Transformers: Age of Extinction by Michael Bay on Blu-ray
My rating: 4 out of 10 stars
After the battle between the Autobots and Decepticons that leveled Chicago, humanity thinks that all alien robots are a threat. So Harold Attinger, a CIA agent, establishes a unit whose sole purpose is to hunt down all of them. But it turns out that they are aided by another alien robot who is searching for Optimus Prime. Cade Yeager, a “robotics expert”, buys an old truck and upon examining it, he thinks it’s a Transformer. When he powers it up, he discovers it’s Optimus Prime. Later, men from the unit show up looking for Optimus. He helps Yeager and his daughter Tessa escape but are pursued by the hunter. They escape and Yeager learns from technology he took from the men that a technology magnate and defense contractor named Joshua Joyce is part of what’s going on, so they go to find out what’s going on.
I have watched all the other Transformers movies and I have liked them. I have liked them a lot. Yes the stories have been comic book quality but it has been fun watching them nonetheless. This one…not so much. I was actually rather disappointed at the end despite having tuned down my expectations on pretty much everything except the special effects.
The special effects are good. It has to be said. They are really great. The transformations are cool as ever and the new transformations by the human made transformers adds a nice FX twist. The fighting is gorgeous. The Dinobots were really cool.
However, 165 minutes where the only enjoyment is one FX after another and where the scenes without FX are simply a drag is just not what I call a good movie. It is at best a special effects catalogue of what can be done. A showcase for other movie makers telling them: “Look how good my team is at making FX”.
The story of this movie is pretty thin. That the Autobots, that saved the planet, should be hunted down again is just an unintelligent and dumb cliché. It could have been made into something usable though if it was not implemented with utter incompetence. I mean, come on, there is not a likable person in the entire bloody movie. Well, with the possible exception of a few side characters. The hero is an ass, his “friend” that betrays them is a dumb ass, his daughter is just a dumb poor actor, the chief of staff is laughable. The list goes on. To make matters worse the bad guys that are supposed not to be likable are just bland, dumb arses. No character and mediocre acting at best.
Sometimes the scenes are disconnected with strange jumps in the middle of the action as well. This must be the worst implementation of an already poor story that I have watched it a long while. The only thing that lifts this movie above a zero star rating are the great special effects. For once I side with the so called “critics” that trash this movie.
PG's Ramblings 