Transformers

The new prequel is a breath of fresh air for the stale series.

Optimus Prime and a handful of Autobots and Decepticons are back in the new trailer for the ‘Transformers’ spinoff.

Hailee Steinfeld meets Bumblebee in the first trailer for the ‘Transformers’ spinoff.

Paramount’s ‘Transformers’ series is in the process of getting a major rebrand.

Paramount has announced its scheduled Allspark Pictures films up to 2021.

Have you ever seen those movie ads on TV filled with gushing quotes from critics and thought to yourself, “I saw that movie; it was terrible. Where did they find these positive reviews?” If you have, you’re not alone — and you’re going to love ScreenCrush’s series, Critics Are Raving!, which balances the cinematic scales with trailers full of slightly more accurate (and slightly more negative) lines from reviews. Real critics. Real quotes. Really bad movies. That’s what’s Critics Are Raving! is all about.

If I had to pick the most egregious example of product placement ever, I would nominate the scene from Transformers: Age of Extinction, when the entire movie stops to examine the wreckage of a crash involving an alien spaceship and a Bud Light truck. The camera pans across a street littered with Bud Light bottles; then Mark Wahlberg picks one up, cracks it open, and takes a healthy swig. And while he’s shilling beer, there’s a second product placement in the background; just over his shoulder, very much in focus, is a giant Goodyear Tires sign.

Has any franchise ever been more successful and less beloved than Transformers? Even before this week’s release of Transformers: The Last Knight, the series had made almost $3.8 billion worldwide, despite an average Rotten Tomatoes score of 32 and three straight sequels that run the gamut from “kind of crummy” to “possibly the actual worst mega-budget blockbuster ever made.”

Upstart stop-motion animation studio Laika hasn’t been doing so hot as of late. Though such early efforts as Coraline and Paranorman generated healthy grosses, the box-office receipts have been in a steady decline with The Boxtrolls and last summer’s Kubo and the Two Strings. Though their films have been marvels to behold across the board, their expenditures have increased as they’ve expanded and invested in new technologies, and Kubo ended up as their first flop when it needed to be their biggest hit. In what might seem like the most dire sign of all for the studio, Kubo director and Laika President/CEO Travis Knight has now taken high-profile work elsewhere.

Even if you’re not a huge fan of Star Wars movies, with all the trailer announcements we’ve seen in the last few days, odds are good you might still find something to enjoy during Rogue One. A few days ago, we shared a fun little rumor that the first teaser for Spider-Man: Homecoming would be appearing before the highly anticipated Star Wars standalone when it hits theaters this December. Not to be outdone, Michael Bay took to social media to share that his first trailer for Transformers: The Last Knight would also be included with the film.