Addressing the complaints

[Crazy_88s]

Now, everytime i've heard a complaint about this movie, it varies from any of the following: it was sad, the transformers don't look anything like they did in G1, Frank Welker didn't voice Megatron, the characters were stereotypes, we didn't see any Transformers for the most part of the movie, most of the movie was just a bunch of humans, the humor was off-color, the plot sucked, Michael Bay ruined my childhood!

Well, the thing is I can address all those complaints. First off, during all three screenings of The Transformers I attended, the audience enjoyed the movie immensely. They cheered, clapped and laughed at all the right places. I recognized their response and my response as genuine. What I mean by that is we didn't force our own enjoyment, the movie actually elicited the correct response. I don't think a movie that entertained the general public THAT much could ever be considered "sad".
Second off, let me turn the question around and ask you why should the characters look like they did in G1? Things change in 23 years, and one thing that should most certainly change is character design. As for Frank Welker not voicing Megatron, that was an artistic decision and it's hard to know if his voice would or would not have worked for the film, we will never know.
In G1, the characters were stereotypes too if you'll recall. Optimus was the model noble leader of the autobots, Jazz was voiced by a black guy(Scatman Crothers), and Ironhide was a tough, trash-talking weapon wielding bad-ass. Let's face it, every character we love is a stereotype anyways, from Eric Cartman to Bart Simpson, there has been such a huge differentiation of characters since the dawn of cinema that it's hard not to make your characters into stereotypes. That may not sound like much of an excuse, but for an action picture that doesn't need a whole bunch of unnecessary dialog to clutter the film, it should certainly be adequate.
You know, drama exerts its impact by virtue of what we don't see. Paintings have no sound or movement, music has no image. In this way, if we saw nothing but Transformers for the whole film, it would have gotten boring very fast. The charm of Transformers is that they exercise an implicit presence throughout the film. We may not see them throughout the whole movie, but people are always either talking about them or investigating something that has to do with them. In any case, the Transformers always have some kind of presence in every scene, even if it's not visual.
As for the humor, well yes I admit it was off-color and inappropriate at times but I suppose that's also part of the charm of the movie. It's unusual and unexpected, so in a strange way it's a very minor stroke of brilliance. It was part of the films effort to make the statement "This film is unlike anything that has been seen before".
The plot wasn't that great, yes but what would you prefer? Something intricately woven and barely perceptible to the average movie-goer? I mean hell this is an action movie, and at the first day of action movie school directing, lesson one is "Focus on the action, minimize plot". In my opinion, there was actually more of a plot to the movie than even I was expecting, so I don't see much sense in complaining about it.
As for Michael Bay ruining your childhood, I think the best answer is "grow up". Things change over 20 years, and some things change on a huge scale in that incredible gap of a time period. I was unsure about this movie too before it came out, but from what I understand, most people who are Transformers G1 devotees hated the movie for the wrong reasons. They are not about ready to open their minds to my or any other positive opinion. That is where the true sadness comes from because from what I saw on the screen, Michael Bay did as great a job as any other director who might have worked on the movie. Now I'm going to ask you a question... if you had no idea Michael Bay directed... would you be bitching at all about this movie? I honestly don't think you would be. Now, if it makes you feel better to call me a Troll, go ahead on(it's your move). My goal here is not more argument though, I am only posting this in an attempt(no matter how pathetic it may be perceived) to enlighten. That's all. Thank you for your time and attention.

[Bob]

Wait, they made Transformers into a movie?!?!?!   

Always good to see a fan stick up for his movie.

[bettertomorrowamy]

I don't think you're a troll....I just never want to see your dvd collection, or come over to your house to watch a great movie you discovered.
Also, why do you need to combine all your Transformers defenses from all your posts into one post?  Are you writing a book?

[Brimmstone]

  Are you writing a book?

Maybe just a manifesto.

[Crazy_88s]

I don't think you're a troll....I just never want to see your dvd collection, or come over to your house to watch a great movie you discovered.
Also, why do you need to combine all your Transformers defenses from all your posts into one post?  Are you writing a book?

I wish I had the patience to write a book, then I could actually make some damn money.

[bettertomorrowamy]

Well if you get some patience, make sure you ok your book with the corporate entities that control the rights to Transformers.  You don't want to get sued like that Harry Potter Uber-fanboy.

[Crazy_88s]

Well if you get some patience, make sure you ok your book with the corporate entities that control the rights to Transformers.  You don't want to get sued like that Harry Potter Uber-fanboy.

Trust me, nobody takes the issue of copyright infringement more seriously than me. Nevertheless, your advice is appreciated. Thank you. 

[Fuzzy Necromancer]

Actually, those aren't my main complaints.

My complaints include the somewhat dead-end subplots, and the shmarmy scene with the soldier type waving to his wife and kid at home. "Oh yeah, it's a lucky thing there's no possibility I could be killed, leaving this cute kid fatherless. I'm in a lonely outpost in a hostile environment in the midst of an unfriendly land, far from help or allies, and in a job where my most basic and fundamental task is to get shot at. What could possbily go wrong? How could I conceivably get hurt or killed?"

...that bit bugs me ><

There were some bits I thought could have used some elaboration. Why did robots basically go psycho when animated by the allspark? If it turns any mechanical substance into a robot, then how could they channel it's energy through a mass of electronics and circuitry without all the channeling circuits turning into ragin' robots like mountain dew-tron?

On the whole, I found the movie enjoyable. I just still have some quips with it.

[Crazy_88s]

There were some bits I thought could have used some elaboration. Why did robots basically go psycho when animated by the allspark? If it turns any mechanical substance into a robot, then how could they channel it's energy through a mass of electronics and circuitry without all the channeling circuits turning into ragin' robots like mountain dew-tron?
On the whole, I found the movie enjoyable. I just still have some quips with it.

Personally, I could do without more long-winded explanations. I mean why did Dave Bowman age so quickly turn into a star child? Why did Khan never take off that other glove? The truth is it doesn't matter, what i've always enjoyed since I was a kid was making up my own stories, my own explanations for why things happened the way they did. To have it all explained to us is what makes something dry and pointless. I mean look at 2010: The Year we make contact. Sure it was a good movie but it took away all the mystery behind everything that occurred in 2001: A Space Odyssey.

[Fuzzy Necromancer]

I dunno. There is such a thing as tasteful, deliberate ambiguity, and then there is just lack of sufficient explanation. Films like "A Space Oddessy" are meant to be trippy and ambivalent. I'll admit it's not crucial to the plot to know why the big robotic arm that channels allspark energy doesn't turn into a transformer but the cell phone does, however, it'd be nice to know, and it's not a point that inspires a great deal of wonder and mystery. Rather it inspires mild irritation.

[Crazy_88s]

I dunno. There is such a thing as tasteful, deliberate ambiguity, and then there is just lack of sufficient explanation. Films like "A Space Oddessy" are meant to be trippy and ambivalent. I'll admit it's not crucial to the plot to know why the big robotic arm that channels allspark energy doesn't turn into a transformer but the cell phone does, however, it'd be nice to know, and it's not a point that inspires a great deal of wonder and mystery. Rather it inspires mild irritation.

Perhaps, but I think it's an explanation better left to the novelization.

[Rattrap007]

There were some bits I thought could have used some elaboration. Why did robots basically go psycho when animated by the allspark? If it turns any mechanical substance into a robot, then how could they channel it's energy through a mass of electronics and circuitry without all the channeling circuits turning into ragin' robots like mountain dew-tron?

Ok the explination I heard for that was this:

The had found Megatron buried in the snow and reverse engineered everything technological from it. Everything from toasters to PSPs are a result of technology from Megatron. Since Megatron is the source of evil all the descendants created from him is going to be evil if given a spark. Thus when brought to life they were evil.

[Crazy_88s]

Ok the explination I heard for that was this:
The had found Megatron buried in the snow and reverse engineered everything technological from it. Everything from toasters to PSPs are a result of technology from Megatron. Since Megatron is the source of evil all the descendants created from him is going to be evil if given a spark. Thus when brought to life they were evil.

That's really cool. I'm sure there's also probably a little more exposition in the book... I still haven't gotten around to finishing it yet.

[bettertomorrowamy]

There were some bits I thought could have used some elaboration. Why did robots basically go psycho when animated by the allspark? If it turns any mechanical substance into a robot, then how could they channel it's energy through a mass of electronics and circuitry without all the channeling circuits turning into ragin' robots like mountain dew-tron?

Ok the explination I heard for that was this:

The had found Megatron buried in the snow and reverse engineered everything technological from it. Everything from toasters to PSPs are a result of technology from Megatron. Since Megatron is the source of evil all the descendants created from him is going to be evil if given a spark. Thus when brought to life they were evil.

Doesn't that make all of our technology evil, since supposedly our technological advances were (in the movie) based off of the All-Spark and Megatron?  If so, it makes our culture evil....for shame.

[Crazy_88s]

Doesn't that make all of our technology evil, since supposedly our technological advances were (in the movie) based off of the All-Spark and Megatron?  If so, it makes our culture evil....for shame.

See?! Tolkien was right!