In some ways, this is probably the best Transformers films yet and is certainly a step above the last two. Bay has managed to tone down the offensiveness to a degree and the human characters within the film are marginally less annoying than the previous ones. The plot still makes no sense and is just an excuse to string some action sequences together, but then that could be said about many summer blockbuster films. Bay certainly has visual flair, but his editing style remains confusing at best and here the visual spectacle of watching Transformers do their thing has become stale after three films. Even the complex shots of many of the robots mechanically transforming have been replaced with some far less visually interesting. But Bay's biggest problem is his consistent misunderstanding of what should be his target audience - young children who buy the toys, not the teenage boys who have long since moved on from playing with them. The overt leering shots at some of the women in the film have been toned down a little (though only Bay could have one of his characters tell his teenage daughter to put some clothes on whilst the camera focuses on her figure) but the film remains overly long and dull and for many young children far too intense and violent despite the survival of the majority of human characters amid the carnage. It also still astounds how many excuse these films as summer blockbusters that are intended to be bombastic and that audience members should leave their brains at the door and just enjoy it - yet fail to understand that films like this require a modicum of interest and emotional investment in the characters for them to entertain at this basic level.