The 1986 film was better. And that had transformers dancing to weird al yankovitch, which says it all really.

Rating: 1/10 (15 December 2007)

Michael Bays toy based block buster is a lot like a transformer itself.On the surface it appears to be a fun action film, but when you sit down to watch it, it transforms into something else- a moronic, product placement pushing remake of independence day, where giant robots replace giant space ships.
Though the transformers franchise has its own universe and mythology, the live action movie throws it all out of the window and replaces it with a mid nineties disaster movie formula: Tons of clichéd, underdeveloped characters, holey and illogical plotting as well as unintentional laughs.
A big problem with the movie is its frustrating sense of priority: the transformers are supposed to be the main attraction of the movie and yet the film devotes most of its time to an annoyingly bloated cast of characters who don't have any real impact over the plot and really aren't worth giving a damn about. The transformers are reduced to being clumsy machines who destroy stuff and say funny one liners which is just wrong because its their movie, not the U.S military's - save that stuff for G.I. Joe !
As to be expected, the visual effects are amazing: the autobots and the decepticons look spectacular. Even when they are doing something as mundane as talking to each other, optimus prime and co look very realistic. As great as the transformers look though, you'll have trouble seeing them at times and that leads to what is unexpectedly but undoubtedly the biggest fault of the movie: the action . Transformers is an ACTION movie based on ACTION figures, directed by an ACTION movie director and yet the films action is surprisingly crappy. The moment it looks like a big battle is gonna kick off, wobbly camera shots and hyper fast ADD editing just distract you from whats going on . Movies like king kong (2005), and Hulk made sure that their action sequences featuring giant battling behemoths were exciting and easy to see- why couldn't transformers do the same thing?
It boggles the mind to think about how badly bay missed the mark on this one.