Between 2007 and 2017, the summer blockbuster season featured five different Transformers films. Directed by master of action and mayhem Michael Bay, the five Transformers films became some of the biggest releases of their respective years, lighting up the box office and changing the very definition of what a summer popcorn flick could be. Despite that, the Transformers movies were critically panned, and fans of the original cartoon series despised them for the butchering of the franchise's mythos and failing to deliver the same type of stories that captured their interest in the '80s.
It's not all bad though. Sure, the Transformers films aren't exactly Oscar-worthy productions (well, outside of their outstanding visual effects), but there's entertainment value to the cinematic franchise. Yes, there really is some good in there. Here is a ranking of all five of Michael Bay's Transformers movies, from worst to best.
Revenge of the Fallen
In 2009, the second Transformers film was released. In Revenge of the Fallen, the Decepticons found the last remaining shard of the AllSpark and used it to revive Megatron. Once the villain returned to life, a large army of Decepticons landed on Earth led by the Fallen, one of the ancient, original Transformers from their planet, Cybertron. The villain had a plan to use a Cybertronian weapon to burn out the sun and create the Transformer's energy source, energon.
The Decepticons were nearly successful in their attack after Optimus Prime was killed in the first half of the film. When he was brought back to life, however, (with a powerful power-up thanks to Jetfire) the battle was promptly brought to an end.
Revenge of the Fallen ranks as the worst film in the series because it lacks focus. It takes a long time for the real story to kick in, and even when it does, it has trouble deciding what type of story it wants to tell. The new characters, both human and Transformer, introduced were unremarkable, and it doesn't help that Optimus Prime is missing for a large portion of the film.
The Last Knight
Transformers: The Last Knight, which hit theaters in the summer of 2017, was the second film in the series to star Mark Wahlberg. While his Cade Yeager had his own supporting cast in the previous film, the character now found himself on his own, unraveling the secret history that tied the Transformers to King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table.
The fifth film in the series is overly long (and that's saying something for Transformers films), but it makes up for it with an epic third-act battle as the corpse of Cybertron itself crashes into the Earth. The set pieces of the Transformers movies were always ambitious, but this one went above and beyond. Unfortunately, this is the first entry in the franchise that ended with a cliffhanger -- one that likely won't be resolved -- and it makes the film feel incomplete. Plus, the story didn't make the most sense, and the lore behind Unicron was strange. But hey, at least we got Anthony Hopkins talking about Transformers and Decepticons -- and that's pretty rad.
Transformers
The first Transformers film arrived in 2007. It was epic in scope and yet managed to remain small in scale at the same time. It introduced modern audiences to the lore of the Transformers, and kept the cast of Autobots relatively small. Although it was released 13 years ago, the movie has aged surprisingly well and it still delivers on the nostalgia. Better yet, it brought the world of the Transformers into a modern setting.
The film was successful in depicting the Autobots and the Decepticons as larger than life beings from another world. There was truly a sense of wonder whenever one of them would transform, and the final battle properly showed what it would look like if alien robots battled one another in the middle of a human city. However, the focus of the film largely stayed on the human characters. The major complaint here is that there just weren't enough Transformers in Transformers.
Age of Extinction
Transformers: Age of Extinction from 2014 was the first film to follow the franchise's initial trilogy. The movie picked up years after the events of the third film, Dark of the Moon, and introduced a new cast of human characters who get caught in a battle between the Autobots and the government. After being deemed dangerous enemies, the Autobots were now on the run, and the new, bounty hunter-like villain Lockdown arrived on Earth to hunt them down alongside the humans.
Age of Extinction delivered plenty of fun, and dived much deeper into the lore of the Transformers. The film stretched the history of Cybertron to the Jurassic era and introduced a reincarnated Megatron in the form of Galvatron as well as the Dinobots. Sure, much of the lore was changed to suit the film's needs, but it was still awesome to see Grimlock and Optimus Prime fighting side by side. Also, Stanley Tucci was in the film as an eccentric billionaire inventor, and his scenes made the film all the more entertaining.
Dark of the Moon
Transformers: Dark of the Moon was the concluding film in Michael Bay's original Transformers trilogy. After the disappointing fan response to Revenge of the Fallen, real effort went into ensuring Dark of the Moon's story was more concise and fast-paced. It kicked things off with a plot that tied back to the events of the Moon landing, giving the film a sense of mystery and urgency that kept us on the edge of our seats.
Dark of the Moon had the benefit of learning from the mistakes of its predecessors and, as a result, it ranks as the best film in the franchise. The movie knew exactly what it wanted to be, and delivered some truly standout moments, from Laserbeak eliminating human allies in a frightening sequence to the Decepticons' explosive attack on Chicago. Like all other films, Dark of the Moon's runtime was excessive, but unlike its predecessors, it felt justified. The movie felt like an event all its own, and its status as the (then) concluding chapter of the franchise made the action all the more engaging.
Say what you will about the Transformers films, but Dark of the Moon delivered.