When it was announced Michael Bay, all-powerful lord of action/horror movies, was going to produce a Transformers movie, fans of the original cartoon series were ecstatic. Their favorite Autobots and Decepticons were going to finally be treated to the latest CGI technology. Their looks and transformations would be amazing to see.
Then the first film came out, and fans were confused. These were not the Transformers they were looking for. In fact, some people needed a program to figure out who was who. Still, out of the six movies that were released, including the stand-alone Bumblebee, there were some robots in disguise with better designs than their previous forms. For examples, here are five Transformers that looked better in the Michael Bay movies and five that looked worse.
10 Worse: Wheeljack
Um, what happened? The Wheeljack we knew from the original Transformers cartoon was cool. Granted, he didn't have a mouth, but he had the proper attitude needed to stave off the Decepticons and save the Energon. Plus, he was the Autobots' main scientist and inventor who created the Dinobots. Well, not every invention is a success.
In the Transformers movies, Wheeljack has glasses and a mustache. A. Mustache. In addition, it's on a face that hasn't aged well over the decades. It's downright creepy. Sometimes, Mr. Bay, change isn't good.
9 Better: Hot Rod
Introduced in the original Transformers: The Movie — the one where Spike uttered a four-letter swear word for human waste — Hot Rod was already a cool Autobot. He wasn't all primary colors and sharp edges. In fact, he was part of the logical evolution of the Autobots to appear more humanistic.
Hot Rod didn't make his movie appearance until The Last Knight, but the wait was worth it. Instead of being monochromatic like his other compatriots, the live-action Hot Rod had flame-orange embellishments that added to his brashness. Furthermore, being slimmer than some of the other Autobots, viewers can see things such as, you know, his face.
8 Worse: Shockwave
We weren't sure what Shockwave was during the Transformers cartoon run. We knew he was one of Megatron's lieutenants who remained on a near-empty Cybertron. Eventually, we discovered Shockwave could transform into a gun like his leader. Question: who could fire him if all the Decepticons were injured or dead?
When he appeared in the Bay movies, Shockwave's look was even more confusing. His body was apparently ripped from all that time he had not doing anything. In addition, rather than being the behind-the-lines strategist, Shocky was ready to battle. The Autobots were ready to destroy him, but they didn't know where his face was.
7 Better: Devastator
Japan loves its giant robots. Yet, the first generation of Transformers didn't have one of these until the Constructicons were introduced. Where the Dinobots couldn't transform into a Voltron-like giant, this quintet of Decepticons could. The result was Devastator.
In the cartoons, he looked like a normal Transformer. Except he was bigger and seemingly had sunglasses. In the Transformer movie series, Devastator is considerably more menacing. In fact, he looked like a being created by the combination of different Decepticons. While we could probably beat the cartoon Devastator, we wouldn't want to be caught in a dark alley with the movie version.
6 Worse: Grimlock
Grimlock is cool and funny in the Transformers cartoon, like the version of Dino the Dinosaur with less smarts. We like Generation 1 Grimlock.
But the movie version of the character? Not so much, unless we wanted to be impaled by his weapons. Bay's version of Grimlock was less of an Autobot and more like a character one would see in Game of Thrones. In addition, his all-black finish made him look like a goth who would prefer listening to The Cure all day.
5 Better: Soundwave
Thank Unicron we no longer use tape recorders to get our intelligence about the Autobots. If we did, then Soundwave would still be a play-only device. Luckily, he no longer waits for minions like Laserbeak to come back as a mini-cassette. You know how much of a paint it was to re-spool him?
The live-action version of Soundwave is definitely hipper. First, he transforms into the Decepticon's communication satellite and lets his assistants report back to him. Second, when he's on Earth, he becomes a Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG. Regardless if he's the epitome of evil, we would certainly take a spin around the block with him.
4 Worse: Megatron
For some reason, Michael Bay seemingly wanted to make the main antagonist and protagonist of his first Transformers movie unrecognizable. Why do this when we were so used to the way they used to look in the cartoon and subsequent movie? Even Megatron's transformation from his old body to that of Galvatron was easier to see — particularly when Frank Welker kept voicing the character.
We get it was Bay's movie and he wanted his robots to look a certain way. So, being a leader of an enemy army, he had Megatron look the part of a warrior. However, we couldn't see his face. How could we tell who he was? It could've been a Gundam in disguise and we wouldn't have known until the credits.
3 Better: Starscream
We feel for Starscream. He just wanted respect from Megatron. That, or his elimination so he could become a better Decepticon leader. But it never happened, and he loudly whined about it. He didn't have "scream" in his name for nothing.
Starscream received a respectable upgrade in the Transformers movie franchise as well as a new design. Honestly, the jet canopy on his first-generation body was bulky. His movie outfit is leaner and flexible for better fighting stances. Plus, he's less screechy.
2 Worse: Optimus Prime
Yeah, Bay really blew it here. The great thing about the original Optimus Prime was his no-frills design. He was confident with his leadership skills. In turn, all he needed was his blaster and ability to transform into a semi-truck. Anyone who has seen Steven Spielberg's Duel knows commercial trucks are frightening.
However, Bay didn't seem to care. The only way we knew it was Prime was from his helmet and Peter Cullen, the character's original voice actor. After that, there was plenty of confusion, particularly when he went toe-to-toe with Decepticons. There was too much black and gray flying around to get a good idea of who was who.
1 Better: Bumblebee
Out of all the redesigns Michael Bay instituted, the one he did for Bumblebee was the best interpretation. The spunky character certainly deserved it, for he was a favorite on the original series and subsequent animated revivals.
What the movies did, including Bumblebee's own film, was to take the character and make him more of a fighter and leader. In addition, his new design was more aerodynamic then his Generation 1 version. In that instance, he looked like a VW bug in robot and vehicle modes. While he still has some of that design in the films, his robot body allows him to be a much better fighter.