Michael Bay has made a name for himself directing and producing movies that rarely please critics but make a lot of money at the box office. This was never more accurate than when he stepped up to take the live-action version of Transformers in 2007. A loud, noisy, Megan Fox-flouting definition of a blockbuster, the movie employed some truly spectacular effects to allow the 1980s cartoon and toy line to come to life in a way that just a few years earlier seemed impossible. Now, almost two decades later, the film is as popular as ever, appearing at the top of the Apple Store movie chart despite being available on several other subscription platforms.
For the big screen debut of the "robots in disguise," the storyline employed by Bay went a little like this. "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." However, no one in the audience really went for the plot, all they wanted to see was some gigantic robots bashing ten bells out of each other, and that is exactly what they received in abundance.
The movie pulled together a strong cast, which, alongside Fox's obvious "male fantasy" appearance as a "chick who used to steal cars," included Shia LaBeouf, Tyreese Gibson, Josh Duhamel, John Turturro, Jon Voight, and Bernie Mac among the human players. However, it was the inclusion of Transformer's icon Peter Cullen reprising his role as Optimus Prime, while other voices were provided by Mark Ryan, Darius McCrary, Reno Wilson, and Jess Harnell. One thing Bay did miss the mark on was not inviting back another icon, Frank Welker, to reprise his role as Megatron, instead believing that Hugo Weaving was a much better fit. That faux pas was rectified in the sequels when Weaving left the role and Welker retook his rightful place.
The Future of 'Transformers'
Bay's run of movies took well over $4 billion at the box office, but Transformers: The Last Knight was seen as an all-round disappointment and potential franchise killer. It did become the last Transformers movie directed by Bay, although he did remain on board the franchise as a producer for Bumblebee and Rise of the Beasts, which were directed by Travis Knight and Steven Caple Jr., respectively.
Both post-Bay movies failed to ignite the box office and fell a long way short of the $1 billion successes of the likes of Dark of the Moon and Age of Extinction. However, Bumblebee was a massive critical success, landing a 91% Tomatometer score, a long way from the 16% rating of The Last Knight.
Last year, an animated movie, Transformers One, scored another strong set of reviews, but only made $129.4 million against a budget of up to $147 million. The continued failure of the franchise to make a profit has now put it in a tricky position...and that means only one thing: a crossover with G.I. Joe.
The final moments of Rise of the Beasts included a tease of a potential crossover with G.I. Joe, and seemed to be clearly marking where the franchise would be heading next. While that is the case, things are not moving forward in quite the way they were planned. Rather than getting a live-action movie, fans will have to settle for another animated movie instead, one that will be aimed at a more mature audience in a similar way to Robert Kirkman's Invincible is a superhero cartoon for adults.
As for the live-action arm of the franchise, for now it seems that Transformers has been powered down. There have been some rumors of Bay considering returning to the director's chair, but so far nothing has come of it and, at the time of writing, there are no live action movies in active development.
Transformers Like Follow Followed PG-13 Adventure Science Fiction Action Release Date July 3, 2007 Runtime 144 minutes Director Michael Bay Cast See All Shia LaBeouf Sam Witwicky Megan Fox Mikaela Banes Mark Ryan Bumblebee (Voice) Peter Cullen Optimus Prime (voice)
Writers Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci, John Rogers Producers Don Murphy, Ian Bryce, Lorenzo di Bonaventura, Steven Spielberg, Tom DeSanto, Brian Goldner Genres Adventure, Science Fiction, Action Powered by Expand Collapse