Transformed too far....

Rating: 5/10 (9 August 2007)

Initially, when I heard of a Transformers movie being created, I had low hopes. For some reason this year, I gave way to reason, and developed high hopes. My recent turn around appears to have been in vain. Transformers has been transformed too far beyond the original story/concept.
The Transformers movie is simply....
(1) The most fantastic piece of CGI work I have ever seen.
(2) Excellent action.
(3) Worthless story. Does not respect G1 series as Bay claimed it would. The main keys of the original series G1 story(from G1 series to movie to G1 after movie series) were far superior to anything that Bay can conceive apparently. So why try to reinvent it?
(4) Extremely poor characterization. In fact, what character developments exists beyond some of the human characters? Perhaps Bay intended for the fans to remember the characterization from the original series and movie. However, this can not work, as the story/history is completely changed in this new movie. Nothing(except for some names and very basic appearances, and some silly catch lines) is the same.
The movie seems to be about humans and the problems of Earth because of the Transormers arrival, not about the Transformers themselves. A substantial portion of the movie in the beginning is entirely about a human's life (Sam) without introducing Transformer characterization.
I am convinced that Bay should never be allowed to direct another film in entirety after seeing this. He is a 1st class action director. I think that he should be brought in specifically for action scenes, but not for an entire film.
This movie was far too long. After about an hour and a half, I only remained seated because I was with another person. I just wanted the movie to end after that point. Don't get me wrong, I love long movies. Long movies with entertaining stories/plots. For *pure* comedy and *pure* action, the shorter the better in my book.
I am not a hardcore TF fan that can tell you everything that happened in every EP of the series. But I was a fan when I was a kid and owned quite a few of the toys at that time. I remember most of the key plot points of the G1 story arc. For me, to see this extreme deviation from I remember was just another black eye on the film. But, I realize that Hollywood movies rarely follow the original story arc of what they were based upon. I don't know why this is true, however. I can understand editing out parts for time content of what can be shown in a short time. I can not understand changing everything for the mere purpose of changing everything.
I will give the film 5 stars. But for me, the star rating is linear. 5 is a 50 percent mark. It means this movie is halfway between horrible and excellent. Absolute middle of the road. Mediocre. I usually find no entertainment value, personally, in mediocre films.