It’s hardly the pinnacle of the genre, but in my opinion the first Transformers movie was pretty decent for what it was – an explosive and disposable action flick. Critics haven’t exactly been kind towards the series over time and while its hard to argue that the Transformers movies have gotten ‘better’, they have definitely gotten bigger – and Age of Extinction is probably the biggest yet.
After riding the Shia-LeBouf train as far as it could go, Transformers: Age of Extinction sees Paramount Pictures relaunch the series with Mark Wahlberg as new lead, Cade Yaeger. Yaeger is a struggling inventor and single-father to Tessa (Nicola Peltz) who finds himself on the run from the government after he finds and repairs the damaged leader of the Autobots, Optimus Prime (Peter Cullen).
After the city-shattering destruction derby that constituted the end of Transformers 3, Age of Extinction presents a world where public opinion has turned on the Transformers and Autobots and Decepticons alike are hunted down by a black-ops branch of the CIA. Kelsey Grammer leads this somewhat-flavorless side of the movie alongside much-more-fearsome henchman, James Savoy (Titus Welliver). Their CIA branch has partnered with both a big corporation headed by billionaire inventor Joshua Joyce (Stanley Tucci) and Lockdown, mysterious Decepticon bounty-hunter with motives of his own.
Although the opening of the movie is definitely a slow and tedious one that retreads a half-dozen tropes and stereotypes in typical Michael Bay-style, it isn’t long before Cade, Tessa and her Irish speed-racer boyfriend are forced onto the run and into the Autobots fight for survival. While the movies’ anti-government angle is a refreshing change for Michael Bay, the obvious time and effort he’s put into any scenes related to military action makes me wonder why he doesn’t just get up and make a bloody Call of Duty already.
Much like the action beats, much of the acting in Transformers 4 is pretty by the numbers. There was also far less juvenile humor than it felt like saturated previous entries in the series – the dynamic between Cade, Tessa and Shane is a reasonably fun one and a good change from previous entries. When it comes to humor, Stanley Tucci actually steals the scene most of the time. He does a lot with the little moments he’s given and really livens up what could have been a one-note character – eventually ending up as a nice – if clumsy – foil to Cade.
In a refreshing move that sees much of the previous films cast hunted down and exterminated, the surviving roster of robotic characters in Age of Extinction is pretty small. Familiar faces are limited to only Optimus Prime himself and the ever-annoying Bumblebee with newcomers Drift (Ken Watanabe), Crosshairs (John DiMaggio) and Hound (John Goodman) making a fun debut. Overall, I dug the chemistry between Crosshairs and Drift and actually wish the movie was more willing to kill off characters – its remarkably restrained for a movie called Age of Extinction.
The much advertised Dinobots also make their debut in Age of Extinction – and while they do take their sweet time before coming on-screen, they do definitely bring together one of the series most ridiculous – albeit undeniably enjoyable – sequences.
The film’s countless action scenes are typical Michael Bay-fare. They’re pretty well put together and they manage to be exciting without being exhausting for the most part – until things lose momentum in the Age of Extinction’s bloated finale. What’s more – it feels like a lot of this bloat comes from the series setting itself up for future installments. One of the film’s coolest sequences see’s the Autobots and Cade fight their way through Lockdown’s spaceship. There was a good build-up and I felt like things were reaching a climax – only for the movie to go on for another hour or so.
Transformers has always been a series that favored brawn over brains – but some of the narrative inconsistencies in Age of Extinction bothered me more than previous installments. It sounds kind of silly to criticize a Michael Bay movie for not being smart but it felt like every second scene had character emphasize how superior the Joyce’s man-made transformers are to the Cybertronian natives but when it comes down it they can blown away without the series leads breaking a sweat. On top of that, its hard to argue against the government’s anti-Transformer prerogative when the film leaves at least two cities in ruin.
Transformers: Age of Extinction is unlikely to win over any haters, but fans and moviegoers will probably enjoy it. Although it pales in comparison to some of this season’s other action offerings, Age of Extinction is a good time for those not too fussed about its bloated third act and usual grating humor.
7.0