Directed by: Michael Bay.
Written by: Ehren Kruger.
Starring: Mark Wahlberg (Cade Yeager), Stanley Tucci (Joshua Joyce), Kelsey Grammer (Harold Attinger), Nicola Peltz (Tessa Yeager), Jack Reynor (Shane Dyson), Titus Welliver (James Savoy), Sophia Myles (Darcy Tirrel), Bingbing Li (Su Yueming), T.J. Miller (Lucas Flannery), James Bachman (Gill Wembley), Thomas Lennon (Chief of Staff), Peter Cullen (Optimus Prime), Frank Welker (Galvatron), John Goodman (Hound), Ken Watanabe (Drift), Robert Foxworth (Ratchet), John DiMaggio (Crosshairs), Mark Ryan (Lockdown), Reno Wilson (Brains).
The
most frustrating thing about Michael Bay is that he is clearly a talented
director – or at least he can be. In almost every movie he makes, he’ll give
you something that you have never seen in a movie before – although sometimes,
there is a good reason why you haven’t. The Transformers films are the best and
worst example of his filmmaking ability. I liked the first film – which was big
and dumb, but quite a lot of fun as well. I hated the second film, which was
big and dumb and loud and incoherent and no fun at all. The third movie was
also loud, dumb and largely incoherent – as well as way too long – but the last
45 minutes was a pretty much brilliant action sequence the likes of which we
hardly ever see. Too bad the movie ran more than two and half hours, and beat
the audience into submission well before that brilliance started. Now comes the
fourth Transformers movie – which reminded me a lot of the third one, minus the
brilliant extended action sequence which ends the movie. The film runs nearly
three hours, which is way too long for a movie that has barely any plot – and whose
makers clearly don’t care about what little plot they do have. The human
characters have changed from the last time, although they’re still cookie
cutter characters with no real purpose. Bay, who has always sexualized his
female characters to an uncomfortable degree, goes even further this time – as he
uses poor Nicola Peltz as nothing more than a sex object, even though she’s
supposed to be only 17. A joke about the “Romeo and Juliet” laws that make her
relationship with the older Shane (Jack Reynor) not “technically” statutory
rape just makes matters worse.
Transformers:
Age of Extinction pretty much pummels the audience with loud, incoherent action
from start to finish. That seems to be all Michael Bay is interesting in doing –
and in that, I guess, he is successful. The plot is an afterthought – and introduces
multiple villains for the dwindling number of Autobots to fight against. In the
aftermath of the Battle of Chicago that ended the last film, and results in a
massive loss of American lives (nice to see a blockbuster acknowledge that – as
usually they don’t) – the Transformers have become unpopular. The surviving
Decepitcons are being hunted down and killed – and although the Autobots are
supposed to have sanctuary, CIA Agent Harold Attinger (Kelsey Grammer) – who apparently
can do whatever the hell he wants – wants them destroyed as well. He’s reached
out to another alien robot – Lockdown – to help eliminate everyone. But they
need to find Optimus Prime, who has gone into hiding until Cade Yeager (Mark
Wahlberg) – an “inventor” living in Texas finds him by accident. This sets the
plot in motion, which will not stop or slow down for nearly the next three
hours as one long, violent chase sequence/shootout leads to another long,
violent chase sequence/shootout.
I
think it’s fair to say that Bay knows what audiences want to see in a
Transformer movie. At this point, he’s made four and all of them are wildly
popular with audiences, even if critics hate them. I don’t think you can argue
that people don’t t like the films – if that were true, they’d stop showing up,
and that isn’t happening. With each passing film it seems like Bay wants to top
the loudness and non-stop action quotient that seemingly hit its peak in the
last film. And each time out, he “succeeds” in doing just that.
A
film like Transformers: Age of Extinction is tough to review for a number of
reasons. A critics job is to watch the film and report on what he saw – in some
part to let people reading know if they’ll like the film or not. But I think at
this point, you probably already know whether or not you’ll like the film – it’s
the exact same film as the first three Transformers movie except even moreso.
To me, watching the film was a punishing experience – not one I would like to
repeat. The whole thing gave me a headache – and I didn’t even see it in 3-D.
But you know if you’ll like the movie, right? Transformers: Age of Extinction
is pretty much precisely the film you think it’s going to be. And if that’s
something you enjoy, than go ahead and enjoy.
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