My problem with the Autobot exile and subsequent final battle was that Optimus roles up when Sam was trying to infiltrate Chicago and his basic explanation for why they complied but hid away was pretty much "We had to to prove to your leader that we are necessary."

Also, I noticed that almost all weapons in this movie were handheld instead of transforming from their arms, which bugged me.

People clapped in my theater too, but I didn't feel like they were that into it for the whole movie. I mean, at least in RoTF there was a lot of laughing and enjoyment (even with the oven that was the Imax theater). It wasn't horrible to me in the sense that it was a poor story or anything, I was just horribly bored for most of the movie, and once the final battle actually came around I had already sorta checked out.

Kreon