While the series has gotten better with it in recent years, all in all, the Transformers franchise has been notoriously bad at creating compelling human characters that don’t feel like an absolute waste of screen time. Some characters add nothing to the plot, some detract from it and some are simply some of the most unbearable characters in cinema.
One would think that in a series about giant butt-kicking robots, filmmakers wouldn’t attempt to make humans the protagonist and, if they were to, they’d at least make them good and entertaining to watch. Just when Transformers introduces someone that audiences think is a terrible human character, they somehow seem to throw in another that is just as bad and, most of the time, worse. (And no, Michael Bay does not qualify).
10 Miles Lancaster
Played by John Robinson
Image via Paramount Pictures
If someone were to say the name Miles Lancaster (John Robinson) to someone else, even most Transformers fans, they probably would have no idea what they were talking about. Miles acts as Sam’s “best friend” in the film and is set up as if he is going to be a recurring character.
He, of course, is not recurring and disappears quickly in act one. Miles is about as nothing of a character as it gets when it comes to the Transformers franchise. There’s nothing to report beyond the fact that he fills in every best friend character trope and leaves little to no impression on the audience in any way whatsoever.
9 Lucas Flannery
Played by T.J. Miller
Image via Paramount Pictures
T.J. Miller’s Lucas Flannery is such a nothing character that actively makes things worse by totally selling out his “friend” when they discover Optimus Prime (Peter Cullen) in Transformers: Age of Extinction, in hopes that the CIA will pay him for his discovery. This stupid decision only gets guns pointed at him and the crew, putting them in the sights of the CIA’s taskforce, Cemetery Wind, for the rest of the film.
The only reason Lucas isn’t considered a worse character is because his death scene is easily one of the best scenes in the movie due to the context surrounding it. Not just because his character totally deserved it for selling his crew out, but because the death allegedly was put in due to the common knowledge that Michael Bay and Miller did not get along on the set. This caused rumors to speculate that Bay killed the character so early and explosively just to spite Miller. Looking back, with all the controversy surrounding Miller, the character’s death has even more humorous context.
Transformers: Age of Extinction
Release Date June 27, 2014
Runtime 165 minutes
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8 Tessa Yeager
Played by Nicola Peltz
Image via Paramount Pictures
One of the cardinal sins of the Transformers franchise is the Bay films’ treatment of female characters. Tessa Yeager (Nicola Peltz) is one of the worst examples of this issue. Tessa is treated simply as nothing more than a damsel in distress and really only exists to serve her father’s character arc, with nothing much left for her own character.
Tessa had a ton of opportunities to be something more if the writers of the film had just taken them and cared more about her character. She serves as stakes for Cade (Mark Wahlberg) and pretty much nothing else. She’s often referred to online as just “Cade’s daughter” and makes one wonder why she was included in the film in the first place if the writers weren’t going to take the time needed to make her character feel necessary.
7 Sam Witwicky
Played by Shia LaBeouf
Image via Paramount Studios.
The man who started it all. Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) is the first Transformers protagonist who “graced” the screen in 2007’s Transformers. Sam gets heavy criticism for being an incredibly shallow character that Bay gives audiences little reason to find compelling.
While Sam actually wasn’t too bad in the first Transformers film, his character grew weaker and weaker as the films went on. Part of this is due to the series’ traditionally rough writing, but it’s also quite easy to tell that LaBeouf lost his spirit pretty quickly after that first film. He seems to care less and less as films two and three roll around, and it’s hard not to see why, as the reception of the films and his character probably brought him down a bit. But even if he did give it his all, LaBeouf wouldn’t have been able to save Sam from the cold death of being a boring protagonist.
Transformers
Release Date July 3, 2007
Runtime 144
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6 Viviane Wembly
Played by Laura Haddock
Image via Paramount Pictures
As if Transformers: The Last Knight incorporating the fables of King Arthur wasn’t weird enough, the descendants of Merlin in the movie, such as Viviane Wembly (Laura Haddock), make it even more of a struggle of a film to get through. As if that wasn’t enough of a struggle already.
The Oxford history professor that just so happens to be an ancestor of the mythical wizard Merlin is presented as nothing but an annoyingly predictable British stereotype that partakes in one of the most forced relationships in the entire franchise with Cade. Due to being a descendant of Merlin, she also happens to be the only character able to wield his staff because…reasons. Normally, this would be an effective way to make her more important to the plot. Still, the attempt falls terribly flat at the end of the day because the filmmakers’ disinterest in the character can consistently be felt.
Transformers: The Last Knight
Release Date June 16, 2017
Runtime 149
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5 Cade Yeager
Played by Mark Wahlberg
Image via Paramount Pictures
For a character that was intended to be a better protagonist than Sam Witwicky, Cade Yeager manages to somehow be worse. Surprising, yes, but an unfortunate truth. Cade serves asa stereotypical buff “manly-man” protagonist who genuinely has zero chemistry with the Autobots (something Sam has over him, actually.) Also, in hopes of making him a more layered character with some flaws, Bay managed to make an incredibly unlikable character due to how much of a jerk Cade consistently is.
Arguably, though, Cade did have a lot of potential to be something more than the typical Bay “inventor” trope. He proves himself as a very capable character in the films and if he just happened to be more likable and actually had some layers as a character, he would have easily been in the top three best human characters in the franchise. Not to mention, Wahlberg is a talented actor and, if given more, could’ve amplified the role to something greater.
4 Shane Dyson
Played by Jack Reynor
Image via Paramount Pictures
There isn’t much to be said about Shane Dyson (Jack Reynor) that hasn’t already been said. The character is not only completely useless to the plot but has arguably one of the worst moments in the entire franchise. Maybe even one of the worst moments in film as a whole medium: the infamous “Romeo and Juliet Law” scene.
When Shane is introduced alongside Tessa in Transformers: Age of Extinction, Bay makes it a point to justify the fact that the two lovers are the ages of 20 and 17 by having Shane carry a laminated card detailing the “Romeo and Juliet Law”. This law states that, in very vague appropriate terms, as long as the two characters had begun dating before he passed the age of 18, there are no legal issues with their relationship. Why did Bay decide to make this such a plot point? Why make the characters 20 and 17 in the first place? Why did Shane need to be in the movie in the first place? No one seems to know.
3 Carly Spencer
Played by Rosie Huntington Whiteley
Image via Paramount Pictures
After an alleged fall-out between Bay and Megan Fox amidst Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen filming, Sam Witwicky gained a new love interest beginning in Transformers: Dark of the Moon in the form of Carly Spencer (Rosie Huntington Whiteley).
Carly is arguably the worst case scenario of Bay’s mistreatment of his female characters in his Transformers series. If a person were to think of the least amount of work someone could put into putting together a female character in a film, they would end up with a character much like Carly Spencer. Poor Rosie Huntington Whiteley is seemingly used primarily for her looks and, for the rest of the film, Carly is written as a damsel in distress who is either just following Sam around or getting captured. She gets one good moment where she cusses out Megatron (Hugo Weaving), though, and she gets some major points for that.
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2 Leo Spitz
Played by Ramon Rodriguez
Image via Paramount Pictures
When Sam goes to college in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, he gains a new “friend” in his roommate, Leo Spitz (Ramon Rodriguez). Leo is a conspiracy theorist who runs a website and exists in the film solely for two things: connecting the crew with Agent Simmons (John Turturro) again (which could have arguably been done without him given the crew’s prior connection to him already) and screaming as loud and annoying as humanly possible.
This is not the fault of actor Ramon Rodriguez, though, as decisions like these typically come from directing. Aside from connecting the group to Simmons again, Leo is really just following the gang and quipping/screaming wherever he can. Leo is easily one of the worst characters in the second film outing and the entire series as a whole.
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
Release Date June 19, 2009
Runtime 147
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1 Ron & Judy Witwicky
Played by Kevin Funn & Julie White
Image via Paramount Pictures
Throughout the entirety of the Transformers series, Sam’s parents always seem to make an appearance in the films he is featured in, and through doing so, Bay forces audiences to watch two of the most pointless characters in the franchise.
Sam’s parents add literally nothing to any of the three films they appear in. There is no emotional connection between them and Sam, so emotional beats never hit, the comedy they provide is mostly just not funny, so they don’t bring laughs (unless the viewers are laughing at them) and they don’t move any of the plots forward in any way whatsoever. This collectively makes them incredibly useless. Bay could have removed these two characters completely and the films wouldn’t be different in the slightest aside from some iffy jokes here and there. In fact, one could argue the films would actually be better.
NEXT: The 10 Best ‘Transformers’ Villains