Transformers: Age of Extinction Movie Review

Autobots, Decepticons, like little children: always fighting, making a mess out of the universe. Then I've got to clean it up.-Lockdown

Despite the hiatus from writing reviews, I did stay on top of watching movies this summer. With some free time to really sit down and get back to what I love, I’ve decided to break the silence with Transformers: Age of Extinction and go from there. Once again Michael Bay returns with his staple summer blockbuster that is Transformers. This is the series that people bash on but still end up watching, and continue to bash on afterwards. Disclaimer: This Transformers isn’t all that different from its predecessors, so don’t go in thinking any different. Bay once again delivers a film full of awesome explosions and cheesy clichés, which if in the right mood, could be great to watch.

Now let’s jump into it. For starters Transformers: Age of Extinction is finally Shia LaBeouf-free. This newest installment introduces a whole new cast consisting off Mark Wahlberg as the leading man, Jack Reynor, and Nicola Peltz. Wahlberg plays Cade Yeager a failing small time inventor who lives with his 17 year old daughter, Tessa. This time around the beautiful, useless eye-candy in the film is not the leading man’s love interest but instead his daughter. I don’t use the word useless to take away from the actress, but to show how little regard Bay has for a strong female role. I feel that there were missed opportunities where Tessa could have been more useful but instead took the back seat. And don’t get me started on the slow motion camera shots focusing on her face, make up still intact, pondering life or death decisions. Sure she’s nice to look at, but that doesn’t make for good movie-making.

Transformers: Age of Extinction takes place years after the last film, where the world has now turned on the Autobots. Many were hunted down and slaughtered and the rest forced into hiding. Cade drags an old broken down truck back to his property to strip it down and sell the parts, and guess what? That truck happens to be Optimus Prime. Story-telling at its finest. Once the ball starts rolling though, you put aside the poor script and indulge on the beautiful CGI. Say what you will about how poor the film is but there is no denying how awesome it is to look at. From the Transformers themselves to the death defying stunts and explosions, Transformers: Age of Extinction was a visual spectacle, which may help explain it's 100 million dollar opening weekend. One of the main focuses of the film is the damaged relationship between Optimus and the human race, and his struggle back to realizing that some humans are worth saving. But we all know Optimus is too good for his own good.

One of the strongest characters in the film was Lockdown. He was just straight up bad-ass and not someone you wanted to mess with. He’s a ruthless mercenary and holds allegiance only the highest bidder. And we can’t forget his arsenal of weapons designed for complete obliteration. His disdain for both humans and Autobots was pretty entertaining and he was just cool to watch. But what stole the show were the Dinobots, no doubt about. This is as awesome to watch as it gets. Seeing enormous, metal, fire breathing dinosaurs kicking ass and then turning into other awesome vehicles was insane. Not to mention Optimus Prime riding on the T-rex into battle! These were the two things that stick out to me the most about the film when I think back. Despite the fact that I really like Mark Wahlberg, I don’t think this role was a very good fit. Maybe if the film had a more competent team behind it with actual substance my opinion would be different. At the end of the day, Transformers: Age of Extinction was a cool movie to watch, but that’s where it ends. There are too many plot holes and cheesy moments to really take this film seriously. I for one will admit I had a blast watching this movie. Mindless entertainment is good every once in a while! But from a critical standpoint, taking into consideration what makes a truly good film, Transformers: Age of Extinction gets a generous 4 out of 10.