COUNTDOWN: Transformers movie trailers – ranked from worst to best! (part 2)

Unless you’ve been asleep for the last four million years, you may have found yourself gorging on the visual delights of the new Rise of the Beasts trailer this week!

The upcoming 2023 film looks to be tremendously exciting so far, with the teaser having showcased all kinds of new and returning characters, as well as some hints towards the plot and setting. For more on that, you can check out our full trailer breakdown below, of course.

It’s always an event when a new Transformers film trailer lands, so today, that’s exactly what we’re looking at! We’re ranking the live-action trailers from worst to best, including every example seen between the initial 2007 film and now. We’re not including stuff like Superbowl spots or otherwise, but you will find all of the main English language trailers represented (or just about!). Prepare your eyes…

Be sure to check out part 1 in case you missed it!

#8: Dark of the Moon (2011) teaser trailer

It often feels like the marketing for each subsequent Michael Bay Transformers film attempted to provide an initial feeling of reset and renewal in its approach. It was as though audiences could be persuaded of an entirely different feel or tone from what they’d already sat through in the last instalment. That’s exemplified here where you could honestly think you’re watching some period-set conspiracy-based sci-fi thriller for the first minute-and-a-half of this teaser. Which, ultimately, is kind of what you got, but not at all in the way it’s presented, perhaps. It’s when the DUM DUM of the score and the ominous words, “From director Michael Bay” kick in at 1:47 that it suddenly dawns on you what you’re looking at, although this effort stands out from much of the herd for refusing to descend into exhaustive Bayhem come the final reel. Instead, we get an intriguing presentation of a new character (Sentinel Prime, before he was recoloured for the final film) and a feeling that this flick might be better than the last. At least for the moment.

#7: The Last Knight (2017) teaser trailer

Echoing the sentiment expressed above is this final effort in the Bay series. It’s fair to say that by this point, these movies had worn out a lot of goodwill in the eyes of some fans, and whilst I’ll admit that I had little interest in this teaser when it first landed, I find myself feeling a sense of renewed hope and even a little excitement once I sat down to watch it. The beautifully eerie cover of The Flaming Lips’ Do You Realize?? provides a haunting backdrop to some truly stunning visuals and hints at a plot that felt very different to anything we’d seen before. It was stirring enough to make some of us think that maybe, just maybe, there was reason to be enthused about the franchise yet again. That the film it depicts turned out to be a bloated hodgepodge makes it arguably even more impressive.

#6: Revenge of the Fallen (2011) teaser trailer

At this point, the film franchise was more upfront about what it was in some of the marketing, especially coming off the back of the well-received initial effort. This first teaser for Revenge of the Fallen puts the robots front and centre and promises more of what you loved the last time. Pepper in a fair dose of fan service (Ravage!), some stunning visuals (the aircraft carrier!), some incredible action (who is that big two-wheeled bot?!), a palpably creepy tone and this one certainly got the intrigue flowing. Oh, and the one-two exchange between Sam and his father of “You don’t stop, you don’t hide, you run!” / “We’re all going together!” landed far better here than in the actual film.

#5: Rise of the Beasts (2023) teaser trailer

The newest Transformers trailer is also undoubtedly one of the most exciting and well-received! For a franchise now seven films deep and one that’s arguably caused a fair dose of fatigue amongst the fandom, there’s been a considerable buzz after this one dropped just last week, and for good reason. It shows us just enough of what we need to get us involved, with plenty of beastly action and hints at the plot to keep us informed but still hungry for more. As of now, consider us very excited for this film to arrive.

See our full breakdown of this teaser trailer here.

#4: Dark of the Moon (2011) trailer 1

The Dark of the Moon campaign was surprisingly light on trailers, with only the teaser and this main effort to carry the film beyond a slightly remixed take and some Linkin Park tie-ins. Still, this is a BIG trailer, so it was all that was needed in many ways! It quickly builds on the intrigue of the teaser by expanding on the conspiracy element of the plot before going ballistic at around the one-minute mark and just dumping it all out there for you to see. Yes, I’ve critiqued some trailers on this list for *so much action*, but something about this effort just works, leaving you almost breathless in terms of the sheer thrills on offer. True, it’s far too spoilery in parts (yes, that’s Starscream dying at 1:49) but overall? This is the best kind of Bayhem.

#3: Transformers (2007) teaser trailer

The one that started it all! This first teaser for the 2007 film dropped as early as 29th June 2006 and gave us our first idea of what the film might look like in motion, even though the footage itself didn’t really feature in the final product outside of being a briefly-glimpsed classified video. It may not show us much of actual robots, but still, it’s hard to now communicate what a palpable sense of excitement this teaser created at the time, long before the franchise became the global behemoth it is now. Even seeing the Autobot logo at the end was a real talking point! It shows that the film was still heavily in development at this stage, though, as the score, imagery and a lot of the design don’t really sync up with what we’d come to know for the film. Still, this remains a unique highlight of the early marketing campaign and remains a truly nostalgic event even now.

#2: Bumblebee (2018) teaser trailer

This first teaser for Bumblebee may have landed a few weeks before The Last Knight arrived in cinemas, but it somehow already felt like the ultimate tonic to a franchise that many were long exhausted with. Now knowing the film it represents, what’s intriguing is how restrained it is in terms of what it shows. There’s no evidence of Optimus Prime or any of the Cybertron-set sequences yet, and barely a hint of any Decepticons (although that transforming jet would go on to break the Transformers internet once his name was revealed just after this landed). What works well here, though, is the feeling of a lighter tone and a more intimate adventure with some real character work, something many of us were crying out for by this stage. The nods towards the first film work exceptionally well too.

#1: Transformers (2007) trailer 2

It’s hard to overstate the impact this one made when it landed before the first film’s release. The teaser hadn’t given us too much in the way of actual robots, whereas the follow-up had debuted with a strangely spooky tone and only mere glimpses of action. This was the first time we got a true picture of what we were really in for, and it… was… AWESOME. Yes, some odd choices are packed in there (such as only seeing Bumblebee from the waist down!), but it’s hard not to be on the edge of your seat by the time we breeze through to Epps shouting, “Bring it!” Because bring it they had.

So that’s our list! Do you agree with the choices?

TTFN