When did Bay fire the editor?

Rating: 7/10 (8 July 2007)

Overall, I liked the film, but instead of a 7, this could easily be an 8-8.5. There are so many pointless scenes in this movie that are supposed to be "developing characters" but the majority of them are so awful and awkward, you're more wondering why the heck they were included rather than learning about the characters.
There are long, extended sequences with Megan Fox and Shia LeBouf that drag on unconscionably long. The sequences with the hackers are abysmal, as well. That whole story arc has almost no bearing on the film, and the most annoying part of it all is that the development of the Transformers was sacrificed in order to develop an abundance of useless characters.
Forgiving the plot holes and other weirdness (Why would the Secretary of Defense be constantly addressing the nation in a time of crisis?) the movie's decent.
I really wish Bay would have tossed far fewer "Oh look, nobody noticed the GIANT CG ROBOT IN FRONT OF ME" sequences and slowed down the robot fighting sequences so you could possibly see what the heck was going on. In nearly every sequence, all you can see is, "Oh, there's a mass of metal." If Bay would have cut the hackers, and trimmed the some of the awkward character sequences this would be a fine 1 3/4 hour film with some nicely fleshed out Transformers, with more than 4 lines to differentiate explain why the Autobots were not jerks, and that the Decepticons were.
Also, the lips do look weird.