Are the Transformers movies really that bad?

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To be perfectly honest they kinda are. But I have to be honest I've seen these movies more than once and I actually enjoy them. I guess to me these movies are one of those bad but enjoyable to watch movies. I'll be honest I'm a sucker for movies with a lot of action. Sure I like a movie to have a good decent plot, memorable characters, good acting/dialogue (doesn't have to be too perfect) and while I do like a lot of action I would like scenes of talking as well. But you can't find any of those with the TF movies. Star Wars, Star Trek, The Avengers, The Dark Knight, these are good examples of all the stuff above but sometimes I may feel in a mood where I just want to watch movies that don't really have all that stuff or they do but they just don't do it very well. The TF movies are a good example because they have terrible acting, no real character development, plot holes and a lot of other stuff I can't think of at the moment but despite all that I just love to watch them sometimes. There is something that always calls me back to these movies. They have some kinda awe factor to them but that's only during the action and nothing else. Yes they have some annoying moments (the twins, Jerry Wang, John Malkovich, Leo Spitz, that college teacher from ROTF etc) but they're kinda worth watching in order to get to the good stuff which technically is bad but enjoyably bad which is how I would describe these movies though mostly ROTF and DOTM. Sure I'll admit to the first one suffering through some of the above stuff but it still feels like a decent action flick, not like say as decent as something like the Avengers or one of the good Star Trek movies but still a good film with a lot of flaws but overlooked.

So to sum up they are bad movies but enjoyably bad. If I wanna look to a movie/s that has a good decent plot, memorable characters, good acting/dialogue etc then the TF movies are not the way to go but if I just wanna watch bad action movies that are over the top and fun to watch then these movies are the way to go. Heck if I wanna watch something TF related that has the stuff it hasn't got then I would look to the Beast Wars and TF Prime shows. Oh and yes when AOE comes out I will definitely be seeing despite how bad it could turn out. It's bound to be better than the last two.

I saw the Transformers movie. They were, to me, a chore to sit through. Out of deference to their cost I watched them. Once is enough, though.

I've never bothered to watch them, mainly because I simply thought that they were too "popular"/unsophisticated back when they were new, though if I were to watch them now, I would probably be slightly amused by them. I sometimes like watching bad movies just to heckle them and pick them apart.

I watched the first one.

When I watch blockbusters of this kind, what interests me is the ideological perspective; I try to work out what nefarious things the filmmakers want me to believe; in what ways the film panders to certain demographics, how and why it calculatedly strengthens or softens its nationalistic themes, so that it can be marketed to an international audience, etc.

This is pretty funny.
April Fools

Last edited by Stannis on 05 Mar 2014, 5:20 am, edited 3 times in total.

This is why my sister & I are going to go see the new Transformers and Michael Bay's attempt at ruining TMNT....we know they'll be terrible and rape our childhood but it'll be fun to make fun of them

All the movies were quite bad. Plot and script seems written by a 10 year on a caffeine binge and the CGI , particularly the transforming sequences and how the robots fought was so ... choreographed and unbelievable it was just painful to watch.

The only thing they got right was Prime's voice

What???

I watched the first one on TV (The only showed them in 3D in cinemas, which I dont like.).

It´s an action film, so it was no big surprise that the plot was rather simple and boring.

With the action scenes, I simply had the problem, that the involved Transformers were all too similar to me. So once they got into melee combat with each other and messed and rolled around, I could not tell anymore who was actually punching whom now and so on. So for long times it was just unknown pieces of metal-stuff rolling around.

The first Transformers movie I liked the best, easily. Good mix of action and focusing on the transformers. The second one, not so much mainly because of the stupid(er) dialogue and the transformers not really being in it. The 3rd one was slightly better than the 2nd.

Why are the Bayformers so bad, apart from the 07 version? Here is why....

Stupid toilet humour
The pornographic need for slow-motion and the military
The Decepticons being turned into faceless jobbers in Fallen and Dark
The annoying twins - the only twins/brothers in TF history are Sideswipe and Sunstreaker
Very little in the way of continuity
Some of the best Decepticons - Soundwave/Ravage/Laserbeak being killed by that yellow bastard Bumblebee
Devastator and his steel testicles -WHY?!?!?

The only things they got right were....

Peter Cullen as Optimus Prime
Frank Welker as Soundwave
Hugo Weaving as Megatron
Starscream and Megatron's arguments.

They need someone talented who respects the TF universe and can focus solely on the robots themselves rather than humans. Michael Bay ISN'T THAT MAN to do it.

I think what makes the movies suck is that the movies are more about the human actors than the machines...which is what the movie is supposed to be about.

DOTM (Dark of the Moon) was okay, but I was quite pissed off when I saw that Shockwave only had one line of dialogue and was promptly killed off at the end of the movie, along with the Driller. They had an awesome first appearance in the movie when they just came out of the ground....then are forgotten. Same with Starscream.

micfranklin wrote

While I do agree with you I still enjoy these movies for their badness and action. There are a lot of movies that are bad but enjoyable to watch e.g. Independence Day, Judge Dredd, Commando etc and I would think in my own opinion that the TF movies would belong in those categories. I only recent watched them in the past 3 days and a small part of me may wanna watch them again but I think I may leave it. I'll be honest I don't really watch these movies that much granted I watch the first movie a quite a lot when it came out but don't really watch them that much. In fact and I may be wrong about this but the last time I watch all three of them before the 3 days I mentioned was probably back in early 2012 and I don't think I watch them since though I may have saw part of ROTF on film 4 but other than that I think it may have been that time gap. Maybe I'm wrong but all I know is that I hadn't watch them in a while and I don't know when I'll watch them again. I think I will definitely watch them around the time when the fourth movie comes out though between now and then I don't know if I'll watch them again.

The first was passable, but I avoided the sequels. The only thing they got 100% right was the VFX for the Autobots, and getting Peter Cullen to voice Optimus again. If they could combine that visual style with a serious story, I'd enjoy it a whole lot more.

I actually like Independence Day, that's an old time favorite of mine.

As for Transformers, that first one had some of the best action scenes in the series. Like near the end when Starscream is taking down jets and flipping in and out of his jet mode in between.

Surprisingly, I actually ended up somewhat liking the first Transformers movie -- but the second one.... oh dear.... I didn't even bother with the third one. Let's just say.... the movie franchise aimed at a very particular audience and it panders to and serves said audience very well. But big shiny things flying and fighting, explosions by the dozen and very typical straight-man fan-service and toilet humour doesn't do it for me. Ah well, Hasbro got what they wanted in the end.