Michael Bay's movies throughout his career have helped to establish him as one of the most successful directors of all time as well as a deeply divisive one. Starting out in commercials, Bay got his start in feature films with the action-comedy Bad Boys. From there, Bay went on to direct huge blockbusters, war movies, and several movies in the Transformers franchise. With these films, Bay has established a distinct style of filmmaking that has earned him plenty of fans and plenty of critics.

Bay movies have grossed over $6.5 billion worldwide, making him the fourth highest-grossing director of all time. He has worked with some of the biggest names in Hollywood, with the likes of Bruce Willis and Mark Wahlberg headlining his movies, and he has also helped make up-and-coming actors household names, including Will Smith and Shia LaBeouf. Bay's movies all vary in of their size and their genre, but it is not hard to identify a Michael Bay movie when they come.

15 Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen (2009)

A Vengeful Decepticon Targets Optimus Prime

Michael Bay's Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, the second of his five Transformers movies, continued the adventures of Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) as he attempted to balance his connection to the heroic Autobots while also starting his new life at college and maintaining his romance with Makayla (Megan Fox). However, Sam and the Autobots face a much greater threat in the form of an even Decepticon known as The Fallen and a resurrected Megatron.

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen was made during a Hollywood writer's strike and unfortunately, it shows in many ways. The movie feels like it was made off of a very rushed first draft of a script. The story is nonsensical, sending the main characters on a globetrotting adventure that makes no sense. Bay's humor is also a big issue in the film as it often derails the movie's dark tone with extended silly bits. Including two comedic relief robots was also criticized as leaning into racist stereotypes. The result is often viewed as the most maligned entry in the series.

14 Transformers: Age Of Extinction (2014)

A Mechanic Forms A Partnership With Optimus Prime

With the fourth installment of the Transformers series, Transformers lead and he was replaced by Mark Wahlberg's blue-collar genius Cade Yaegar. Transformers: Age of Extinction is set years after the events of the Michael Bay movies, with Cade discovering a hibernating Optimus Prime. Together, the human and robot heroes team up to save the day from a villainous Transformer bounty hunter on Prime's trail.

While Bay presented this as the start of a new era of the Transformers franchise, Transformers: Age of Extinction is more of the same. Senseless destruction and random action sequences make for a spectacle, but not much of a story. Wahlberg also seems to be a poor fit for the franchise as his attempts at being the down-to-earth hero are unconvincing. Bay also continues to add in necessary and cringeworthy comedy, including an ill-advised joke about the relationship between Cade's teen daughter and her older boyfriend.

13 Transformers: The Last Knight (2017)

The Transformers Lore Goes Back To Medieval Times

Transformers: The Last Knight ended up being Michael Bay's final Transformers movie and the consensus was that it was time for the director and the franchise to move on. The fifth movie in the series sees the return of Cade Yaeger as he teams with the Autobots again as they hunt for a powerful ancient artifact that the Decepticons are also after. This leads to new discoveries about the history of Transformers on Earth as well as a secret about Cade's past as well.

The movie delivered the big action sequences that fans have come to expect with Bay's blockbusters and the story was a bit more concise than the previous installments.

After endless success in the Transformers franchise, regardless of critical reception, Transformers: The Last Knight was the first box-office disappointment of the series. The movie delivered the big action sequences that fans have come to expect with Bay's blockbusters and the story was a bit more concise than the previous installments. However, the growing mythology connecting the franchise to the legend of King Arthur felt unnecessary.

12 6 Underground (2019)

Shadow Operatives Takes On A Dangerous Dictator

Though Michael Bay has been a theatrical director for his entire career, he embraced the new streaming world with the Netflix Original action movie 6 Underground. The wild movie tells the story of a billionaire (played by Ryan Reynolds) who fakes his own death to form a vigilante group to take down terrorists around the world while remaining anonymous. This leads the crew of misfits to stage a takeover of a ruthless dictator.

6 Underground is a movie that showcases the best and worst of Michael Bay's movies. With a massive streaming budget, the action sequences are grand and exciting, such as the opening car chase and the hilariously violent setpiece with a giant magnet. However, Bay once again does not have a grasp on the tone, swinging wildly back and forth between Reynolds doing goofy bits to looking at the brutal treatment of people in war-torn countries. It is a movie that has fun with Bay's no-holds-bar approach and serves as a reminder he needs to be reigned in at times.

11 The Island (2005)

A Peaceful Island Community Holds A Dark Secret

The Island is Michael Bay's attempt at a more subtle and thought-provoking story for one of his movies. The problem is that he then tries to combine it with his typical relentless action mayhem, making for an awkward cinematic ride. The movie takes place on an island community where the citizens live in relative harmony with certain subjects occasionally being selected for special upgrades.

However, two of the community learn a dark secret about the island and their own existence, leading them to make an escape.

Despite using the same compelling themes in dystopian sci-fi classics, The Island is probably the Michael Bay blockbuster that audiences are most likely to forget exists. The whole narrative feels like a YA novel written to capture the hype of The Hunger Games, complete with thematic simplicity and painfully obvious influences. What sinks the movie more than its mundane approach to the material is the glaring product placement. The movie features a stellar cast, led by Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johansson, but Bay seems uninterested in exploring characters.

10 Bad Boys II (2003)

Mike And Marcus Take On A Drug Kingpin

Michael Bay made the first sequel of his career with this wild return to the Bad Boys franchise. Bad Boys II arrived nearly a decade after the original movie with Will Smith and Martin Lawrence now cemented as blockbuster stars. The film follows Miami detectives Marcus and Mike as they take on a drug lord who is operating in their city.

This is the movie where it feels like Bay was fully given permission to go off the rails and make the kind of project he always wanted to. The sheer mayhem of some of these action scenes displays some of the best technical craft of Bay's career. In between all that carnage, however, is a ceaseless barrage of long-winded and offensive comedy sequences that add to the movie's bloated runtime. It is a film that is a lot of fun to watch for the mindless action, but Bay puts the audience through a lot to get to those fun parts.

9 Transformers: Dark Of The Moon (2011)

A Transformer Relic Is Found On The Moon

Transformers: Dark of the Moon is a notable step up from Revenge of the Fallen, serving as the finale to Bay's original Transformers trilogy. This is also the first Transformers movie without Megan Fox, who was fired and replaced with British model Rosie Huntington-Whiteley as Sam's new love interest. The movie further expands on the wild Transformers lore with the revelation that humanity first encountered the robots in disguise during the moon landing. With a spacecraft discovered to be hiding up there, Optimus and the Autobots face off with their old enemies again.

Bay seemed to learn from his script issues with the previous movie, as Dark of the Moon features a much more interesting story. That is not to say the movie still doesn't suffer from an unnecessary runtime that is added to by more misguided comedy. However, Bay fully delivers on the action with some incredibly entertaining setpieces and a gloriously over-the-top climax. It became Bay's highest-grossing movie.

8 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers Of Benghazi (2016)

The True Story Of Soldiers Bravely Defending An American Compound

Michael Bay took on a real-life military tragedy for the second time in his career with the action movie 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi. The movie centers around the terrorist attack of September 11, 2012, when the American diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya was attacked by local militants. The movie follows six of the Annex Security Team who protected the compound during the various waves of attacks.

When it was announced that Bay would be making a film about Benghazi, one of the most politically contentious issues of modern-day politics, it seemed like a misguided idea that could have terrible results. However, 13 Hours is more restrained than one would expect from Bay. There’s real grit to this war drama, as befits the story, and it's easily Bay's most mature work, even if it does lean into his jingoistic sensibilities. Separated from its socio-political context, 13 Hours is enjoyable enough though not a very deep look at the event itself.

7 Pearl Harbor (2001)

A Love Triangle Set Against The Back Drop Of The Infamous Attack

Pearl Harbor was supposed to signal the birth of a new kind of Michael Bay. This was the beginning of the prestigious Bay, the kind of director who could blend high-octane action with serious drama and historical heft. Pearl Harbor was the retelling of the infamous attack by the army of Japan on the American military base in Hawaii which launched America's involvement in World War II. The film is told from the perspective of two fictional pilots, played by Ben Affleck and Josh Hartnett, as they fall in love with the same woman, Kate Beckinsale.

Unfortunately, half of that plan doesn't work at all. The love triangle storyline drags the entire movie down.

The movie attempted the approach of James Cameron's Titanic, depicting a famous historical event in the midst of a grand Hollywood romance. Unfortunately, half of that plan doesn't work at all. The love triangle storyline drags the entire movie down. However, while there are plenty of historical accuracies in Bay's retelling, the actual attack sequence may be the best action filmmaking Bay has ever done.

6 Transformers (2007)

A Teen's Car Is A Robot In Disguise

Even after four more Transformers movies, Bay never managed to outdo the one that started it all. Transformers takes a simpler approach to the story as it follows young outcast high schooler Sam Witwicky as he gets his first car which turns out to be a Transformer named Bumblebee. Along with the girl he has a crush on, Sam is introduced to the hidden world of the Transformers and must help them save the day.

Transformers is a perfect popcorn blockbuster with exciting action and big effects. What makes it stand out in the franchise is the genuine sense of wonder it creates with these robots. The scale and sense of detail still manage to thrill audiences more than a decade after it debuted and long after the rest of Hollywood started copying its aesthetic. Transformers is goofy and mindless, and offers enough stunning set-pieces to justify its existence as a movie based on a toy line.