I have to pay homage to the movie that brought back a piece of my childhood. I watched Transformers a few times when I was a kid. And the movie? It was great. The special effects are awesome and there really wasn't a whole lot of violence. Well, not a lot of blood and guts, anyway- just a lot of oil and metal. It really is a great movie and I think it did a great job of bringing an old 80's cartoon to life, without destroying it's integrity. And, it's clean. I'd be careful taking children, as it could be a little scary, but that's up to individual judgment. I think it's great!

I'm not familiar with a lot of Michael Bay's stuff (can't remember what movies you said he's directed), but I don't think it could have been done any better.