Good film for the average viewer, but fans shouldn't expect much.

Rating: 8/10 (3 August 2007)

I came into the film from a background that involved viewing the wonderful seasons of Beast Wars and some of the original seasons shown on TV. The original animated movie I had seen before and liked it (enough to get it on DVD). So, from this, when I heard of a Transformers non-animated film, I was a bit excited. There is so much lore to work with in the Transformers universe (even if there wasn't 20 years ago) that it's an incredibly viable Sci-Fi world filled with excellent possibilities.
I saw it the day it came out, a while back, but enough time to digest what was truly offered. Instead of going to length in paragraph form, I'll just try to break it down right-quick.
Tantalizing:
-The visual effects are stunning. The CG is incredibly well done (this coming form a discerning eye) and I considered going to see it again just to gaze.
-Basic storyline. The initial premise of the story holds up, if not always done to perfection.
-Some good comedy. There are some bright spots (the cell-phone creature at the lab made me giggle), but most of it is drawn right from Nickelodeon TV shows it seems.
-A decent story and film without exceeding amounts of violence, swearing, or over-the-top sexual intonations (aside from our Heroinness).
-Built for the beginner Transformer fan.
-Action scenes were well done.
Terrible:
-All the humans. This was probably the most disappointing. As much as there needs to be a background story involved, the majority of the movie centers around the cliché romance story between the awkward High-school goof getting the girl. For the Sci-Fi fan like myself who's already vested in the series, I was hoping for the main characters to actually be the Transformers themselves, instead of them acting as side-characters. Some of them were just means to an ends it seems, and some (like Jazz) were so incredibly short lived that I stood in disbelief.
-Too much comedy. At least for my tastes. Granted, I am probably biased from the previous relationship with the series, but when they were pulling bland jokes near the very end I found myself more annoyed than chuckling. There's merit in introducing some to break the tension, but when it's happening every 5 minutes the Sci-Fi punch loses its power.
-The lore. Nothing was done with it. I can honestly say I felt like the Allspark premise has merit, but at the same time it was never developed into anything. It's there, they want it, and in the end it's gone. This is the thing that started their entire civilization, something that offers ultimate power, and we see all of 30 seconds of Cybertron with a brief explanation of the war. It just wasn't enough for me.
-The ending of Megatron was hollow. It was Prime's duel, and making the leader of the Decepticons (which was almost omitted, it seems) fall to such an cheesy tactic made me feel cheated.
I'm not saying it's a poor movie. It has comedy, some action, and fulfills its purpose: to bring the next generation into the franchise.
But for those like myself, who wanted more substance out of the film, I left the theatre feeling a bit empty. I was always waiting for the part where the humans disappear and the Transformers to finally take control of their own movie. I wanted to see fights in space, Cybertron, and I wanted to see depth added to the characters I've come to enjoy along with an engaging storyline for the reasons behind so many unanswered questions left by the movie. What I got was an action film centered around an episode of Even Stevens or Boy Meets World that featured the Transformers.
A good film for the younger kids in the audience, but I only hope that any sequel made will actually be about the Transformers, and not some class clown from the suburbs and his dream-date.