beyond the bad acting ( except Lepoof, he did pretty good) and the lack of a story, and the use of the transformers themselves less as characters, and more as plot devices?
ok. too much exposed parts. they look kinda naked. i would think giant sentient robots from beyond would cover their parts, atleast with some sort of armored plating.
I think a better compromise are the designs from transformers prime.
OR, the designs in the current IDW comic run.
both of which have some g1 injected into the designs, atleast enough that you can tell who the character is with just a glance.
Someone once said that a sign of good character design is the ability to tell who a character is by their shiliouette alone
with some of the bayformers, this is possible, but not all. many of them start to look too similar.
here is a differnt way to look at it.
imagine of in the batman begins move, we never see batman dressed as batman, because nolan decided it looked "too silly" so instead he only wears the "first night out" outfit for the entire film.
if people can suspend disbelief that giant transforming robots are real, or that megan fox can act, i think they'll take to robot designs that look more like the originals.
not enough there to make it interesting for modern audiences?
if they were the same, blocky simplistic designs from the cartoon, then i'd agree, but look at these armature models. no post production, just simple models with "minimal" work.
[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kiHNUaQ7cCo&feature=related"]transformer - YouTube[/ame]
[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwBUYJly1zU&feature=related"]Optimus Prime Real - YouTube[/ame]
these are examples, but imagine if they were put though extreme ( bay level) post production, and leaned up?
additionally, there is the whole mass shifting thing.