Transformers: Age of Extinction Review

A mechanic and his family join the Autobots as they are targeted by a bounty hunter from another world. This is Rumor Control, here are the facts. Over the past several years Michael bay has devoted most of his time to making Transformers films, yeeees. There are those who say they’re fun popcorn films and there are others who have built their hatred of Michael Bay off of them, yyyyeeeeesss. Me? The first film is good and brings a wave of summer nostalgia (hey, 2007 is a very nostalgic year for me) whenever I watch it, while Revenge of the Fallen can be fun I also find it to be a chore to sit through thanks to some bad acting, some bad characters, some bad humor and bad racist stereotypes and in all honesty I cannot remember much about Dark of the Moon save for Optimus’ cold blooded murder of Megatron, yeees. After three years Bay has returned to directing chair one last time for Age of Extinction. Will is surpass the previous two films in terms of quality or will it be another dud. Well grab a hold of your socks and read on dear view. YES!

The story for Age of Extinction has something that the prior two films didn’t have: Effort! Set four years after the events of DothM, America is now intolerant of all Transformers, hunting them down and destroying them be they Autobot or Decepticon, yeeeeess. The story utilizes a clever, if not dated, allusion to post 9/11 America where fear, paranoia and extreme patriotism run rampant. This alone sets up so much for the story and allows ideas to be built of it, yyyyyeeeeeesss. Another interesting concept the film comes up with is the idea of human made Transformers, created by Joshua Joyce (another clever but dated reference, it seems this film would have been better suited had it come out several years ago, yeeees). This is another framework that the story can build off of creating new enemies and threats as well as reviving old ones, though through the course of this film the latter may not be such a good thing, yyyyeeees. These concepts add a new level of threat to the story in a whole and shows that Bay and Kruger have learned from previous films as both feel different and fresh and add a lot to the film, yeeeeees. The main story follows Cade Yeager, an inventor who is trying to get by with his self centered, ungrateful idiot of a daughter… Whoops, I think I just let a major criticism out early, yyyyeeeeeesss. One day Cade stumbles across the stasis body of Optimus Prime and after reactivating Optimus a special Black Ops unit known simply as Cemetery Wind (spoopy) attacks, sending Optimus and the Yeagers on the run. The idea that Cade and his daughter are now considered enemies of the government reminds me of The Winter Soldier, being that the film is trying to blend genres in an attempt to make itself a political thriller. It doesn’t really succeed much with this concept but it’s still nice to see some real story building from Bay and Kruger. The story also changes focus of character, choosing this time around to shove Bumblebee to the back and put Optimus in the front seat. This is both a good and bad thing, yeees. It’s good because let’s face it as charming and memorable Bumblebee is he has not developed at all throughout the period of three movies so it’s nice to see another character get the spotlight. However the film displays Optimus as being angry and cynical with humanity. This is a part of the story that bugs me, yes. The film tries to hammer in the fact that we should feel bad for Optimus and the Autobots, that we should be angry when he’s angry. But you know what? I don’t, I support the Decepticons so any misery that befalls the Autobot scum is welcomed but also irritating. Optimus seems to constantly blame humanity for what’s happened to his comrades and as such Optimus is ready to kill any human he comes across. Not only does this go against everything Optimus stood for in the previous films but now there is no longer any difference between him and Megatron. It would have been interesting to see Optimus stop and reflect on the creature he has become but that never happens. Another problem I have with the story is that it feels so much like Prometheus, yeeees. The idea that the Transformers were created by aliens for an unknown reason and the ending itself feels very reminiscent of Prometheus and overall it seems silly and out of place to me. The humor in the Transformers films, mostly in the sequels, has been a painful Achilles’ heel for the films, yyyyeeeeeeess. There are times when Bay’s humor works throughout, such as Bad Boys II, and other times when he shows restraint but still manages to be funny, such as The Rock. But he has never shown restraint with the Transformers film and as such the humor served to drag the movies down with their constant misses and sheer aggravation. I dreaded the humor that was too come in this film but to my surprise the humor was actually quite effective, yeeeeees. I found myself laughing more often then not and even when the film made a bad joke it was painful or irritating, just a simple eye roll moment. The story in a whole definitely has it’s problems and it does not justify the over long running time. However with concepts that allude to post 9/11 America and an attempt at genre blending as well as effective humor the story isn’t half bad as it shows real effort was put into it. There was just enough to keep me invested in the story and overall it is a vast improvement over it’s previous two predecessors, yyyyeeeeesss.

The characters for Age of Extinction are a mixed bag, yeees.

Cade Yeager is a pretty good main character. Compared to Sam, who was a whiny little schmuck from the first film to the last, Cade is a massive improvement. There hardly ever seemed a moment when I was bothered by Cade, in fact for the most part I found him to be quite engaging character that was easy to root for, yeees. Cade is very active, quickly joining the fight against creatures that are far more powerful than him which makes him very useful to the story. There’s also the theme of mistakes and what good can come out of them. Cade’s idiot daughter was born from a mistake and he constantly says that mistake was the best thing that ever happened to him. It’s that concept that he uses to help Optimus through a difficult time and because of that I greatly want to see Cade again.

Tessa, Cade’s aforementioned idiot daughter, is a terrible character. From the start she’s a damn nuisance, showing immense disrespect towards her father and sheer selfishness and uncaring nature when a terrible thing befalls Cade. Say what you want about Mikaela at least she served a purpose. Tessa serves no purpose whatsoever and is a constant annoyance throughout the film.

Joshua Joyce, creator of the man made Transformers, is a good character. He’s very humorous, being effective in most scenes he’s in and has some very good character development. As the film goes on you see that everything is effecting him as he contemplates what he should do next and actually thinks and grows like a natural character should, yyyyeeeeeesss.

Lockdown is our supposed villain for the film and he’s a great one, yeeees. Lockdown is a very threatening and imposing villain, more so then Megatron ever was. He’s constantly active and constantly makes his presence known. A great factor about his character is he isn’t necessarily a villain per say. To me he seemed to be a being of order, doing what he did to restore order to the universe after the battle between the Autobots and Decepticons threw everything out of whack. If that weren’t enough he’s also a machine of his word. Such characteristics make for a morally gray character which makes him an engaging character. Yes!

The remaining Autobot characters have more of a focus on them this time around. Thanks to the extra focus the Autobots now have an opportunity to have personalities and characteristics and now come off as useful and important rather then taking up space. Each of the Autobots get enough time to make themselves memorable and each one works well with his comrades. Each one is very unique and each has a good moment of humor, however every now and again they each fall into line with Optimus’ hypocritical views on humanity which form time to time can be irksome. Yyyyyyeeeessss

Acting for Age of Extinction is mostly quite good.

Mark Wahlberg does a pretty good job as Cade Yeager, yeeeees. He does fine in moments of drama and can be quite humorous from time to time. He’s a huge step above Labeouf though granted it is an unfair comparison since Labeouf had to play an unlikeable character. Yes!

In contrast to Wahlberg’s fine performance is Nicola Peltz as Tessa. Peltz is every bit as bad as her abysmal character, her only purpose in the film is too scream and even that simple task she manages to do to such amazingly annoying lengths. Peltz gives an absolute terrible performance as she cannot carry a single line without coming off as strained and irritable and many scenes were downright ruined by her unlikeable character and poor performance, yyyyyeeeeeeesss

Peter Cullen once again does a great job as Optimus and possibly gives one of the finer performances in the tenure of his character. Cullen seems to show more range of emotion, mostly anger, which adds a more human element to the character of Optimus making him more memorable.

Mark Ryan gives a truly menacing and cold performance as Lockdown. He’s very chilling and enegaging, just like his character, and breathes life into the ruthless bounty hunter.

Stanley Tucci is an absolute riot as Joshua Joyce. Tucci is effectively funny throughout the film and only adds more enjoyment to it. Yeeees.

Kelsey Grammer does a fine job as Attinger, head of Cemetery Wind. He manages to pull off the villainous role perfectly, being quite and controlling just as his character is. Yes!

Goodman, Watanabe and DiMaggio all do very well as Hound, Drift and Crosshairs. Each one blends with their character perfectly and each one manages to be memorable. While Goodman sounds like himself, though still giving a humorous and grand performance, both Watanabe and DiMaggio try to make themselves sound different and at times come off as unrecognizable, yyyeeeeeesss.

The effects for Age of Extinction are very well done. The CG and designs for the Transformers looks very good this time around, looking colorful and different from one another. The CG blends well with the real world and overall looks very good and pleasant, yeeeees.

Lastly the action scenes are very well done. There are numerous action scenes each one placed a good distance from one another. The action is very explosive and immensely entertaining, yyyeeeeesss. Initially the cinematography and editing is pretty good managing to capture the action well, and in a whole the action is varied and exciting. However as the film goes on the action does become more erratic and does that annoying thing Godzilla did when it constantly ignores the fights for a moment to focus on the human characters reaction shots. Despite that the action is still very fun and the finale of the film is very satisfying. Yyyyyeeeeeesss

Final Thoughts: Transformers Age of Extinction is flawed but significantly better then it’s two predecessors. Despite the annoying hypocrisy of Optimus and the Autobots and the abysmal performance of Peltz and her character the film is fun overall. Some of the characters are likeable, the performance are good, the story, though flawed, has some good concepts and is easier to sit through then previous stories, the CG is well done and the action is exciting and entertaining. It won’t change the minds of those who hate these movies but I still enjoyed Age of Extinction, flaws and all, Yyyyyyeeeeeeeesss.

Verdict: Matinee

That was Rumor Control and those were the facts…. Yeeees!