers 5. Check out our Live Action Film section here.

Ranking the Transformers Movies

Postby william-james88 » Sun Apr 18, 2021 11:40 pm

Motto: "'till All Are One"
With there being buzz again for a new Transformers film, I thought of starting this ranking which will update through the years as more movies get added. This ranking consists of theatrically released Transformers films. Be sure to let us know your ranking too.


Ranking of the Transformers Films with Theatrical Releases


7. Transformers The last Knight

With the previous film steering things in the right direction by finally having the robots actually feel like characters and not just background noise, I was legitimately excited for this film. Megatron was coming back as well with the best design we had seen for him so far in the series and it looked like Optimus could finally be the prominent character in the film, especially based on the marketing. I mean, you look at this and Optimus is the last knight, right... RIGHT?!?!?!?!

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Wrong!

The last knight is Mark Wahlberg. You wondering why? Well it's because he doesn't have sex a lot. They spend some minutes discussing that very thing. Oh and Optimus, the guy on the poster? Not in the film much. The last film ended with him setting off on an awesome revenge mission in space and this one opens with the film showing us that he wasn't really made for deep space flight. This film is a dud with the most uneven tone of the entire series. Like having some really raw and visceral medieval action intercut with Stanley Tucci being a clown as a drunk Merlin. Tone deaf, truly tone deaf. There's just so much wasted potential here. Evil Optimus? Lasts for just six minutes. Cool new Megatron? Not there much, plays second fiddle to Quintessa. Barricade returns? Taken out without Bee even needing to transform. Unicron is planet earth? Not gonna focus on that too much. Cog is called a headmaster? He never transforms into anything and is just a butler robot. The submarine is a Transformer? Never transforms. Bee can finally talk again? He does, after we were told that he still can't, and after his two second speech he goes back to the radio voice.

This doesn't feel like a Transformers movie in the least. It looks like one of the writers in the writer's room had am Arthurian legend descendants script in the works and the rest of the writers just added Transformers to it. This film is just a junk fest of scenes and random ideas put together, avoid it "no matter the cost".


6. Transformers Dark of the Moon

My issue with this film is that it is so damn boring. Like mind numbingly so. The Transformers hero characters become are really background characters here, even in the fight scenes and seem to have no agency. The Wreckers are there for 2 minutes of screen time and mostly in the background of those 2 minutes. This is not a joke. The montage scene of Sam looking for a random job lasts longer (it lasts for 4 minutes). And I absolutely hate how they have to write ridiculous reasons for Optimus not to join a battle (and thus save some money on CGI), like getting tied up with ropes. It just makes this huge blockbuster feel so cheap. Speaking of Optimus, any hint of that noble warrior is gone here and he's just a murderer. I get that he is beyond pissed off in Age of Extinction, which gives a reason for his overly rash behaviour, but we don't have that here. Just a murder machine who executes his mentor by shooting him in the head point blank. That particular scene does not make him look heroic in the least. And once again, Megatron plays second fiddle to another villain. Also, the studio insisting on Leonard Nimoy to say his famous Spock line in the context of villainy made me want to hurl. Although the "homage" to the Columbia shuttle tragedy is probably worse.






5. Transformers Revenge of the Fallen

One thing that pisses me off to no end with these films is the total disregard for the robot characters. The live action films treat the robots as just random characters we don't need to know much about and the constructicons are a great example of this. We see them in the beginning, they aren't introduced nor talk among themselves to establish anything. And then later in the film, we see Devastator, who you'd think would be made up of those constructicons. But he isn't. Instead, he is made up of construction vehicles lying around a pyramid which suddenly merge together into devastator. And during that time, you have the constructicons from the beginning fighting the Autobots. It's like the writers and film makers are going out of their way to show how little any of this means to them. The writing is beyond poor in this film with one of the key plot points being that only a Prime can defeat the Fallen, the villain of this film which Megatron plays second fiddle to. And while Optimus does beat him after getting some parts from Jetfire, I don't see why it had to be a prime and not just any other bot who was jacked up on extra parts.

And I hate how terribly cheap the film looks with it's obvious cost cutting methods. There's an important scene where Optimus is resurrected and it's entirely obscured by a tarp.

All that said, there are some good things in this film. For one, Megatron's looks are a step up here in robot mode. I like how the tank treads incorporate into his feet and the asymmetry of his arms adds a real creepy factor. This look is the one that has remained the most iconic for Megatron's Bayverse tenure even though he changed look in every film. Also, that forest battle scene is pretty incredible. Not just because it is well done, but it lasts long enough for it to become this small pocket in the history of Bay films where the robots are the main characters. Sure Sam runs around, but he serves his purpose as indicating to the audience just how different Autobot and Decepticon ideologies are. In that scene, Sam is there not as a main character but just as a means to share more info about the robots to the audience, no matter how basic that info is (Auobot good, Decepticon bad). It's an awesome 3 minute scene that you can watch again and again on youtube with no need for what comes before or after and none of the films previously mentioned have something this good.






4. Transformers Age of Extinction

This film gets kudos for actually trying to fix major issues from the previous films. For one, the bots actually feel like characters with their own personality traits. Optimus is a full fledged character here, well at least as much as any of the human characters. Sure, it's the murder machine version of the character, but at least you know where he's coming from. All the Autobots get several lines of dialogue. I remember Protoman (a reviewer on youtube and a friend) reviewing the Drift figure and saying that the character probably wouldn't have more than two lines of dialogue in the film and this film proved him (and many others) wrong. Were they good lines? I'm not even going there, I am just happy these characters have lines. And speaking of the Autobots, they are colour coded this time around to make the action scenes easier to follow. And there are some pretty kick ass action scenes, be it Hound and Bumblebee's last stand, Optimus Against Galvatron, Optimus against Lockdown, the dinobot charge, flying around Chicago, Bee vs Stinger atop the robotic Pterasaur, lots of fun stuff. Plus the villains are good here. The bounty hunter Lockdown is fine and I really liked Kelsey Grammer as an 80s type villain that is just obviously evil. We even gets scenes of just the Transformers heroes talking and figuring things out with no human in sight. Crazy, I know!




3. Transformers (2007)

In comparison to the rest, there isn't much to say here other than I think it was a good first outing for a franchise branching out into a new era. Sure, the humans take centre stage for most of the film but it serves as an introduction to the brand and the new mythos of this interpretation. It does an ok job at what it's trying to do even though Bay's live action style was never something I was overly fond of, especially the idea that really cool stuff will be relegated to the background and that the Transformers are secondary characters with action told from a ground witness point of view. It was fine for a first film and that point of view even works well in that military desert scene vs Scorponok but I feel what worked for one film did not work for the entire franchise. And the CGI still holds up, which is quite an achievement and it shows just how cutting edge the film was when it first came out.




2. Transformers The Movie

This film is really special and I haven't cracked the code as to why it works so well for so many of us. I just know for a fact that it is extremely captivating to kids (Or those who watched it when they were kids). The drawings are gorgeous and the animation is good. It holds up very well and you can definitely tell that this is a movie rather than another episode of the show to the point where going back to the show will feel like a downgrade after seeing it. It also feels truly epic. You feel the stakes. I feel it does waver off a bit after Galvatron's initial attack with the remaining autobots, where three parties are split off into new worlds, but everything comes back together for a grand finale. The part of the writing that I find rather impressive is everything to do with Galvatron. It's not easy to bring about the idea of a different character also being a new version of an old character, and to do that without that becoming the main plot you are telling. Here, I feel they do it effortlessly. I love how Galvatron retains the memory of his previous self and is proud of his achievements, yet you see that this is a new persona at the same time. Just wonderful stuff all around.






1. Bumblebee

This may not a revolutionary movie for most, but to me it proves that the Transformers franchise can truly inhabit the world of classic live action films without any mockery. The film itself is excellent for what it is, an Amblin film for today's generation of kids. It goes for the 80s aesthetic all the way by not only making it the setting, and giving the robots the more classic look and feel of that era but also in giving us a film that feels a product of that era of filmmaking and storytelling, like ET.

I love the world building etched into the dialogue. Like how Bee's sentencing by Blitzwing shows Megatron's ideals of "Peace through Tyranny". That first segment with Bee coming to Earth is just so beautifully done. That was originally how the film began in the script, when there was no Cybertron scene and while I think that Cybertron scene is all kinds of fun, I am really impressed at what Bee's arrival on Earth accomplishes in terms of storytelling and aesthetics for this new breed of live action Transformers films. They show us how Bumblebee scans and transforms and how that changes his own aesthetic through an action scene. Right after that it shows us just how bad the odds are against the autobots with the battle against Blitzwing. We see the advantage a flier has over a bot that can only transform into a car and and there are some nice shots contrasting their size, mirroring the larger war at hand. I love how Bumblebee goes to destroy his flight mechanism to ground him first. Plus how that fight finishes shows how the Autobots had to get crafty to survive and continue fighting.



We get some more awesome fight choreography at the end against Dropkick and Shatter, and the film maker even throws in a few moments of showing how a Transformers fight differs from other robots fighting, with using their transformation abilities as they fight. Plus you've got a great soundtrack and good human characters, and a solid performance from John Cena (who has BY FAR the best line in the film). I am just very happy this movie came out by the time I had kids (a boy and girl) since it's a great way to share this brand I love so much with them within the modern slew of entertainment. It's the Transformers film I can truly recommend to anyone and everyone.

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Re: Ranking the Transformers Movies

Postby ausbot » Mon Apr 19, 2021 12:18 am

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Nope bumblebee is not better than the original animated movie
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Re: Ranking the Transformers Movies

Postby Bumblevivisector » Mon Apr 19, 2021 12:26 am

Besides making TF:TM #1, since it's my favorite movie forever, period...switch ROTF and DOTM, and that's my ranking. Agree with most of your points on the Bay films.

I especially agree that Age of Extinction was a HUGE upgrade in the character development department, for bots and humans. Only one over-the-top dumbass caricature who felt rather out of place, the surfer bum, gets flash-fried about a half hour in, LMAO all 5 times I saw it in the theater. I know we all have different opinions on these, usually polarized between Bay's bashers and defenders, but I'm still genuinely confused as to why so many fans derided AofE as Mikey's most despicable crime against civilization yet. For all its flaws, it addressed so many problems with the first 3 films that it was a better soft reboot than I thought possible.
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Re: Ranking the Transformers Movies

Postby jtanimator » Mon Apr 19, 2021 1:15 am

yeah I've gotta be honest, I disagree with this entire list, start to finish.
Unpopular opinion: Transformers: The Movie is NOT a very good movie. It's just a lot of nostalgia crammed into a decently plotted cheesy 80's movie. The music is cringy, and the characters are so-so. Maybe it was revolutionary for its time, but it simply doesn't hold up to any of today's standards for me.
Bumblebee, no matter HOW desperately I wanted to love it, is a very lazy movie. It's got a lot more sweet moments and "character development", but at the cost of derivative and EXTREMELY cringy writing and characters. its desperately predictable, and it gets too much credit for being a forgettable and mediocre movie.
Dark of The Moon was a revolutionary action blockbuster. it may be too long, and a little head jolting, but it went full on bad A slap-your-daddy-action on all accounts, and I respect that. also, unlike a lot of the Bay movies, the story and plot were actually viable in this movie. The humor was tempered, and didn't go too hard. Most of the mistakes made in ROTF were fixed and made perfect for me in this film. I love this movie.
Any ranking list that doesn't put Age Of Extinction at the very bottom just doesn't fly with me lol. That isn't just the worst Transformers movie, its one of the worst movies of all time period, and easily THE MOST disappointing. It had so much potential, and even 14 year old me (being 100% ready to adore this movie after watching DOTM) couldn't help but absolutely hate everything about this film. I like to pretend it doesn't exist.
The last Knight was one of the lower Transformers movies, but it didn't reach AOE levels of long and bad. I credit that at least.
Revenge Of The Fallen is a weird freaking movie. The humping transformers, crude humor, sexual content, strong language, transforming hot chicks, and robot testicles was flat out strange. No matter how anyone may try and justify it. But MY GOSH did it have some of the BEST action scenes in the whole franchise. The forest fight will live on forever in my heart, what a legend.
Had to let that off my chest, since everyone else seems to think so differently. Hopefully someone can be on my same page, but if not I admit this may be a little to ambitious to admit for my own good lol.
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Re: Ranking the Transformers Movies

Postby Barricade.it » Mon Apr 19, 2021 1:25 am

This is the typical war-generating topic :D

My ranking:

1 DOTM
2 Bumblebee
3 2007
4 Movie
5 TLK
6 ROTF
7 AoE

BB could've been 1st but there are a bit too many "kid kid kid" moments for my taste.

I hope the next movie will be more similar to BB : easier, less vulgar and violent, coherent with G1 philosophy.
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Re: Ranking the Transformers Movies

Postby Yodoswaginz » Mon Apr 19, 2021 4:11 am

It's funny how a lot of people rank DOTM really highly, but other people think it's trash. I was 16 when it came out, and I'd watched every single film in the cinema. DOTM was a truly awesome cinematic experience. It really felt like the final battle of the bayverse (at the time). Of course I've re-watched it many times since, and some of it's flaws do stand out. But they're really nothing compared to the trash of ROTF and TLK. And DOTM has some of my favourite action scenes of the films. There's a solid 10 minutes of non-stop action from where the Autobots get captured until the end of the film that I love every second of. Then again maybe I'm the one with nostalgia goggles.

Anyway my ranking is as follows:

1: TFTM
2: Bumblebee
3: DOTM
4: Transformers (2007)
5: AOE
6: ROTF
7: TLK

AOE is underrated imo. For me, it's a solid middle of the road movie. Sure it doesn't do anything particularly groundbreaking, but it doesn't try to. The movie is just fun. Also I much prefer Mark Wahlberg to Shia LaBeouf, so I find the non-transformer bits actually watchable. No cringe humour, and hilarious at points. Like I really feel like they were deliberately breaking the 4th wall with the 'romeo & juliet laws' and 'sequels and remakes... bunch of crap' lines.

TLK is pure unadulterated trash. Like when people say that transformers movies are incoherent and don't make any sense, I finally understand what they mean now. Like the plot makes zero sense. They introduce Unicron with the line 'Earth is Unicron', without any build up whatsoever. Tbf though I hear it isn't really the writer's fault. Apparently the producers forced several scripts into one film. I've seen some of the concept art for the WW2 movie, and it looks like it would have been pretty good. It's a real shame.
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Re: Ranking the Transformers Movies

Postby -Kanrabat- » Mon Apr 19, 2021 5:17 am

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I pretty much agree with the article. But AoE disappointed me because the set-up at the beginning where they introduced a Dinobot in ice was completely wasted. Remove that scene and the movie would have been much better. Also, Lockdown is one hell of a fearsome villain!

For me, #4 through #7 can be in any order. They all have good and horrible points.

My #3 would be the 1986 movie. The first quarter of the movie up until Optimus's death is pure wet dream. But pass that and it's back to the usual Sunbow silliness. Still fun to watch though.

#2 is the 2007 Bay movie. This is the movie that brought me back into Transformers. Plus there's a kind of a inexplicable magic in this movie that make it awesome even today.

#1 is the Bee Movie. Was there any doubt? I get the perfect balance of The Love Bug, E.T, and Transformers. Plus the humans are GOOD, believable and not crass. This movie will be hard to top.
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Re: Ranking the Transformers Movies

Postby megatronus » Mon Apr 19, 2021 7:01 am

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There are two tiers in terms of movies.

First Tier: TFTM, 2007, Bumblebee.

Second Tier: everything else.

How you choose to order the first tier is obviously to taste, and I won't fight you on how you do it, so long as we relegate the second tier to the trash heap.
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Re: Ranking the Transformers Movies

Postby william-james88 » Mon Apr 19, 2021 7:14 am

Motto: "'till All Are One"
megatronus wrote:There are two tiers in terms of movies.

First Tier: TFTM, 2007, Bumblebee.

Second Tier: everything else.

How you choose to order the first tier is obviously to taste, and I won't fight you on how you do it, so long as we relegate the second tier to the trash heap.


-Kanrabat- wrote:For me, #4 through #7 can be in any order.


Looks like there may be an overall agreement afterall, since my list also abides by these tiers, as do most of responses here and on Facebook.

And yes, Kanrabat I agree about the Dinosaurs. The film has both a discovery of metal dinosaurs AND the Dinobots and yet the two are completely unrelated. It often feels like the script given is a rough draft and they just go with it.
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Re: Ranking the Transformers Movies

Postby TulioDude » Mon Apr 19, 2021 7:22 am

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Glad to see AOE getting some love!
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One for each year of the Movieverse's decade strong tenure. Here's to a few more explosive years!


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Re: Ranking the Transformers Movies

Postby GeekyGamer Gal » Mon Apr 19, 2021 7:56 am

Okay, so I'll admit first off I'm weird because I've seen a LOT of just utter trash movies (Redneck Zombies anyone? or Troma films?), and well, some of them aren't that bad. . . Also, ROTF was the movie that brought me back into Transformers, and I'll fully acknowledge it is a last minute POS movie, because of Corvette Sideswipe.

Either way, here's how I'd rank them:

#7: TLK, bad trash is still trash and you couldn't polish this turd without redoing the entire movie. It was fun to watch Sir Anthony Hopkins having a ball though, which is the only redeemable bit of this movie, and if we could have a movie of Anthony Hopkins and Cogman being an actual Headmaster... I'd watch it.

#6: ROTF, just because I don't really have a good place to put it. It falls into the "trash that gets funnier the more I watch it" category, but it still has some of the better singular fights than most of the movies on this list.

#5: AOE, mainly due to this movie being decent, but there's moments where Lockdown's scar flips when you cut to him, and moments when a better script poke through. Aside from the banger that is Dinobot Charge, my favorite scene that really shows that there might have been a better script is when OP is speaking/ranting at Stanley Tucci's Joshua Joyce. Joyce is commenting about how the Cybertronians are just technology to humans, and OP is arguing that they are living feeling beings, which is a great reference to some major ethical issues going on in the biology fields. Best example look up the story of Henrietta Lacks, and what her HeLa cells have done to make modern medicine.

#4: DOTM, if there was a good way to cut ROTF out of the picture and just jump straight from 2007 to this movie I would in a heart beat. It's long, it has some tedious moments, but the desperation when Chicago is raised just echoes off the screen. Yes, there's some blue Autobot that never speaks going on, but that panning shot as OP swoops in (along Randall St. I think) and lays waste to the Decepticons is still awesome.

#3: The Movie, only here due to acknowledging the nostalgia and shaping of the brand. It's a decent cartoon adapted to a movie movie, but aside from OP's death not really groundbreaking.

#2: 2007, groundbreaking CGI, that mostly still holds up, and I still can't understand how a shapeshifting weasel beat Ironhide's cannons for best movie effects.

#1: BB, love this movie, love everything Travis Knight has put his hands on, and Shatter is my favorite Decepticon.
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Re: Ranking the Transformers Movies

Postby Whifflefire » Mon Apr 19, 2021 7:59 am

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My list:

7) TLK - :BOOM:

6) AOE - I liked it when it came out, and I agree that the film really tried to prop up the 'Bots more than the previous films, Cade Yeager was a likable human companion, and Attinger was an excellent human villain. It was a flawed but promising start to a new trilogy...And then TLK ignored it all and in its atrocities retroactively left AOE derelict.

5) ROTF - My own nostalgic memories of this film aside, I recognize its flaws, but it at least had a clear structure that contributed to the arc of the original trilogy's story. And we all know that the forest battle is as iconic as the final Optimus V. Megatron battle of TFTM.

4) 2007 - Solid film. Making the story human-centric may reduce the amount of time we actually get to see the bots we came for, but as a vehicle for reviving mainstream awareness of Transformers, it excellently played the "robots in disguise" concept to reintroduce the Transformers to old and new audiences alike.

3) Bumblebee - Another solid way to introduce a new audience to the franchise, without repeating too many of the same story beats from 2007. Starting the film with the cybertronians was a very nice treat for long-term fans without making familiarity with TF's necessary for understanding Bee's story. Charlie's arc was made clearer than Sam's without being awkward or forced, and she proved a very good partner for Bee. Dropkick and Shatter are the best new Decepticon characters in the franchise since maybe Animated. It isn't without its cringey moments, but if the new films are at least as strong as this one, we're looking at a solid franchise.

2) DOTM - The best of the Live action movies. I've talked about it before, but it goes beyond the typical "X object needs to be secured by good guys to stop X doomsday device by bad guys" plot and gives us a conspiracy thriller that really solidifies the Decepticons as intelligent and dangerous, and requires the protagonists to use their heads more. Many great character moments from the 'Bots and 'Cons alike, and the human characters contribute strongly to the plot this time around. Source of the most iconic scenes of the franchise besides the forest scene. A true high point for the film series to end on.

1) TFTM - I put this here because it is so distinct from the live action films. It is probably the quintessential example of Transformers storytelling. On its own, it is a typical hero plot story portrayed by robots, with representations of all the classic tropes with entertaining and captivating characters and concepts. As part of a larger story, it is a radical game-changing swerve that carries immense shock and surprise with its bold originality. It may be a tired hat to us now, but the Movie is an historic event if TF lore both in and out of universe. I don't know if it is quantifiably better than the live action films, but I put it above them for the reason that I would use this to introduce my children to the franchise before those.
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Re: Ranking the Transformers Movies

Postby o.supreme » Mon Apr 19, 2021 8:02 am

Motto: "Quis custodiet ipsos custodes"
Best to Worst:

1. TF:TM
2. Predacons Rising
3. BWII:Lio Convoy in Imminent Danger
4. Bumblebee
5. Transformers (2007)
6. Revenge of the Fallen
7. Age of Extinction
8. Dark of the Moon
9. The Last Knight

*It's a shame so many fans are unaware of the other 2 Animated films on this list. Similar to the original TF:TM, they may be difficult to understand without the context of the TV series they are connected to. But both are extremely entertaining in their own way. BWII is free with fansubs on YouTube and is under an hour in run time. The best part is, no annoying humans! Predacons Rising was not necessary The ending to Transformers Prime was just about perfect. But it was a nice little addendum. Again this film clocks in at just a little over an hour, and no humans at all. Definitely worth a watch. It is available on various streaming services for rent and/ or purchase.

As for the live action films, as you can see they all rank lower than any animated TF film. I've seen some awful looking animated films, but all 3 TF Animated films all look amazing in their own style. BB had the most heart for sure, and the best overall story for the live action films. RotF was interesting. I see I rank it higher than most people here. I was actually going to rank it highest for the live action series, but I remembered that while it's Highs are HIGHER (Forest battle, Jetfire, Jet Optimus etc...), the lows are definitely lower (The Twins, Wheelie, Sam's terrible college roommate, Robo scrotum etc...), so it slipped below both BB and the 2007 films.

Although the live action films are not my favorite, I'd say Jetfire is my single favorite character among them all. Too bad he didn't make it into more than one film. Also, I am probably going to regret asking this... but was there ever an in universe explanation of how Galvatron turned back into Megaoorn prior to TLK? That film is such a mess and is obviously Bay just getting a paycheck, and NOBODY cared about continuity anymore.
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Re: Ranking the Transformers Movies

Postby Rodimus Prime » Mon Apr 19, 2021 9:30 am

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It's a good thing these lists are all matters of opinion, so there's no right or wrong. Just a lot of disagreements.

My ranking:

7. Bumblebee
6. TLK
5. RoTF
4. AoE
3. Transformers
2. DoTM
1. TF:TM
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Re: Ranking the Transformers Movies

Postby EvasionModeBumblebee » Mon Apr 19, 2021 10:12 am

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Here’s my list!

6. TFTM - I’ve really never been a fan of this one. It did exactly what AOE did, just for the G1 cast: kill off most of the original cast that you were attached to and replace them with substitutes that aren’t as cool.

5. TLK - I had an absolute blast watching this one in theaters and I still really enjoy the last 20-30 minutes or so, but this one has definitely dropped down on the list since then.

4. AOE/BB: AOE really bugs me in how it just retcons so much of the first three movies. Most of the Autobot cast is killed off, and the whole allspark origin is messily retconned so now these creators made them- and Optimus and Hound just know about it! The human side of things in this one is also worse than in prior films. There are some scenes I really enjoy - Optimus blasting his way out of the barn, Bumblebee briefly fighting Lockdown, and Autobots Reunite. Oh, and I was traumatized by Ratchet’s death scene. Never watching that again.

BB is the real wild card here, the only one I wasn’t sure where to put when I started this list. The opening scene and Blitzwing fight are great, but then it turns into a generic, pretty boring 80s movie until the final battle.

3. ROTF: Let me start by saying that my parents got me an edited version of ROTF back when it came out on DVD that cut out a lot of the crude humor in the movie. It makes the movie SO much better, and the action scenes in this movie are among the best in the series.

2. 07: I’ve talked about this in a prior ranking of the movies, but I think 07 completely nails the Decepticons. They’re established as super threatening from the beginning of the movie with Blackout wiping out the airbase, and later on in the movie it takes pretty much the whole Autobot team to take Brawl down, Starscream blasts Bee’s legs off and proceeds to wreck Ironhide and Ratchet at the same time, and Optimus isn’t able to beat Megatron by himself. I’ve always been a fan of the military scenes in these movies, and I think they’re at their best in this movie - their coordinated strike on Blackout feels like a perfect resolution to Blackout taking out their base earlier in the movie.

While I’m a big fan of almost all the designs from the first 3 movies, I really have to give them props to the designs on this movie, being the first one. They take some minor inspirations from the G1 designs but really do their own thing and reinvented what a Transformer could look like for the better. They’re complex, immensely well-designed, and yes, iconic.

1. DOTM: Dark of the Moon is probably still my favorite movie in general. I love the tie-in with the space race, the action is well-dispersed throughout the movie, and while there is some of the usual Michael Bay crude humor, it’s not as bad as it is in ROTF or the later films. The whole Chicago sequence is excellent, and Sentinel Prime is the best villain out of these movies IMO.
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Re: Ranking the Transformers Movies

Postby cruizerdave » Mon Apr 19, 2021 11:14 am

Do you know why the original movie is so much better than all the Bayformers films?

It's somewhat coherent. It treats the robots like characters. It doesn't have juvenile humor.
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Re: Ranking the Transformers Movies

Postby blackeyedprime » Mon Apr 19, 2021 11:20 am

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At least the list sums most of them up and why never to watch them again :P

1.TF TM hands down no brainer. Plot, characters and transformers actually being the characters they are meant to be. Also more talent in the voice casting than any of the live action actors.

2.Bumblebee but only by the tiniest of smidgens. the films pretty good (apart from the Crystal skull moment of a trash bin protecting against a missile). Giving after thoughts to the film (did they really add the CGI cybertron bits last minute, meaning the script was poop or that they were really going to Baynus the kitchen appliances again, minus having *****? -is a headscratcher) and watching cinemasins really shows it to be pretty lowbar.

3.TF 2007 What did it do right...erm....erm...
The way the transformers trasnformed was amazing, all the motion and fluidly around what ever was happening. Blackout was pretty darn cool, if they cant make original characters have their characteristics it makes the original movie characters shine a bit more.Extended version made the story connect a bit more and the novelisation helped fill the gaps with Barricades offscreen death.

4.Dark of the moon.
I actually cried in the cinema at how bad some of this film was. Sentinel was pretty cool and the deaths felt more earned than Jazz in 2007. Sentinel was the stand out character and it kind of linked to the 07 trailer of the moonrover getting crushed. I can even kinda ignore Revenge of the fallen existed, why not? theres not eactly continuity checks for any of the films.

5. Revenge of the fallen. An entire film around Megatron beings some ones bitch, WOW. Cybertronians could have disguised as humans the whole time...It still has Megan Fox in it so that's probably why it's ranked here. Plus the video game was pretty good.

6. The Last knight
Lets take some ideas from other transformers media and not do them even 1/10th as well. Okay they get half a star for effort which actually might be more than some of their other films higher up on my list. Maybe it goes up a slot. The cheese intro of Megatrons squad was the highlight. Once again the new character Cogman was pretty good (but maybe thats because of how bad the main cast are?)

7.Age of Extinction.
this was such a mess that a bigger mess is easier to accept. Pretty sure this was the one with the guy who was annoying in all the films takes a few mins to sip on a product placement. Inserting new and fresh ideas should be a good thing but it wasn't.
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Re: Ranking the Transformers Movies

Postby LinaNui » Mon Apr 19, 2021 11:31 am

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This was a very interesting read and it is nice to see all the other opinions in the article and comments!

Here is my list:

7. 1986 Movie: I have never liked the G1 style and cartoon so this does not do anything for me. But the soundtrack is great.

6. BB Movie: The story was terrible, most of the robot designs just felt off (but dropkick is awesome), and I did not like how tuned down and kiddie the movie felt.

5. TLK: I do really like a lot of parts of this movie, but it was such a tease with so many things. Like I would love to see a movie just about TFs throughout history and more about Unicron and how he is earth. The whole cade story is strange to say the least and the little girl character is almost as bad as the one from the BBM

4. AOE: this is not a bad movie, its just I like the other 3 better. The robot designs got a little to human like but I absolutely love Crosshairs and Hound (the part where Hound is fighting off all the bad guys is an incredible scene). The Dinobots and lockdown looked great as well but both could have used more time to truly shine. I was not a fan of how the killed all the other Autobots though, that still hurts.

3. 2007 Movie: It starts off really slow but the final battle is worth it. I also love the Bonecrusher vs OP scene. Sector 7 is a fun pat also.

2. ROTF: I absolutely love this movie. It has some of my favorite character designs of all time (Megatron, Devastator, Sideswipe, the constructicons, Jetfire). The action is fantastic and being 10 watching it back in 2009 at the drive-in is something that I will never forget. There is one scene that I do skip when watching it is the part when Sam's mom is at the college. It also has the forest battle, which is one of my all time favorite movie moments.

1. DOTM: This movie is easily in my top 5 movies of all time. It is also one of the few movies that I have ever seen in IMax 3D and seeing the screen really come alive was amazing. The movie is also a roller-coaster of emotions for me. Seeing the Autobot shuttle getting blown up still gets me. The Decepticons actually seemed like real bad guys in this movie with how they took over Chicago. I also love the characters of Shockwave and driller, Sentinel Prime, The Wreckers, and Soundwave.

I would like to state that the Bayverse is basically my G1 of transformers. I did have some interaction with the Unicron Trilogy, but the 2007 movie was really the big starting point for me (I was 8 when it came out). I have so many great memories of going to watch the movies as part of my birthday present (my bday was typically a few days before the movie was released) and just really enjoying them.
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Re: Ranking the Transformers Movies

Postby TulioDude » Mon Apr 19, 2021 12:28 pm

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Does anyone agree with me that in Revenge of The Fallen,was the best movie for Sam as a character?
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Re: Ranking the Transformers Movies

Postby ScottyP » Mon Apr 19, 2021 12:45 pm

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Dark of the Moon is way too low on here :/
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Re: Ranking the Transformers Movies

Postby Rodimus Prime » Mon Apr 19, 2021 1:12 pm

Motto: "Individual freedom above all else."
TulioDude wrote:Does anyone agree with me that in Revenge of The Fallen,was the best movie for Sam as a character?
Sam was flat as a character IMO. Whether that was the writers' fault or Shia LaBeouf's fault, who knows. But Sam started low and only went lower. So I guess the "best" movie for Sam was the 2007 film. But that doesn't mean any of them were good.

What I would have liked tp see with AoE instead of a human reboot was that it should have been set in the future and have Mark Wahlberg play Sam as a grown up.
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Re: Ranking the Transformers Movies

Postby william-james88 » Mon Apr 19, 2021 1:15 pm

Motto: "'till All Are One"
ScottyP wrote:Dark of the Moon is way too low on here :/


How high would you rank it on your list, top 3?
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Re: Ranking the Transformers Movies

Postby cor2879 » Mon Apr 19, 2021 1:20 pm

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My ranking:

1. Transformers: The Movie
2. Bumblebee
3. ... what?
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Re: Ranking the Transformers Movies

Postby Nemesis Reformatted » Mon Apr 19, 2021 2:34 pm

My #1 favorite is Age Of Extinction. Whenever I feel like watching a Transformers movie, that's the one I always go for.
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Re: Ranking the Transformers Movies

Postby AllNewSuperRobot » Mon Apr 19, 2021 3:19 pm

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I agree the list in general and with the latter half specifically. Because, I think the one with Lockdown was the last Live Action Movie I bothered with, until Bumblebee. In saying that, the '07 film is the only (Live Action) one I've seen more than once through choice. Including Bumblebee.

As a fan of Decepticons, plus Beast Wars making humans in Transformers anathema to my tastes, I soon realised the Live Action films were never going to cater to me.

Which is something the '86 Movie still has over the others. As I've said many times, The Movie shows the reality of the Decepticon threat. When you take away the moral plot armour of the tv show and then put a Car Bot up against Tank or Fighter Jet. The Movie isn't perfect either though. The 80's-isms, the songs and basically everything Wheelie and Junkion related, really bring it down a lot in retrospect. I know The Movie word for word. I still skip bits to this day.

I once did a supercut version, in fact. The opening til the death of OP. Scenes with Galvatron. Unicron Transforms and final battle. The end. I wasn't disappointed.
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