Transformers: Dark of the Moon tied the Moon landings of 1969 to the franchise, a recon mission of a Cybertronian spacecraft that crashed on the dark side of the moon. The franchise would continue to try and create a history between Earth and Cybertron, as if to justify its existence rather than allowing Earth to simply be a sanctuary. Transformers was ridiculous, but at least it played in its own preexisting sandbox. The unnecessary backstory of a pre-existing link between Earth and Cybertron, the ridiculousness of Witwicky overwhelmed by visions of symbols, the pyramids of Giza home to the sun harvester and a big Decepticon with testicles added to the film’s poor reviews. Now in the present day, Sam Witwicky is seeing Cybertronian symbols thanks to having held a small piece of the All Spark, making him the target of a revived Megatron. One Prime ignored this vow and placed a sun harvester on Earth, but was caught and imprisoned on Earth by the remaining Primes, becoming the original Decepticon, The Fallen ( Tony Todd). The comforting simplicity of the first film was lost immediately, bringing in a plotline about how, in 17,000 BC, the Primes (original Autobots) got their energy from sun harvesters, but vowed never to harvest energy from a star that sustains life.
The success of the film made a sequel inevitable, and when Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen arrived in 2009 the critical response was pretty much the same across the board: not good. The very definition of giving the people what they want. Small changes from the source material worked overall, like how Megatron historically transformed into a Walther P38 pistol, of varying sizes depending on what the story required), but transforms into a Cybertronian jet in the film ( a conscious decision by director Michael Bay to avoid sizing changes, likening it to Darth Vader transforming into his own lightsaber to be used by someone else). They brought back the voice of Optimus Prime, Peter Cullen, from the original animated series, a move that was highly praised by the fanbase. The animation that brought the Transformers to life was amazingly detailed, with cogs and wheels twisting and turning to make the transformation not only realistic but plausible. Giant robots fought on a different planet, now they’re fighting on ours. Apart from a plot device where the coordinates of the All Spark and Megatron are imprinted on the eyeglasses of Witwicky’s ancestor, there isn’t some big reveal about how the history of man is inextricably tied to Cybertron (at least not yet… we’ll get there). Transformers was never going to win any big awards, but it was never meant to. To the point: good versus evil over a MacGuffin, good wins, and Witwicky gets the girl, Mikaela Banes ( Megan Fox).
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