Some old school things needed....

Rating: 5/10 (19 July 2011)

First, I've been a long time Transformers fan, and fan is putting it lightly. I still have my original Optimus Prime from 1984, along with many other now collectible Transformer figures. In 2007, I was extremely excited to be watching a live action adaptation of the cartoons. All in all, the three movies together are entertaining. This comes from growing up with the original generation one cartoons and toys. To see Optimus Prime and the others interacting with real people is great.
Having said that, all three movies could've been so far beyond what they were with just some simple additions and it wouldn't have involved in depth plots or severely extensive action scenes. I'm used to watching the bots in simple block form. I completely understand that if it were possible in real life for a vehicle to convert to robot form, it would be an extremely intricate robot. As far as size goes, many others have disagreed with the size of Bumblebee and some other bots. I get that money makes the movie and sponsors get a certain say in what goes into certain elements of the movie. But GM getting the rights to the vehicle choices was a mistake. I like the Corvette concept being added but name him Tracks instead of Sideswipe. In the original series, there were all different makes and models: VW (Bumblebee), Porsche (Jazz), Lamborghini (Sideswipe & Sunstreaker) just to name a few. Could they seriously not have a New Beetle to represent Bumblebee? In the cartoons, Bumblebee was tiny, barely coming up to Optimus' waste line. It was great to see tiny Bumblebee whipping some decepticon butt in the cartoons. It would've been equally impressive to see in live action. Sideswipe was a Countach but would've been outstanding as a red Aventador. I will however, give the creators credit for adding in Ferrari and Mercedes to the mix. As far as the decepticons go, it was rumored that Soundwave was to be a SUV full of speakers and he instead got stuffed into a SLS AMG. Someone added in a comment about showing Lazerbeak and Soundwave together in one very brief clip. The scene where Soundwave transforms, kicks Sam out and keeps the girl locked up and Lazerbeak comes out of nowhere - how hard would it have been to have Soundwaze open his trunk and eject out Lazerbeak? Shockwave was an awesome addition in #3 but something as simple as him transforming into a massive tripod gun (his form in the cartoon) to shoot Optimus off of the crane would've been a very distinctive touch to set him apart from being just another robot (which is what he was in the movie). I truly liked Starscream's look as a F-22 but he was the leader of a fighter squadron. Give us Thundercracker and Skywarp with some generation 1 colors to set them apart. The creator's could've got away with this simply by adding them with little or no lines because they didn't talk much in the cartoons either. Another very simple addition to the movies should've been the distinctive transformation sound from the cartoons. The sound that Blackout made in #1 when he landed at the military base and Bumblebee's last transformation in #3, needed to be used every single time, not just once per movie.
Someone out there, please please please buy out the movie rights to Transformers and do the series the right way. Transformers is based off of.......Transformers, not Sam Witwicky. Take out his love life and all the government stuff and you've got about a hour of screen time total in all three movies. It shouldn't be human movies with robots thrown in. It should be robot movies with humans thrown in. A little human story building in movie #1 would've been OK just to show how the autobots befriended Sam. I guess I sort of understand the need for a female cast member to act as Sam's girlfriend....please do away with supermodels going for an everyday run-of-the-mill suburban teen. If you insist on having a female supporting actress, add a more normal looking and better acting female. Megan Fox is a horrible actress. Rosey Huntington was much better but still way too over the top for that part. Transformers has incredible potential as a movie franchise. All three movies were blockbusters and I really did enjoy all three movies. If I wasn't a die-hard Transformer fan, I truly think I would not have enjoyed any of them.
On the very short plus list for this movie, I did enjoy some new additions to the movies. Finally someone decided it was a good idea to give Optimus a trailer, and decided further to add the original graphic to the side. However brief it was, they did show Lazerbeak landing on Soundwave's arm. They gave Shockwave one eye and large frame. These little additions and my love for Transformers is why this movie gets a 5 out of 10.
Again, someone out there please rectify this situation if there are going to be more movies. It's little things not big things that make a difference.