Watched it last night, and it was TOTALLY SUPERB from start to finish. If only the original DVD would come out sooner.........
It's clear that not many people are too happy with how Transformers turned out, but personally, I felt the movie was extremely good because you could plainly AND definitely see the effort that went into making it. Sure, almost all the Autobots and Decepticons differed entirely from their classic counterparts (fanboys' main gripe), but we have to be realistic and get with the times. How would a classic VW Beetle, Walther semi-automatic or a Martini Porsche possibly fit into today's world? I guess the very least that could be done to please all would be for them to turn into more updated versions of their representative vehicles, like Jazz transforming into a 911 Turbo (997) for instance. That would be so radical. Flat-nose trucks are still in comission till this day, but I find Optimus' new look to be quite refreshing. Maybe he could have done better as a Mercedes-Benz Actros, as a homage to his classic G1 look?
The battle scenes were breathtaking. 'Nuff said. I just couldn't get enough of the 3-way fight between Ironhide, Ratchet and Devastator. It was simply divine. But I do wish that Optimus' and Megatron's grand finale could have been longer and more.......involving. It was just too short, but awesome none the less. You also gotta love the brawl between Optimus and Bonecrusher. Sadly, the same can't be said of Starscream and Barricade, my two most anticipated bots. They had marvellous chase scenes, but I'd like to see more of them in combat.
I only have 2 major gripes on the movie. Firstly, it had some rather.......unnecessary trash talk. I couldn't help but notice viewers got a little tired when Sam was bantering with his parents during the earthquake. The scenes involving the female hacker and her friend were hilarious though. Gotta love the facial expression on the guy's face when he got chased by the police.
The 2nd major (and I mean, REALLY MAJOR) gripe: Jazz's shocking death. Maybe it's just me, but I just couldn't believe it when I saw Jazz killed by Megatron so quickly but did very little combat. You couldn't possibly imagine the look on my face when Ratchet carried Jazz in his arms and proclaimed him dead. Since the days of the G1, I personally found Jazz to be one the most lovable and interesting of all TFs. And to watch him getting creamed by Megatron.......man, I really, really hope he'll be resurrected in the sequel (as a 911 Turbo, of course).
Overall, Transformers is a MUST WATCH, because it could very well be the greatest movie of the year. Perhaps I may sound a little biased, since I'm a big TF fan, but I can vouch that anyone who watches this show would at least feel the money had been well-spent.
P.S: Whatever happened to Barricade? He's my new favourite character, although he's a bad guy.

I even venture to say that one of the main reasons I watch TF is to see him in action.