The latest of the Transformers movies, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, is slated for a June 9 release. An animated origin story for the toys is set to be released in 2024 as an origin story on Cybertron. That will make eight films in the franchise and with its pattern of box office success, there will likely be more on the way. Critical reception aside, these movies are generally pretty profitable. Here are all of the films currently released, ranked.
6. Transformers: The Last Knight (2017)
Transformers: The Last Knight is likely the final story in the line of Transformers movies. A film that was marketed as the final hoorah of this storyline, it was an unfortunately disappointing effort. It’s arguably the worst movie in the entire franchise. It seems like sad way for a popular franchise to go out, truthfully.
Mark Wahlberg is undoubtedly a strong candidate for any action film. However, he’s not the fan favorite Shia LaBeouf. Between his absence and the franchise’s ongoing efforts, even the most ardent supporters of the transforming robots were left a little disappointed with the stale offering from Steve Caple Jr.
5. Transformers: Age Of Extinction (2014)
Transformers: Age Of Extinction marked the transition away from Shia LaBeouf’s Sam Witwicky to Mark Wahlberg’s Cade Yeager. Although LaBeouf chose to leave on a high, it didn’t help the declining franchise. However, there are a lot of great action sequences, and the CGI is, once again, really nice. Otherwise, there’s just not much going for the rest of the movie.
By now, fans are used to a convoluted plot and many huge action scenes with great graphics. Unfortunately, after four movies, it’s a tiring experience. Why watch this when one could rewatch the slightly better predecessors? This movie doesn’t do enough to warrant the franchise’s continuation in many critics’ eyes.
4. Transformers: Dark Of The Moon (2011)
It’s not the easiest feat to make a sequel that improves on the original, and it’s even harder to make a threequel that improves on both. Unfortunately, Michael Bay couldn’t accomplish this on Transformers: Dark Of The Moon. A few elements work, but the new love interest and the rest of the plot feel smashed together. It felt as if the franchise was running out of steam. Even an all-star cast couldn’t help. By the third film, it became clear to some viewers that that might have been a mistake to continue the franchise beyond its second film.
3. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009)
The sequel to Transformers was arguably not as good as its predecessor. The charm of the first one waned, and the convoluted plot drained audiences a little more. It wasn’t as much of a novelty, so the faults of the writing and story were a little more evident. While this isn’t a spectacular follow-up, it wasn’t an abomination. Many audiences might have been surprised to learn that this wouldn’t be the worst of the bunch, but it truly kept going downhill from here, which makes this film look even better by comparison.
At this point, the sight of CGI robots beating each other to death while occasionally showing a human character isn’t as overused. Eventually, it will be. But, in 2009, seeing more Optimus Prime and Megatron battles was still exciting. Peter Cullen continues to provide excellent voice acting here, though.
2. Bumblebee (2018)
Then, 2018’s Bumblebee was the first non-linear story in the Transformers movies. For the first time, the franchise brought it back to the origin story of the beloved Bumblebee. Travis Knight did an excellent job taking over the Transformers movies. This film showed audiences that there could be refreshing contributions to the expanding Transformers universe. Fortunately, this movie’s success bodes well for Transformers: Rise of the Beasts and the franchise’s future.
If the future is in the past, which it appears to be, then Bumblebee is a fantastic point to jump off from. Bumblebee has always been the most interesting character of them all, so an origin story and an exploration of him was always a good idea. Changing directorial hands was also a great idea from Hasbro.
1. Transformers (2007)
While the franchise may have generally gone downhill, its beginning was excellent. The CGI from 2007 still holds up today. While it might not have been purely intentional on Michael Bay’s part, the movie is hilarious. Shia LaBeouf’s explosive Hollywood ascent is certainly due to the success of this film. It’s just a shame the sequels couldn’t recapture the magic of the beginning of the Transformers movies.
Most of these movies were a hit at the box office, so Hasbro and everyone involved in making them wouldn’t change a thing. However, fans might want to go back and nix the franchise after this and save it as a standalone film. That would preserve the magic a little more since most everything after just tainted this film. Which of the Transformers movies is your favorite?