Falsename said:
Michael Bay's movies are glorified kids movies. You know what you're getting into when you agree to watch a movie called 'Transformers'. Who entered that cinema hoping for an emotional drama?
See, I get the impressive that action and explosions isn't exactly why people hated
Bayformers.
When you go into a movie called
Transformers, using a preexisting IP about robots that transform into vehicles and battle each other with very little involvement from pesky squishy fleshy humans, you generally expect the movie to focus on said transforming robots. Not an awkward coming-of-age love story about a teenage boy and the girl he wants to impress by getting his own car. Who then mysteriously disappears in the third act to be replaced by another attractive girl who is inexplicably attracted to the bumbling male lead.
Granted, I never watched the third film because I literally can't remember a single thing that happened in the second, but yeah, the titular characters not being the actual main characters of the films has a little more to do with it than not being "an emotional drama", in my opinion.
OT: I've got nothing against Bay. I've seen worse directors than him, even if his movies do mostly have horrible scripts. They reach the same level of campy weirdness that probably would've been praised back in the 80's, to be honest. Or at least would've been regarded as "something fun to pass the time" rather than "THE WORST THING EVAR!!!!" like they are now.