How Transformers 7 Can Avoid The Mistakes Of Michael Bay’s Movies

Transformers: Rise of the Beasts needs to avoid the mistakes of Michael Bay’s Transformers movies if it is to re-invigorate the floundering franchise. Based on the ingenious Hasbro 1980’s toy line and animated series, it took until 2007 for a live-action movie of the robots-in-disguise to be made. Michael Bay was hired by Paramount to bring Optimus Prime, Megatron, Bumblebee et al to CGI life. The first film in the series, Transformers, was a box-office hit, and reviews were mixed-to-positive. The detrimental elements that would come to plague and define the series were still present in the first film but were not nearly as prominent as they would become in the subsequent four sequels Bay directed.

After a positive start to Michael Bay’s Transformers universe, the series quickly went off course with a rushed sequel, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. Impacted by the 2007-2008 writers strike, the story was nonsensical, and the film was so bad it “won” the Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Picture. Transformers: Dark of the Moon tried to course-correct, but was once again derided by critics despite grossing over $1 billion worldwide. Transformers: Age of Extinction attempted to tell a new story with a fresh set of human characters led by Mark Wahlberg, but is arguably the worst of the series, despite being another massive worldwide hit. Transformers: The Last Knight though underperformed at the box office, losing over $100 million for  Paramount and Hasbro, mercifully putting an end to Michael Bay’s hold on the series.

A 1980’s set spin-off, Bumblebee saw what a fresh voice in director Travis Knight could bring to the franchise. Now Transformers 7, titled Transformers: Rise of the Beasts seeks to follow Bumblebee‘s tracks with ‘90s-set sequel that is inspired by the Transformers: Beast Wars series. The movie is directed by Creed II’s Steven Caple, Jr, who has hopefully learned from the mistakes that Michael Bay has made with the Transformers. How can he fix the franchise going forward and avoid the same mistakes of the Michael Bay era?

Transformers 7 Needs To Avoid Bayhem

Michael Bay has a distinctive style that he’s refined over the course of his filmmaking career. Known as “Bayhem”, he has a way of presenting over-the-top action that is instantly recognizable, for better or worse. His movies have an unwritten rule that if something can blow up, it will blow up, usually via a combination of slow-motion and quick cutting, at sunset, with a scantily-clad supermodel somewhere in the shot. Michael Bay movies are gratuitous in the level of destruction, to the point where the audience becomes numb to the visual carnage on screen. Despite all the slow-motion, the action is often difficult to follow, as the Transformers are all visually similar in their movements and appearance.

Michael Bay has made some decent action movies, especially in the early part of his career (The Rock remains one of the best action films of the ’90s). But with the arrival of CGI and the ability to literally put anything you can imagine up on the screen, Michael Bay’s impulse of “more for the sake of more” could not be sated. Transformers as both movies and a media franchise lends itself to large-scale action scenes, but Bumblebee showed how to present the action coherently without going overboard. If Transformers: Rise of the Beasts can continue the style of action in Travis Knight’s film, then it will be off to the right start.

Transformers 7 Should Put Story First, Action Second

The plots of Transformers movies are guilty of being both superficial, and yet needlessly dense and convoluted. The reason for this is that Michael Bay’s process involves coming up with action sequences first and then attempting to craft a story around them. The result is usually an incoherent mess as multiple story threads are introduced to facilitate an action scene, and then dropped and/or replaced with another just as quickly. To avoid this mistake, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts’  story needs to be strong, and supported by the action, not dictated by it. If it can do this, then the audience can engage with the movie on an emotional level and have a rewarding experience. Creed II showed that Steven Caple, Jr could easily marry the emotional struggle of his characters, with displayed competence in the fight scenes as well, which bodes well.

Bay’s Transformers Movies Catered Too Much To Juvenile Boys

Not all franchises need to be four-quadrant movies. However, Michael Bay’s  Transformers movies have increasingly gone out of their way to alienate most of the movie-going audience. Michael Bay has previously freely admitted that he makes films for teenage boys, with his juvenile humor, OTT action, and quick-cutting style tailor-made to short attention spans. It’s hard to expect much more from a Michael Bay movie, but it leaves a bad taste in the mouth for anyone looking for something more substantial from the movies. Girls like robots in disguise too, but when female characters are represented on-screen as objects it does little to install faith in the creatives, and needlessly lowers the tone. Kids who grew up with the original ’90s Beast Wars show will be well into adulthood now, possibly with children of their own whom they’d want to share the film with. Transformers: Rise of the Beasts must not simply appeal to the lowest common denominator, and be more inclusive to factions of society they’ve previously ignored.

Make The Transformers The Leads And The Humans Supporting Characters

Audiences watch Transformers for the robot characters, not for the human characters. Michael Bay’s movies though spend a frustratingly long amount of time with the humans, almost leaving the Transformers as supporting characters in their own movies. It doesn’t help matters that most of the human characters are obnoxious and unlikable. Transformers: Rise of the Beasts needs to flip the dynamic so that the human characters are supporting the Transformers, not the other way around.

Michael Bay Didn’t Respect The Transformers Source Material

It’s fair to say that Transformers as a media franchise exists primarily to sell toys. However, within this capitalist approach, a rich mythology has been created that’s centered around simple but iconic characters. Michael Bay’s movies jettisoned a lot of what made these characters special and iconic. From adding flames to Optimus Prime’s design to changing his personality and code of honor, Michael Bay didn’t seem interested in adapting what had come previously, upsetting the fanbase along the way. Bumblebee was wise enough to revert back to the classic Gen-1 designs that fans love. Transformers: Rise of the Beasts seems to be following Bumblebee‘s chronology, and hopefully its reverence for the source material as well.

Racist Stereotypes Have No Place In Transformers Movies (Or Anywhere Else)

Tied to Michael Bay’s tasteless humor is his penchant for the inclusion of racist stereotypes into his movies, both for the humans and the Transformers. The most egregious example of this was Skids and Mudflap in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, with their racist caricatures difficult to watch and impossible to defend. This didn’t stop Michael Bay from trying though, insisting it was just “good, clean fun” and that they were “just putting more personality in.” The Transformers movies (and movies in general) have responsibilities beyond simple entertainment as they are part of the cultural zeitgeist and are seen by impressionable minds who may then perpetuate what they have seen in real life. There is no story or creation decision that would justify their inclusion in Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, and with a more serious filmmaker such as Steven Caple, Jr, they should hopefully be absent.

Product Placement Should Be Kept To A Minimum

Nearly all blockbuster franchises are guilty of product placement in their movies, with James Bond and Marvel key offenders. It’s a necessary evil of the studio system in order to subsidize the ever-increasing budgets of modern blockbusters. When it’s done organically, it’s harmless enough from a storytelling perspective. However, Michael Bay’s Transformers series has turned product placement in movies into a bad, crass and obvious gimmick that completely derails whatever scene it’s in. Transformers: Rise of the Beasts will no doubt have product placement, but hopefully it won’t be nearly so “in your face” as Michael Bay’s movies.

Michael Bay’s Transformers Movies Have Too Much Patriotism

While there is nothing wrong with patriotism, Michael Bay’s Transformers movies are jingoistic to the extreme, with the American flag present somewhere in nearly every scene. Steven Spielberg is an executive producer on the series, and originally wanted a story about a boy and his car, akin in tone to The Iron Giant. Once Michael Bay was on board the American military’s presence was greatly increased, with the films often feeling more like a military recruitment commercial than about sentient robots from space. Transformers is a global movie franchise and Transformers: Rise of the Beasts needs to embrace a more worldly approach to the human characters, and leave the fighting to the Transformers, not the military.

Notwithstanding the many mistakes Michael Bay has made with the Transformers franchise, there are a few individual aspects of the films that are good. The scores for the movies from Steve Jablonsky are suitably epic, and Michael Bay knows how to photograph images to maximize their beauty (even if what they’re depicting isn’t worth looking at). These qualities though aren’t enough to outweigh the series faults. Some goodwill was gained by Bumblebee‘s Abmblin-esque charm, but the mistakes of Michael Bay’s quintet of Transformers movies are still strong in moviegoers’ minds. Transformers: Rise of the Beasts has an uphill battle to win over audiences who have given up on the Transformers franchise.

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