I'm not saying this movie was anything great, it wasn't. It has its share of the stupid humor seen in the other transformers movies, it still has explosions, it still has government conspiracy, and it still has human drama. But what made me pleasantly surprised was how much Michael Bay toned down everything most people hated about the Transformers movies. The human stupidity, for the vast majority of the movie, is toned down or simply gone. The whiney lead character known as Sam Witwicky and his parents and 2 girlfriends and dogs are all gone and replaced with a more likable cast of characters (especially Mark Wahlberg's character). It's human drama is more believable because the stupidity is toned down some. Some of the comedy is pretty funny. The action scenes and the synopsis of the story are really cool. But the one thing that is still present and always will be present in a Michael Bay film: explosions. Who cares? This is transformers!
The movie has a lot of good things going for it. It has a lead character who is brave and actually makes himself productive and does something he thinks is right without any of the autobots telling him to. It also has a fairly believable conflict of humans destroying transformers because of the threat they cause to humanity (even though there's one flaw in which I will point out later). It's got a toned down cast of autobots so it's a lot easier to tell who's good and who's bad, which has been a persistent problem with the other movies. It also has some cool special effects (and really good 3D effects) and some plot points make much more sense here than in the last 3 films. It does have its share of problems though.
For one thing, the humor (while it has been toned down quite a bit) is still present. Michael Bay humor was, is, and never will be funny. I understand that the movie is for kids, but you can make something light-hearted without a consistent marathon of stupidity.
Another thing is, while it has a stronger main cast of human characters (father, daughter, daughter's boyfriend) they're still pretty hollow characters. There's so little depth to them you're dependent on how much they help the present situations rather than care about what they're going through. Although Wahlberg picking up a gun to help autobots win battles or break out of a ship is pretty admirable and his daughter is at least trying to get out of dire situations by fighting back when she can.
The one flaw I noticed was: So you aren't afraid of the transformers after the first AND second movie? Now all of a sudden it matters because a big city like Chicago got destroyed? Give me a break.
And last, but CERTAINLY not least, is its length. 165 minutes is quite a bit of time to sit through. If they would've cut out the excess humor that really nobody finds funny and flesh out the human characters more, this would've been a great movie. Right now (at least with me) it stands as good at best and okay at worst (seriously, it's not nearly as bad as critics are saying).
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