Alright, alright, my bad! I just assumed they had more time because the Mars teaser trailer came out SUPER early for that movie...I dunno, I wasn't a fan yet back then!
It's cool, it's cool. But anyways, I guess that's what happens when you have these human like designs; it makes it very difficult to actually make a transformation scene. It's all really funny, because if you read some of the stuff about the making of the first film, they wanted to stray away from these more human like designs, to keep them "alien like". Oh, how time flies, lol.
You seem to be forgetting that there is FAR LESS Transformers screen time in the first one. And far less Transformer characterization in the other movies compared to AoE. They animators can only do so much with the time they have. So you may have to get "lazy" transformations in order to get some Decepticon interactions, sounds like a good trade off to me.
Your reasoning falls apart when we realize the fact that there are quick, quality transformer scenes in the third film, such as the two lockdown transformations, Bumblebee's transformation while crashing into KSI headquarters, Drift's two transformations (KSI headquarters and in the desert), OP's highway transformation (though they did pan away), Bumblebee's transformation when he kicks lockdown, Grimlock's two transformations (though there was a little bit of BSing there) and OP's two evasion mode transformations. Your reasoning also falls apart when we realize the fact that RotF's budget was only $10 million less than AoE, and RotF actually was literally running out of money because the long forest fight scene was so expensive. So again, "more TF screentime" is no excuse for lazy editing.
It very simply is the designs which don't allow quality trasnformations. You cannot do much with it so we're just gonna have to accept it. Bumblebee and Hot Rod's transformations are good, and The WW1 tank's. But they have the more og trilogy designs so that's why.
No it doesn't. the point is time and money. Also, AoE is the 4th film, and I'm sure lots of people will tell you about the lack of "real" transformations in that movie. How so? It's not an excuse for editing, it's simple fact. The animators only have so much time and money for animating so they have to cut corners here and there. That's why there is so much shaky cam action in the first movie and why we never seen Optimus transform from robot into truck.