Ranking the Live Action TRANSFORMERS Movies. Worst to Best - Number 1

1. TRANSFORMERS (2007)

“An ancient struggle between two Cybertronian races, the heroic Autobots and the evil Decepticons, comes to Earth, with a clue to the ultimate power held by a teenager.”

- IMDB Transformers (2007)

For some reason this film made a big impact on my thirteen year old self.  I was never a fan of the Transformers brand or franchise before seeing the trailers for this first live-action instalment but the marketing did its job, winning me over, making me hungry to see it until I finally watched it - on DVD when my brother received it as a Christmas present in 2007.

It is the most relatable and simple story of the the series.  Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) is a high school student who buys a car with hopes of impressing Mikaela Banes, a girl in his class.  However, the car soon reveals itself to be a transforming alien robot named Bumblebee, a scout for the heroic Autobots who are at war with the villainous Decepticons, with both factions searching for the powerful Allspark cube.

It is decently paced with some good characters and enjoyable action scenes, including car chases, an attack on a military base and a fun final battle in the middle of downtown Los Angeles (or Mission City, as it is called in the film).  One of the complaints that many critics seem to have is that "it is impossible to see what is going on when the robots fight each other, though I have never agreed with that and could always tell who was who.

The score is epic, from the intense and exciting Scorponok to the beautiful and wondrous Arrival To Earth, Steve Jablonsky's score is worthy of recognition as one of the more iconic in modern cinema.

This is a fun, entertaining summer blockbuster with spectacular action as well as fantastic music, that gripped my young mind and makes me nostalgic now.

It is, without a doubt, the best of the Michael Bay directed Transformers films



This was the first film I reviewed on this blog, so click/tap here for a link to that if you want to know more on how I feel about Transformers (2007).

Ranking the Live Action TRANSFORMERS Movies. Worst to Best - Number 2

2. TRANSFORMERS: DARK OF THE MOON (2011)

“The Autobots learn of a Cybertronian spacecraft hidden on the moon, and the race against the Decepticons to reach it and to learn its secrets”

- IMDB Transformers Dark Of The Moon

I was overexcited and so hyped for Transformers Dark of the Moon to come out in the Summer of 2011.  I remember when the teaser trailer dropped in December 2010, I stayed up into the early hours of the morning for the thirty second "big game" spot to air during Super Bowl XLV (the game that got me into the NFL, pre-game I chose to support the Packers - and they won!), watched the theatrical trailer on repeat as well as almost all subsequent TV spots leading up to release.  I purchased the film's score, the soundtrack, tie-in comics - I was obsessed.  I was more excited for the film's release date than I was for my school prom night, which fell on the same day (I neither attended my prom nor saw the film on release date in the end, though I did see it two days later - on its original release date of July 1st).  I saw it in cinemas twice, first time in 3D, second time in IMAX 3D, which really was an incredible experience.

It is clear that Michael Bay, who at the time said this would be his last Transformers film, still had some passion for this franchise.  The story, while not perfect, is not nonsensical and, in my opinion, there are no stand out annoying characters.  Some goofy, slapstick humour still exists but tonally Dark of the Moon feels like it takes itself more serious than the other films.

The score by Steve Jablonsky is once again beautiful, the action set pieces are exciting and they even tried giving the robot cast more personality, particularly with their relationships to other characters; Optimus and his mentor Sentinel Prime, Bumblebee and Sam.

The action set pieces are incredibly exciting, particularly the highway chase that occurs around the 1 hour mark.  Despite this, the final battle that takes up the last act of the film feels more like a sequence of individual events, "this happens, then this happens, then this happens".  I often compare this to The Avengers (Joss Whedon, 2012), where there is also a final battle at the end of the film in a big city, involving numerous heroes taking on waves of drone-like enemies.  However, the way this battle is filmed and structured feels more like a battle that progresses, "this happens, whilst this happens, therefore this happens".

It is not an intellectually challenging film, nor is it a modern classic.  It is a summer blockbuster, mindless action movie that, though it ends rather abruptly, is a satisfying end to one of my favourite guilty pleasure film trilogies - as far as I'm concerned, 4 and 5 are fever dreams that never happened canonically.   

Archive Review - EDDIE THE EAGLE (2016)

*Salvaged from some notes found in one of my old notebooks.  These notes would have been made at the latest the day after originally seeing the film.*

High Flyer 

Eddie the Eagle is a biopic released in 2016 and stars Taron Egerton and Hugh Jackman.  It is based on the true story of skier Michael Edwards as he strives to represent Great Britain in ski jumping at the 1988 Winter Olympics.

It is a very positive, inspiring film all about how self-belief, perseverance and hard work will help you achieve your dreams.  It's a message audiences have been subjected to many times by now, but thanks to such compelling, mostly fleshed out characters, it is still very engaging and charming.

(The only negatives are rather nit-picky).  Jackman's character Bronson Peary, Eddie's trainer, is a former professional skier, disgraced because - he didn't take the sport seriously enough?  Additionally, he is completely fictional, created solely for the film.

Also, in the film, Eddie stays at a bar whilst at a training camp in Germany.  He is discovered by the bar owner sleeping in a cupboard, with no prior introduction, though she allows him to stay due to her being physically attracted to him.  Questionable reasoning, but at least Eddie had a place to stay.

These criticisms certainly do not detract from it being a very inspirational, feel good film.  Though, as Edwards himself has said himself, much of the film is highly dramatised and "around 20% accurate" to what actually happened.  However, in adaptation, artistic/creative licence must be taken for the sake of entertainment. It is still a great, fun film.     

*Originally given an 8/10 score.* 

   

    

Ranking the Live Action TRANSFORMERS Movies. Worst to Best - Number 3

3. TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN (2009)

“Sam Witwicky leaves the Autobots behind for a normal life. But when his mind is filled with cryptic symbols, the Decepticons target him and he is dragged back into the Transformers’ war.”

- IMDB Transformers Revenge Of The Fallen

Revenge of the Fallen is, in the eyes of a lot of people, terrible.  For me though, it is a nostalgic mixed bag and the first Transformers film I was truly hyped for.

For me it has its moments.  The score by Steve Jablonsky is once again beautifully epic, the CGI is incredible and some of the action set pieces, such as the opening Shanghai fight, the forest battle and the final fight in Egypt, are exciting. 

However, it is bogged down with some stupid, unfunny, crass humour and annoying characters (both human and robot).  Leo Spitz, Sam's college roommate, has no character arc at all and should have either been written out of the story after the first hour or gone through some character growth by the end of the film.  As it is, he is there for "comic relief", making a fool of himself in failed slapstick comedy and literally screaming in fear.

Then there is the issue of two of the new Autobots - twins Mudflap and Skids.  Criticised for being racial stereotypes, they bring nothing to the film other than a misjudged attempt at comic relief and two new toys for Hasbro's tie-in toy line.  They were received so poorly in this instalment that they were omitted almost completely from the franchise's third film (almost, since they were included in tie in comics, books, the toy line and can still be seen in their vehicle modes, albeit briefly, in the background of one of the shots early in the film.

The film was in pre-production during the time of the Writers Guild of America strike, so the story and character development definitely suffer for that.  It is a basic plot of the Decepticons searching for a Cybertronian MacGuffin that will end the world and the Autobots, with the help of Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf), have to stop them. Sam's character arc involves him getting to the stage in his relationship with Mikaela (Megan Fox, who has somewhat improved acting-wise since the last film) where he can tell her that he loves her.  His mother and father make a return, with them learning to cope with their son leaving for college, on his way to face the world on his own whilst also being caught up in this alien war..

At the age of fourteen-going-on-fifteen, Revenge of the Fallen was the perfect Summer action blockbuster for me and, at the time, I probably favoured it over the first one.  This is no longer the case, but it is still mindless background noise if you are doing something else, that you can pick and choose to watch your favourite moments.  Also, director Michael Bay still seemed to actually care at this point, so it is far better than Age of Extinction and The Last Knight. 

KNOCK - A Short Horror Film - Directed and written by James Roberts

A teenager is home alone, scrolling through social media when he comes across a chain-mail post that he doesn't share...

This is a short film I made for my University course.  Not everything went to plan, but I'm happy enough with how it turned out. 

If you watch/have watched it, thank you.

Blog Update #1

Rediscovering Old Review Notes

Recently I decided to empty out an old backpack of mine.  Inside I found some small, crumpled pieces of paper that had been torn out of a notebook.  I opened them up to discover that they were short film reviews from a number of years ago that I wrote during my breaks in college.  Therefore, I have decided to type up these reviews with the aim of (eventually) uploading them to this blog in the near future. 

Also, expect the next update of my Transformers Film Ranking soon.

Ranking the Live Action TRANSFORMERS Movies. Worst to Best - Number 4

Ranking the Live Action TRANSFORMERS Movies (Continued).

Continuing with my ranking of the live action Transformers films, from my least to most favourite.  Here is number four.

4. TRANSFORMERS: AGE OF EXTINCTION (2014)

“Autobots must escape sight from a bounty hunter who has taken control of the human serendipity. Unexpectedly, Optimus Prime and his remaining gang turn to a mechanic, his daughter and her back street racing boyfriend for help”

- IMDB Transformers Age Of Extinction

The fourth film was a soft reboot for the franchise. It featured all new human characters and robot redesigns but retained the continuity set up in the original trilogy.  I saw Age of Extinction  twice in cinemas, convincing myself that I liked it each time. It wasn't until I re-watched it at home on Blu-ray, away from the spectacle of the experience of the cinema, that I realised that it is just long, boring and also exhausting.

Jablonsky's score is the strongest point of this instalment and his collaboration with Rock band Imagine Dragons gives this score a more unique feel than the others.
I also really like Frank Welker providing the voice of Galvatron, Megatron revived in a new body.
Mark Wahlberg makes his franchise debut as Cade Yeager, bringing a new dynamic to the series as a struggling father trying to provide for his teenage daughter Tessa.  He is not quite as annoying in this film though, compared to the next one.

However, I could have done without at least two characters.  Firstly, Shane.  Aside from rescuing the Yeager's at their farm from the evil human task force Cemetery Wind in a car chase,  he does nothing, bringing nothing whatsoever to the story other than antagonising Cade about how he is sleeping with his underage daughter.  The other character is T. J. Miller's Lucas, a character I almost forgot about until I proofread this article before posting.  He is arguably the most annoying character in the franchise and only appears in the first forty-five minutes before (SPOILER ALERT) he gets killed off.  However, odds are you will not grieve, you will rejoice.

The Autobots, some that we know from the previous films and some new faces, being hunted down and killed by Lockdown, a Cybertronian bounty hunter, could have been an interesting plot point, posing a slightly different threat for our heroes than continuing the war with the Decepticons, 

I do not have as much to say about this one, it was simply "meh".  All in all, Transformers Age Of Extinction is a boring film filled with visual noise and annoying characters.  It is not the worst but it is a far cry away from how I view the remaining three instalments.