Dethroning Moment / Transformers Film Series

The birth of Michael Bay movies comes forth a moment that will explode the viewers mind with a massive amount of cringes.

Keep in mind:

• Sign your entries.
• One moment per movie to a troper, if multiple entries are signed to the same troper the more recent one will be cut.
• Moments only, no "just everything he said," or "The entire movie," entries.
• No contesting entries. This is subjective, the entry is their opinion.
• No natter. As above, anything contesting an entry will be cut, and anything that's just contributing more can be made its own entry.
• Explain why it's a Dethroning Moment Of Suck.
• No Real Life examples, including Executive Meddling. That is just asking for trouble.
• No ALLCAPS, no bold, and no italics unless it's the title of a work. We are not yelling the DMoSs out loud.

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Transformers

• Lex Logic: The scene from the first Transformers film where Bumblebee transforms himself from a careworn '76 Camaro into a brand-spanking new 2007 model. Discarding a classic with lots of both innate and potential value as a worthless piece of crap in favor of a new model whose value has nowhere to go but down simply because it's "shinier" is something only a moron would do. It does make for one hell of an unintentional metaphor for the filmmaker's approach to the franchise, though.
  • Hyrin: Speaking of discarding a classic, there's the scene at the car lot when we first get introduced to the '76 Camaro. They give the audience a Fake Out Genius Bonus by showing us a yellow Volkswagen Beetle (Bumblebee's form in the G1 cartoon). Bumblebee proceeds to smash the Beetle, caving in the door, before shattering its windows. Served as a great Foreshadowing of the double middle finger Michael Bay was going to serve up to our childhood memories of the franchise.
  • Miracle @ St. Olaf: And between these two "Fuck you, audience!" moments is the first dust-up between Bumblebee and Barricade, which should have been the payoff for putting up with a very tedious half-hour of watching Shia LaBeouf try to get laid. And it would have been, except that it takes place far off in the distance and out of focus, while the camera fixates the entire time on Frenzy pulling off LaBeouf's pants while Megan Fox whales on it with a Sawzall. Yep, they're letting you know up-front where their priorities are by shoving the impressive giant robot battle into the background, so that it doesn't interrupt the extremely stupid, inane, childish "humor" that Bay somehow assumed was what we actually bought tickets to see.
• Carl Hummus: That bloody tacky "Bee-otch" dashboard accessory. Subtle.
• Ruby The Master: Jazz's death. It's incredibly fast, and after he's killed, everybody basically goes, "Oh noes, Jazz died. Wait, what were we talking about again? Never mind, we'll just give you more Megan Fox." Not okay, Bay. If you're going to kill off a beloved character, spend more than ten seconds mourning over their death, okay?
• TMB: "Criminals are hot!" Says the 40 year old to the 17 year old girl while referencing her juvenile criminal record.

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

• Cannotrememberpasswords: I understand that Revenge of the Fallen is meant to be a big dumb action flick. However, after running it over in my mind, I found one scene that is emblematic of why that film is still totally inexcusable: Devastator. Yes, he looked cool, and he was pretty well designed, and he was built up fairly well, but what does he do in the movie? (1) Get his ass kicked (by Skids and Mudflap, of all bots). Mudflap clawing his way out of Devastator's gullet doesn't redeem Mudflap for being so Primus-damned annoying as was intended. It robs Devastator of any actual threatening potential and gives us more scenes with Mudflap, whom the audience has now realized is invincible. (2) Rip up the top of a pyramid. When half the cast are twenty-foot robots, that's really not very impressive. In the first movie, Optimus was gouging foot-deep holes in concrete with every step and crashing through skyscrapers while fighting Megatron, and Bumblebee destroys a house as collateral damage in the opening. Any single one of the characters could have smashed the pyramid into sand by accident, making Devastator completely pointless. (3) Get killed in one shot by a railgun. Not only is it more evidence of the absurd hoo-rah military worship the movies exhibit, it comes as a detriment to the story, as it makes his death anticlimactic. Why have all the Autobots team up to kill him, when you could have a Deus ex Machina, never mentioned prior, never again used, destroy him in one single blast? "Join the army! We rob any excitement from a movie, because apparently we fight giant alien robots better than their millenia-old sworn adversaries!" (4) Oh, yeah, and they gave him testicles.
• So We Ate Them: In a film full of grating, poorly-handled dick jokes, the treatment of Devastator gives a new meaning to "new low." The Big Bad has testes. And that's the joke. Yet they still felt compelled to explain it.
  • Kirby 0189: Despite my heavy criticism of Transformers 2-5, I consider the hatred for the films to be overblown. However, the Devastator wrecking balls joke is the one moment that I feel deserves all of the intense vitriolic that it gets instead of merely just being disliked. There is no reason to have two wrecking balls hang from Devastator's crotch as an out-of-place testes joke since (a.) while Fanservice and intense robot violence might be stretching things a bit thin, showing off balls, even robot ones, is certainly not acceptable in a movie for a franchise that creates most of its fiction to sell toys to children (b.) none of the components they showed off had any wrecking balls, and why exactly they would be hanging from a component that turns into a dump truck is anyone's guess (c.) robots don't need balls last I checked.
• Philipnova798 If I had to choose one moment, I have to go with the entire desert fight. Aside from Bumblebee kicking both Rampage and Ravage's asses. The entire thing was just a poorly edited mass of military, sand, explosions, bad comedy and poorly done CGI. But what really drives my hatred for this is the ending. As we all know The Fallen has succeeded in his plan and is about exterminate the sun. All the while giving out Laser-Guided Karma to the military trying to stop it. Only to have Optimus Prime destroy the Harvester and kill The Fallen in what has to be the worst one-sided fight in history. Compounded by The Fallen not even attempting to fight back and the lackluster CG that looks more like Transmorphers than a $200 million movie. Also, what the hell was Michael Bay thinking by including the Cybertronian version of Heaven?
• Tero: Sam going to college, a place full of puerile entitled assholes. Completely irrelevant to the plot, complete with a gynoid transformer just included for Fanservice. It doesn't even feel like a Transformers movie, more like a B-movie plot with your stereotypical whiny bitch hapless teen boy protagonist- an Ordinary High-School Student who does not live up to the demands of a World of Badass. Just give him a good smack-bottom and send him back to kindergarten.

Transformers: Dark of the Moon

• LWS: Dark of the Moon does this as well, in a particularly infuriating manner. Noteworthy portions of the Decepticon cast were killed off by humans. "Kudos" to the pathetic excuse of a death they gave Starscream—at the hands of Sam Witwicky.
• Regu14: At least they all went out fighting. I was absolutely pissed when Ironhide was given a sudden, pointless death. After the second film moved him into the back seat, we see him do something badass when he saves Sam and Bumblebee, He's then unceremoniously killed off by Sentinel with a cheap shot to the back. The worst part is the fact that Ironhide doesn't even get the chance to fight back and he just rusts away. I'm not a fan of Ironhide, but that scene offended me as it was a great dis-service to his character and no one, I repeat, no one gives two shits about it.
• Darth Megatron: Megatron's death. Sure he was injured and all, but his appearance in Dark Of The Moon showed him to be the Anticlimax Boss of Anticlimax Bosses. It provided a particularly embarrassing example of Badass Decay for the alleged Big Bad of the entire Transformers brand when we could have had a climactic, spectacular final battle between the Big Good, his arch-enemy, and the new villain who happens to be equal in power and wisdom to the other two - this would have provided a satisfying ending to an otherwise brilliantly-executed hour-long exhilarating nonstop series of action sequences. Whatever happened to the humongous mechanical monster who handed Optimus' ass to him in the first film, not to mention in other continuities?
  • Amici Di Beowulf: Even more of a kick in the nuts because in movie 2 and 3 Optimus Prime stopped being the dignified, noble, wise Ideal Hero we all love and turned into a bloodthirsty Blood Knight that finishes his enemies in gruesome manners more fitting to cybertronians like BW Rampage while spouting contemptuous one-liners. a second before Optimus was having his ass handed to him by Sentinel, then Megatron backstabs Sentinel, saves Optimus's life and proposes a truce. the real Optimus Prime would have immediately accepted and then would have joined forces with Megatron to kick Sentinel's ass, but instead he unceremoniously executes both, getting also shades of Ungrateful Bastard. Good thing that he finally snapped out of it in Age of Extinction.
• Tropers/Hyrin: Sentinel's betrayal, especially if you are familiar with the character's portrayal in other mediums (in both the Marvel comics and the G1 cartoon, he died heroically in battle defending Cybertron from Megatron). It comes out of nowhere, and it a huge stab in the back of anyone who grew up with the franchise.
• Supreme-X15: Mikaela's departure from the film series is something I can't forgive. She and Sam break up off-screen and she was replaced with Carly, who did nothing of interest in the third film aside from goading Megatron back into action. In the first film, Mikeala had more backstory and a character arc of realizing her own self worth as a person, compared to the protagonist Sam, who seemed to learn nothing from his ordeal. When discussed early in-film, they make seem as though she was a bitch to Sam, when it can be argued that Sam was the reason she left to begin with, because he just wouldn't stop complaining or objectifying her, so sympathy for Sam is negated. In the first film, Mikeala basically Eye Candy for Sam and most of the other men around her to look, despite having a more compelling character arc compared to them. In ROF, Sam putzes around confessing his so-called "love" for Mikeala, making the viewer question if Sam really loved her, or is just treating her like a trophy. And then, they break off between ROF and DOTM. Sam's selfish personality got worse as the films went on, and his relationship with Carly shows he learned nothing from what happened with Mikeala, and he's basically doing the same thing with Carly.
• Capricious Salmon: I honestly didn't know what to add as my DMOS. I was gonna include Alice, but I like the concept of human Transformers. Truth be told, this is probably my favorite of the Bayverse films, even if it's littered with Retcon after Retcon and I wish the human-Decepticon moles showed up earlier. But there's one DMOS I have with it: the Autobots coming back. Near the middle of the movie, the Autobots are sent away by the Earth officials because we need more conflict. They're sent away in a rocket, and then Starscream shoots it and it explodes, certainly killing them. With their enemy gone, the Decepticons show up and absolutely wreck Chicago. Until it's revealed the Autobots were alive all along, despite this being physically impossible. We saw it: they went inside the rocket and it blew up, there's no surviving that. We saw the whole scene of the rocket taking off, how did they get away with this?! There's no way they teleported! At least show us how they did it, that way it looks like less of an Ass Pull. Next, the reasoning they give for why they hid until that one badass moment is so terrible, it borders on hypocritical: they wanted to show the Earth governments why they were wrong. One of the beliefs of the Autobots is not to harm defenseless lifeforms. It's why Optimus didn't let them go rescue Bumblebee. So to teach us a lesson, they're willing to let millions die! That's like teaching your son it's wrong to be a distracted driver by cutting his breaks. Look, I love Optimus Prime as much as the next guy, but this is littered with too many Unfortunate Implications, I can't believe he's the one who sanctioned it. I can see why so many people love Transformers: Prime, that was the movies done right.

Transformers: Age of Extinction

• SSJ Goten: The depiction of the Dinobots, especially Grimlock. No, they were never really smart (save for one moment in G1). But in this movie not only are they depicted as dumb, but actually subservient enough to let the other Autobots ride them. There is even one scene where Optimus slaps Grimlock's side much like how a jockey with a horse. For anyone who was a fan of the Dinobots, this is a huge slap in the face.
• fallenleader123: Galvatron in the climax. Over the course of the movie, he's built up as Optimus's ultimate equal and opposite, due to having the same body structure but with the mind of Megatron, his Arch-Enemy. His first appearance has him chasing down the Autobots alongside Stinger and suddenly taking on an autonomous mode, sliding along the road just to spitefully smash and swat aside cars. He fights Optimus himself to a draw, but is called back by Attinger because of Lockdown's sudden appearance. When we next see him, he awakens, declares his name like the first movie (though he embraces the title of Galvatron), and turns the KSI robots into his own personal minions (or cannon fodder). One would think that he would partake in the battle himself, since before he was such a badass? Wrong. Instead, all of his scenes in the climax are comprised of him complaining about the Autobots, whining about how "They're ruining everything!" like a prima donna. Not once does he think about turning his arm into a projectile launcher, not once does he think about jumping in to fight alongside his troops, but he basically becomes a giant robot Cobra Commander, even turning tail when the fight doesn't go in his favor.
• Retloclive: The Product Placement done for Bud Light beer in this has got to be one of the worst examples I've ever witnessed in a blockbuster movie. There's no point for the camera to zoom in on the ground to show the bottles lying on the road except to tell the viewers, "Go buy Bud Light, viewers!" It is such a stupid and pointless scene, and Cade picking up one of the bottles to take a quick drink afterwards is the icing on the cake that made me feel the need to punch myself multiple times.

Transformers: Last Knight

• Dropkick: Even though this movie is a giant Dethroning moment of Suck, the worst thing has got to be the implementation of the Final Battle for the staff.
  • First on the list, Dragonstorm. He's built up throughout the movie as this intimidating force of Cybertronian nature that won one of the Arthurian wars, and also a f**king three headed Dragon. There's no way to mess up using F**king Dragons to full potential, and Michael Bay still messes up somehow by focusing more on the Military dudes shouting commands at each other than on the cool stuff of giant robots fighting each other. Notice a trend here?
  • Second on the list, is the fight with Infernocus. Giant intimidating and absolutely brutal looking Decepticon combiner that poses a huge threat to the Protagonists? Doesn't even stand a chance. Because, somehow, Optimus just cleaves him in two because we need to rush the ending to this failure of a movie.
  • Finally, we come to the reveal of Sqweeks giant BFG. It's not dramatic, it's not useful, it's not a funny gag, it just serves to say "Oh look at this crowd filler character we can put in as a gag ha ha" No.
• Supreme-X15: The way Optimus was handled in this film was insanely bad. At the beginning of the movie, he's seen floating lifeless in space, implying that he's either dead or in some form of stasis. This would have been an interesting way to focus on the other characters while Prime is out of the spotlight until the end. However, that plotline is wasted by having Optimus land on Cybertron, only to immediately get brainwashed by Quintessa, by way of bitch slap to the face. Like what?! From then on, he calls himself Nemesis Prime and spouts cliché villain one-liners while he's heading back to Earth, and then gets into his death match with Bumblebee. A fight to the death that ends as abruptly as it started. I was expecting it to be like the trailer, where Optimus shows up at the end, but is forced to fight and possibly kill Bumblebee and Cade, and then end the film on a cliffhanger. But, no. The final film had to use the brainwashed "Nemesis Prime" for one short fight scene, and then scurry off to the final battle like nothing had happened. Not a fan!