MOVIE
Transformers: Age of Extinction
CAST
Mark Wahlberg, Stanley Tucci, Kelsey Grammer, Nicola Peltz, Jack Reynor, T.J. Miller and Titus Welliver
RATING
PG-13
RELEASE
June 26, 2014
DIRECTOR
Michael Bay
STUDIO
Paramount Pictures
RUNNING TIME
2 hour 45 minutes
REVIEW:
Michael Bay needs to stop making films. PERIOD. His movies are so over the top with zero substance, but as cinema summer blockbusters go, the guy sure knows how to blow stuff up. And that’s what most audiences want from a Michael Bay film, don’t talk too much, blow stuff up and stick some pretty people in front of the camera. Well Michael, you achieved these three ingredients in your newest film Transformers: Age of Extinction….but nothing more.
Four years have passed since the battle of Chicago, the Autobots and Decepticons who did not perish in the fight are being hunted down as enemies of the state by the federal government. An elite CIA black ops team under the command of Henry Attinger (Grammer) was created for this very thing, to kill Transformers and take back their planet. The ace in the hole for these humans is a Transformer bounty hunter named Lockdown, who is hellbent on one prize, Optimus Prime. Only one problem, Prime has gone missing so the hunt begins.
Searching for junk in an old abandoned cinema, robotic inventor Cade Yeager (Wahlberg) and best friend and assistant Lucas Flannery (Miller) stumble upon an old truck within the cinema house and take it back to Yeager’s barn to strip the old truck for parts to pay for Cade’s daughter Tessa (Peltz) to go to college and pay over due mortgage bills, but what Cade find under the hood is more than meets the eye. While the hunt for Prime is going on, business tycoon and inventor Joshua Joyce (Tucci), is in the process of using destroyed Transformers salvaged in the battle of Chicago for research to search for advancements in technologies to aid in the creation of a molecule called Transformium (yes…Transformium), a unstable metal substance that recreates the genetics of Transformers, only better.
After an encounter with the CIA black ops team commander Savoy (Welliver), Cade and Tess escape with the assistance of Tess’s boyfriend Shane (Reynor) and regroup with Prime to search out the remaining Autobots, Crosshairs, Drift, Hound and Bumblebee, to find the culprit behind the Autobot assassinations and stop them once and for all. But the Autobots and their human companions find that they’re not just being hunted by Lockdown, there is another presence, one a bit more familiar, that has regenerated and is ready to take down the Autobots once and for all. However, the Autobots have some help themselves in the form of some legendary knights, the Dinobots. The battle begins!
That’s pretty much the premise which is played out over almost 3 hours and played out to exhaustion. The film is a complete waste of time. For one thing, the dialogue is atrocious. Exhibit A. “My face is my warrant” delivered by the over acting Titus Welliver. The dialogue delivered by each Auotbots is comical as well, as it should be, but at least give some meaningful lines to the humans! Continuing with the critiquing, the film editing is grade school level. Never in my life has a movie flowed LESS than it does in Transformers: Age of Extinction. The scenes abruptly end and sequences are slopped together that are suppose to offer some sort of story telling literally offer nothing but scene time for the stars and offer nothing to the overall story. Literally it is a hodgepodge of nonsense filler to add to the runtime, but adds zero to the buildup of the reason we are all there, the battle sequences. Cause that’s the only reason to see a Transformer movie directed by Michael Bay.
The special effects and spectacle are amazing as you would expect. But unfortunately it’s a prime example of too much too late. The run time is an hour too long and the film takes way too long to gain any traction to hold audiences attention. The story literally holds very little glue to keep the audience engaged between battles either. The actors do their best to deliver the insanely bad dialogue and provide an ample performance, and for the most part they do that. Mark Wahlberg and Nicola Peltz are a huge step up from Shia LaBeouf and Megan Fox. The addition of Stanley Tucci is a bright spot in the film with his professionalism and his acting prowess. The comedic banter is toned down from previous films which is a plus, but the quips that are present are cringe worthy.
The introduction of the villain(s) is underwhelming and I noticed many people in the theater scratching their heads. Lockdown is a fine character to the Transformer universe but by the time his characters intentions are revealed does anyone actually care? And please do not get me started on the use of the “other villain”. I waited for that moment all movie and it was like it never happened. Poorly handled Bay. The Autobots are unlikable for the most part, which should be a warning sign for the studio, but it appears that Paramount doesn’t care as long as kids are wearing Drift t-shirts this summer. But my main issue was with the use of the Dinobots. The build up for these iconic characters was horrific and the screen time was minimal. If you’re going to use the Dinobots then why not develop the backstory a bit more for the novice Transformer fan, offer some opportunity to create a audience to character rapport so that when they are on screen it is more than eye candy.
Overall this Transformers offering is better than the last two entries into the franchise, but that it not saying much. This is one of the worst movies I’ve seen all summer and possibly in my life. No amount of robot battle can save this film from being an utter disappointment. Transformers 5 has already been announced for release in 2016, the best thing for this franchise is to find a different director and start over, it’s the only way to save a franchise which is already on life support.
Stars:
1 1/2 out of 5
Trailer
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