(Photo by Paramount Pictures / Courtesy Everett Collection. TRANSFORMERS ONE.)
All Transformers Movies Ranked by Tomatometer
Debuting in 1984, the Transformers TV show rolled out to viewers the eternal mecha battle between Autobots and Decepticons here on Earth and beyond, though its prime drive was to get Hasbro action figures flying off Toys “R” Us shelves. That may just sound like a cynical moichandising ploy, but the series had strong characters and world-building, and kids were instantly hooked on the toys’ triple-play pleasures of robots, automobiles, and tactile hand interaction.
It’s a bond not even its creators anticipated when they released The Transformers: The Movie. The 1986 production had big-screen action, power pop ballads, and a feature-length massacre of fan-favorite Autobots, including leader Optimus Prime. Hasbro and Takara (the American company licensed the physical toys from the Japanese one and created the Transformers brand and lore) got the hint after fan outcry, where mailed letters were sealed with sad kid tears, and resurrected Prime in Season 3 of the series, comprehending they had created a media empire.
Transformers entered a new level of mainstream with the five movies from Michael Bay, directed across a decade, starting with the 2007 original and continuing with the sequels Revenge of the Fallen, Dark of the Moon, Age of Extinction, and The Last Knight. Bumblebee, a prequel set in the ’80s, brought the critical success that had eluded Bay, but not so much the box office. Rise of the Beasts cashed in on ’90s-era nostalgia by exploring the Beast Wars mythos.
And in 2024, the 40-year-old franchise got its second Certified Fresh movie, after Bumblebee: the animated origin story Transformers One that’s entirely set on Cybertron explores the path of two bot pals that lead to the creation of Optimus Prime and Megatron. Those two Certified Fresh movies are listed first as we rank every Transformers movie by Tomatometer!
91%
89%
62%
57%
51%
35%
19%
18%
16%
