Pretty good-walking Junkpiles/robocop combo. Worked for me.

Rating: 6/10 (15 July 2007)

Having not grown up w/ the toon or the toys-that was a good 10 years after my time, ya know? I donno 'Barricade' from 'Starscream' from 'Ironhide'. Seriously I don't. Reagan era war-toys ala this and GIJoe etc were just the DIC-studio produced junk Hasbro stuck down kids throats while I was in College. Nothing more, no interest here.
But I do like Michael Bay's movies ala Armageddon and the Rock, so--I thought I would check this out. It really does work more than it doesn't-I liked the set-up of Shia's character, I liked Bumbleboogie there, and it was fun to watch John Voigt doing his crusty politico thing. All well and good.
You can't tell the Bots apart though, to be honest-they DO look like walking junkpiles, save for Prime there. That one I do remember just because. They did a decent job w/ him. The much maligned 'sneaking around the house' bit-that was funny. I liked it, showed some humour and character. They if anything needed to slow things up like this later on so you could follow the action.
And that's where I did have some problems. Megatron/zoid there is a baddie, but not really introed as such the way you'd like. I couldn't tell his cronies apart-if you didn't watch the show as a kid regular, how could you know 'Starscream' or 'Bonecrusher'? One was a copter and one a cop car, I guess.
The fights-really chaotic, lots of action, convincing to a point. You can't tell what robot is doing to the other robot though, it would behoove Bay to pull the camera back some, and for them to be better differentiated next time out. What we got wasn't bad though.
Shia was good, the girl easy on the eyes but a flat actress, Turturro embarrassing but then it IS a broadly etched Toon-based flick we're seeing here, he knew it and there ya be. Bay fills this w/ his trademark familiar faces, names (COL SHARP!), music and sunset-drenched stuff. For the most part it does work.
Do watch it in a theatre to get the full effect, don't expect anything beyond action, some product placement and sledgehammer level 'subtlety' throughout. It's a decent time over-all, sure.
**1/2 outta **** or so, has potential in the sequels to be better.