Needs more bots, less plots

Rating: 3/10 (12 January 2008)

Why does a film supposedly about giant, warring robots spend literally 2/3rds of its time following around a dozen boring, nameless humans?
Why are there two metric tons of "plot" (read: frustratingly unfocused dialog mostly involving things unrelated to giant, warring robots) standing between the viewer and every decent action scene?
This is bloody >>Transformers<< not Days of our Lives. Make with the intergalactic robot battles already.
Sorry, but after the ridiculously awesome introduction I was all charged up for action-film history. Instead the movie stops... dead... for over an hour, while minute after long minute is spend developing countless characters who all somehow still come off as one-note and hollow.
Toss in a painfully lame slapstick sequence set in the main character's back yard (I don't buy the "it's a kid's movie" defense. Nobody young enough to think that scene is funny would have made it past the brutal introduction without bursting into tears.) and you've got a disappointing mess of a Blockbuster.
I recommend borrowing the DVD from your friend, watching the opening Middle East sequence, then hitting "stop" and going to do something else.