Freed from content restrictions, the new episodes feature an abundance of profanity, violent imagery, and some nudity, but they also
reflect auteurist intent, independent of mainstream conventions, that is frequently thrilling.
Film critic A.O. Scott, in his New York Times review, somewhat (but not entirely) jokingly referred to this new film as an example of a kind of
auteurist cinema, in that the aesthetic clearly
reflects the vision of one man, director Michael Bay (who also directed the previous three films).