Transformers good movie binge.

So, I redid all three good Transformers movies we have so far.

They aren't a formal trilogy as such, so I went with "binge".

Bumblebee (2018)

Transformers: Rise Of The Beasts (2023)

Transformers The Movie (1986)

Seeing them back, to back, to back was helpful.

I almost didn't do the animated one, cuz I feel like I know it like the back of my hand at this point, but it was actually informative of how much the live-actions took inspiration, and I saw it through fresh eyes.

You can aaaalmost put these in the same universe, and have them jump from 1987, to 1994, to TTM's fictional 2005, and have ROTB's Unicron come back as TTM's Unicron...BUT, little inconsistencies like Cliffjumper being dead then alive crop up.

I guess you could head-canon that Cliffjumper had a twin named Bob who changed his name to Cliffjumper to honor his dead brother.

But no, it's an Elseworld, and that's okay.

I had forgotten that with the big battles at the beginning and end, "Bumblebee" really is a full-fledged Transformers movie.

The middle piece is all the "girl meets robot, and makes it her pet, and hi-jinks ensue" stuff that's like a parallel to "E.T." and that's the bits I remembered.

But no, Bumblebee is the center and the glue, but you do get a whole Transformers movie for your money.

"Rise Of The Beasts" kind of makes fun of "Bumblebee" by flipping it on its head, and having Mirage go "E.T.? The little wrinkly guy? Nah, I'm nothing like him".

And there's a little meta joke of Mirage going "hey did you know Marky Mark is leaving the Funky Bunch?! Says he's gonna focus on acting now". Mark Wahlberg is in part 4 & 5 of the Michael Bay Transformers. 😆

The one where you see the most parallels to Transformers '86 is "Rise Of The Beasts".

In terms of effects, and human character growth, ROTB crushes TTM.

It's no contest.

But! TTM still has the more delicious villains, and the better more iconic soundtrack.

And, the time capsule of being at the absolute apex of the toy franchise.

Well, the original toy franchise.

Hasbro has churned out way better toys since then.

Even better toys of those old characters as apology for the junk they gave us as kids.

But in 1986, it was all downhill from the movie onward.

Pretty much.

The comics actually got better, but the downslope of the toys took the comics down with them.

But I digress!

Yep, I would recommend these three, and ignore the rest.

Well, I'd personally throw the "Transformers/Ghostbusters" comic on the pile, and pretend really hard it's a movie, but that's me.

Coming up next, we have Bumblebee 3, which in all likelihood will be "Transformers vs GI Joe", and then the CGI prequel with Chris Hemsworth as young Optimus.

If they pull those off as quality flicks, we'll be up to 5 good Transformers, and then we'll need a 6th to make it 2 trilogies.

I'm making a safe bet the GI Joe one will set up another crossover, and another, and another, for that "Hasbro Cinematic Universe" they promised just about a decade ago.

Back when I was young, and full of life. 😩

HAHAA! Psych! I was never full of life! 😏

Anyhoozlebies!

Stay tuned for those!