Heh, interesting. It's true that Transformers does a good job relaying that it is stupid, which is something a lot of people miss. It's especially true here in the Arab world, where concepts like "cheesy" and "irony" don't exist. I was fairly surprised, for example, at the number of people who didn't get that Drag Me to Hell was meant to be funny, as the idea of a funny horror movie isn't a prevalent one here. Transformers escapes that trap by being woefully stupid and flaunting it. (I'm not saying that Drag Me to Hell is stupid; just that it didn't advertise that it wasn't a strict horror movie per se, or so I hear - I haven't seen it.)

I don't quite agree with the idea that Transformers being "turn your brain off" movie means it can get away with murder. I can turn off my brain at Face/Off or something similar - a mindless thing that doesn't involve running from the Egyptian pyramids to Petra in 10 minutes. (It would take me 3 hours to drive to Petra, and I'm in Jordan.) I get that not every movie is Paths of Glory. But just like there are good war movies, there are bad war movies. Transformers being in a certain category doesn't mean it isn't total shit.