Both Bay and Spielberg influeced how th movie was made. (think I read it on Wikipedia?)
What I'm wondering (as I'm no expert on either director)
The slow-mo military guys scenes, was that Bay's doing or Spielberg's?
And considering that Bay was never a Transformers fan I'm amazed how much he honored the franchise.
And I liked (despite how silly it was) that Bumblebee did not speak until near the end. Unspoken bonding was the goal there. It was said the concept was "A boy and his Car" (which is why Bay agreed to do this as he was reluctant at just doing a Transformers movie but he loved the Boy and Car bonding) I suspect this will be a huge hit in Japan in august when it premieres there. In fact the movie felt a bit Japanese in a way.
As to the Transformers themselves. The voice of Optimus Prime as the voice of Optimus Prime, how can ya beat that?
(a shame that the voice of Megatron did not fit the darked style needed for the movie, he is in the game though but the game is kinda getting slaughtered at least here)
As for special effects, holy cow ILM are gods. Amazing work there.
Best CG/Live blending I've ever seen.
Bay even instructed the ILM animators to study martial arts movies to base the bot's fights on, and keep a Samurai feel to it.
And the Optimus Prime character was based on Liam Neeson's characters.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transformers_%28film%29
Read it, I found the development and design stuff very interesting.
My respect for Bay has increased indeed.
As for the writers...It felt a bit cartooney yeah, but then again that is the origin of the Transformers so...
As far as cartoon to movie adaptions go this ranks among the best out there.
I was hoping for more Autobot scenes, but as this is a introductionary movie I'm sure that if (more like when) the 2 sequels are made we'll get more upclose and personal with the Autobots and the backstory of Cybertron etc.
Also make sure you read about the choice about how te Transformers transform and realism they tired to achieve. Mind boggling.
Btw! Bay even cut his fee by 30% to gain a bigger movie budget.