Now on its seventh film in the series, the Transformers franchise has come a long way — for better or worse — from its Michael Bay-reared origins. As new fan favorites have made appearances with each new installment teasing fans back into theaters and with Transformers: Rise of the Beasts set to release this week, this latest film's reviews have promised an extremely broad amount of reactions faring from The Telegraph's one-star review to others saying that it is finally a return to form.
2007's Transformers at its (steely, metallic) heart is a boy and his car movie, directed by arguably the perfect match in a man who used to make commercials about Audis. The first film is a fantastic whap-bam movie with world-ending stakes and giant robots and shows more than enough of the Micheal Bay qualities that have become an expectation (Americana, teenage boy ogling, fast cars, and, naturally, explosions), and the perfect eye candy in one Megan Fox.
By 2008, FHM's readers would vote Megan Fox as The Sexiest Woman Alive, and a year after that she would have much more to do in the queer and nowadays cult favorite Jennifer's Body. Fox would return to the battling bots in the Transformers follow-up, Revenge of the Fallen, and then go on to bury the hatchet with Bay again in 2014 through the TMNT film series.
Below we rank some of Megan Fox's best moments across the Transformers series.
6 Leg Humper
Reminding that the series is headed by a man-child in Bay, minute robot Wheelie is more than easily convinced that he can simply defect and swap sides from the Decepticons to the Autobots. In a moment of excited frenzy, the robot worships his slave owner turned savior by, err, humping her leg like a dog.
5 "She was mean. I didn't like her..."
In but a single line of dialogue to sum up exactly where Mikaela (Fox) has gone by the third film, turns out she dumped Sam (in actuality, Megan Fox likened working with Michael Bay to Adolf Hitler and was fired), which saw Rosie Huntington Whitely come in as the new love interest. Throwaway yes, but getting the characters to describe her in a single line as "mean" was such a petty jab at the former employee that we had to include it here.
4 The White Dress
Solely the making of a Hollywood movie, yes, but as Mikaela attempts to coax the three words of "I love you" out of her now boyfriend Sam (Shia LaBeouf), she makes a speedy costume change into a faux-wedding dress. Naturally, Fox looks stunning, and it's more than easy to believe that anyone could fall in love with her.
3 "Kiss this, bitch."
With the series at its most Terminator-like, a minxy college student is very interested in new student Sam. Unfortunately turns out this femme fetale is an android in disguise sent to seduce and infiltrate Mr. Witwicky. After hunting him and destroying the on-site library, now atop the roof of their retreating car, Sam can't help but watch as a scorned Mikaela makes their getaway. Spotting her moment, she drives the car directly into a lamppost, with the evil robot sandwiched between the pole and the hood. Getting her revenge finally on the cheating bot, an action heroine zinger reminds us of what the character is capable of.
2 "I'll drive, you shoot!"
As Megatron and the Decepticons come down on the city, now turned into a warzone between the US army and giant robots alike, a busted-up Bumblebee hangs up the back of a tow truck. A simple nod from the yellow droid lets her know what has to be done.
Reversing the tow truck down the main road at speed and directly towards the Decepticon, a haphazard firefight finally takes the beast down and relieves pressure on the holed-in soldiers. In such a badass line, and delivery, Mikaela's earlier setup of knowing cars pays off here where the two's most useful attributes combine, and without a Sam in sight to spoil the moment between them.
1 The Car
As far as eye candy goes, Megan Fox was it. In a movie about a boy, cars, and robots, Megan Fox played the inexplicable, otherwordly girl in Sam's life. In a world of out-of-this-world alien robots, having lived among them for a number of years in hiding, Michael Bay's leering camera's eye lit by a constant Bay-ism in the Golden Hour light made an arched back Mikaela seem all the more impossible for the dorky Sam.
This scene alone would make Megan Fox the sex symbol known all over the world. The character work in this scene is also surprisingly subtle as the love triangle between Mikaela/Sam/Bumblebee is set up.