THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
While I’m someone that grew up appreciating Transformers, I’m aware a lot of people aren’t impressed. When people ask me where does their negativity start, I would tell them to look at Age of Extinction and don’t say I didn’t warn you.
PLOT
The film takes place five years after the shocking battle in Chicago. Despite the Autobots defeating the Decepticons again, all joint operations with them are severed and most humans view them hostile. This gives the opportunity for rogue CIA operative Harold Attinger to have his own black ops division to hunt down the rest. A Cybertronian bounty hunter named Lockdown (who can disguise himself as a Lamborghini when not transforming into a giant gun) is hunting down Optimus Prime and gives Harold a dangerous weapon to help him find him. The weapon is a ‘Seed’ that can turn organic matter into molten metal once detonated. He even helps his division, Cemetery Wind, to hunt down another Autobot named Ratchet (Robert Foxworth). In Texas lives inventor Cade Yaegar, who lives with his teen daughter Tessa. Going through financial struggles, he finds a worn out semi truck and buys it, in hopes to salvage the parts and sell it to ensure his daughter goes to college. Overnight, he finds out that the truck is a Transformer in comatose. When he shares the revelation to Tessa and his business partner Lucas (TJ Miller), both consider turning it over and use the reward from for their financial needs. Instead, Cade decides to restore it back to life, hoping to use its technology to better his creations. When fixing up the truck, the transformer turns out to be none other than Optimus himself whose been hiding since before comatose. As Cade assures him he wants to help, the Autobot allows him to continue fixing him. That would be halted when Lucas calls authorities. The authoritative figure that shows up is Harold’s field commanding operative James Savoy, who demands Prime to be surrendered. Predictably, the Autobot family would shoot his way out to defend the family. They drive their way out thanks to Tessa’s secret boyfriend Shane Dyson. However with Lockdown nearby, Lucas would be killed in the crossfire and Cade’s family home would be destroyed. On their own, Prime is able to reunite with the remaining Autobots: Bumblebee who transforms into a '67 and '14 Chevrolet Camaro, Hound who transforms into an Oshkosh Defense FMTV truck, Drift who transforms into a Bugatti and a helicopter & Crosshairs who transforms into a Chevrolet C7 Corvette Stingray. With a mini-drone captured by Cade, everyone discovers that Cemetery Wind is in cahoots with KSI Industries. When infiltrating one of their bases in Chicago, they further witness the company is using the remains of Transformers to make prototype soldiers. As ordered by Attinger, the CEO Joshua Joyce and Chinese entrepreneur Su Yueming (Bingbing Li) are pulling this off not only with the use of Brains and Megatron’s severed head as resources, but also the element of Transformium that was discovered in the Arctic. With it, they can use it to command technology. And with the Seed, Joyce’s intent is to revolutionize global defenses. Their most recent transformer drones are named Stinger and Galvatron. After Cade gets made, the Autobots storm & destroy the laboratory. When they leave, the said prototypes are sent to capture them. During the fight against Prime, it is discovered Galvatron is acting erratic. The fight gets halted when Lockdown shoots down Prime. He tells the Autobot his Creators want him back. Unknowingly by the bounty hunter, Tessa gets captured as well. With the help of the Autobots, Cade & Shane board Lockdown’s spacecraft and as they rescue who they care for, they all escape with a smaller ship. With everyone accounted for, Optimus shares that the Seed was used by the Creators to harvest life-giving metal, which only wiped out species on planets. With Brains rescued from KSI, he confirms Galvatron is only Megatron reincarnated, intending to control Joyce’s drones as a new army and once he has access to the Seed, he will plant it on the largest city to kill millions. Not wanting Galvatron to succeed, the Autobots plan to capture the Seed but plan to leave Earth afterwards. Cade chooses to call Joyce that he is getting played by his own creation. In Hong Kong, he does have access to the Seed as he wished but he quickly retreats with Yueming once Galvatron awakens on his own and activates the other drones. As he tries to hide it upon knowing how dangerous it is, he gets scooped up by the Autobots. When Galvatron makes his way into the city, he shoots down their ship, resulting in the protagonist group to get separated. As the humans get stuck in the city with Hound & Bumblebee, Prime lands the ship with Drift & Crosshairs in mountainous area nearby. With Lockdown arriving to Hong Kong as well after realizing his bounty escaped, Optimus gains reinforcements that were also imprisoned. The other prisoners in the detachable ship are legendary warriors that can transform into dinosaurs, the Dinobots. After the Autobot leader is able to convince the leader Grimlock, who transforms into a Tyrannosaurus Rex, the others follow through. The other Dinobots include: Strafe who transforms into a two headed Pteranodon, Slug who transforms into a spiked Triceratops, and Scorn who transforms into a Spinosaurus. As a battle in Hong Kong occurs, Cade chooses to defend himself with weapons he took from the spacecraft, killing Savoy in self defense. As the fight worsens, Optimus arrives with reinforcements to better the odds, leading Galvatron to retreat. It takes an unexpected turn when Lockdown uses a magnet from his spacecraft to take out the rebelling Transformers. Optimus is able to save everyone by disabling it. He then follows Lockdown and have another duel at a silo nearby. As Cade tries to defend him, Attinger tries to kill him for disrupting his plans. Prime sees this and chooses to save Cade by shooting Attinger. With extra aid from Bumblebee, Tess & Shane, Optimus is able to kill Lockdown. The conflict reaches an end when Prime uses a grenade to destroy the rest of Galvatron’s army. The film would end with Optimus heading into space to search for the Creators, asking the Autobots to protect Cade’s family.
THOUGHTS
I'm still a fan at heart, which only made me optimistic on the new arc we were going to follow and it goes without saying I wasn't entirely impressed. There is no sugarcoating when I say this is a bad movie because Director Michael Bay doesn't deliver in making a grounded sci fi flick. Every plot point is all over the place, it can get easy to feel confused on how things come full circle. I still appreciate Steve Jablonsky's score and the new designs are incredibly visualized to keep the action sequences invested, like the climactic battle in HK. but it ain't enough this time. I never complained about this before, but the product placement is very distracting. I don't want to think about buying stuff when I'm watching a movie when movies are supposed to distract me from reality. There's so much different products that got promoted and it was so pointless to give attention to: Beats Pill, Oreo, Nutrilite, TCL, Victoria's Secret, Bud Light, Budweiser, Red Bull, Miller, Bushnell, Cobra, TCL, Caterpiller, Kawasaki, Avamar, Lenovo, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, Good Year, C'est Bon Water, Panasonic, Skype, Flir, South by Southwest, The County Line BBQ, Yili, Nokia, Vogue , Coca Cola Tom Ford, Gucci and all the visible car brands used on set. I don't want to remember this shit while I'm trying to enjoy a sci fi adventure. The only characters I cared about were the Autobots because they're the only ones we know of and root for from the beginning. Peter Cullen still have us admire Optimus Prime for being an honorable warrior by being on the same page as Cade the one guy who bothered bringing him back to the fold. Bumblebee is still charismatic for using the radio as his voice. With the new Autobots, I was thrown off guard with the diverse voice cast involved. I would've not expected the lovable John Goodman to play any of these characters, yet he owned it in making Hound as boisterous as possible. The big difference he has from his brethren is that he enjoys walking into danger because he knows it ain't gonna go away once he deals with it. John DiMaggio made Crosshairs interesting because although he acts self centered and pessimistic half the time, the other half pushes him to fight on to prevent the worst outcomes. Didn't expect Ken Watanabe either, but he made Drift memorable for acting the most dignified towards everyone. I don't really have any investment with the human characters here, nor would I have any for The Last Knight. I haven't been able to feel such because I don't think there is any commitment to make them interesting. And I don't blame the cast for not succeeding, but it doesn't excuse their efforts to be dissatisfying. The general audience like myself enjoys Mark Wahlberg, but he didn't convince me at all to show appreciation towards Cade. Yes the character is a well intentioned and over protective father brave enough to join the fight, but I don't think there is enough depth for him. He gives Optimus the motivation to have faith in others to ignore the hate and lead on, but I still don't think he earned the opportunity to do so and I know other characters wouldn't be able to either. I can't even try to connect with Tessa and Shane because they seem to get along too well for being too eager to live their own lives. I feel like that's the only thing that keeps them together. Whether or not you dig the chemistry of Nicola Peltz and Jack Reynor, I don't condone this fictional relationship because Romeo & Juliet laws don't mean shit to me. The villainous roles of Harold Attinger and James Savoy are written in such a straightforward manner, I can't gain interested in them either. Kelsey Grammer and Titus Welliver both show them to be paranoid and merciless people who are too traumatized of what happened in Chicago, they can't stop what they're doing what they identify as a threat is gone for good. The problem is that I don't feel like they went deeper than that. I even felt disappointed on how they handled Stanley Tucci's addition as Joshua Joyce. I don't think his 180 from overly ambitious to instantly regretful is deserved because they rushed it. Even if he plans to help Cade & Tessa by getting them a new house, that ain't enough for me. The only villains that kept me hooked were Lockdown and Galvatron. I take it as an absolute win for Frank Welker to return as the reincarnation of the villain he made famous, proving some enemies will be always be difficult to be rid of for good. Mark Ryan shook things up when he made Lockdown as ruthless as you'd expect from a bounty hunter. The difference he has from the other villains is that he's not really on anyone's side but his own and works for the highest bidder. It is a given for the Creators to be the ones since they had to have made him too. While the titular robotic species are what keep me coming back, I have to remind you the plot is so messy as it is filled with moments that don't make no damn sense to me. Going from the top, how exactly did Prime sneak into the theater without causing further damage? He has to be lucky the owners didn't notice him until Cade did. Also, how come Savoy doesn't use Energon detectors? He may have used a heat signature to find Ratchet, but the Energon detectors definitely would've helped him find Prime. That's more stupid than failing to get a direct shot at him. And was it really a good idea to run into a bingo game? I know you want to get away from the bad guys, but that is way too desperate of a move. I find that dumber than telling Cade he stole mouthwash just to make out with his daughter. The guy really has a death wish. I even hate Tessa for blaming her dad when Lucas died. It is far from his fault because Lucas called the authorities, so he set up his own demise if you ask me. And why didn't the bystander smack the drone Cade was trying to use the ATM? He had the right to do it since he couldn't have known its intent. Is it even close to realistic for a design team and production to be in the same room when something is getting built? I can imagine Steve Jobs would come and go, visiting both teams to check progress, but i don't think they would share a room. On top of that, shouldn't Joyce check the coding on why Galvatron would resemble Megatron instead of Prime? That's the giveaway for us that Megatron has reincarnated himself, but Joyce is a dumbass for not thinking about this possibility. And what the hell happened to the Matrix of Leadership? Did Prime lose that when he went on the run? That would've saved him from going in comatose. And how was Cade able to call Joyce? Did he ask an Autobot like Brains to look it up? It would not hurt being told that's what happened. I want to be happy seeing the Dinobots fucking shit up during the climax, but I hate they're only used as a deus ex machina for Prime. They should've gotten fleshed out like the Knights do in the follow up. And lastly, how the fuck can Optimus fly without Jetfire's parts? If he can do it without that, he should've not taken it. There is even a few continuity errors that pissed me off from beginning to end. 3 minutes in, and I'm already pissed when they don't show the molten-metal covered dino-corpses in one shot, only to show it in the next. Shane even says the statute clearly wrong by saying 27.05/3 when his card said 22.0111. I never cared about background candles before, but who the hell lit those candles in the abandoned church? I refuse to believe Cade would allow Tessa & Shane to do that if they were going to use it act romantic towards each other. The highway chase was cool, but how did Tessa get separated when Optimus transformed? Cade & Shane were in between her, yet they got out on her right and she doesn't? I don't get it. Cade even claims the elevator is too heavy for four people, yet a sign said it is capable to lift nine. You can't say the seed is heavy because Joyce carries it without complaining of its weight. They couldn't even match walls in between takes when Cade is taking cover to shoot at Lockdown. I really don't want to think about this shit. To get this over with, Transformers: Age of Extinction is a bad movie for not trying hard enough to get anything right. Whether or not you are a fan of this franchise, I wish you good luck. If you have seen this already, be grateful we got Bumblebee.
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