DOTM will dazzle and disappoint in equal measures.

Rating: 1/10 (28 June 2011)

The question you have to ask yourself is, "Do I like Transformers?". If its no then this film is not going to appeal to you , so don't watch this movie. If its yes, your going to find it a little harder to like them after this one.
Now you didn't have to care about Transformers to like the first movie. There was a good balance between all elements in the 1st movie, whether that be humans fighting, conspiracy theories, humour, action, etc. It was an excellent introduction the 'Robots in Disguise'. It appealed to a broad demographic.
The second got a bit out of balance, but still had the spectacle of Transformers in action. Doing what they do best, Transforming. They also had some character traits about them. Dialogue was somewhat expositional for the robots, but there was enough screen time given for them to expand upon their personalities. There was even more emphasis on the humans.
By this, the 3rd film, there is an assumption that you 'know' the Robots. Not 'care', but 'know'. Whereas in the previous films, despite any shortcomings they have, a relationship is built up between robots humans and most importantly audience. To a point where you care for Bumblebee, Optimus, Ratchet, et al. You may even feel sorry for Megaton, when he gets his face punched off by Prime. You possibly hated the twins, but at least there was something there that made you do that.
Not in this film. So much MORE time is given to the humans, that the Robots are just background characters. From the brilliant opening, and Shockwaves introduction, that's about as much bona-fide Transformer action as you get. And when I mean 'action', I want to see Transformers TRANSFORMING, (clues in the title) which you hardly get in this movie.
I wanted to see Shockwave TRANSFORM, which he doesn't, he just rides that gimmicky snake thing (briefly) which has more screen time than all of the robots put together.
I wanted to see how Prime combines with his trailer more , which he doesn't ( is that a spoiler?), he just 'appears' in mid air to take out the snake thing.
I wanted to see the abilities of the Wreckers TRANSFORM and do 'stuff', maybe do an impromptu race, to make use of the Daytona car modes, because its just seems arbitrary to have them in this movie as they are written.
Or maybe just so the Wreckers have some screen time instead of being abruptly introduced and do some plot shifting. Oh, if only the internet rumours were true of them being rednecks, at least there would be something to complain about.
All the hope of the you-tube videos for the filming in Chicago has amounted to zero time for actual TRANSFORMERS. You get lots of the protoformer things and when there is a glimmer of hope that you may see an awesome TRANSFORMATION (a la Devastators in ROTF) you getnothing.
'Q' and 'Dino', (oh yes they do call them that, sigh) have little to zero time to develop character and they have so much potential, yet are woefully wasted. I can only assume that there has been important cuts made to this film to include MORE humans running around. Also if the humans are that good at taking out robots, whats the point in the Autobots anyway?
It just gets puzzling why there's even Transformers in this movie at all, as they seem to get in the way of humans messing around. Yeah there's some humour from the reliable John Tutorro, the cast is actually good enough to carry the plot, but I came see a movie about Transformers doing their thing. Instead they seem to inexplicably 'morph' more in this film, such as laser beak, which is completely contradictory to what Bay intended (and succeeded ) for the first two.
Alright, from a fan perspective it s going to be the hardest one to like (yes even over ROTF) simple because we need to 'connect' to love or hate the robots. It means they need some screen time to develop personality and connect with the audience. Or be in situations that demonstrates a robots characteristic traits.
For example, what's the point of Sentinel Prime changing into a beautiful fire truck (did he 'scan' one on the moon?) if he doesn't put out fires? Silly as it may seem, the audience needs to buy into this characters 'heroism' 100% for the plot twist to really have emotional gravity. They need to be convinced of his loyalty. They need to know his relationship with Optimus Prime.
On Cybertron we should have seen the Primes fight side by side, but we don't. So as a consequence, the ending has less impact, despite the expositional dialogue between them.
The oversight of this poor scripting isn't so bad on established characters but on new, or legendary transformers, its unforgivable.
It even seems at times that the plot itself gets in the way of Humans. So much so that Megatron has less screen time than the first two films and gives no explanation for why he is a tanker, or why he likes campfires and cooking pork 'n' beans.
DOTM will dazzle and disappoint in equal measures. True, it has spectacular 3D visuals, its has the 'action' scenes' , a twisty plot, (big!) references to the original cartoon and some intriguing allegories.
It has the all hallmarks of a summer blockbuster. Production values are very high. You may even enjoy the film for what it is. But, if you didn't see the other films, you won't understand what's going on, and even if you did, you wont understand why its turned out this way. It looks like someone lost their way with the underling theme of TRANSFORMERS, that being ROBOTS IN DISGUISE.
Nerd rage over!