8 Sequels Ruined By Idiotic Changes To The Original Concept

While many critics quite rightly bash the Transformers franchise, this unfairly casts a bad light on the original Transformers film, which is actually a damn good action flick.

Michael Bay may not be the most subtle director going around, but his ability to bring the transformable vehicles to life in the eyes of the audience was exceptional.

While many of the human characters fell under the umbrella of Bay caricatures, the same could not be said of the Transformers themselves, who all had distinctive characteristics that were very much three dimensional in nature. From Optimus Prime’s stoic leader, Bumblebee’s heroic, cheeky but shy manner, and Megatron’s draconian authority figure, all the transformers had depth, with the audience at least understanding, if not sympathising, with their situations.

Breathtaking special effects definitely added to the film experience, but the fact that that the audience really cared for the Autobots and held genuine fear for the villainous Decepticons was largely due to the fact that they were so damn believable.

Sadly, this cannot be said of future instalments of the Transformers universe. From racist stereotypes to cigar chomping exposition machines, the actual Transformers quickly turned into caricatures.

With no human character worth any weight at all, the film soon presented as a noisy mess with no soul, with even fan favourite Bumblebee becoming an irritating clown. Audiences eventually lost patience and interest in the films, The Last Knight, displaying the worst box office returns of the franchise so far.

Thankfully, the problem was rectified in the excellent Bumblebee spinoff, bringing back the one thing that made Transformers such a fan favourite in the first place - a bit of heart.