The writing is downright atrocious, I am surprised that this same team of Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman was also responsible for the Star Trek restart. The screenplay throws character after character at you, scarcely taking the time to even give them names, much like X-Men: Last Stand and X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Throw in some explosions, a finale that doesn't really feel like a finale (save for a somber voice over inviting another sequel), and you have your movie.
On top of the lack of story (despite a two and a half hour run time) there is a disturbing amount of off-color (not cursing so much, but definitely unclean) language that is not necessary. I understand they are trying to court the teen crowd, but this is not what the Transformers are about (the same issue afflicted Land of the Lost). Why is it necessary to resort to this? It isn't funny, appeals to the lowest common denominator, and is not true to the source material.
The characters are shallow, one-dimensional, and do not inspire me to care about them. Whether or not that is due to the writing or the acting is up in the air — it's probably some combination of the two. You can throw as many explosions and effects shots as you want at me, if the story is not compelling, I will not care.
I particularly enjoy how the events of the first film have seemingly been ignored. In particular, it seems that no one saw the complete destruction that went down in the first movie, a government cover-up was successful, and the possibility of alien robots has been relegated to conspiracy sites. What? I understand a desire to cover things up, but this is ridiculous. Also, couldn't the Autobots have a better "base" than an empty hangar where they just sit around? I mean, they possess advanced technology that I am sure could be used to better their Decepticon hunting. This is essentially the creative team deciding not to use their characters in favor of making sure we see all the GM and Chevrolet cars. Makes sense to me.
I have something important I want you all to know: "bigger" and "more" are not the words that should be used when developing a sequel. I know this is a common formula, and there is nothing wrong with making it bigger, but you need to focus on the story and let the action and everything else sprout organically from the tale. This sequel seems to be more about cramming in more robots and more action any way possible.
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