Transformers - Il risveglio

At no point did these characters pull me into this movie, there was just zero connection. I have no idea who any of them are! How is that possible for such a big franchise such as Transformers? Is this all they could find when casting? Mirage was the only entertaining character and carried the movie.

Also is it just me or did it feel like it took a long time for the movie to take off? I understand we need to develop characters but at times in the first part of the movie I forgot I was even watching a Transformers movie.

I felt like the CGI was a little overdone too. I feel like some parts the bots looked almost cartoonish compared to the grungy look from previous movies.