From what I understand they also emphasized the heart and story of this film, and even contrasted it against Bay's movies at least the sequels). It sounds like they even threw some thinly veiled criticism at Bay, which means they're aware of the criticism.
I don't think explosions necessarily make Transformers generic or bad. It's based on an action franchise, so they have to have action. It's just that Michael Bay's explosions are obnoxious and overused. They've said several times that this movie will have a very different type of action. There are a lot of different ways to film an explosion, I have to see some footage before judging whether or not this movie does it well. As of now, I have faith in the filmmakers.
