What Was the Plan, Megatron?

The Transformers franchise is very dear to me, as I have met some of my closest and best friends through the fandom and started taking an interest to story writing in the process.  I had watched the animated series on Cartoon Network's program, Toonami, and fell in love with it.  While Transformers Armada is not one of the best introductions to the franchise, it is what drew me into the movie in the summer of 2007.  
I loved this movie and still do, so I of course had to see the sequels.  When I first saw trailers for Revenge of the Fallen, my expectations were high.  As time went on they were soaring to impossible heights.  Once summer arrived and school had ended, I was off to see the midnight premier of the sequel.

As many of you may have guessed, Revenge of the Fallen did not reach my expectations.  It was so disappointing that even when I saw it the first time around I had my doubts.  I am one of those movie goers that is usually so excited about the film I'm watching that I don't even register the mistakes.  When I saw this, I knew it was not good.
The only hope for this franchise, as least I thought at the time, was the third movie, Dark of the Moon.  While this one was much better than its predecessor (probably from the lack of Megan Fox), there were still problems plot wise.  While the major issue I had from this movie came from Sentinel Prime, especially one specific line of dialogue that I will talk about later, the major issue was Megatron's plan.
The "master plan" for this installment was fine.  As a stand alone, it makes for a great "Oh shit the world is going to end" plot.  The final scenes of Chicago's destruction sent chills down my spine, as I live about an hour from the city and have gone there quite a few times.  The only problem with the Decepticon plan is when you realize that this is the THIRD film.  

Now in order to get my point across I am going to have to talk about successful trilogies.  And by successful I mean plots.
There are different types of series.  There are series that hold one linear plot that continues over the installments, and then there are series that each installment is a different story with the same central plot.  Take, for instance, Indiana Jones.

The Indiana Jones central plot is about an archeologist that travels around the world looking for treasures and, occasionally, fighting bad guys.  The trilogy (as I am forever ignoring the fourth installment) has three separate stories.  Raiders of the Lost Ark, Temple of Doom, and Last Crusade were three different stories that revolved around the same central plot of Indy adventuring around the world.  This is a successful anthology trilogy.  The plot is simple enough to have three different stories rather than continuing one linear story. 

 The Lord of the Rings trilogy is, while an epic plot, still a reasonably simple one of a quest to destroy the ring.  All three movies intertwine into one story.  The same thing can be said for the Back to the Future trilogy, even more so because all three movies take place back to back from each other. These are linear stories that work.  Now Lord of the Rings works so well because it was already a written trilogy.  Back to the Future works because the first movie set it up for sequels.  

The Transformers film could have worked as a stand alone with its plot, to retrieve the Allspark.  The thing is, even this film had set itself up for a sequel.  With Starscream's escape and the remaining shard of the Allspark, there was more than enough potential for a sequel.  Fans flocked to the internet and began writing their own fanfiction.  I myself have done this, dipping into the fan base in the process.  With so many potential stories, obviously a sequel should not have been that difficult?  
A Decepticon return was imminent, as was the return of Megatron using the remaining Allspark shard.  The entire second movie could have been that plot, but this did not happen.  While Megatron was resurrected, as expected, this only happened within less than 15 minutes of screen time.  Megatron immediately flies into space and we are introduced to the Fallen.
And this is when the problem beings.  Megatron's original plan was to use the Allspark to create a new army and take over pretty much everything.  Now Revenge of the Fallen is saying that the plan was that he was working under the FALLEN and that now they had to basically blow up the sun.  Okay, so they need to "harvest the sun's energy", but he makes NO mention of this in the previous movie.  One would think that Optimus Prime, leader of the Autobots and one of the two rulers of Cybertron would have known SOMETHING about this Fallen guy.
This, ladies and gentlemen, is called pulling a plot out of your ass. 
Now in Dark of the Moon it's even worse.  The Fallen has been defeated, Megatron has gone into hiding, time has passed. 
Now we are introduced to Sentinel Prime.  Now we are introduced to the REAL plan of teaming up with Megatron.
Wait.
So now they're saying that Megatron had made a deal DURING the war on Cybertron?  Long before the events leading up to the first movie?
Okay, I can buy an Autobot ship landing on the moon and the human government finding and hiding it.  I can buy a secret sun drinking machine in the pyramids.  
What I CAN'T buy is that all of this was apparently going on AT THE SAME TIME with NO mention of a back up plan.
If Megatron had said something about a "master" in the first movie, or even a very subtle mention of a back up plan, I wouldn't mind.  But this didn't happen.  We went from getting the Allspark to create a new army to telling our "master" that we failed and now we need to go on with our plan to blow up the sun.  NOW we're saying that we planned to use the space bridge the entire time?
I'm confused.  I mean lets look at these "master plans" chronologically.  If Megatron DID succeed in retrieving the Allspark, what was he going to do with the Fallen?  Team up with him again?  Betray him?  And let's not forget his Sentinel deal.  He had made a deal with him early on to use the space bridge.  They were going to rebuild Cybertron and use the humans as slaves, correct?  So if that was the plan WHAT WAS THE POINT OF THE FALLEN!?
Megatron would have had to team up with Sentinel before the Allspark was sent to Earth, and it never specified where and when the Fallen came in, so how does he fit?  Did Sentinel know about the Fallen?  Was the Fallen in on the whole Autobot/Decepticon team up?
So now that we've covered that, we can ask the question:  What was the plan, Megatron?
The sequels to Transformers did not follow the loose ends the first one left.  Yes, the Autobots were still used, as were the same humans, but Megatron's plan became what I would call a clusterfuck.  The writers pulled these plots out of their asses and ruined the Decepticon plan.
One option would be that the Fallen was the one that convinced Megatron to betray Cybertron in the first place and then planned to use the Allspark, but the Fallen has already been to Earth and set the sun bomb up in the first place.  Megatron had been frozen in the ice before humans formed civilization.  This means that in the time the Fallen had set up the machine, Megatron was frozen.  It was also established that the Primes were gone by the time the war was going on.  So either the Fallen transforms into a TARDIS, or the plan was never formed.
Now with the Allspark and the Fall plots it was bad, but somewhat redeemable, but with this time of events occurring it wouldn't even be possible for this to happen.  If the first plot and the Sentinel plot were only taken into consideration it would be possible, except that Sentinel and Megatron had planned form the BEGINNING to use the pillars and bring Cybertron to Earth.  So, again, what about the Allspark plot?  Megatron was going to create a new army with the Allspark and take over Earth, but then in Dark of the Moon the plan was to use Earth's resources to bring back Cybertron.  There was no further mentioning of Cybertron or of Sentinel in this plan.  
SO we went from taking over Earth to harvesting the sun and destroying Earth, and finally to bringing Cybertron to Earth and using Earth's resources and enslaving the human race.  These are three completely different plans of the same trilogy.  Now if Megatron had formed these as new plans it would have been fine, but it was established that the Fallen and Sentinel plans were made BEFORE the first film.
So, again, what was the plan?
At this point time, I don't think there WAS a plan.  The trilogy failed in its continuity that fans of the franchise easily used to make much more interesting stories.  I am excited that there will be a new trilogy, I hope that mistakes were learned and that continuity will be used more effectively.
Now I will go into what pissed me off about Sentinel.  The fact that he was voiced by Leonard NeMoy excited me.  When he betrayed the Autobots I was surprised, but I continued otherwise.  What pissed me off was the line that he used when talking about enslaving the human race.  What did he say?
"The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few."
Sound familiar?
Here.

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, aka The One Where Spock Dies.  When Spock said this line, he was referring to the fact that he just SACRIFICED HIS LIFE TO SAVE THE CREW.  When Sentinel said it, he was talking about committing GENOCIDE.
So that is all I have to say about Megatron's horrible planning and Sentinel's ruination of one of the most beloved quotes of all time.
Seriously, Hollywood, fix your shit.