The Writer's Strike SINKS full potential for the franchise

Rating: 5/10 (12 July 2014)

What a way to shoot yourself in the foot. Dive bombing so much promise into an eternity of hatred; instantly switching a blooming franchise into a notorious cluster of nonsense.
With Decepticon leader Megatron disposed of, the Autobots receive reinforcements and team up with human soldiers to hunt down the remaining Decepticons. But little do they know that an ancient Decepticon, known as The Fallen, seeks to destroy Earth. Sam, a college freshman now, holds the key to The Fallen's final plan. Or something like that.
Okay, so I will be honest... this film is deplorable. A fine line divides what I consider good (the 2007 film) and this, and it mostly comes down to a tragically misaligned screenplay. Scenes come and go, no build up, no tension, no anticipation, no reason, and this mash lasts for over one-hundred and fifty minutes! The reason for this is simple; during the film's development and production there was a strike at the screenwriter's guild. Lead writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman only had a premise before filming began (that's right, no script) so a third writer, Ehren Kruger, was called in to start work on the film. Plus, Michael Bay himself worked on the script, story and even design of some robots. They also had no plans for a sequel to begin with since Transformers '07 was a bigger hit than expected, and a release date barely more than a year after conception was far too optimistic. Need I say more?
A lot of people don't appreciate how Bay's influence here is much greater than in the first film, or all of these production problems, and ultimate condemn all three films to be equal to its worst part. This part.
This film should be the darker turn in the series: the Decepticons are here and want revenge but no... RotF is packed with unnecessary characters, scenes and a surreal focus on all the wrong things. Terrible comedic turns, cool characters are ignored for unbearable racist stereotypes, character development that bears no emotional impact. The script is noisy and repetitive and the editing is ugly (did I mention that Bay actually re-uses footage, including some from the first film!) You could argue, as I have in the past, that this is Transformers! It is silly and it is a cartoon for kids, it shouldn't mean anything. But there's being entertaining, and then there's being obnoxious.
The film still looks good. The opening battle in Shanghai is awesome and feels like a good start to the continuation of the series, the robots are fifty-fifty of good and bad designs outside of the returning characters (some of them are very creative looking). It was wonderful to see Ravage in live action, and I am one of the few who liked Jetfire and Soundwave. Sadly though the climax of the movie is far too messily shot to feel rewarding and the worst crime of all: we barely see the Transformers actually transform. Unlike the first film, this one doesn't glorify it with any scenes tailored specifically for transformations.
I was disappointed even upon the first viewing, and though I still say the Transformers themselves redeem some of its awfulness, the more I watch it... the more I get tired of the rife Bay-isms. At best this is a guilty pleasure, more than the other films in the series.