A step above the first one

Rating: 5/10 (14 September 2009)

That's not saying much mind you. In the original movie the transformers were treated like punching bags and punchlines. No real interaction with the story or other characters at all. This movie, in that respect, is slightly better, but while, in a few scenes, where the transformers are treated like actual characters, this movie also does some really dumb things.
The most glaring example of this added stupidity are the 4chan brothers; twin Autobots that do nothing but talk smack throughout the entire movie. The one scene where they aren't talking smack is so ridiculous, that its not even worth mentioning.
A couple of less impressive moments include a paper-thin Decepticon that somehow manages to hold onto and hide a large chunk of the cube from the first movie, a female Decepticon that transforms into a human female with a three foot prehensile tongue (the tip of which remains as a tongue even when she is in robot form, because the audience is not expected to know what the long appendage reaching from her mouth is referring to), and a tiny Decepticon whose most treacherous act is to hump Megan Fox's leg for far too long. Bumblebee's stupidity was seen in the trailer so it should come as no surprise when he starts bawling like a 3 year old that doesn't get its way.
Also the plot includes finding this key which five Autobot "Primes" died to protect by merely burying it in a pile of rocks and turning their bodies into the shrine which housed it. This "sacrifice" makes absolutely no sense except that Michael Bay needed, for the sake of the final fight, all the other Primes to die so that only Optimus Prime would be left to kill off the Fallen, which only a Prime can kill - its never explained why nothing else can kill this robot. Maybe its like the 4th directive from Robocop, I don't know. This is not a movie you can put a lot of thought into.
There are a couple of good things in this film. Soundwave makes regular appearances as a communications satellite and is never found out during the length of the film - which is surprisingly good writing. Also, Shia Lebouf is far less irritating in this film than he was in the first one, which is a major plus.
All in all, not bad. I was honestly expecting it to be much worse.