Optimus Prime (Michael Bay pentalogy)

Optimus Prime is the main protagonist of the Transformers franchise. Sadly, he was badly flanderized in the Michael Bay Transformers pentalogy.

Why His Fellow Autobots Shouldn't Listen To Him

 * 1) He has nothing that the original Optimus Prime had, or even any of his other prior selves except being red and blue, transforming into a truck, having a mouth plate, having a window-style chest, and his actor reprising the role. Instead of being brave without killing millions, he is a completely hypocritical psychopath.
 * 2) His animated version was compassionate and entertaining. Now he's just boring and creepy.
 * 3) *Speaking of which, his action of going after Quintessa was pointless.
 * 4) In Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, he proved to be sadistic and mean, as opposed to wise and kind in the scene where he said "Give me your FACE!" at the end. He even killed Grindor by tearing his head apart. Before he did that however, he sliced off his right arm, used Starscream to almost kill Grindor by shooting him with a missile near the face (destroying his main rotors in the process), and threw one of his swords into his left leg. Even at the start, he murders Demolishor in cold blood while the Constructicon is injured. He and Ironhide cripple him by shooting him and loosening one of his wheels respectively. This causes him to crash into a warehouse.
 * 5) During the forest battle, he also taunts Megatron and Grindor after he killed the
 * 6) He also dies way too early in Revenge of The Fallen too
 * 7) In Transformers: Dark of The Moon, he let thousands of humans to die by the hands of the Decepticons, just to "Prove a point." To rub salt to that wound, he knew ahead of time that the Decepticons would do exactly that, although that depends on your view.
 * 8) In other words, it was his fault that Sentinel Prime lived on to become a god-wannabe after he revived him in hopes he would defeat the Decepticons, but he was idiotic enough to believe that theory of his own.
 * 9) Also in Dark of The Moon, he was still so pathetic that Sentinel was ironically more stronger than him (Though to be fair, Sentinel is his teacher) and when he is about to kill him, Megatron saves him just in time, and actually offers a truce to Optimus. Rather than accept it, he murders Megatron in cold blood instead, though this is again depending on your view.
 * 10) His redesign in Transformers: Age of Extinction doesn't look like something that actually transforms into a truck, due to the lack of truck parts and looks nothing more than a stereotypical knight with smokestacks on his back.
 * 11) He pathetically gets weakened from two bullets and gets captured by Lockdown, not to mention that he's a complete idiot for being just useless not noticing Lockdown at first and just stand there to get shot at for the second time and idiotically getting Tessa captured by getting her car caught in his net as well, which is the point on how he is nothing more than just a pathetic dude-in-distress and a weakling waiting to be rescued while not even escaping on his own. In other words, he was nerfed.
 * 12) In the same film, after freeing the Dinobots, he forces them to work for him under the threat of death, betraying what he said in the first film. In other words, he´s enslaving the Dinobots, depending on your view.
 * 13) He had so much potential to bring the Seed against the Creators, but he irresponsibly and idiotically loses it somehow since the beginning of Transformers: The Last Knight.
 * 14) When he was brainwashed by Quintessa, he acted identical to who he was before being brainwashed; in other words, he's still the same but on a different side.
 * 15) After he was snapped out of Quintessa's control, he gets nerfed again after he was weakened yet by Megatron when he stole the staff from him and pathetically gets himself overpowered when beaten by the Knights of Iacon for his crimes for a moment. Though he did deserved it but sadly it was short-lived when he was spared.
 * 16) He can be compared to his Unicron Trilogy version. Both transform into semi-trucks and both are bad incarnations, as the Unicron Trilogy Prime is too dimwitted while despite how this version is also dimwitted but is too bloodthirsty to be a good Optimus Prime.

Redeeming Qualities

 * 1) He was a much better character in the first film and the tie-in material for the first three films.
 * 2) *He's also better in the video game adaptations of Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen and Transformers: Dark of The Moon.
 * 3) * Speaking of which, while the video game adaption of Transformers: Dark of The Moon does take place between the the two movies, he's much tolerable in it and despite being hypocritical in the movies for his destruction, he did warn Ironhide not to commit any collateral damage.
 * 4) This version is at least far more tolerable and comptent than his War for Cybertron Trilogy counterpart.
 * 5) He is still amazingly voiced by talented voice-over artist, Peter Cullen, who voiced him in the G1 series, the 1986 film, and nearly every series afterward.
 * 6) There are a lot of people who root for him.
 * 7) His later live-action incarnation in Bumblebee (2018) is a likable character, who is more accurate and in-line to his G1 incarnation.
 * 8) Him murdering Bonecrusher in the first film is justifiable, as Bonecrusher attacked him first.
 * 9) He did spawn a lot of good toys based on him.
 * 10) He still cares for his fellow Autobots and several humans.
 * 11) He is still a great leader for the Autobots.

Trivia

 * 1) Although not the first live-action character to be on this wiki, Optimus Prime from the Michael Bay Pentalogy is the first live-action character that is based on a cartoon character to be on this wiki.
 * 2) The line "Give me your FACE!" became an internet meme amongst the Transformers fandom.
 * 3) This version of Optimus (complete with his design from Transformers: Age of Extinction) was strangely used in commercials featuring him by both Paramount Pictures and Direct Line.