What can I say about the "Transformers" films that hasn't been said by almost everyone at this point. These movies are loud, dumb, incoherently plotted, casually racist, dumb, casually misogynistic, bloated, dumb, annoying, overly long, and did I mention dumb. It's hard to believe that there was once a time when I thought the series had promise.

I actually kind of liked the first one (looking back on it and seeing some of the problems that would only get worse in other installments, I just think it's O.K.), it wasn't perfect, but it was a serviceable summer action movie and a decent foundation to build a franchise on. The only problem is that the franchise didn't really evolve beyond the first film. Every film in this franchise has the same plot outline.

Every film starts with some form of narration. The plot involves Optimus Prime and the Autobots fighting Megatron and the Decepticons fighting over an ancient alien artifact that ties to Earth's history in someway. Why don't the writers come up with a different plot then that. They could write a plot that involves the war on Cybertron; how it got started and why.

They could write a plot that involves some Autobots/Decepticons questioning the ideals they fight for and see them struggle with falling into either side. We could see a plot that follows the relationship of Optimus and Megatron. We could see them as friends before the war, but as political divisions grow on Cybertron they begin to drift apart until they become mortal enemies. There are some interesting real world parallels to this.

Another thing they should do is to put the focus on the transformers themselves. The only reason the first film was allowed to get away with this was because it was the first film. We needed a human point of view to introduce the basic concepts, characters, and lore to the audience, and to give the conflict and the robots this epic sense of size and scope.

However, the films kept putting these boring (and often annoying/racist) characters in the forefront, while the robots act as secondary characters. The transformers are the ones people come to see in "Transformers". After the setup in the first one they should've shifted focus to the transformers and develop them as characters in the sequels while the humans became secondary. It's their conflict and their character motivation that should push the plot, not humans.

These films should also avoid being casually racist and sexist. This sounds like it should be easy to do, but apparently not for Michael Bay. It feels like Michael Bay has never actually met a person of color before and only knows how to portray them through the lens of racial stereotypes from what feels like two decades ago.

Almost all the African Americans in the film are loud and yell things which we are apparently supposed to find funny. The only Indian character in any of these films is a stereotypical phone operator. The two Autobots from the second film, Skids and Mudflaps, are ghetto black stereotypes with gold teeth, strange faces, they speak in urban slang, and are illiterate. Almost all of these people have no character beyond their stereotype. These people should be written as individuals with unique personalities, so they can be memorable and seen as more complex people.

The women in these films should also have more of a purpose in these films then just serving as eye candy for the straight male audience. The first one was, somewhat, on the right track by giving Megan Fox's character a kind of interesting backstory and she actually got to put here skills to good use and help in the final battle. After the first one, however, she didn't have much to do in regards to the plot other than standing around and looking sexy.

Other females in the series fare worse by not really displaying any skills that add to the story and just sort of tag along to look sexy or get captured. You could do better with these characters. First, you should actually write them as characters, with personality and motivation, not as sexy objects that feel inconsequential to the story. Second, give them a set of skills that add to the plot, such as knowledge or fighting prowess. Lastly make them feel like relatable people with strengths and weaknesses, which helps humanize them better.

The plot should also avoid becoming a convoluted mess. These films constantly adding more and more extraneous plot detail that it bloats the run time and makes them chores to sit through (along with the other stuff I mentioned). The first one worked the best due to it's simple plot. Alien robots land on Earth and the good robots must team up with humans to stop the evil ones from using a weapon to destroy the world.

While later films would use the same plot beats, the plots kept becoming more and more confusing and overly complicated. The story of these films should be simplified and more character driven then they are in the films. It really feels like Michael Bay and his writers think that more plot detail equals a better story rather than characters, character motivation, and the themes of the film. More detail does nothing if these are characters we don't care about or motivations we can't sympathize with.

These are only a few of the ways these films could be made better. This article felt very cathartic because, unlike many, I believe that a film based on "Transformers" can be good. It can be fun, entertaining, and maybe even insightful; but it needs to be made by filmmakers who like the franchise and see it's untapped potential.

It's clear that Michael Bay doesn't really care about the story of the series, since he's just been telling the same one over and over again (plus the weird level of contempt he shows for the film's characters). These films need fresh blood and ideas to survive according to the smaller box office gross of the fifth film. If by some miracle Michael Bay or anyone who works on these movies sees this (and cares enough to act), these are some ways you can improve your films.