In the pantheon of popular blockbuster action films, director Michael Bay's Transformers movies stand as some of the most recent notable entries in that genre. While mostly savaged by critics, the films themselves brought in audiences by the boatload and made both Hasbro and Paramount Pictures sizable amounts of money across all six installments. With 2018's Bumblebee serving as a reboot that plans to take the franchise in a different direction, it's at least interesting to look back at Bay's films from a modern perspective.

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Unfortunately, Bay's Transformers films have not aged all that well when held under scrutiny. From decisions involving how characters were portrayed to how the numerous action scenes were shot, there's quite a number of issues that plague each entry.

10 Making Optimus Prime Too Brutal and Sadistic In Battle

A promotional image for Transformers: Age of Extinction that features Optimus Prime.

Autobot leader Optimus Prime is an iconic character for a reason. He is a symbol of strength, nobility, and perseverance in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds, with a sage-like knowledge of how best to handle situations on and off the battlefield--including not to kill at any costs. While the live-action films do feature Optimus making grand speeches about fighting for the freedom of others and how life is sacred, they're undercut by just how ruthless Optimus actually is in battle. This even includes him harming or killing humans in both Age of Extinction and The Last Knight. 

 Misunderstanding Optimus Prime's character definitely hasn't done these films any favors, especially in comparison to other Transformers media--like Transformers: Prime or Bumblebee--that have a much better grasp on Prime's original character.

9 The Plots Feel Repetitive

8 A combined image featuring several items that act as MacGuffins throughout the Transformers film series, such as the AllSpark on the left, the Matrix of Leadership in the middle, and the Seed on the right.

It's important for any film series to have new obstacles for the main characters to overcome. Each entry might have an antagonist, but there should also be personal obstacles for each of the main characters to face. But in the case of most of the Transformers films, not only are there few personal obstacles for the characters, but some of the plots aren't all that different from each other.

Several of the films center on MacGuffins to drive their plots: the first film revolved around the mystical AllSpark as its MacGuffin.  2009's Revenge of the Fallen saw the characters go after the Matrix of Leadership, and 2014's Age of Extinction had a device called the Seed at the center of its plot. Using MacGuffins isn't a bad thing if handled well, but the fact that these films used MacGuffins several times over is lazy writing and suggests that Bay and the writers didn't have too many ideas at hand.

7 The Films Often Contradict Each Other

An image of Megatron's death in 2007's Transformers next to an image of his body about to be resurrected in 2009's Revenge of the Fallen.

Speaking of laziness, another aspect of Bay's Transformers films is their lack of consistency. Watching one film to the next, it often seems like Bay and the writers forget about some of the plot elements that they themselves introduced.

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For instance, the AllSpark is used to kill Megatron at the end of the first film, but a shard of the AllSpark brings Megatron back to life in Revenge of the Fallen. The discovery of the Autobots and Decepticons is also constantly in question: both species of Transformers first arrive on Earth in the first film, though it's revealed in The Last Knight that another group of Transformers actually existed in 484 AD. This constant rejection of continuity serves as a detriment to these films.

6 The Attempts At Humor Are Lazy and Immature

A combined image featuring several moments of comic relief from Michael Bay's Transformers film series.

Even if a film or film series isn't comedic, it's important for it to have at least some moments of humor and levity to alleviate tension between scenes. The MCU does this very well, for example, using its wry and often relatable humor to ground its many characters and help to make them more likable. The Transformers films don’t shy away from including humor, but these moments are much less enjoyable.

From Bumblebee urinating on John Turturro to Wheelie humping Megan Fox’s leg, there’s plenty of lazy attempts at jokes that make each film even less fun to watch. Occasionally a joke here or there might get a chuckle, but the bad moments far outweigh the better ones.

5 The Main Characters Aren't All That Likable

A combined image featuring three of the main characters from the Transformers films, including Shia LaBeouf's Sam Witwicky on the left, Mark Wahlberg's Cade Yeager in the middle, and John Turturro's Seymour Simmons on the right.

The jokes in these films might be somewhat bearable if the main characters making them were pleasant to be around. But therein lies another issue, as a good number of the characters throughout each film aren't too likable.

Shia LaBeouf's Sam Witwicky started out as mostly likable before the sequels saw him becoming much more obnoxious and prone to both incessant rambling and screaming. Other characters like Mark Wahlberg's Cade Yeager and John Turturro's Seymour Simmons come off as too brash and insulting at times, despite being played by two otherwise likable actors. That these characters also have little to no depth to them besides their main personalities leaves audiences unable to latch onto them.

4 The Excessive Product Placement

A combined image featuring several uses of product placement throughout the Transformers movie franchise.

The Transformers films are well known for their use of product placement. While it's not a bad thing for a film to feature different products to make the worlds feel lived in, Bay's films use product placement to a ludicrous degree, even finding ways for the brands to be destroyed during action scenes or including them in the story. 2014's Age of Extinction reportedly has a total of 55 brands being promoted over its 165-minute runtime. The excessive and shameless plugging of these brands has made these films feel especially dated years later.

3 The Unfocused Action Scenes

An image of a battered Optimus Prime in a fight scene taking place in a forest from Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.

Michael Bay certainly succeeds at creating bombastic action set pieces within his films, and the Transformers films are no different. But even though there are cool moments of action in the franchise, a lot of those scenes suffer because of just how they're filmed.

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The fights between robots are made difficult to watch, not just because of the rapid movements of the characters but because the camera is constantly swerving around them to capture both them and the scope of the large areas that they're fighting in. These factors aren't helped by the overly detailed designs of the Transformers themselves, which makes it harder to tell where one robot ends and another begins. Travis Knight's Bumblebee fixed this issue not only by better choreographing the fights and giving the characters simpler redesigned looks, but also by having them fight in smaller areas so that the camera could only focus on these characters.

2 The Obscene Amount of Racist Stereotypes

A combined image featuring characters from the Transformers films that either embody harmful racist stereotypes or are subjected to racism: Jazz on the left, Skids and Mudflap in the middle, and ACWO Jorge "Fig" Figueroa.

A common complaint across some of Bay's films is how most of the POC characters are given stereotypically racist personalities and attributes, or are treated with prejudice in a way that's supposed to be funny but isn't. The Transformers films unfortunately carry on this trend.

In the first film, for example, Amaury Nolasco's Jorge "Fig" Figueroa, a Special Operations soldier, is called out by his fellow soldiers for speaking Spanish, always being told to "speak English." A similar treatment is given to a few robot characters as well: Jazz--who has often been played by black actors--is given lines like "What's cracking, little bitches?" in the 2007 film, while Revenge of the Fallen's comic relief duo Skids and Mudflap embody harmful stereotypes of African-Americans like speaking in exaggerated slang and not being able to read well. To say these moments haven't made these films age well is an understatement.

1 The Sexist and Objectified Treatment of Female Characters

A combined image featuring several women who were objectified in Michael Bay's Transformers movies: Megan Fox's Michaela Banes, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley's Carly Spencer, Nicola Peltz's Tessa Yeager, and Laura Haddock's Viviane Wembley.

Much has been spoken about just how much Bay's films either sexualize or disrespect women, and the Transformers films are on another level with this treatment. Even when these characters are somewhat fleshed out and contribute to the plots--such as Michaela Banes or Carly Spencer having experience working with cars--the cameras drool over their bodies to show that they only exist to serve as eye candy.

Others like Viviane Wembly are subjected to sexist treatment from other characters: during an argument in The Last Knight, Cade calls Viviane out for wearing a "stripper dress" for instance. In our modern age of entertainment in which steps are being taken to heighten the roles of women both on and off-screen, these films feel like relics from a less progressive time.

NEXT: Transformers: 5 Decepticons Who Became Autobots (& 5 Autobots Who Became Decepticons)