By: Robert Murphy
Three hours long! Yes I do believe that was one of the many thoughts that went through my mind as I watched the end credits role on the newest entry into the Transformers saga. Micheal Bay is back to direct and start thing anew with the franchise and you know what I was happy to think about the chance for a change of pace. No, I am not going to bash Bay for his work because say what you will I enjoy most of his movies, that may be shameful to some but it isn't for me and Transformers was a great film when I first watched it but things did go downhill. The hopes that this film would start something new for the franchise also met with a quick decent for me as well as Transformers: Age of Extinction took already shaky ground and made it collapse.
For such an exceedingly long film you would expect there to be a tiniest inclination of a story but you would be wrong about that as the story and the characters on screen jump from one laughable interaction to the next. The story takes place a few years after the events of the last film, Dark of the Moon, and shows a much darker and more secretive United States as we took the events of Chicago very hard. I also mentioned to my friends at how much of a dick move it was for the Autobots to pretend to leave, have thousands of people die and prove the point that we need them to survive. A black ops division of the CIA now is hunting down the remaining Autobots and is led by the not so menacing Harold Attinger (Kelsey Grammer). His plans for all the dead robots is so very sad that it is hard to even write but he intends to build a robot army to defend the United States against it's laundry list of enemies.
We then turn our attentions to our hero Cade Yeager (Mark Wahlberg) who is a down on his luck robotics mechanic who is raising his teenage daughter Tez (Nicola Peltz) and is a bit of an over bearing father type. He is desperatly trying to send her to college but everything is working against him but lets drop all that and save the world because it just so happens there's a semi truck in an old theater Cade just happens to be fixing up. Between the insane logic behind Cade reviving Optimus Prime with some jumper cables and the oh so stressing young daughter trying to go to college and having a secret boyfriend, it becomes a tired mess of cliches.
Now what usually saves a Transformers film for me at this point would be the action but even this proved to be a sour note for the film too. I wasn't at all dazzled by the idea in which the movie tries to re-write history and saying that the aliens caused the dinosaurs to die out and new robot ones took on the form of some of the more iconic of them such as the T-Rex. I was even less impressed when they joined into the final fights and Optimus came in at the very end to save the day astride one of these creatures like some hero in a western. This however is where a lot of the film got it's attention and it shows, the over the top action was meant to wow and amaze you to try and distract you from the complete absence of a plot for the movie.
In conclusion, I believe that Transformers has lost sight of what it is doing and it is never more present than with this attempt to try and start fresh. Transformers: Age of Extinction proves to be just what the title implies, it is going extinct but it will undoubtedly make enough for the two more movies that are ready to follow it up. I wish that directors would realize how not so serious of a story that there needs to be with a movie like this and go back to the way it was with the first movie. People may enjoy the plethora of over the top stunts and effects you will see but honestly there won't be much else for you to spend your money on, sorry Optimus.
We then turn our attentions to our hero Cade Yeager (Mark Wahlberg) who is a down on his luck robotics mechanic who is raising his teenage daughter Tez (Nicola Peltz) and is a bit of an over bearing father type. He is desperatly trying to send her to college but everything is working against him but lets drop all that and save the world because it just so happens there's a semi truck in an old theater Cade just happens to be fixing up. Between the insane logic behind Cade reviving Optimus Prime with some jumper cables and the oh so stressing young daughter trying to go to college and having a secret boyfriend, it becomes a tired mess of cliches.
Now what usually saves a Transformers film for me at this point would be the action but even this proved to be a sour note for the film too. I wasn't at all dazzled by the idea in which the movie tries to re-write history and saying that the aliens caused the dinosaurs to die out and new robot ones took on the form of some of the more iconic of them such as the T-Rex. I was even less impressed when they joined into the final fights and Optimus came in at the very end to save the day astride one of these creatures like some hero in a western. This however is where a lot of the film got it's attention and it shows, the over the top action was meant to wow and amaze you to try and distract you from the complete absence of a plot for the movie.
In conclusion, I believe that Transformers has lost sight of what it is doing and it is never more present than with this attempt to try and start fresh. Transformers: Age of Extinction proves to be just what the title implies, it is going extinct but it will undoubtedly make enough for the two more movies that are ready to follow it up. I wish that directors would realize how not so serious of a story that there needs to be with a movie like this and go back to the way it was with the first movie. People may enjoy the plethora of over the top stunts and effects you will see but honestly there won't be much else for you to spend your money on, sorry Optimus.
Good:
- Creates a spectical for the audience, which means "Oooo look big fights, lots of explosions"
- T.J. Miller provides some laughs and kept me going
Bad:
- Absence of story
- Exceedingly long film
- For the most part all very poor plot for the main characters
- The new robot dinosaurs were a waste of time and special effects budget
Scully Rating: 3.5 out of 10
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