Starkasm Reviews TRANSFORMERS: AGE OF EXTINCTION

Starkasm Reviews TRANSFORMERS: AGE OF EXTINCTION

Hit the jump to read my thoughts on Michael Bay's fourth installment into the Transformers franchise. Spoiler Free!

Review Opinion
By Starkasm - Jun 25, 2014 05:06 AM EST



Michael Bay's Transformers franchise has a love/hate relationship amongst fans. I myself have slowly become more cynical since the woeful, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. So, going into this film, which is Michael Bay's fourth entry to the franchise, I can't say I was buzzing with excitement. The trailers looked decent and from that I knew  that I'd see it just out of sheer hope that it will capture the magic of the first film.

Unfortunately, this film falls victim to the same problems at it's last two predecessors. A movie that doesn't know what story it is trying to tell. This film feels like 3 movies in one which ultimately becomes a catastrophe in the second and third act. With Orci and Kirkman no longer on writing duties, I thought this film stood a chance at telling a decent, cohesive story. But Ehren Kruger has managed to create a film that has more sub plots than TASM2, some of the most bizarre changes in character personalities mid way through the film and create one of the most generic and out-dated father/daughter relationships. All of which leave you irratated and full of doubt that a professional writer came up with this. 

The editing was quite eratic at points, especially right at the beginning of the film. We get 3 sequences in the first 10 minutes which are so incredibly out of place that I was gobsmacked it got approved. The pacing of this film was incredibly slow  which wasn't helped by the running time. The movie could have benefited immensely from shaving 20-30 minutes of pointless, unnecessary sub plots.




But, as always the action leaves nothing to be desired with some stunning action pieces. The viewer is able to actually follow what is happening this time around which was much needed in my opinion.

The new human characters lead by Mark Wahlberg are nothing special and get annoying real quick. With the same conversation between father/daughter/boyfriend seemingly had throughout the course of the film. A major improvement on Shia LaBeouf's Sam Witwicky  though.

Another thing that was done well which hasn't been done since TF1, was some great, new bots. Bumblebee shares some of his screentime to give the newly introduced Autobots some time to shine. All of whom have some great personalities and interactions. Hound being my personal favorite.

If it were up to me, I would have kept Lockdown as the sole villain. He was a threatening, sadistic antagonist who needed more love.

Lastly, Optimus Prime's closing monologue was so incredibly cheesy and forced I literally laughed out loud.

The film is ultimately lacking in many key areas which is something that is to be expected now from this franchise. There was some pretty decent moments scattered through the film but were buried under a story with no vision and boring characters. This film seemingly kicks off a new trilogy but will need some drastic changes to get this ass in the seat for the inevitable sequel.


Related:

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SauronsBANE
SauronsBANE - 6/25/2014, 8:24 AM
Great, well-written, intelligent review! I haven't seen it yet (and I really have no plans on doing so) but I have no doubt that every word here is completely accurate. I somewhat enjoyed the very first Transformers movie, the second was just a cluster[frick], the third was really, really horrible, and I expected nothing to change that trend with the fourth. Not even Dinobots.

Too bad this will still rake in massive amounts of cash though, which means they'll just keep churning these suckers out. Maybe I'll catch this on TV in a few years, or download it once the blu-ray comes out. But no chance this franchise is getting any more money out of me.
Starfox
Starfox - 6/25/2014, 10:32 AM
Great Review!

2/5 though?... :(

I wanted this to be different but I guess Bay has not learned yet lol
Starkasm
Starkasm - 6/25/2014, 1:30 PM
Sauron & starfox

Cheers guys!
OcciferPing
OcciferPing - 6/28/2014, 11:25 PM
Great review. Just like the other one you mentioned me on. At least you're disliking this for legit reasons, too. Not just hating to hate. I understand where you're coming from. I didn't like Optimus' line at the end of the film either. But at the same time, I'm glad that they cut out his opening narrative in the beginning of the film. We already had that 3 times before.

I was disappointed with Stanley Tucci's character. He started out really sophisticated and put together, but towards the end, he just became really ridiculous with the "OH MY GOD!" every 5 seconds. I think the elevator scene was probably the only appropriate time for his ridiculousness, but everything else felt unnecessary.

And finally the Autobots stand out! But I'm sad that SPOILERS Lockdown died. I know he was kind of a generic villain, but he was refreshing for the franchise with his "I don't care what you do" attitude. Galvatron wasn't needed either. They should have saved him for 5. He felt shoehorned in.

Do you think we'll get a "Transformers in space No humans?" movie for part 5?
Starkasm
Starkasm - 6/29/2014, 7:35 PM
@stingyfox

It's the only way I'd pay to see another TF film.

This film had potential which is what makes it so disappointing.
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