The live-action "Transformers" films have all been directed by Michael Bay, a man known for his chaotic and carnage-filled action scenes (and not much else). These films have garnered a bad reputation for their depictions of casual racism/homophobia, overly cluttered framing, over-editing, confusing robot design, nonsense stories, annoying characters and (very famously) blatant objectification of the female characters (to the point that they barely count as proactive characters and just serve as eye candy).
While that last one has been discussed at length by many others, I'm here to discuss an aspect of these films that have been bothering me for some time now. After rewatching several of these films, I've noticed that they don't really have any likable male characters (except for Bumblebee and occasionally Optimus Prime, but they're robots). Almost every male character in these films is thoroughly unlikable, due to the fact that they all exaggerate negative "masculine traits."
One of the best examples I can give is that of Optimus Prime. In the first film, Optimus feels very inspired by his animated counterpart (it also helps that they used his animated voice actor, Peter Cullen). The Optimus of the first film is a hardened soldier who's willing to kill to save others, but he's also willing to sacrifice himself to save others. He's tough, but also kindhearted, willing to see the good in humanity, and declares that they are worth protecting (even emphasizing that they not harm the humans). While he embodies traditional "masculine traits" such as physical strength and combat skills, he also displays compassion, empathy, sadness, and kindness.
The sequels, however, radically changed Optimus into an overly aggressive, overly violent brute who casually kills others. It felt like the somber kindness and empathy was sucked out and replaced with anger induced savagery. There are several occasions in the sequels where Optimus kills an enemy in cold blood (sometimes while they beg for mercy). There are several instances where he angrily rips an enemy's face off while spouting a (supposedly) awesome one-liner, and one instance in the third film where he rips a Decepticon's throat out while simply saying "you die" like a psychotic neanderthal.
Optimus, however, is not the only example of this. In fact, almost every male character in this film series is either whiny, overly aggressive about nothing, entitled and very annoying. The two prime examples for this are the human male leads Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) and Cade Yeager (Mark Wahlberg).
Whenever I watch any of the first three films I keep asking myself, "why is Sam so special?" He doesn't have any unique set of skills that make him an asset to the Autobots. During the fight scenes, he's usually just running away and screaming. He also has no unique character traits or personality to speak off. What are his interests? Who is he as a person?
All of these elements wouldn't be that bad if he was a likable character, but he isn't. He's incapable of telling his girlfriend he loves her, despite trying to hook up with her being his sole motivation in the first half of the first film. He acts dejected and whiny when he has a hard time getting a job because he believes he's earned it (even though he hasn't done much of anything). He constantly screams and yells in a shrill voice during action scenes or scenes where he gets unreasonably upset. You just want to hold your ears.
While Cade Yeager is slightly more tolerable than Sam, he's still not that great of a role model for young men. In the fourth film, he acts weirdly possessive of his 17-year-old daughter (I know his character arc is learning to let go, but even in the beginning he goes a bit overboard). He's also frighteningly over aggressive in situations that don't call for it. The fourth film features him threatening violence on an innocent couple who were looking to buy his house due to the fact that it was in the process of being repossessed.
His unwarranted aggression was a real sticking point for me because the film tries to play it up for comedy, but he just comes across as a guy with serious anger management issues. It feels like he does this to prove that he's the most macho "manly man" in the world and has to constantly assert how tough he is to everyone he meets. It reeks of insecurity, but the film frames it like this is the way a "real man" should act.
None of what I just discussed could be seen as an issue if these films framed these aspects as flaws that the hero has to overcome in order to be a better person. However, many of these flaws are framed as positives or as aspects that make them relatable and funny rather than harmful and toxic. These films tell us that this the way men are/should be. Well, I'm sorry, but I draw the line at turning a strong kindhearted robot hero (who was an idol of mine growing up) into an aggressive, authoritarian savage who kills in cold blood. Next time, we will be looking at more positive examples of masculinity in a modern film series.
