So, I think I figured out what's wrong with the transformers movies. It's not the rampant sexism, toxic masculinity, or low brow humor— the appeal has always been that you could see how the pieces moved to produce the end result and they were plausible in both states. Now they just flow.
Strong agree. If you handed somebody a gen-1 transformers toy, and then showed them a clip from the original cartoon of that transformer transforming, they would have all the information they needed to transform the toy. The live action ones are like watching a tornado in a hardware store.
Glad I could sort that for y'all.