[Den]

Has anyone seen it? If so, what did you think of it? Liked it? Disliked it?

Please don't post spoilers, because not everyone has seen it yet (Myself included. I intend to fix this as soon as I can).

[Ginger]

I watched this recently and it was actually better than I thought it would be. My main problem with it was that Mark Wahlberg was the main actor. Don't get me wrong, I like the guy... just not in sci-fi. But he did an okay job with the role he was given. There was the usual humor in this one and plenty more action. Great stunt work and visuals. Human brutality against an alien race that just wants to save our planet. All in all though I think I'd watch it again.

[Salone]

It keeps with the usual Bayverse movies. The plot holes are big enough to drive a semi truck through (and that does happen in a sense), and the dialogue between 'bots doesn't really match what is going on both in the story and on screen. It's almost as bad as an old martial arts film. Dialogue is thrown around that makes no sense. Needs are stated that are completely skipped over or made irrelevant in the next scene. Characters and their abilities receive little to no introduction, and the one triple changer in the movie is completely skipped over in his abilities, as it never actually shows him changing nor even mentions that he is a triple changer. You either assume or wonder where in the world that that new transformer with the identical paint job of the other came from and then disappeared after 5 seconds. The movie requires serious explanation at every scene to even comprehend what is supposed to be going on.

Established characters completely derail themselves and perform unusually out of character actions. If you grew up on any iteration of Transformers, it will most likely leave you feeling a little dirty inside. Optimus specifically performs and says various things that are so out of line with who he is supposed to be that you wonder if Bay gave his lines to the wrong character by accident.

However my main gripe is the Dinobots. The commercials contain just about all of their screen time, introduction, and explanation. Their emaciated excuse for a plot is never dealt with, and their entire dialogue combined is still less than any given scene from a Mr. Bean movie.

Villains are also at a loss here. You have too many going on at once in different directions with no clear motive, or state things and execute a completely different set of plans. The main bad guy is reduced to a Dr. Claw like persona, and once again there is no solid tie off for him.

When the movie finally comes to an end, the entire plot has been wrapped up as neatly as a Big Mac at 2AM in the 24 hour drive-thru. It's messy, wide open and you've pretty much got all of the important bits strewn everywhere.

The movie also keeps with the rest of the series' use of diet-coke like racism, throwing in small bits that aren't newsworthy but still make you uncomfortably emphatic for anyone they could apply to.

The only redeemable thing about this movie is John Goodman's character. That said, it's worth seeing once so you can gripe about it, and deep down watching Transformers fight and appear on screen will always be worth the horrible mad-libs style plot they are crammed in to. Go ahead and see it if you can.

Just don't, you know...actually buy the movie. Borrow it from some other sucker.

[Madame-Aiko]

I wasn't that interested in the movie, but when I was little I watched the animated show. Honestly the same guys that did this did Ninja Turtles and that movie stressed me out more than anything else because it just felt like they had botched the storyline as a whole. I'd expected to see other characters, not the main generic ones in TMNT.
Visual effects for Transformers... I'd give it four stars. But the characters weren't developed enough, and therefore when transformers (autobots) began to be killed off, I couldn't sympathize since I hadn't known much about them since the movie didn't show enough of their stories or who they were to make you have "the feels".