I personally feel that while the first film got that feeling more or less correct because the world in the film is still reeling from the idea there are giant fucking robot aliens hiding in plain sight, they completely lost it come ROTF and while DOTM somewhat regained ground, there's no way it got close with "Deep Wang" and the biggest threat of the movie being a giant mechanical worm that goes all Dune on Chicago before Optimus 420 Noscopes it to death. AoE looks closer from the trailer, but from the given information leaks, it's gone about it the wrong way.

Yeah, when it comes to those companies trying the other's schitck, we get crap like Iron Man 3, which...was not good in how all the drama got too heavy handed.

This is why the guys who handle the IDW comics, especially those that got published in comic-pack in toys, should be writing the media. Using Spotlight: Hoist as an example, it's a surprisingly mature story to be given to kids since, among other things, it's revealed the entire planet is actually trying to kill the Autobots in the wrecked ship. And yet it still is full of fun-for-all-ages humor like the "SWERVE: IDOL OF MILLIONS" panel, and then freakin' OverMegaSixWave becomes a thing.


A smart team of writers who understand the content they have can make a simple plot work brilliantly.

Instead, we have Bay, who has always been spectacle over substance.

It should be noted neither of those two films even remotely took themselves seriously and just ran with the silly concepts.

 

What excites me most is that Transformers besides Prime and Megatron/Fallen/Sentinel have lines in the trailer. It seems like we'll get more characterization out of the 'bots than in the first trilogy. I'm crossing my fingers, but right now it looks like a lot of the problems I've had with the first three movies are changing.