Movie Review: Transformers: Age of Extinction

Well it's summer time so the blockbusters are coming in, or should I say rolling in? (I probably shouldn't have and I apologize for that horrible segue and it doesn't make sense because Autobots roll out not in.) Because Transformers 4: Age of Extinction is here to kick off the season of explosions and man does it explode. Ok this is a horrible intro so lets just get right into it.

Plot: The movie picks up a few years after the events of Transformers 3, particularly focusing on the aftermath of the battle of Chicago. The military is no longer aiding the Transformers and is instead destroying Autobots and Decepticons alike, leaving all robots in hiding. Optimus Prime is brought back online by a struggling inventor ( Mark Wahlberg) and together with his family, they try to evade the military and a new enemy, all while trying to discover why exactly the government is hunting down Autobots. As far as plots go, it's nothing new and you pretty much know everyone's agenda from the jump,but I give it kudos for having a more focused narrative than in previous installments. The protagonists are more proactive and it helps the pacing tremendously; instead of doting around waiting for x robot to attack for y reason, the heroes actively seek out the enemy and it makes sense because given what happens in the film I wouldn't just sit back and wait for the bad guys to kill me. I said the characters helped the pacing, but they also dragged it down, well not so much the characters but the time spent on establishing each new character. I know that it's kind of a reboot and a sequel ( rebquel? Seboot? Requel?) and you need to introduce each character but there are better ways than to spend the first 30 odd minutes establishing Mark's character, his daughter, his assistant and her daughter's bf....just to introduce more characters halfway through the film, it balloons the run time to 185 mins and that is just excessive.

I hope you liked Optimus and Bumblee because they are the only Autobots you'll know

Acting: There are a bunch of new characters in here, but really the only characters that matter are Cade Yeager ( Mark Wahlberg), Optimus, and Joshua Joyce ( Stanley Tucci). Seriously I don't even remember the daughter's name or her bf or Kelsey Grammer or anyone else ( I had to Imdb them and their names are Tessa Yeager, Shane and Harold Attinger respectively) because they are just so generic, even by Micheal Bay standards. The whole film relies on the acting of Mark and Stanley and they do shine in the film but the lines they have to say are just so cheesy and empty that it really doesn't do either of them justice. We are introduced to 3 new Autobots ( Hound, Crosshairs and Drift) and they have more personality than the rest of the cast, yep...the robots with no hearts have more personality and charisma than the combined efforts of everyone not named Mark and Stanley and I wish they had more screen time than they did. Oh yeah, freaking Dinobots are in this film too ( for like...10 mins but still) but really aren't worth mentioning.

You lied to me, I thought this was the entire film

Visuals- I normally don't have this section ( I should have had it for Godzilla but ya know...hindsight) but I would be remissed to not mention how great this film looks. This is easily the best looking one out of the series in terms of cgi and setting. The film shows more variety in locations ranging from the arctic to the hillside of China, which is a nice change of pace from the desert and urban city we are used too.


Overall: 5/10.  I know the score is low but come on, are you really expecting a masterpiece? It's a summer movie about robots fighting robots and explosions full of slow-mo and lens flares. That all being said, it was kind of hard to ignore all the " convenient plot devices" ( thank you CinemaSins for altering how I view movies now) and just flat out character induce stupidity that happens just because the plot calls for it. There is no sense of danger for any of the good guys at all and expected surprise twist is expected ( again....CinemaSins). Honestly, you've seen this film before and if your one reason for going to see it was the Dinobots, you'll be disappointed in how little they matter to the overall plot; but if you want to just turn off your brain and watch explosions ( which is exactly what this movie wants you to do) then go check it out. I'm giving it a 7/10 on my summer popcorn movie scale but a 5/10 on my normal standard of movie scale.

This has nothing to do with the review but I really hope the trend of " characters riding dinosaurs/horses with weapons" is a thing now because that sold me on this film and on Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. If you want my money, just put robots and animals on creatures..it's that simple.