Gotta say, I don't understand the hate for T4.

Maybe it's because I very recently revisited the eye and ear gouge inducing atrocity that was Transformers 2 and so anything after that would have to be a step up.

I also think the length was justified given everything it had to setup. Which I'll just dive into because most don't seem to care about the franchise enough to worry about spoilers.

Firstly, it had to establish this dire new world that has come to be in the 10 years since the last film. Along with a whole new cast of human characters to replace the old.

Second, it had to establish a return for the main villain. Not an easy task given his fate in the last film. I loved that this heralded the return of his original voice actor from the series.

Third, it had to setup the new galactic scope the franchise seems to be headed in. The revelation of that intergalactic bounty hunter and who he worked for sent the Transformers fans I know into a frenzy. I'm not sure why as I'm just barely getting into the franchise myself but it seems like a pretty big deal.

I'll give you that most of the human characters were garbage. The daughter and her boyfriend were just terrible. But Marky Mark and especially Frasier were great.

All of the Autobots depicted had varied and unoffensive personalities and there were no utter abominations like these two. Though Optimus Prime jumping around shouting, "I'LL KILL YOU!" was more than a little out of character and reminded me heavily of Axe Cop. =P

It's still a Michael Bay film and as such there was never any hope that it would be a smart film. But I would say it was a competent action packed popcorn flick.