If not quite as satisfying (to old-school Generation 1 fans like myself, at least) as the 2018 Bumblebee prequel movie, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts works well enough in broad terms to prove that the franchise remains better off without Michael Bay at the helm. Sadly, the film continued the series’ downward trajectory at the… Read More Going Primal | Transformers: Rise of the Beasts (2023) 4K Ultra HD
Despite having once again sworn that he was done with Transformers and ready to hand the directing reins over to somebody else after the very successful Age of Extinction, Michael Bay wasted almost no time jumping right back in to helm the next sequel himself anyway. Unfortunately, by this point, even longtime fans had enough.… Read More Shit’s Getting Out of Control | Transformers: The Last Knight (2017) 4K Ultra HD
After Transformers: Dark of the Moon hit a franchise high for box office, Michael Bay announced that he’d be leaving the series on a high note to go make smaller, personal films. He did exactly one of those (2013’s Pain & Gain, which underperformed) before crawling right back to the safe haven of the robots… Read More I’m All About Bad Ideas | Transformers: Age of Extinction (2014) 3D Blu-ray
In most respects, Michael Bay’s third Transformers movie is just a lot more of what we already saw in the first two. Giant robots smash and bash one another for two-and-a-half hours of mayhem, destroying another major U.S. metropolis in the process, while Shia LaBeouf gets in the way and makes a nuisance of himself.… Read More It’s Hostile Takeover Time | Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011) 3D Blu-ray
A huge blockbuster smash like the 2007 Transformers requires a sequel, and Michael Bay got to work cranking one out as fast as he could. Ready for release just two summers later, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is even bigger, longer, louder, and dumber than the first film. Consequently, it was another massive hit, despite… Read More Bad Robots Suck | Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009) IMAX VAR Blu-ray
Even though the first attempt to make a theatrical feature film (in animated form) based on Hasbro’s popular Transformers toy line resulted in a big box office bust back in 1986, the property remained too valuable over the years to resist trying again. By 2007, visual effects technology had evolved and improved to the point… Read More Car Picks the Driver | Transformers (2007) Blu-ray
An infamous box office bomb and target of critical ridicule, winner of both Worst Picture at the 1996 Razzie Awards and later Worst Picture of the Decade in 2000, Paul Verhoeven’s Showgirls was, for many years, a movie that few people liked, and fewer still would actually admit to liking. Over the ensuing decades, the… Read More Ain’t You Got No Shame? | Showgirls (1995) Vinegar Syndrome 4K Ultra HD
The first live-action Transformers movie directed by someone other than Michael Bay is, not coincidentally, the first live-action Transformers movie that’s any good. Because we live in an unjust world, 2018’s Bumblebee was also the lowest-grossing Transformers film up to that point by some considerable margin. As someone who grew up in the 1980s with… Read More That Was Radical! | Bumblebee (2018) 4K Ultra HD
When Hasbro debuted its Transformers toy line in 1984, the company followed the same playbook that had brought its G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero such explosive success over the prior couple years. In addition to the toys themselves, the company promoted the brand across multiple media, most notably in comic books and a television… Read More Prime Told Me There’d Be Days Like This | The Transformers: More Than Meets the Eye Parts 1-3 (1984)
I have long since lost count of how many times I’ve watched the 1986 animated The Transformers: The Movie in my life. A pivotal part of my childhood, I know it practically backwards and forwards, and assumed it could hold no further surprises for me. However, the chance to sit with my 8-year-old son as… Read More Such Heroic Nonsense | The Transformers: The Movie (1986) 4K Ultra HD
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