The fourth go around for Michael Bay's Transformers franchise, Age of Extinction is a soft reboot for the series, jumping off from the e...
The fourth go around for Michael Bay's Transformers franchise, Age of Extinction is a soft reboot for the series, jumping off from the events of the last movies balls to the wall finale, but clearing everything else off the table. It allows Bay to come at the franchise in a different direction, this installment being much darker in tone than what has come previous. That's all that really has changed though, with everything else we have come to expect from the franchise intact.
Five years after Transformers: Dark of the Moon, Transformers are a known entity, on the run and hunted by the U.S Government for the lives lost during the battle of Chicago. When inventor Cade Yaeger (Mark Wahlberg, sporting the best character name this side of the Eighties) comes across a battered old truck which turns out to be Autobot leader Optimus Prime, it puts himself, his daughter Tessa (Nicola Peltz), and her boyfriend Shane (Jack Reynor) in the cross hairs of CIA Agent Harold Attinger (Kelsey Garmmer), himself in alliance with Transformer turned bounty hunter Lockdown, who wants Prime for his own ends. Throw in technology company KSI creating their own line of Transformer drones, and it is a slight step beyond the previous movies 'Autobots have something. The Decepticons want it. They fight' line of plotting. The humourous tone of the first three films, complete with their parade of 'quirky' characters, are put to the side, making way for something a bit darker. A holdover from Dark of the Moon, having human villains really opens up the story, and Grammer's Attinger is a fantastic bad guy, whose motivations are the usual 'for the good of national security' cliches, but the actor brings a lot of menace to the role. The plot moves forward at a great pace, with several great action sequences treating us to Bay's usual bombastic flair, but once it enters its third act, the film falls apart, mainly down to its bloated 165 minute run time. It outstays its welcome by a good forty minutes, the multiple plot lines coming together and degenerating into a massive battle where logic is thrown out the window (even more so than the previous movies), and the much heralded inclusion of the Dinobots feeling totally tacked on and contrived. Two major set pieces make up the finale, and they could have easily been folded into one, and the ending wraps up everything too neatly and easily. It's not an entirely perfect movie, characters disappear and appear when they are needed, and certain events will have you scratching your head as you try and make sense of them, but it had a great energy that sadly fizzled away in the finale.
On the visual side, this is Bay firing on all cylinders. The movie is an absolute spectacle, the usual Bay lesson in excess, one that demands to be seen in IMAX and easily trouncing all the previous installments in the franchise. If Bay comes back for the inevitable sequel, it'll be interesting what he'll do after delivering something as huge as this. The effects are also a step above the previous movies, with each Transformer being visually breathtaking, so much detail put into their design. From Hound's (brought to life brilliantly by John Goodman's dulcet tones) beard being made up of twisted wires, or the fear in Bumblebee's eyes as we close in on his face as he is in free fall, the effects are mind blowing. Lockdown's ship, which plays a huge part in a massive second act set piece, is especially impressive, an imposing environment I would have gladly spent the entire movie exploring. There is so much fun to be had in this movie, it is Summer blockbuster escapism at its finest, nothing more nothing less.
Wahlberg is the perfect hero here, unsurprisingly a million miles away from Shia La Beouf's Sam Witwicky. He doesn't really break a sweat here, but he seems to be having a whole lot of fun, which makes him immensely likable. As I've said, Grammer excels in the villain role, and he would have stolen the show, if not for Stanley Tucci's KSI founder, Joshua Jones. Steve Jobs if he was megalomaniac, he is by far the best character, and when Tucci is let off the leash, Jones becomes something amazing, completely owning any scene he is in. Ireland's own Jack Reynor proves to be a nice fit for an action movie, and holds his own against Wahlberg for the most part. But save for one or two set pieces, he spends most of his time keeping Peltz company in the background.
Seriously hurt by an excessive running time, becoming a slog to sit through in its third act, Transformers: Age of Extinction is still a fantastic, over the top slice of Bayhem.
Five years after Transformers: Dark of the Moon, Transformers are a known entity, on the run and hunted by the U.S Government for the lives lost during the battle of Chicago. When inventor Cade Yaeger (Mark Wahlberg, sporting the best character name this side of the Eighties) comes across a battered old truck which turns out to be Autobot leader Optimus Prime, it puts himself, his daughter Tessa (Nicola Peltz), and her boyfriend Shane (Jack Reynor) in the cross hairs of CIA Agent Harold Attinger (Kelsey Garmmer), himself in alliance with Transformer turned bounty hunter Lockdown, who wants Prime for his own ends. Throw in technology company KSI creating their own line of Transformer drones, and it is a slight step beyond the previous movies 'Autobots have something. The Decepticons want it. They fight' line of plotting. The humourous tone of the first three films, complete with their parade of 'quirky' characters, are put to the side, making way for something a bit darker. A holdover from Dark of the Moon, having human villains really opens up the story, and Grammer's Attinger is a fantastic bad guy, whose motivations are the usual 'for the good of national security' cliches, but the actor brings a lot of menace to the role. The plot moves forward at a great pace, with several great action sequences treating us to Bay's usual bombastic flair, but once it enters its third act, the film falls apart, mainly down to its bloated 165 minute run time. It outstays its welcome by a good forty minutes, the multiple plot lines coming together and degenerating into a massive battle where logic is thrown out the window (even more so than the previous movies), and the much heralded inclusion of the Dinobots feeling totally tacked on and contrived. Two major set pieces make up the finale, and they could have easily been folded into one, and the ending wraps up everything too neatly and easily. It's not an entirely perfect movie, characters disappear and appear when they are needed, and certain events will have you scratching your head as you try and make sense of them, but it had a great energy that sadly fizzled away in the finale.
On the visual side, this is Bay firing on all cylinders. The movie is an absolute spectacle, the usual Bay lesson in excess, one that demands to be seen in IMAX and easily trouncing all the previous installments in the franchise. If Bay comes back for the inevitable sequel, it'll be interesting what he'll do after delivering something as huge as this. The effects are also a step above the previous movies, with each Transformer being visually breathtaking, so much detail put into their design. From Hound's (brought to life brilliantly by John Goodman's dulcet tones) beard being made up of twisted wires, or the fear in Bumblebee's eyes as we close in on his face as he is in free fall, the effects are mind blowing. Lockdown's ship, which plays a huge part in a massive second act set piece, is especially impressive, an imposing environment I would have gladly spent the entire movie exploring. There is so much fun to be had in this movie, it is Summer blockbuster escapism at its finest, nothing more nothing less.
Wahlberg is the perfect hero here, unsurprisingly a million miles away from Shia La Beouf's Sam Witwicky. He doesn't really break a sweat here, but he seems to be having a whole lot of fun, which makes him immensely likable. As I've said, Grammer excels in the villain role, and he would have stolen the show, if not for Stanley Tucci's KSI founder, Joshua Jones. Steve Jobs if he was megalomaniac, he is by far the best character, and when Tucci is let off the leash, Jones becomes something amazing, completely owning any scene he is in. Ireland's own Jack Reynor proves to be a nice fit for an action movie, and holds his own against Wahlberg for the most part. But save for one or two set pieces, he spends most of his time keeping Peltz company in the background.
Seriously hurt by an excessive running time, becoming a slog to sit through in its third act, Transformers: Age of Extinction is still a fantastic, over the top slice of Bayhem.
