Sometimes you have to judge a film by the intentions of its creator, as opposed to its ability to inspire pathos or capture a little window into our souls, and that’s undoubtedly the case with Michael Bay’s Transformers: Age Of Extinction. With some of the finest CGI we’ve seen on the big screen and an unending supply of full throttle action, it’s the ultimate display of a grown-up kid in a movie-based sweet shop and while that has its inherent limitations, it also contributes to the lion’s share of the positives too.
The story itself, written by Ehren Kruger once again, is actually pretty strong, taking the franchise in a slightly new direction and leaving the old Witwicki association behind and starting out with a new family. Following the battle of Battle of Chicago at the end of Transformers: Dark Of The Moon, the Autobots have gone into hiding as the US government unleashes a black-ops team called Cemetary Wind to hunt down all of the surviving alien robots, no matter which side of the good/bad divide they fall on.
When a powered down Optimus Prime finds himself in the care of engineer and inventor, Cade Yeager, who manages to revive the leader of the Autobots, they both find themselves in the sights of the elite secret government hit squad. The situation becomes all the more dire for the two new friends and the extended Yeager family, as they also have the added intensity of intergalactic bounty hunter Transformer, Lockdown, and the human-made Transformers, Galvatron, Stinger and Junkheap to face up against.
Perhaps the best element of the storyline is that it’s a big and weighty beast, featuring a whole host of interweaving arcs that come together to take in past, present and potential future of the Transformers movie series. The gravitas that is achieved as a result helps to make up for the sillier aspects of the film, with talk of the creators of the Transformers sending Lockdown to hunt down and return Prime to them, building anticipation for the 5th installment of the movies.
Returning to Bay’s direction, it’s a real mixed bag of positives and negatives. The silly, annoying aspects of the film – the moronic concept of Cade holding and firing a Transformers weapon like it was made for human hands, the unbelievable suspension of the laws of physics to make stunts look more impressive and the lack of rationale behind some of the things the characters do – are all down to his decisions and for them we can’t be anything but scathing.
However, there’s a lot to be thankful of too. He’s a big part of the jaw dropping impact of the film, which is integral to summer blockbusters like this. He’s also the driving force behind the pace and action of the movie, as well as the boundary pushing creativity that goes into its production, but if we could change 1 thing about the movie it would be to give Bay a co-director to temper his less inspired decision making. Throw British directors Pete Travis and Matthew Vaughn into the ring with him and it would have been a much more balanced end production.
The problem is that people are clearly starting to tire of this trade off, as can be seen by the extent of negative reviews across the board, which imply that Transformers: Age Of Extinction is the worst of the movie series. The reality is that it’s a whole lot better than Revenge Of The Fallen, but as it’s the fourth release now, the public has had a fair amount of the silly to put up with over the years and there’s probably only so much that can be taken in before it becomes a bit tiresome.
Characterisation of the various Transformers in the film also has its ups and downs, as has been the case with the movies since Fallen hit the big screen in 2011. Optimus Prime is as brilliant as ever, and Bumblebee is about as cool as a big yellow robot car can get, but the new Autobots – Hound, Crosshairs and Rift – don’t come across well at all. Equally, Lockdown, Galvatron, Stinker and Junkheap are genuinely convincing in their menace, while Galvatron’s dogs are just daft.
The bad news is that Brains, the little annoying character from Dark Of The Moon, is back in the mix, but there’s ample compensation in the form of the Dinobots, Grimlock, Strafe, Slug and Scorn. They look very impressive and work as well as their cartoon originals at bringing a new dimension to the Transformer story. The mini battle between Optimus Prime and Grimlock when they free the Dinobots is well worth going to see the film for all by its self.
In terms of performances, Wahlberg’s has a decent enough innings as the main human character, and adds a lot of heart to the role. While this misfires every now and again he’s mostly effective. That’s the case for large parts of the cast, including Stanley Tucci (The Hunger Games), who plays the head of KSI enterprises, Joshua Joyce, who provides a lot of the comic relief of the film.
New girl, Nicola Peltz makes a good addition to the film as Tessa Yeager, Cade’s daughter, and Lucas Flannery is a whole lot of fun as Cade’s partner/emplyee T.J. Miller. However, a movie is often won and lost by the quality of its baddies and if that were the case for Transformers: Age Of Extinction, Kelsey Grammer’s efforts as Harold Attinger, the CIA agent in charge of Cemetery Wind, would have been on the score sheet. Unfortunately, there’s just too much silliness elsewhere for that to be the defining factor.
One thing you can’t fault easily in the film is the brilliance of the special effects. Apart from the notable exception of the annoying way that the human-made Tranformers change form, and the slightly silly looking Hound and Rift, the CGI is second to none. They come into their own during battle scenes, looking about as convincing as is possible, but by far the most impressive visuals in the film is the alien ship that’s piloted by Lockdown.
It’s massive and imposing, but also looks solid and real to create some of the movie’s most awe inspiring scenes. They look even more impressive in 3D too, so if you are planning to go and see the movie still you should definitely opt for the 3D version on this one in our opinion.
The impact of the film added to by some very impressive sound work that helps to build tension, inject pace and heighten the sense of threat that looms often in the film. It’s hard to qualify why it was such an immersive experience, but if we were reviewing just the sound it would probably be a solid five out of five.
Transformers: Age Of Extinction review: 3/5
