The series has been all over the place representing the character abilities and strengths. The first one was decent enough for what it is, but there was some jarring editing like they ran out of money to direct some truly decent action sequences with the Transformers. I liked the whole concept of how individually each of the Deceps were bigger and stronger than the Autobots, except for Prime, and it took teamwork to take out the muscle while Prime could stand his own, but ultimately play underdog against Megatron. (If you go back to the original toy stats, that is actually pretty accurate, it was the cartoon that turned Megatron into a bit of a baffoon).
Then came the sequel which is pretty skippable aside from two robot action scenes.. (Prime vs the 3 Decep powerhouses is still arguably the best action scene in the entire movie franchise).. The third had it's moments too. Shockwave had his moments... and then the fourth is, well a terrible movie. Prime made to look ordinary against an bounty hunter that should have been no more menacing than the Decep equivalents of Bumblebee...