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Autobots (the pros):
- Peter Cullen is the best casted person in the entire franchise. He is Optimus and forever will be in my mind. He has voiced him ever since the 1984 show. A couple other people have too, but he is my Prime like Heath Ledger is most people’s Joker. Josh Duhamel, Anthony Anderson, and John Turturro are a few of my favorite castings.
- I consider the fight scenes the best thing throughout the movie. The Barricade-Bumblebee car chase and the Megatron-Optimus fight are done well and are the best two fight scenes; however, I wish that we got to see Bee fight Barricade more than what they showed. I know Michael Bay gets so much hate for having everything blow up, but he is a go big or go home type guy with these giant robots, and I do not think that smaller scaled explosions would do overly well.
- I find the humor to be in the grey area. There are some good jokes and some bad ones.
- They do try to make the human characters relatable. There are parts of each character that hit me harder than when I saw this movie ten years ago (age of 10/11). A lot of people think that their writing is terrible, but I think there are real parts of them that are believable. There could have been more improvement on this subject though.
- Something new. The giant robot genre is rather small and not many movies had been made for since the late 90’s so I give everyone involved the credit they deserve especially the visual effects (VFX) artists!!
Decepticons (the cons):
- Bad production in some scenes. The first one I noticed was the first car scene with Mikaela and Sam. If you look to either side you can tell they are on a studio set because of the white background. The second production flaw is when Mikaela opens Bee’s hood. His first look is crummy and rusty, but the stripes are looking rather nice and obviously a newer model Camaro.
- I really think some of the human characters were a total waste or they could have reduced the screen time. For example, I do not think the Pentagon people needed a lot of it. The writers would have been better off-putting more time into the Autobots/Decepticons or Lennox and his squadron.
- Some of the humor was bad and seemed childish or not that well written. However, even in comedies, some jokes are never written that well.
Favorite quotes:
- “Freedom is the right of all sentient beings” – Optimus Prime/Peter Cullen
- “No sacrifice, no victory” – Witwicky motto, Shia LeBeouf, Kevin Dunn, &
William Morgan Sheppard
- “They’re a primitive and violent race” – Ironhide, Jess Harnell
- “Humans don’t deserve to live.” – Megatron/Hugo Weaving
- “They deserve to choose for themselves!” – Optimus/Cullen
- “One shall stand, one shall fall” – Prime/Cullen
Ratings:
7.5/10, B+, 4/5 GM
Synopsis
We see a giant Cube (All Spark) floating amidst in space with an Optimus Prime (Peter Cullen) voice over giving us an idea on how the Transformers were created. For the next few minutes, we are introduced to Captain William Lennox (Josh Duhamel), USAF Tech Sergeant Robert Epps (Tyrese Gibson), ACWO Jorge “Fig” Figueroa (Amaury Nolasco), and a few other soldiers in a Qatar U.S. military base who are fleeing from the Decepticon attack caused Blackout and Scoponok. They end up in a small village in which they are given air support and realize that high-powered saber rounds melt the metal.
Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) is telling his class about his distant grandfather, Captain Archibald Amundsen Witwicky (William Morgan Sheppard) and how he sailed around the Arctic Circle. He and his father, Ron (Kevin Dunn), 
go to a Porsche car dealership, but he was too cheap and would not pay over $4,000 USD. They end up going to a very used dealership and buy an old Camaro who would later be known as Bumblebee (Mark Ryan). Ron’s wife, Judy (Julie White), believes that he should have bought a higher priced car. Sam and Miles go to a party at a lake, and Sam gives his crush, Mikaela Banes (Megan Fox), a ride home since she dumped her boyfriend. They will go onto “discovering” the robotic race after Sam’s encounter with Barricade (Jess Harnell) who was looking for Captain Witwicky’s glasses. These glasses had the location (Hoover Dam) inscribed on the lenses since Captain Witwicky triggered Megatron’s (Hugo Weaving) navigational system. Barricade and Bee go on a car chase and fight while Sam and Mikaela deal with Frenzy (Reno Wilson) who transforms to Mikaela’s phone and is the key player for the Decepitcons finding the All Spark.
They meet up with Prime, Ratchet (Robert Foxworth), Ironhide (Jess Harnell), and Jazz (Darius McCrary) for the first time. Prime tells them that they need the glasses so the Decepticons do not destroy the planet like they did to Cybertron. Sam leads them all to 
his house, but is taken by Agent Simmons and other Sector Seven agents. After a brief rumble, Bee saves Sam and Mikaela from falling off Optimus and all are taken to the Hoover Dam. Optimus and the others retrieve the glasses and quickly head to the same place, unknowingly.
The last set of human characters are from the United States Pentagon and the unknown agency Sector Seven. Defense Secretary John Keller (Jon Voight), Maggie Madsen (Rachael Taylor), Glen Whitman (Anthony Anderson), Tom Banacheck (Michael O’Neill), and Agent Seymour Simmons (John Turturro) are the main characters for this human arc. This is where I think they should have shown less material. They did not add much or any weight to the movie. 
Maggie steals classified audio document and takes it to Glen who are found by the FBI. These two meet Sam and Mikaela on a helicopter ride in the latter half of the movie. Simmons, Def. Sec. Keller, Glen, and Maggie stay at the dam and get the U.S. air force to help the Autobots defend the Cube, however, Frenzy does not make it easy for them because he called for Starscream (Charlie Adler), Bonecrusher (Jimmie Wood), Barricade, and Brawl.
They all head to Mission City where they thought would be the best place to hide the Cube’s radiation. Megatron kills Jazz and Starscream injures Bee’s legs. Sam runs away from the fight to save the All Spark even though Megatron is hot on his tail. Sam is saved by Optimus, and he holds the Cube up to Megatron’s chest. Optimus, Ratchet, and Ironhide go to work with Lennox and Epps while Bee’s wish is to “stay with the boy.”
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