My wife and I saw the second Michael Bay Transformers movie about fourteen years ago. She hated it and swore that, if they ever made a Barbie movie, I had to see it with her. So I did.

Barbie is a movie of its time. It is superficially absurd – a story of dolls in a pink plastic world that need to break out of it. It introduces and then preemptively answers criticisms of Barbie and the culture wars that surround it. It is self-aware enough to be fourth-wall breaking. 

The Barbie movie also helped me understand why I resent the early Transformers movies. 

The early Transformers movies are the embodiment of boys’ fantasies. They focus on militaristic themes of honour and sacrifice, plots revolve around saving the world or galaxy, and the villains are often alien or evil corporations. 

There is nothing inherently wrong with this. I love escapist military science fiction. I enjoyed seeing the toys I played with fight as I had imagined. I cheered for Ironhide’s rocket jump in the 2007 movie and Optimus Prime regularly kicking butt.

However, the boys that first played with the toys and the world around them have grown older. As subsequent Transformers movies were released, they merely revisited the same ground. 

Frustratingly, the Transformers universe has the potential to tell meaningful stories. Immigrants fleeing persecution to fight for their adopted country speak to core American values. The benefits of industrialization, coopting technology to work against us, and the challenges of alienation promise much. 

The Transformers movie’s characterization is also poor. Most Transformers are unmemorable robotic cannon fodder. If only the toys had “tech specs”, including personalities, relationships, strengths and weaknesses. 

No characters grow or change in any significant way. For example, take the audience’s point of view character, Sam Witwicky. He is constantly caught between ogling and saving Megan Fox’s damsel in distress while real men fight around him. He is a child thrust into an adult world.

One could argue that Transformers plays it safe with its plot and characters. Staying away from anything remotely political means not alienating your audience. Much of the franchise’s revenue has come from China. American values have much less of an appeal there. 

However, contemporary Marvel movies demonstrated how to write Transformers movies better. For example, “soldier” and “leader” are roles, not personalities. Flaws make heroes relatable, not unworthy. You can write compelling stories that appeal to Transformers‘ target audience and markets, have relevant themes and good characterization. 

Part of the problem is Transformers comes with age-appropriate lore and narrative. Autobots wage war against Decepticons as they flee their homeworld, Cybertron. Michael Bay had to retell the expected stories.

Barbie lacks established lore, and any girl-friendly story would likely devolve into another unremarkable, saccharine kids’ holiday special. 

However, the Barbie toy has been a centrepiece in the ongoing debate around women’s rights, self-image, commercialization, sexualization and the competing pressures to excel and conform. Ample social commentary is the only way such a modern Barbie movie could be made. Besides paid car and milk placements, Transformers can happily exist in an almost pretentious bubble.

The Barbie and Transformers movies were created for the generations that grew up with the toys. The Transformers franchise is happy to replay and recreate that world. It appeals to boys and boys-at-heart alike. 

Barbie is aimed at women, particularly mothers playing with their daughters. These women are caught between Barbie‘s seductive simplicity and innocence and the impending complexity of adulthood that will shatter them.

For some, particularly men, these different views of nostalgia can feel threatening. Barbie‘s poignant feminist monologues can feel like clumsy lectures. 

However, Barbie‘s themes are close to real life for many. As much as Margot Robbie’s Barbie would like to, you do not zone out into fantasy and return at the movie’s end, as with Transformers. 

The silly, shallow portrayal of men like Ryan Gosling’s Ken or Will Ferrel’s CEO of Mattel can also feel disingenuous. Thrust into a matriarchy, some feel the satire punches down at them.

However, most characters in Barbie are disarming caricatures, allowing frank criticism. It is similar to the fawning regulator and blind rating agency in The Great Short.

The Barbie movie is as much a journey for Ken as it is for Barbie. Ken evolves from an accessory to someone not defined by his relationship with Barbie or his superficial understanding of masculinity. It is more than Sam Witwicky ever did.

While profound, Barbie says nothing we have not heard before. Acknowledging feminism and Barbie‘s place in it does not devalue other concerns or issues. The movie uses feminism to advance the plot like the power of honour or duty regularly used in Transformers.

I will remember early Transformers movies with boyish glee for their special effects and escapist fantasies. However, from the opening scene that subverts 2001: A Space Odyssey, I will remember Barbie treating its audience as adults. 

The Michael Bay Transformers movies seem content to fool a generation of men that mindless shooting is sufficient entertainment. Even the 1986 animated Transformers movie had more heart and memorable characters. Transformers fans deserved better.