17 September, 2014

"Transformers: Age Of Extinction" review

Genre: Science Fiction, Action, Adventure.
Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Nicola Peltz, Stanley Tucci, Kelsey Grammer, Jack Reynor, Sophia Myles, Li Bingbing, Titus Welliver, T.J Miller, James Bachman, Thomas Lennon, Charles Parnell.
Year Of Release: 2014
Certificate: 12A (UK)
Runtime: 165 Minutes
Director: Michael Bay
Synopsis: "A mechanic and his family join the Autobots as they are targeted by a bounty hunter from another world." IMDB




A franchise that started with such promise, however the second and third instalment in the franchise were less than desirable. First was absolutely brilliant after that it was a rapid decline in quality, so the fourth film was less than desirable to me to say the least.

This film was kind of a reboot/sequel to the third, it's a direct sequel in timeline, however the entire cast has gone and we have a completely new one.

The film opens with massively over the top spaceships and Tyrannosaurus Rex's, well what did you guys expect? This is a Michael Bay film remember ha, is there any other way this could have opened. This sequel does have a very familiar feel as previous instalments, however this time we have a new family in the centre of the mass chaos. Finally the Witwicky family is gone, now we are following the Yaeger family, with the father Cade (Wahlberg) a pretty much broke inventor and his 17 year old daughter Tessa (Peltz) who accidentally discover a Transformer, well not just A Transformer, it's THE Transformer, they come across Optimus himself all beaten up and ruined.

Then we have Harold Attinger (Grammer) who has made it his mission to hunt down all the Autobots that still live on Earth after the events in Chicago with the help of his own shall we say "bounty hunter" Lockdown (voiced by Mark Ryan). There is also billionaire crazy man Joshua Joyce (Tucci) who has set his sights on recreating his own Transformers by any means necessary.

After Prime reveals himself to the Yeager family, there isn't even enough time to blink before the CIA are on the case tracking down the leader of the Autobots, resulting in Cade and co going on the run here we meet Tessa's boyfriend Shane (Raynor) who very coincidentally is an expert race driver, what are the odds? Prime sets out to find all the remaining Autobots on Earth, we are introduced to Joyce's man-made Transformer resulting in a pretty epic fight scene between Prime and said Transformers.

After that? The film goes down hill faster than the Cool Runnings team practising for the '88 Olympics. The film is massively weigh down by running time that still baffles me now when I think about it, the Action sequences become a bit tedious and boring when they're just throw at you every other scene. Luckily we get good displays from Wahlberg, Tucci and Grammer in the human aspect to keep your mind from drifting, we even get a thoroughly enjoyable voicing by John Goodman who plays Hound.

Overall, the film was nothing more than OK if I am being 100% with you guys/girls, it starts off pretty good the first act/third whatever way you phrase it with Grammer hunting down Autobots was a very fun watch. Then you get bogged down with unnecessary Action sequences, a crazy runtime, characters you can't relate to and to top it all off you get the Dinobots at about the 02:10 mark and they're barely in it. What a massive waste of one of the main selling points for the film.

I can't even say, "oh yeah it's a popcorn flick" because that would be a lie at nearly three hours long, you get to a point were you're only watching it waiting for the Dinobots and while they are visually incredible as all the Transformers films are, they are hardly worth the wait, they are gone before you know it. In summary watch it if you're a Bay, Wahlberg or Transformers fan, if you are not stay well clear, it's three hours of Action Porn, and surprisingly that can get boring pretty quick.

5/10

Added commentary if you will;
If the franchise is to continue beyond this point in my honest opinion the human element needs to taken out of the equation. I'm not even sure what it's there, they have never been relatable characters, we do NOT need a human element. It was the main downfall of "Pacific Rim" also the forced human story. All we want to see is Autobots vs Decepticons battling it out on a  a planet in Space, scrap the humans, have robots ripping each other to shreds, shooting rockets the lot. Then you will not have to worry about people complaining about characters development, poor script, over the top Action, because they are all mute points in a film in which good robots fight bad robots.

No comments:

Post a Comment