Transformers Movies Ranked

8. Transformers: The Last Knight (2017)

For me personally, this is the most dissapointing film I have ever watched. There are plenty of dissapointing films that are still decent at least, but the Last Knight is anything but. A film that perfectly encapsulates everything that is wrong with Michael Bays Transformers series. The human characters are somehow the worst of the whole series which really is saying something. The action is mostly very bland, mainly due to Optimus Prime being mostly absent for the first 3 quarters of the film as he is being turned evil on cybetron which is back for some reason. Thats another thing. This entry goes against everything that has been built up throughout the previous 4 films which creates a multitude of plot holes and confusions as Michael Bay creates new lore from out of nowhere to boost the films appeal, whilst simultaneously destroying the story that has been crafted so far. As well as this, Michael Bay uses 3 DIFFERENT ASPECT RATIOS. WHY? For a film with as big a budget as this, the decision to rapidly switch between 3 aspect ratios in each shot is baffling as it really takes the viewer out of the experience, and makes the film seem amateur at times.

7. Transformers: Rise of the Beasts (2023)

So underwhelming. The best way I can describe this absolute trainwreck of a film. Paramount managed to tempt fans in by basing a film on Beast Wars, one of the most popular Transformers shows. Unfortunately, that's the only positive about it. This is insanely boring, with poorly written human characters and a horrendous distribution of screen time between the different Maximals, making us not care one bit about any of them. Added to the lack of a strong villain and a dull human subplot, this film is just plain awful.

6. Transforners: Dark of the Moon (2011)

Ok so this could be seen as controversial. However Dark of the Moon is not that good. While it has possibly the best opening scene of the first 5 movies, the rest of the film really doesnt lead up to the build. It just follows the same bland formula of explosions and dumb humans that the first two were so heavily criticised for. The final battle is so unecessarily long and really didnt seem it would have any lasting stakes at any point, even with the potential impending danger of Cybertron colliding with Earth. Megatron was rendered almost useless, playing second fiddle to Sentinel Prime which is a complete waste of the menacing villain that had been built up for two films. I wish this was the last we saw of the Transformers, but unfortunately $1 billion speaks for itself.

5. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009)

Ok so I know this was voted as thre worst film of the 2000s. But I enjoyed it. Revenge of the Fallen is a lot of fun, and packs an emotional punch that is absent in all the other live action entries, through Optimus losing a 3v1 and ultimately dying. This was a genuinley shocking moment on first watch, and his abscence was handled much better here than it was in the Last Knight, as we see a disjointed group of Autobots struggle to win the battle with the Decepticons. Again, the scenes with just humans are painful to watch, and this film is definitley the worst offender of the whole series.

4. Transformers: Age of Extinction (2014)

There was so much promise. So much going for this entry. And almost 8 years later its still hard to tell whether Age of Extinction is good or awful. I lean further towards good, as this entry is very different to all those that came before it. This is the first film without Shia LaBeouf, instead opting for Mark Wahlberg as the lead character. Once again however, the awful human scenes are back, with even more of the things that fans hated about the first 3 films. As well as this, the film can be criticsed by its near 3 hour runtime, and the fact that its third act was moved to China as a shameless way to boost the films international appeal (this worked as the film made over a third of its gross in China). So why is it at number 4? Well this feels like a breath of fresh air at times, with some creative new Transformers, and the introduction of some fan favourites from the cartoons such as Hound and Galvatron (even though that second one had no pay off thanks to the Last Knight)

3. Bumblebee (2018)

This was a suprise hit. Bumblebee had very little hype as generally, people were sick of Transformers. However, with no involvement from Michael Bay, this film somehow succeeded. Bumblebee has the best scene in any of these films, with the opening on Cybetron that perfectly caputred the spirit and aesthetic of the 80s show that introduced the world to the Transformers. The soundtrack was strong, just like in the rest of the films, and the human characters were finally solid, with comedy scenes that were actually funny unlike most of the rest of the series. However there are two glaring issues. The lack of a strong villain, and an ending that creates a plot hole that is impossible to ignore.

2. Transformers (2007)

16 years old and still the best of the Michael Bay bunch. The first live action Transformers definitley has faults that were repeated in almost every sequel after it, but the film holds itself together much better than the rest. The small cast of both Autobots and Decepticons especially make stakes feel higher in every battle, as all the Transformers feel less disposable than they did by the time Dark of the Moon rolled around. Of course there is a multitude of boring, filler human scenes that provide very little for the narrative overall, but that is not as glaring an issue as it became later on, with most of the characters being only slightly obnoxious rather than extremely which is a positive I guess

1. The Transformers: The Movie (1986)

And here we arrive at the single best piece of feature length media to ever come out of this property. Yes it came out in the 80s, but my god this is just an animated masterpiece. It packs an emotional punch that very few films in general are able to provide, whilst also being shocking with the early deaths of Optimus and Megatron, the two main characters. It builds masterfully from the much beloved 1984 TV show that introduced a multitude of iconic characters and locations. This is furthered by the introduction of the destructive entitiy Unicron, which was a threat never seen before, and is hopefully done justice in his live action version that was teases in the end credits of the Last Knight. This film feels timeless, and combined with the original show and Beast Wars, is part of the golden age of Transformers Media that has never been topped, and may never be for that matter.