Disguises that never come off

A few weeks back I noted that at least one of the insignia from "Transformers" came from an ancient Chinese bronze piece in the Tokyo National Museum. The Transformers have by no means faded into pop culture history. A new Transformers movie, live action with live actors, is planned for release sometime before 2010.
I hoped that some effort would be made to produce a movie with some depth to it. This is not to say that I'd want it to be true to the original material; back in the day, the comic books and the TV cartoons were embarassingly juvenile even in the eyes of my embarassingly juvenile seven-year-old self. But some of us with fond memories of the original plastic toys may end up watching the film for nostalgia's sake. In that event, we'll feel more warmly about our childhoods if the movie isn't. . . well, embarassingly juvenile.
But optimism would be wasted. The director is Michael Bay, whose resume contains a string of films universally panned by critics: Armageddon, Pearl Harbor, The Island, and Bad Boys I and II.