The thing is, my response to the movie was on opening day. I had just got back from the screening and hadn't thought over what I just saw. All I recalled was glorious robot action, specifically the battle scene in the forest, which is still a great sequence of shots without any disclaimer applied and a huge sense of scale. However, I eventually did watch the movie a few more times in the theatres, each time my liking for the movie lessened as I wasn't in it for the ride anymore, and instead paid attention. What I paid attention to was a poorly paced, continuity error-ridden, and nonsensical film (although it
is Transformers, nonsensical is expected). I own the movie, but truth be told I haven't watched all of it more than once since I got it. It'll stay on the shelf as a reminder of things gone by.
Also, I just want to make sure it's clear here, I don't believe any of these movies have been good in their character development. In fact, I'd argue that's the worst offender in the franchise. Various robots walk in without saying more than three lines (looking at Jolt in ROTF, dude had like 2 lines, and one was background noise). It's appaling that two movies in that in a franchise about robot war only four have had any real character development (that being Prime, although he was really brutal in ROTF, Bumblebee, Megatron, and to a lesser extent, Starscream).