Transformers Film Series / YMMV

Specific pages

Alternative Character Interpretation:
- Prime has acquired psychotic tendencies since the first movie. After an apparent long lull in the war, he's suddenly thrust into a situation where his arch-nemesis is dead and he fights almost constantly for two years. This explains his fondness for brutal fight moves, the lack of an even perfunctory offer to a defeated enemy to surrender after said enemy indicates he might know something of a much greater threat, his casual discarding of the parts of a fallen ally, and the change in the "Prime" line's main theme theme music to a minor key.
- As far as the "discarding Jetfire's parts" point goes, if you pay attention to the fight, a lot of those parts get damaged if not destroyed; discarding them may have simply been a point of expediency.
  - In Dark of the Moon, Optimus has detachable wings, but it's unclear if he recovered Jetfire's parts, repaired them, and kept them for future use, or if it's a completely new harness that's part of his trailer.
- And now for the Big Bad of Dark of the Moon. Is Sentinel Prime a Well-Intentioned Extremist who goes too far but has still good intentions at heart? Or is he just an old bastard with a god complex, so hungry with power to give no value to friendship or loyalty, and who back in the days of the war on Cybertron, defected to the winning side only to hold his high position?
- Starscream. We all know his one defining characteristic, but the films don't show that side of him. Any mention of his backstabbing nature is given in the novels and comics, and Starscream takes a more traditional role of The Dragon in the movies. So in Revenge of the Fallen, when Starscream takes over as leader of the Decepticons, it seems less like his desire to prove himself a better leader than Megatron and more like he was taking a vacant seat that desperately needed filling.
Aluminum Christmas Trees: The vacuum of space means heat radiates off very slowly. Thus flying out in space would not freeze the Autobots in their ship forms, while ice and cold gas, which froze Megatron, is a different matter. So fans complaining about that are applying Convection, Schmonvection. And they would have remelted during entry in the atmosphere, wich tends to get very hot.
Angst? What Angst?:
- Optimus Prime has occasionally been criticized by certain viewers and fans for not showing as much emotion as expected when some of his closest friends (like Jazz) are killed in battle. Although, Optimus has been fighting in a war that has lasted more than 10,000 years, that destroyed their planet and has cost countless many friends, allies and innocents. Optimus even makes a point in the sequel that whole generations of their species had been lost because of the war.
- As far as Jazz's death is concerned Optimus did show a degree of sorrow when he was handed his friends' body, it's just that the movie didn't dwell on it particularly long.
  - Specifically, he states outright that they have lost a good and cherished friend, but then moves on to how they've made new allies on Earth. It's basically your choice whether you view that as "glossing over" Jazz's death, or simply trying to look at the positive side of the situation and the future.
- And in the third movie, this seems to have been taken into account as Optimus shows a good bit more emotion. This include being extremely sorrowful when he's forced to kill his mentor turned traitor, Sentinel Prime.
- Averted in Age of Extinction: having his former allies turn on him and start hunting down and killing Autobots is enough for him to lose his faith in humanity.
Audience-Coloring Adaptation: While the film series was a huge success, it had the unfortunate effect of giving the franchise as a whole a reputation of being all about big dumb action and giant robots fighting, much to the irritation of its fans in other medias, where it has plenty of good stories, mature writing and memorable characters (as well as giant robots fighting). Bumblebee was made to specifically fix this.
Award Snub:
- The CGI of the first film lost to The Golden Compass at the Oscars.
- ROTF wasn't even nominated for visual effects at the Oscars, possibly as a result of the film's negative buzz.
- Transformers: Dark of the Moon also lost Visual Effects to a lesser effects-wide production, Hugo.
Badass Decay: Megatron in ROTF and DOTM. He has his moments in both, but the second movie portrays him as less of a threat and by the third movie Megatron's a shadow of his former self. This is pointed out in-universe and justified due to the fact he's still severely wounded from the final battle of ROTF. AoE brings him back as Galvatron, who averts this trope.
- Starscream in Revenge of the Fallen and Dark of the Moon. In the first movie, Starscream is threatening and proves himself one of the Decepticons' best fighters, destroying Bumblebee's legs in an ambush and later sufficiently wounding Ratchet and Ironhide that they are unable to protect Sam, something Brawl and Blackout were unable to do. He also blasts the helicopter meant to evacuate the All Spark out of the sky, allowing Megatron to catch up with Sam. However, in the next two sequels, he refrains from engaging any Autobots head-on alone, is frequently abused and berated by Megatron, and ultimately ends up being killed by Sam after chasing him and Carly. This is almost reflected in his voice; in the first film, he has a deep, gravelly, intimidating baritone, but in the next two movies, it's changed to a higher-pitched, more submissive tone.
Base-Breaking Character:
- Bumblebee. Intially, he was a decently popular character, especially among children, until the movies expanded his role and introduced him to a wider audience. His unexpectedly good reception, which rivalled that of Optimus Prime himself, caused Hasbro to give him a heavy presence in later series. This led to backlash from people who wanted Hasbro to give some focus to other neglected characters, which the movies were guilty of downplaying in favor of Bumblebee. Combine this with his movie characterization becoming the norm for later adaptations and you've got oversaturation of a character that had strayed too far from the source material.
- There are divided opinions about the portrayal of Optimus Prime. He is either interesting as a more pragmatic and hardened version of the character fitting with the more brutal setting and still heroic in his own right, or his increased violence is a complete slap in the face for what is normally a peaceful and straightforward hero. His actions in Age of Extinction are particularly divisive; Some argue that it is perfectly understandable for him to lose faith in humanity after everything he has gone through, while others (including Peter Cullen) found it uncomfortable for him to take such a dark turn.
- Mikaela is either praised for her character depth (with many feeling that she should have been the lead instead of Sam), or criticized for providing unneeded Fanservice or people just not liking Megan Fox's performance. There are also fans who think that the Fanservice improves her character and is less gratuitous than the Fanservice in the sequels. Her replacement Carly is either a Replacement Scrappy or a step up.
- Starscream is also this to an extent, particularly when it comes to his design and characterization; his unusually wide design is either a working example of Pragmatic Adaptation to avoid the obvious scale issues^note, or his triangle-shaped body combined with bird-like legs is just ugly. On the characterization part, people still aren't sure if the Adaptational Personality Change from his usual "Obviously Evil backstabbing schemer" to "Megatron's neurotic Deadpan Snarker Dragon" was a good choice or not.
Bile Fascination: Many of the films are punching bags among critics and many fans of the source material are pretty vocal about their disdain for them. It's not hard to want to find out why.
Broken Base: Probably the most divisive work in the Transformers franchise ever.
- The movie aesthetic for the Transformers. The CGI makes the characters highly detailed, the Decepticons are often designed with very deliberately non-human characteristics, and there's a very "gritty" look with the bots all being comprised of sharp visceral metallic designs. Is this a good aesthetic?
  - Fans of the films say yes: the Bayverse look has become extremely distinct and give the movies an iconic visual design much like how the various Transformers franchises all have their own looks. Others just find the designs ugly and extremely hard to follow and describe it as: "one indistinct scrap-pile punching another."
  - Casual movie goers are often divided between it being a great display of CGI bringing these alien looking bots to life or bad case of Real Is Brown with too many indistinguishable CG characters.
  - Of course there's also the argument over whether its just another case of the Transformers fans complaining about change or if that argument itself is just being used to deflect any and all criticism of the visuals.
- The Transformers' look changing for the 4th film from the visceral insectoid design to a much more human looking one. Some are happy with the change and feel it makes the bots more expressive and relatable. Others feel the "alien" look has been stripped away and the realistic faces fall into the Unintentional Uncanny Valley, or feel that the designs don't look like they can transform anymore. Then there's the groups that like or hate both designs.
- The America Saves the Day aspect where Decepticons are shown being damaged and outright killed by human military forces. Some argue that this helps give the human characters a role beyond reacting to the Autobots and Decepticons fighting, while others feel that the Decepticons being vulnerable to human weaponry severely diminishes their threat and takes value away from the Autobots. Others still simply dislike and mock the overly jingoistic implications of the trope, especially how the Transformers movies use it.
- The quality of the films themselves has fans split into four groups. The first thinks that all of them are bad, the second group thinks that the first one was okay, but everything afterwards sucks. A third thinks that the first three were good, but Age of Extinction and The Last Knight were bad. And a smaller fourth group that likes all of them.
Complete Monster: See here.
Creator's Pet: Bumblebee was accused of becoming this as the film series went on. At first, fans put up with him for being a Kid-Appeal Character but his popularity dropped through overexposure. It went to the point that later Transformers series, such as Transformers: Animated, were retooled to include him, just to capitalize on his appearance on the movies. Once Bumblebee was announced, many fans felt that this trope was going too far, but this died down once the film came out and earned him back his popularity.
Critical Backlash: There are a lot of conversations about the movies online that can be summed up as "one side condemns the movies as terrible movies and bastardizations of the franchise while the other side says that people are being overly-harsh and that the movies can be enjoyed for what they are".
Critical Dissonance: The first four movies, but especially three out of the four sequels. Fans in general received ROTF more warmly than critics, as indicated by audience polls and IMDb rating versus its Rotten Tomatoes or Metacritic score. DOTM, meanwhile, received mixed reviews from critics but very positive word-of-mouth from audiences.
Draco in Leather Pants:
- According to some fans, the Decepticons are just misunderstood Well Intentioned Extremists who want to restore their home world and are oppressed by the "evil" Autobots. They do want to restore Cybertron, but they're also violent genocidal maniacs who were the ones who rendered their planet uninhabitable in the first place. Note that people giving the Decepticons leather pants is franchise-wide and not exclusive to the film series.
- Sentinel Prime in Dark of the Moon. He's a narcissistic and self-righteous hypocrite who's only shown to care about himself, but there's a quite a few fans who believe him to be a Well-Intentioned Extremist, probably because Leonard Nimoy does such a fantastic job voicing him that he comes off as more nuanced than he actually is.
Ending Fatigue: The second movie is 2 1/2 hours long so, odds are, you'd probably be waiting for the credits right in the middle of the film's climactic battle. The third movie falls victim to this too. Age of Extinction is just under three hours, making it the longest in the series. Again, this is one complaint about it.
Ensemble Dark Horse: See here
Epileptic Trees: That the series takes place in the same universe as Friday the 13th (2009). In that movie, there's a character who shares the same name, actor, personality, and car as Mikaela's boyfriend Trent in the first movie. While Transformers Trent's last name is DeMarco and Friday Trent's last name is Sutton, both of these came from sources of ambiguous canonicity.
Ethnic Scrappy:
- The infamous Skids and Mudflap. They are supposed to be parodies of wiggers, but given how they are green and orange robot cars, you would be forgiven for thinking that they were just racist caricatures of black people.
- Drift is this as well, given his very stereotypical Asian appearance.
Everyone Is Jesus in Purgatory: According to this analysis, Revenge of the Fallen is an Egyptian myth with giant robots.
Evil Is Cool: With the exception of ROTF, the villains tend to be liked.
- Franchise-wide, the entire Decepticon faction - particularly Megatron (pre-injuries). Lampshaded in DOTM when Epps remarks "Why do the Decepticons always get the good shit?"
- Age of Extinction has Lockdown, a badass bounty hunter not part of any pre-existing faction, who not only matches Optimus Prime in fighting skill but also uses his ability to transform to fight dirty; Fans were sold the moment he turned his head into a BFG.
- While the Big Bad of The Last Knight is somewhat lackluster, the bunch of Decepticons under Megatron are generally liked for having proper personalities - Nitro Zeus being the most liked. Unfortunately, most die before the halfway point.
Fan Nickname:
- "Bayformers," while starting as a pejorative (and to some still is) has gone on to be an affectionate name for the series and the robot designs in general.
- "Baybies", a Film Series equivalent of a "Geewunner", it was used as a minor insult to the fans (mostly the ones who defended it) of the live-action movie.
Fandom Rivalry: With Transformers: Generation 1. While G1 fans have many justified complaints about the film franchise, the sheer vitriol with which they bash the movies (sometimes involving fans of the cartoon accusing the films of having no fandom) and overglorify the series they grew up with^note has prompted a lot of Critical Backlash from fans of the movies.
Fanon Discontinuity:
- As far as some fans of the first film are concerned, Transformers 2-5 never happened.
- People who are okay with the second movie might still reject the third one due to Sam and Mikaela's Offscreen Breakup and the death of the well-liked Autobot Ironhide.
- Some fans of the series who didn't like the change in direction after the fourth film like to believe that Dark of the Moon was the final film due to its Grand Finale feel. The fact that the sixth film will not be made, and therefore the Story Arc set up by the fourth film will be Left Hanging, helps somewhat.
- Even before the confirmation that Bumblebee was a reboot, fans had already agreed to consider it a part of a separate universe from Bay's films due to various inconsistencies that made it hard to place into the timeline and people seeing it as a good place to start a new direction for the series.
Faux Symbolism:
- The Thirteen Primes, one of whom did a Face–Heel Turn, and who are heavily associated with a character who has heavy Messiah connections. Hmm...
- The very first Transformer-on-Transformer fight in the film series alludes to the history of their alternate modes, with Bumblebee being a Chevrolet Camaro and Barricade being a Ford Mustang. The Chevrolet Camaro was introduced by GM in 1964 to compete with the Ford Mustang that was released two years earlier. Unlike the movie, the Camaro lost.
Fetish Retardant: Alice◊'s reveal. Some people might be into it, but terrifying.
First Installment Wins: It is universally agreed that, while not flawless, the first of Michael Bay's Transformers movies is definitely the best of the bunch. Note that this only applies to Bay's Transformers films, as Bumblebee, directed by Travis Knight, is considered to be an improvement over them.
Gateway Series: Many people outside the US began to spark some interest on the franchise since the 2007 film's release.
Germans Love David Hasselhoff:
- While the film series is still heavily-criticized by many American fans, the franchise is still very successful in Asian countries like Malaysia. No, seriously. One of the reviews for Dark of the Moon even claimed that he would watch the movie 10 times.
- China deserves a special mention. The films tend to have their strongest holdings there, and Age of Extinction is currently the highest grossing movie ever there.
- Japan's reception was definitely hotter than what many expected; a lot of people expected it to be dismissed, since Transformers, and by extension many other forms of Western media featuring Sentient Vehicles, were often seen as childish. Reportedly, when the first movie rolled out, the reaction of the Japanese reviewer watching the movie was an enthusiastic "Oooh!" when the titular character first appeared, and the movies themselves have a sizable fanbase.
Hilarious in Hindsight:
- Try watching Megan Fox in Jennifer's Body while keeping in mind Alice's real nature.
- Anthony Anderson's cousin seems to think DanceDanceRevolution can detect you doing 'The Matrix'... or did his hacker connections get him the world's first Kinect?
- One of the many TF fansites ran a regular poster-girl-of-the-week section, declaring them to be Spike's past girlfriends before Carly. Now that Megan Fox's been replaced with a Carly Expy...
- That girl who mistakes Ironhide for the Tooth Fairy actually has two different My Little Ponies. Their colors correspond to Twilight Sparkle and Pinkie Pie.
Iconic Sequel Outfit: Played with by Megatron, in that it's his actual body rather than an outfit. Megatron has a new alternate mode in each film he appears in: in Transformers (2007), he transforms into a Cybertronian jet with massive cannons on either side of the nose cone; a winged tank in the second movie; a beat up tanker truck in the third; and a more traditional yet still alien jet in the fifth. Hasbro itself seems to enjoy using the tank-based body design from Revenge of the Fallen, while fans have latched onto his design in The Last Knight for its more humanoid appearance, G1-aesthetics, and general badassery (being voiced by original Megs actor Frank Welker instead of Hugo Weaving certainly helps).
It's Not Supposed to Win Oscars: Defenders use this as a defense for the series in general. The production crew has in fact outright admitted that their goal is not to rival other movies that may be released around the same time as the Transformers flicks, but to provide an alternative for fun free-time activities such as theme-park rides.
Iron Woobie: Optimus friggin' Prime. Many characters have their Woobie moments, but the series goes above and beyond the call of duty to make his life a living hell. Over the course of five movies, he goes against some terrifying villains (both Cybertronian and human), saves the world and ultimately gets nothing to show for it. He has been significantly injured, captured temporarily killed and brainwashed and even lost dear friends. And yet, the guy still has the strength to soldier on. Respect.
It's the Same, Now It Sucks!: The first movie was generally well received by critics and fans alike. A common major complaint about each of the sequels however is that they basically repeat the first film from the plot-points to the character types. It's gotten Strictly Formula to the point where when watched simultaneously, they sync. This is why DOTM is considered to be slighly better than the other sequels; it actually surprised people with Sentinel Prime's betrayal.
Jerkass Woobie: Megatron in DOTM may have been designed to invoke this effect, being portrayed as a dying old man of sorts, with moments where he finally gets to see his dream come true as Cybertron is being prepared to be rebuilt.
Just Here for Godzilla:
- Many people who went to the movie watched it solely to see giant robots beat the crap out of each other... and for Megan Fox. One of the main reasons the second film gets a lot of criticism is because of too much focus on human characters. Consequently, this is why the fourth film, despite its similarly terrible reviews, is more widely defended - the main Autobots now get roughly equal screentime and focus to the human cast^note, have much more developed personalities and quirks, and interact with each other and with the humans the way humans would.
- Linkin Park fans only want to hear the song featured in each movie.
- For many fans of traditional Transformers fiction, seeing Peter Cullen and Frank Welker put their heart and soul into the performances of their characters is the highlight of the films.
Like You Would Really Do It: In DOTM, all of the Autobots (including both Optimus Prime and Bumblebee) are apparently killed as their ship takes off. They have no chance to defend themselves, their "deaths" accomplish nothing, and although there was a moment of drama it clearly wasn't played up to the degree you'd expect from the simultaneous deaths of so many important characters. We all knew they'd be back by the end of the film.
Magnificent Bastard: Optimus Prime, leader of the Autobots and a believer that freedom is the right of all beings, arrives on earth to lead the battle against the wicked Decepticons. Forming a plan to keep any objects of power from Megatron, even if it means his life, Optimus is able to direct the defeat of the evil Fallen. Upon his old mentor Sentinel Prime turning on the Autobots, Optimus agrees to leave the planet with the others, but fakes his and the Autobots' deaths, knowing that the Decepticons will prove they cannot be trusted and kill many humans. Leading the charge now that the humans know the Autobots are needed, Optimus demonstrates no restraint at brutally killing his enemies, even when they are defeated, showing no mercy even for the helpless and bested Sentinel Prime.
Memetic Badass: This incarnation of Optimus Prime is well-regarded by general audiences, thanks to being a general badass and Peter Cullen's impressive voice work, particularly his rousing speeches. In 2020, several meme trends favored Optimus's speeches over that of Marvel Cinematic Universe's Captain America, showing just how much impact the movie incarnation of Optimus has had on pop culture.
Memetic Loser: While Megatron does undergo Badass Decay in the sequels, a lot of fan art has been made depicting him getting beat up by other versions of Megatron (usually his Generation 1 counterpart) with him being portrayed as a complete weakling when he is at least capable of putting up a fight in the movies proper.
Memetic Psychopath: Optimus Prime is more violent than the usual depiction thanks to the PG-13 rating, so many fans have a lot of fun inflating that by portraying him as a face-stealing maniac (like actually keep the faces in a collection instead of simply targeting the head for a quick kill) who gets into Bloody Hilarious antics.
Mis-blamed:
- Michael Bay gets blamed for everything people didn't like about the films, when a lot of the blame should go to (take a guess) the executives, who were banking on a Merchandise-Driven series. It's particularly strange how the fans blame Bay for characters transforming into less iconic cars than they usually do when many car manufacturers didn't want their products to be featured in the films (something Hasbro had to deal with for their previous Alternators line where certain manufacturers not wanting their cars to be associated with "war toys" forced them to cancel or adjust planned designs). In the case of Revenge of the Fallen, there was also a writer's strike which was completely beyond Bay's control and played a significant role in the end result. Blame for the poor writing in the second, third, and fourth films could also more properly be attributed to screenwriter Ehren Kruger. On a lighter note, when Travis Knight directed Bumblebee and Bay was shifted to executive producer to the pleasure of many fans, Knight gave praise to Bay for shielding him from outside meddling, and Bay approved of his new direction.
- Fans dumped much of their frustrations onto producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura during the period of uncertainty about if Bumblebee was a reboot or not, simply because his statements seemed to suggest that it wasn't (which was how the movie was originally shot) while other sources said otherwise. In the end, a lot of it ended up being the result of misleading headlines.
Moral Event Horizon:
- In the Dark of the Moon Foundation prequel comics, Shockwave crosses it at least once an issue. He starts issue 2 off by killing Chromia, finishes off issue 3 by killing Jolt, Knock Out, Dune Runner, Longarm, Salvage, and Galloway and then in issue 4 he kills Elita-1, then mocks Optimus about it. He didn't think the last part through.
- The Fallen choosing to wipe out a populated star system because he wanted to probably lands him pretty far on the other side of this.
- "Is your daddy home?"
- Sentinel Prime has several possible ones. Killing Ironhide is a strong contender for this, but he appears to truly cross the point of no return by setting up a trap to kill all the Autobots, proving any loyalty he had towards Optimus is dead.
- Towards the end of DOTM, Gould, after repeatedly claiming his position as The Quisling is just "business" ^note, tells the Decepticons that they should just kill the Autobots instead of making them prisoners. He specifically says it's personal now, and has no objections when Soundwave muses "No prisoners. Only trophies."
Most Wonderful Sound:
- Some fans enjoy the "tink-tonk-tink" transformation sound Megatron makes and were glad it returned for the fifth film after its absence in AOE.
- The mechanical ambience that accompanies the opening logos, especially for the first three films.
Narm: Here.
Narm Charm: In the ROTF tie-in games, Starscream's voice is an interesting combination of his deep voice from the first film and the more neurotic version from the sequels, with the end result being a deep, Hugo Weaving-like modulated voice that still goes through sudden mood swings and Suddenly Shouting episodes but is also genuinely threatening, resulting in a very authoritative yet unpredictable-sounding mix of insanity that still fits the character. In fact, his voice in the games is deeper than Frank Welker's Megatron voice.
Nausea Fuel: The little interrogation thingy that Scalpel shoves down Sam's throat.
Never Live It Down: Fans act like Optimus steals the face of every Decepticon he fights. While he does aim for the head often (to get a quick kill), he's only ever stolen The Fallen's face.
Nightmare Fuel: DOTM has the invasion of Chicago. For years, some of the more vocal human hating fans have been demanding humans be slaughtered en mass by the Decepticons. They get their wish...and it's horrifying. People running for the lives being reduced to skeletons and whole sections of Chicago reduced to flames. And it's heavily implied that a lot of what the Decepticons were doing was for fun, and had no real significance to securing Chicago.
No Problem with Licensed Games: While the film series on the whole has a massively Broken Base, the games have been met with praise even from some detractors of the film franchise.
Older Than They Think:
- This is not the first time that a Transformers franchise to have vulgar and/or sexual humor, as Kiss Players possessed the genre back in 2006.
- It's common to see fans of the original Generation 1 cartoon criticizing certain aspects for being too different. Transformers installments that make enormous changes from Generation One have been around before, and some of the aspects of the films actually originate from later works in the franchise (such as Megatron turning into a jet or Optimus Prime being a long-nose truck). In a broader sense, most post-G1 works can be seen as reinventions of the franchise, and the live-action films are no different in that regard. Of course, some aspects that are kept consistent in other works in the franchise are different in Bay's films...
  - Two of the biggest complaints about Optimus' appearance is the hot rod flames on his paintjob and the scenes where he doesn't have a faceplate; A G2 toy of Optimus from 1995 was depicted with a flame paintjob◊ and there have been versions of Optimus that don't always have a faceplate, such as the versions in Cybertron and later in Animated and Prime.
- In a bit of extra irony, some of the complaints fans of Generation 1 have had about the films (focus on humans, characters with little screentime, plot holes) existed in the original cartoon, thought it skirts the line between this trope and Franchise Original Sin.
Padding: This is unfortunately common for the sake of getting the films over the two-hour mark. Special note goes to ROTF, where there are a massive number of shots of military personnel barking orders and planes taking off. Then there's the torturously long series of slow-motion escapes from explosions as Sam tries to make it to Optimus. There's also the college scenes. In roughly the first hour, the only relevant bits involving Sam are his Allspark-triggered freakouts, and the only purpose for his new roommate Leo is to bring Agent Simmons back in the story. Somehow this gets bloated into at least a half hour of Sam and family preparing for college life, Sam and Mikaela having relationship issues (which is the whole reason for Alice the Pretender being in the story), and Leo vainly struggling to impress Sam, and none of this matters at all.
Paranoia Fuel:
- Anything could be a Transformer. That car, that toaster, that cell phone, that policeman in his car, the hot chick who can't keep her hands off you...
- Reedman (The combined form of Ravage's nanobots) is a razor-thin 'Con who killed a man by jumping through his torso and bisecting him. Given the right lighting conditions and viewing angle, he's basically invisible.
- At the end of the sequel Soundwave is still there, hooked into a military satellite... what if he gets bored?
  - Not helped at all by his toy bio which states that Soundwave can pretty much destroy civilization if he wanted to, due to all the satellites he's hacked.
- The paranoia factor isn't played up nearly as much as it should be in such a scenario, but then, Transformers is an action movie, not a horror film.
  - Until Laserbeak, who milks this for all the Nightmare Fuel it's worth and uses it to ruthlessly murder his targets in all sorts of horrible, terrifying ways.
  - Carly is kidnapped by the Decepticons. Do they blast their way into her home? Snatch her away in public? No, she gets into her car which then transforms to reveal itself as a Decepticon, right in front of Sam.
Questionable Casting:
- Hugo Weaving as the voice of Megatron. Drew criticism in general for Celebrity Voice Actor, but then fans found out that Frank Welker (the original Megatron himself) wanted the role and was turned down. Once again, this is the Transformers fandom, so this trope was soon in full force.
- And subverted when Welker voiced Megatron in the first two video games and animated prequel. At that point, all believed that he wouldn't have been a very good choice. Although Welker recently started voicing the extremely similar, still very demonic and menacing Megatron of Transformers: Prime and did a damn good job of it (as well as using the same voice for the Universal Studios ride, albiet electronically deepened), people don't seem to care much for him as movie Megs anymore as hype for the movie series in general has died down. Then Welker played Galvatron in AOE and in doing so played Megatron in the films at last.
- Another example does not rest with a casted actor, but a casted location. In Revenge of the Fallen, the Autobots are based out of Diego Garcia. Diego Garcia is a U.S./British Military Base in the British Indian Ocean Territory. It's also the former home for a group of indigenous peoples who were rather underhandedly evicted from their home and have been petitioning both the U.S and Britain to get it back for years. This is lampshaded to hell and back by the TF Wiki.
Replacement Scrappy: Fans of Mikaela consider Carly to be this, and some critics claimed that her actress is an even worse actress than Megan Fox.
Rescued from the Scrappy Heap:
- Agent Simmons was not well liked in the first movie, largely due to being a Smug Snake and Obstructive Bureaucrat. In Revenge of the Fallen he becomes a helpful and heroic (if still crazy) character who manages to get things done. He gets even better in the third movie, where he jumps completely into Crazy Is Cool.
- Wheelie was better received than in the second movie because A) no leg humping and B) he actually helps in the climactic battle. Along with his partner, the even more quirky Brains, they manage to liven up the mood without being too obnoxious.
- Sam also earned the respect of some when he Took a Level in Badass and killed Starscream.
- Galloway was an annoying Obstructive Bureaucrat in the movies, but under John Barber's pen he was an annoying Obstructive Bureaucrat, who actively believed in protecting national security, and sought to protect earth. Eventually he comes around to the Autobots, and even tries helping them (though he's better at handling the numbers and keeping the press off, not helping in the field). It helps that he's developed a more nice even at times Adorkable personality, and it can actually make one sad when he's killed.
- Megatron was badass in the first movie, slightly less badass in the second, and a complete joke in the third movie. The fourth movie brought him back as Galvatron, who combined Megatron's scheming nature in DOTM with his badassery in the first movie, despite largely being Saved for the Sequel.
Retroactive Recognition: Sam's school teacher who briefly appears early on is Dr. Taub.
Rooting for the Empire: By the fifth film, a number of fans admit to wanting the Decepticons or other villains to just kill off humanity already because humanity's repeated mistrust and even murder of the Autobots despite them having saved them four times over by that point makes one wonder exactly why they deserve the Autobots' protection. And then of course, there's also the people who just think that the Decepticons are cool.
The Scrappy: See here.
Sequelitis:
- The first film in the Michael Bay-directed batch was received fairly well as a fun Summer Blockbuster. None of the sequels were. Although in the cases of DOTM & AOE, it's hard to tell how well-received they would have been received without the backlash associated with the franchise since ROTF.
- With how many of the popular robot characters die in DOTM ( Megatron, Starscream, Soundwave, Laserbeak, Ironhide, and the much-hyped Shockwave among others), you wouldn't be faulted for thinking that it would be the last movie in the franchise. AOE went the opposite direction of ROTF and DOTM by severely trimming down the number of famous Autobots and Decepticons, which while refreshing, still seems like an excuse to make more movies based around a new cast of characters.
- TLK took this to extreme levels, with continuity errors not just with the previous films, but within itself, and even more unlikeable characters. Even those who stand by the previous four films admit they hated this installment.
- The Soft Reboot Bumblebee stopped the trend, being the most well received Transformers movie ever by a large margin.
Shocking Moments: Aside from the usual robots and explosions, DOTM gives us Sentinel Prime's betrayal. Closely followed by Carly's boss's reveal as The Quisling. Followed by the Autobots getting kicked off Earth. Followed by the Decepticons killing the Autobots in their spacecraft before they even break atmosphere. And then it really kicks into gear, with the Decepticon invasion of Chicago, followed by a climax that lasts the better part of an hour.
Special Effect Failure:
- Face it, the final fight between Optimus and The Fallen in ROTF looks unfinished. Though that's the least of the movie's problems.
- The first movie's not immune either, with some CG elements not matching up with the live action ones.
- The practical effects in the movies teend to be among the weaker links. Such as the Frenzy puppet in the first film. As well as both, the unpainted Ratchet head and the KSI drone in the fourth.
- In the third film, there are CG heads of Richard Nixon and JFK at the beginning... Let's just say the results are unsatisfactory.
- In the fourth movie, while the effects for the most part are well done, the transforming Rainbow Dash doll is clearly a CG object, as evidenced by the movement of the doll being out of sync with the scientist holding it. Galvatron slicing a car in half is also suspect, as are most of the KSI-made robot transformations.
  - The fourth movie's effects are a large step down compared the the previous three, not limited to just the above examples.
Squick:
- Imagine an entire room filled with rotting Decepticon fetuses, covered in hideous slimy green goop. Now, imagine seeing that in IMAX format!
- Also, Bumblebee's defeat of Ravage.
- Let's not forget Sam being pinned down, whilst a small Decepticon enters and exits his head!
- For some unknown reason, Ex-Sector 7 agent Simmons seems to prefer wearing a thong.
Strawman Has a Point:
- The Obstructive Bureaucrat in the second film is angry that the Autobots won't share their weapons' technology. Optimus says that it's because of the human race's capacity for war, forgetting that there is a war going on. The Autobots allow the humans to fight but don't give them Cybertronian weapons, making the humans useless and risking their lives.
- In Dark of the Moon, Sentinel Prime rants that on Earth, the transformers are seen as mere machines. While most of the main characters treat the Autobots as equals, the track record with the government in the previous films help Sentinel's case. They've dissected Megatron while he was conscious, were about to do the same to Bumblebee, the Autobots were threatened to be deported and later all of Earth's governments do deport them to save their sorry hides from the Decepticons. And that's not even going into the events of Age of Extinction.
Surprisingly Improved Sequel:
- While the first movie is generally considered the best overall movie in the franchise, each sequel has minor changes that better align itself with the general elements of the Transformers mythology and stories. ROTF, despite being considered the worst in the series, expanded the robot roster and has larger and more complex action scenes. DOTM has a more involving story where the robots themselves have a say in what is happening. AOE gives some extended Action Film Quiet Drama Scenes to the robots themselves, letting them be actual characters instead of just awesome special effects, and also gets rid of a lot of the Vulgar Humor from previous installments.
- After years of Sequelitis and The Last Knight's failure, Bumblebee ended the trend by becoming not just the highest rated film in the series, but the highest rated Transformers film period.
Tear Jerker: Optimus Prime's death in Revenge of the Fallen.
They Changed It, Now It Sucks!:
- Fans of the original Generation One cartoon tend to complain about the films drastically reimagining the Transformers universe as opposed to making a straight adaptation of the 80s show. This a subject of Broken Base for other parts of the franchise, as installments that make huge changes from Generation One have been made before, but whether or not a medium the general public gets more exposure to than individual shows should do the same is another debate entirely.
- The "TRUKK NOT MUNKY" trend repeated in full force for Generation One fans as "GUN NOT JET" in regards to Megatron's alternate mode in the first film, despite Megatron being a jet at least twice before in non-G1 universes. His tank form from the second film has been better received, if anything because it is the more acceptable non-gun form and he has the traditional cannon arm. And, in the film, can still fly.
- Several fans, G1 or otherwise, have questioned Optimus Prime having flames painted on him, feeling that it doesn't suit the character.
- Also, the designs. If people aren't criticizing them for looking so different from previous versions of the characters, then they are criticizing them for looking too cluttered (unfavorable comparisons to walking trash piles are common) or dipping into the Unintentional Uncanny Valley.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
- Mikaela Banes. She surprisingly has more characterization than just being the Designated Love Interest, holds her own fairly well against smaller Decepticons, and is overall an intriguing character. Then the second movie tosses most of that aside to focus on her relationship with Sam (and gratuitous Fanservice), and then she barely even gets a mention in the third.
- Some feel that Warpath's absence from character rosters was a missed opportunity, given his love for action and explosions.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
- The serious story about the military battling hostile robots, as seen in the opening scene of the first film, takes a backseat to the main story of A Boy and His X, with only some sporadic moments throughout the films.
- Since Megatron does very little in the first 2 sequels, he could have stayed dead in this continuity - at least unti AOE - which would have opened up many potential plotlines. How would the Decepticons function without him? How would the Autobots, specifically Optimus? Neither Evil Plan needs Megatron specifically, which would have allowed other Decepticons to take the spotlight. Shockwave especially could replace Megatron as Sentinel's modern day contact.
Took the Bad Film Seriously:
- Whether the movie in question is good or bad, Peter Cullen's performance as Optimus Prime is clearly the best. His sincere love for the character makes him stand out as the only actor in the series with motivations other than a paycheck.
- Paramount themselves are taking a Merchandise-Driven movie series based on a Hasbro toy line a lot more seriously than they have any right to, if the writers they've hired as part of the Transformers Cinematic Universe initiative are of any indication. They've hired writers whose credits include The Walking Dead, The Avengers, Iron Man, Ant-Man, Daredevil (2015), Fringe, Black Hawk Down, and The Blacklist.
Trapped by Mountain Lions: A lot of the Padding is due to this. The hackers from the first film stand out.
Ugly Cute:
- Wheelie. Voiced by Tom Kenny, as well.
- Ravage's Robot Heroes toy crosses the line into straight-up Ridiculously Cute Critter! Just look at him!◊
Unintentional Uncanny Valley: Many of the Cybertronian facial designs feature strange alien features mixed with the features of human faces, all while being made up of lots of separate metal parts. The results are odd to say the least. It does seem to be intentional on the Decepticons' part as they are often given the more outlandish designs. The fourth film onward discarding the alien aspects in favor of distinctly human-like faces either makes this better or worse.
Unintentionally Sympathetic: Mikaela, especially after leaving Sam. If you really look at the script, she struggles to be taken seriously as a person, but since the film is viewed from Sam's perspective she's only seen as an object and a trophy. In Dark of the Moon, the robots called her "mean", though she likely left because Sam simply didn't care.
Visual Effects of Awesome:
- Bay knows how to film cars and taught everything he knew to the CGI animators. With only mild exceptions every shot of the robots looks like they somehow animated these things live on the set with actual car parts.
- Devastator reportedly got Steven Spielberg to drop a Precision F-Strike when he first saw it.
- Cybertronian landscapes. The effects integrate so well with the actors that they might as well have been real.
What Do You Mean, It's Not for Kids?: Yes, works from the Transformers franchise are generally aimed at children (although some works stretch the line kind of thin), but Michael Bay has stated that he intends on having the films appeal to teenagers and adults, hence all of the violence and swearing. Reportedly, Simon Furman (writer of the original Transformers comic) said that although he isn't a fan of the films, he believes that they are great for "the intended audience" of young kids. That's kind of worrying.
The Woobie: Toyline-only jet Breakaway, thanks mostly to his robot mode's face (which looks sort of forlorn) and some help from at least one image board's toy board.
- Interesting when you consider the character's young, hot-shot sort of portrayal in the video game. When faced with this new development, many fans decided to give the darker brown variant of the action figure the canonical game persona and keep the lighter brown variant as the Sadjet.

YMMV / Transformers Film Series

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