True, the original toyline wasn't exactly a good source for a story with substance. But if you read the comics or watch Beast Wars or play the games made by High Moon, you'll see that they've done stuff that does actually manage to achieve greatness at times, and can truly impress while still being faithful to the source material. The problem is that Michael Bay doesn't care enough to try. He just takes a silly idea, and smothers it through sheer apathy towards the idea. He's only interested in making the same movies he always does, and seems to only be including the titular Transformers because he's contractually obligated to. The Transformers are no longer the stars of the very movies named after them, and that's the problem.
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One of my guilty pleasures
Many people find Michael Bay's Transformers movies terrible. In several ways, they are. The four films have attracted a lot of criticism, most of which I'm not going to disagree with. But despite this, I feel that these movies can be enjoyed somewhat regardless.
Firstly, I'm going to say that I disagree with the idea that "Michael Bay ruined Transformers". To me, the franchise has never been a thing one can "ruin". It's a film series based on a toy line of transforming alien robots that fight against other transforming alien robots. The source material isn't poignant and sophisticated like the Harry Potter books, so the Transformers films were never meant to be perfect or even particularly great. This hardly excuses the problems that the four films have, but I'm certain that they wouldn't have been much improved if any other director had made these movies. In fact, they might have been even worse if Bay wasn't behind them.
The major problems of these movies are obvious: The human characters are uninteresting, and the acting is often poor. The dialogue is pretty clumsy and the jokes can be shockingly distasteful. The storylines are laughably over-complicated and at times make no sense. Lastly, the films are pretty long and can become very tiresome for some.
However, if you look past these damaging flaws, there are three huge positives here. Firstly, the designs of the robots are brilliantly detailed and the transforming effects look mind-blowingly intricate. In my opinion, every time something in these movies transforms, it's always jaw-droppingly creative and realistic. The second huge positive of this film series is the action, which, to me, is almost always massively enjoyable and thrilling - and whenever the action gets too chaotic, it becomes humorous instead, so it's still pretty enjoyable for me. And finally, I really love the war-zone atmosphere in the movies. While I personally care little for the actual story of this series, I find the basic concept of giant robots using our planet as a battlefield fascinating, making the constant explosive action feel all the more important and exciting.
In conclusion, the Transformers movies aren't meant to be taken seriously. They're deliberately over-the-top and stupid. It's giant, overpowered robots beating the crap out of each other, and I can't help but love it.