Needs a bit of work....

Rating: 7/10 (23 June 2009)

For starters I enjoyed the film... mostly. There are just a few issues that really stood out in my mind after the screening.
I would have to say that the film makers must have decided to ignore geography. We the audience are not stupid. I know that it is a movie, but when you make a movie that takes place in the "Real World" you can't exit or enter a building in one city and all of a sudden be in a totally different "obvious" location. Or even time of day for that matter, without some sort of explanation.
On top of the lack of correctly placing world landmarks in the proper geographical locations and distances, there was a serious sense of forced humor. In the first film the humor was just there, it fit... in this film it's forced on you and feels a bit off-putting. Transformers 1 (2007) and for the most part this film, depicts the Decepticons as a serious threat to mankind and tries to take it seriously. That makes the dialog for some of the characters need to really be re-written. It didn't fit with the overall feel of the films.
In addition, I noticed throughout the film that several sequences ended or were somewhat out of order without being explained... It left me asking, "whatever happened to so and so?", or "Why did they say that?". I could understand if those were the parts in a film that would be answered in a sequel... but these weren't those types of situations.
Also, in the first film each transformer was unique. I could not tell who was who in Transformers 2. I was really hoping to see somewhat recognizable characters. It almost seemed like they did a bit of cut and paste to fill some sequences. I thought I even saw characters used in Transformers 1 that had been killed off It made me wonder "did they get brought back and if so when and how?" It did make for more action on screen, but I could have dealt with less and still been okay with it.
I think with a few additional scenes that explain certain situations as well as a re-edit and a bit of re-scripting (can you say "re-scripting the Twins"), I could give this a 10. It was good... The fight scenes were cool. I am probably going to see it another time to see if I missed anything... but, it could be SO much better with a little more work.
Go see it and let me know what you think of it.