I’m linking the article but the actual dunk is on redditors who see this and cheer, completely ignoring that this is an extension of how much power/influence the American military has over hollywood film. Want to film anything that might have the military in it? You gotta play ball babyyyy! Ever notice how weirdly patriotic and jingoistic almost every film that features a tank is? They played ball babbyyyy!!!
there was a good comment on reddit at least though https://old.reddit.com/r/entertainment/comments/14o3xt8/defense_department_declares_it_wont_work_with/jqbfo50/
Imagine, a Transformers movie where the US military tried to fight a Decepticon and just eats shit immediately…
Some obviously corrupt and incompetent commanding officer orders a jet to intercept Starscream. A 5’8" first Lieutenant with an obvious inferiority complex gets into his F-35, hyped to prove he’s a REAL MAN™, but crashes on takeoff. Some other equally unlikeable pilot is sent up in an F-22, which does actually manage to fly, but gets hopelessly outclassed by Starscream who ends up grabbing the pilot out of the jet by the head, popping it like a cherry, and dropping his corpse into a veterans living room from 12000 feet up, and trigger his PTSD.
That kind of happens in the first one before Optimus helps them out. In general it’s shown that they get their asses kicked if Autobots aren’t around until the fifth film, and even then its because they’ve got Galvatron on side.