Well at the risk of being ignored as it being my first post on this forum in particular let me throw in my 2 cents for the matter.
First off i would like to get what i dont like about it out of the way. I found the plot line to be a line of diamond in a piece of shit. Allow me to explain: The over all felt extremely cliche in many many parts that i was ready to throw something at the screen. However when looks into the plot line on after reflection they realize that the plot isnt bad but actually very good, just poorly executed. My first example of this is towards the end (pardon me for going out of chronological order) where Sam is knocked out from the explosion as he makes his way towards optimus prime. They try to bring him back and he only awakens after his girlfriend cries over him. Yes her crying wasnt the factor that brought him back but the overall effect was such. I would have rather had him meet the Primes mid explosion in the middle of flying through the air (time slows down) and they thank him and in return they give him the right to the key and some secret knowledge that save him from the explosion. Also would have been a great place for some dramat8ic humor, ie. "To not die, dont follow the light, take a right at the 3rd exit, lol. But either way it could have been executed in numerous ways that would have been much better. The second complaint i have is about Sam ideal of "I wanna be a normal boy." Yes most of us HS/college kids have this fantasy but none of us have been traumatized in psychotic ways. Lets think about it, the boy found an alien race, was almost killed numerous times, thought he destroyed the world, befriended aliens, made alien enemies, got arrested, found "true love"***, got arrested, etc. etc. etc. in about a few days worth of time and he doesnt have pot traumatic stress disorder?!?!?! let alone thinking normally and wanting to be a normal person? these are the people that end up in insane asylum for me to throw peanuts at! Now dont get me wrong i realize its just a movie and therefore all rules of science, human nature, math, history and such are just suggestions more than anything else but honestly dont they think this cliche is annoying for a reason?
CALLING ALL PLOT WRITERS: let the "I wanna be normal" gimmick just die!
*** note the sarcasm in true love
also note that i was only using those two as example of cliches and poor plot devices, there are more.
How ever its not all evil i did mention earlier that the movie was at heart a diamond. In fact id give the movie an overall of an 8/10. Now lets get the obvious out of the way. One of the reasons the movie was was good was because GIANT ROBOTS WERE BEATING EACH OTHER TO A PULP WITH MASSIVE GUNS, EPIC EXPLOSIONS, FLAMING SWORDS, AND SO MUCH F***ING MORE *drool*.
Ahem, sorry about that
Now lets go on to the stuff that makes me look smart when i talk about it. The overall plot was brilliant in my opinion because it created a sense of deja vu by making Sam into his father, it explained why his father went insane and drew symbols everywhere by driving Sam insane for the same or similar reason. Now i dont want to sound nice (because real men are assholes) so ill just leave it here.
The last thing i want to say is that i would have rather seen a Transformers 0, the pre story. That was the story behind his grandfather, and his mini battle. Idk if this is possible since there were no giant robot actions but i think if done properly it could have been pulled off.
OH and one last thing, i liked how earlier on the mom couldnt let go for him to go to college and later his dad was the watery one that couldnt let go to let him fight robots. It was well played by the Transformers Team and i thought it was note worthy.
-A.Sub