I bit the bullet and saw AOE despite all the terrible reviews, all the way through I was trying to figure out how it could be worse than ROTF and yet I never got there. So after just watching it I can't decide if it's the 2nd best film or the 3rd best film. I'm not sure like would be the correct word, but I didn't hate it either, and I was expecting too. Maybe it's because I lowered my expectations majorly.
Pro's:
Autobots I could actually tell apart who actually do things and had a few lines, and aside from Brains (who is small anyway) none of them vanished half way through the film. Aside from Prime they were all cartoon characters, but that's arguably more than Movie Sideswipe ever was.
3 actors who actually had charisma.
No Shia
Lockdown, first ever interesting live action movie TF villain.
I could actually make out the combatants in several battles
Autobots (aside from Prime) were less blood(energon) thirsty than previous films when fighting.
Prime had a story arc (small as it was).
Less crass humour, no one pulled their pants down
Some interesting threads left open for future films.
US military didn't steal the show.
Less human characters, slightly more robot action
Cons (not the good kind)
Too Long
The last 10-15 minutes made no sense whatsoever.
The walking along the anchor scene.
The Vehicons silly transformations, and yet somehow they can still be pulled apart when in robot mode.
Once again a tow truck saves the day.
The usual Bayisims
Bumblebee (kill him and replace him with Hotshot or Hotrod already)
Neutral:
The Dinobots, they only appeared in a small portion of the film and never spoke and as so were not really characters. On the other hand they never spoke and showed themselves to be total asses. And I kinda liked their design more than I thought I would. The jury on them for me is out till I see if they return in the next film.