I was innocent back then. Didn't suspect a thing even when I saw a Rodimus Prime toy in the story before hand and thought about how much it looked like Hotrod.
I honestly went in with few expectation except that it was going to be awesome, and I came away awed all right.
When the original cast died, my jaw dropped. I remember when Spike said "Sh!t, what are we going to do now," and the whole theatre gasped because, well, there's no swearing in transformers.
As for the new cast, I was stoked for them. I remember seeing this (
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8V7VYJeir8 ) commercial for Ultra Magnus and thinking, "What an awesome character."
The exo-suits were cool too.
I loved Hotrod, and I loved his journey from little punk to Rodimus Prime. When he grabbed the matrix and turned into Rodimus Prime, I got chills.
I guess I'm in the minority when it comes to that. I even really liked the post-movie season, where Rodimus struggles to live up to Optimus's legacy.
