I was actually happy at some of the G1 nods in the first movie at least. The relationship between Starscream and Megatron is aluded to, 'one shall stand, one shall fall' being 2 that come to mind. For me though it isn't necessarily 'not enough G1' it's that I think a lot of aspects are just crap in general. Lingering shots of boobs and butt. Annoying characters and dialogue. Gimmicks like Bumblebee not talking. The overall alien/buggy and too complicated/busy aesthetic of some of the robot modes. I found the bot mode designs sometimes not distinct enough and I occasionally had trouble recognising who was who. Action that is hard to keep track of. Using old school character names but putting them on characters or designs that have anything to do with the original character.

Things like Optimus being a different truck I can handle although I admit yes I grumbled initially because the 80s model is stuck in my heart. I can't handle the flame designs though, it just looks ridiculous to me.

I think my overall feeling on the whole movie franchise is one of disappointment and missed opportunity. I'm not sure if I realised or even wanted to acknowledge at the time but it is a new movie and new series for a new time. I can handle some change and different things. Others I find are very negative and just make me angry haha.

Quote Originally Posted by GoktimusPrime View Post

Optimus Prime from the first movie struck that balance pretty well IMO. He was true to his core G1 character in terms of being the heroic messiah-like saviour archetype... willing to sacrifice himself to destroy the AllSpark, and even when Sam pushed the Cube into Megatron's chest he shouted, "No, Sam!" and then lamented over the death of Megatron saying, "You left me no choice, brother." This exemplifies the deep spring of compassion that we know G1 Optimus Prime for. But the new element that the movie brought to Optimus Prime was that he was not hesitant to quickly dispense of Decepticon combatants in battle, such as the way that he beheaded Bonecrusher on the highway. This was not done out of malice, anger or vengeance, but out of necessity (the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few). Bonecrusher's attack was threatening the lives of human civilians -- a whole bus load of people were already dead. Optimus Prime had no choice but to kill Bonecrusher in order to save human lives. A more G1-accurate Optimus Prime would have been more likely to abstain from finishing off Bonecrusher, allowing him to escape and endanger more lives. If you look at all the criticism that the first film received, nobody ever complains about the way that Optimus Prime was portrayed. Some people complain about his cosmetic looks, such as being a long nose truck or a Prime with chopper flames, but these are just superficial elements (much like Deadpool's costume). What really matters is his persona, which I think the first movie did pretty well (they kept it simple and it worked).
I'm gonna disagree with you a bit here GoktimusPrime. That scene where Optimus kills Bonecrusher definitely irks me. It's an action movie, they are gonna be fighting and killing and I get that. I get that it was probably necessary. It's just the, well, casualness with which he does it that seemed out of character for me and bugged me.