Ok I don't come to the movie forums that often so I don't know if this has already covered so the mods are welcome to delete if this thread is just covering too much old ground.

I finally watched AOE yesterday and I know I was a sleep deprived at the time so I didn't have the greatest concentration span but it dawned on me about half way through that I couldn't seem to tell why all these C.G.I. robots were fighting each other.

I know a straight forward moral to the tail is not always necessary and can even be a hindrance in allowing the viewer to make up their own minds up but this seemed to have loads of different almost contracting right and wrong morals piled up upon each other. An example I can think of is stand by your family no matter what sentiment portrayed in several scene's unless they are your ancient creator then they are probably some Promethean douche and you should shoot off into space in the finale to hunt them down.

I usually find fiction with lots of moral grey a great thing but in this it seemed sloppy and like the creators didn't seem to know why these characters were fighting.

 

Something something family.

 

Do whatever the heck you want, turn your back on paying bills and what big government expects of you, and you'll be rewarded.

 

Humans are like everything else, some or evil sons of bastards others are caring and helpful. Even after all that happened to Prime Cade and the other humans helped him restoring his faith.

 

one's loyalty is & should not be specified by what creed or race one belongs to but the ideals they portend to share.

 

When in doubt, ride a dinosaur.

 

The moral is  

 

This is Transformers, morals are overrated!

 

Sometimes you just gotta kill someone.

 

"Remember, though you may lose faith in yourself we will never lose faith in yo...I'LL KILL YOU ALL!!!!"

 

It's very simple: don't build your own Transformers because a dead evil overlord will possess them all and try to turn you into metal.

 

Or, even if you're the cockiest bastard with the sexiest swagger, the guy with the big sword will always end up slicing you in half.

 

There are quite a few;

1) We don't treat our veterans with the respect they deserve.

2) Progress is good except for when science is scary.

3) Drone warfare is a really bad thing for nasty wasty meany poops.

4) The Iraq war was bad. (Major metropolitan tragedy results in the US government going maverick and deciding to hunt down parties only tangentially related to the parties who orchestrated the attack, it's there)

5) Other extremely confused messages.

I don't know if it's trying to "say" anything. It gets all caught up in the relativist bullshit that so many movies get trapped in today because they're too afraid to really say something. It's just a collection of vague metaphors for things that sort of sound topical, so that vapid, shallow audiences think they're seeing something meaningful.

...

And I liked this one.

 

Children are going to rebel against their parents, and that's good.

 

Evil is not a toy.

 

Oh, another one: if someone thinks they've improved on your style, rip them off and wear it with pride.

 

The government is evil, anyone who is morally ambiguous must die, holocaust is bad, family is good and deserves protecting at all costs, never buy robotics made in china because they are evil as fuck.

 

Take faces now... Ask questions later

 

If someone kills your friends, threaten to kill them, don't, then bisect some dude.

 

Ummm...."Nobody can save you now!It's do or die"