Transformers: Age Of Extinction

Year: 2014
Director: Michael Bay
Cast: Mark Wahlberg, Stanley Tucci, Nicola Peltz, Kelsey Grammer, Jack Reynor, Titus Welliver


Plot: Five years after the battle of Chicago, Transformers are now being hunted by the CIA's black ops team, who are in collaboration with a Transformer bounty hunter named Lockdown. Optimus Prime, now in hiding, is forced to rely on struggling inventor Cade Yeager to survive and find the remaining Autobots.


Review: I'm certain you've all heard the worst things there are to say about this film. Quite honestly, I can't blame the critics for slamming this film. But in my opinion, is it bad? Nah, not really. If you weren't a fan of Michael Bay's Transformers before this, then this fourth instalment isn't going to change your mind. But if you have no problem with it, you'd probably enjoy it all the same.

First of all, it is Bay we're talking about. That means lots of explosions, lots of destruction, lots of over the top nonsense. If you're willing to sit through that, then why the hell would you complain? You've seen the first three, so you know what to expect here. But Bay does improve on a few things, like replacing his human cast completely. No annoying Sam Witwicky and his equally annoying parents. New protagonist Cade Yeager, played by a very game Mark Wahlberg, is definitely a step up. A struggling inventor trying to raise his teenage daughter and pay the bills, he's easier to relate to than a silly kid trying to pick up girls using his Autobot car. 

We also have a solid pair of villains, in the form of Lockdown, who is a bounty hunter not loyal to either Autobot or Decepticon, and CIA agent Attinger, played very well by Kelsey Grammer. While the former basically wants to bring Optimus Prime back to his "creators", the latter is a self proclaimed patriot doing what he thinks is best for his country. Then there is Stanley Tucci, who plays Joshua Joyce, a corporate inventor trying to harness Transformer tech for his own gain. He turns out to be the humor source for this film, and he's not so bad overall.

Now, I won't mention too much about the CGI and action sequences and all that, you know what to expect, as I said. I will say that it's mostly great, especially when the Dinobots show up in the final half hour of the film. But the film suffers mainly from editing issues. 165 minutes is a lot to ask for from any movie fan, even for a Transformers movie. There were definitely some scenes Bay could have left out that would trim at least 15 to 20 minutes off the total runtime. Scriptwriter Ehren Kruger could also have made the Autobots less human. I don't know why there's a need to make the robots talk and act like humans do. They've done that for four films now and I'm sick of it. Why can't they all talk like Optimus Prime?

So in closing, I'll recommend this film if you liked Bay's Transformers and love watching lots of shit getting blown up. If you don't like Bay, then don't go see this. For my money, it's worth one watch. (3.5/5)