Transformers 4: 10 Things It Needs

5. Stop Wasting Talented Actors

The last Transformers film, though improving considerably upon Revenge of the Fallen, made dispiriting use of a number of talented comic and dramatic actors, chiefly The Hangover's Ken Jeong - again reduced to a head-smackingly insulting racial stereotype - and superb thesps Frances McDormand and John Malkovich. While these roles evidently had the word "paycheck!" stamped all over the contract, would it have killed the screenwriter to, upon hearing that actors of this calibre had been cast in the roles, beef them up a bit? It's embarrassing enough for the audience watching A-grade actors chew their way through D-grade dialogue, so we can only imagine how they feel (as they deposit their massive cheques, mind). What is the point paying top dollar for name actors if they're not going to be used effectively? You may as well just cast a C-list also-ran and save a few hundred bucks, which can then be pumped into generating another set-piece instead.