Naturally, its sequel Revenge of the Fallen did even better at the box office. However, if that movie told us one thing is that Michael Bay does not give two hoots about the Transformers IP. It was spectacularly bad and universally castigated by critics and fans alike. Since then, every movie in this franchise has been receiving largely negative reviews by critics and fans. The final Bay flick The Last Knight, not only received terrible reviews but also made about 40-50% less at the global box office than its predecessor, Age of Extinction ($US 1.1 billion).
Perhaps that’s the reason why the most beloved Transformers film since the original, Travis Knight’s Bumblebee (93% on Rotten Tomatoes) grossed only $US 462 million globally: There’s just so much stink from the previous movies. Anyway, it seems like now the producers have no clue what to do with the franchise. In fact, they don’t even know whether the movie is a reboot or a prequel. When TFW2005 asked executive producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura if Bumblebee was a sequel or reboot, here’s what he had to say: Later he was asked what would happen to the primary, Bay-directed Transformers franchise and once again, he pretty much just gave a response that’s akin to a shoulder shrug. Frankly, these responses seem lazy. It’s quite obvious that Paramount has no idea what they’re doing with these characters and have no clear plan etched out. Here’s a suggestion: Just forget about the Michael Bay nonsense, consider Bumblebee a successful reboot of the franchise and build on that. (Source: TFW2005)
