Someone Should Fire Michael Bay: A Review of "Transformers: Age of Extinction"

By Brian Frosti on July 1, 2014

Image via fansided.com

There aren’t many movie franchises out there that are more divisive than Michael Bay’s “Transformers” series. These blockbuster sci-fi films have all enjoyed enormous commercial success, driven by jaw-dropping CGI displays, but have never received much love from critics. The only film to break 50 on the metascore (a metric that compiles the scores given by critics) was the original, which scored a 61.

The latest installment, “Transformers: Age of Extinction,” is both the series’ longest, at 2 hours and 45 minutes, and worst reviewed, with a sterling 16 percent on rottentomatoes. The goal with this semi-reboot was to give the series new life, though to call it more of the same would be an understatement. “Age of Extinction” feels less like a step forward and more like two steps back for the franchise.

The story for this film begins five years after the events of “Transformers: Dark of the Moon.” The climactic battle that leveled Chicago has left the citizens of Earth distrustful of all transformers, even going as far as to hunt down any they can find, be they Autobot or Deceptacon.

This time there’s an all new human cast and a mostly new group of Transformers. The only characters to make a return for a fourth round are Optimus Prime and Bumblebee. The new humans are led by inventor/mechanic Cade Yeager, played by Mark Wahlberg (“Ted”). He is joined by his daughter Tessa (Nicola Peltz, “Bates Motel”) and her boyfriend (Jack Reynor, “Delivery Man”) as they join forces with the remaining Autobots to stop the villainous Transformer hunter Lockdown, and his shady human allies, and save the world.

The cast for “Age of Extinction” is much improved, but that’s what makes it so disappointing. Wahlberg is an infinitely better choice to lead an action franchise like this than Shia LaBeouf; he has both the action experience and comedic chops to breathe life into this somewhat stale franchise, but unfortunately he doesn’t get the chance. Even with super-talents like Stanley Tucci (“The Hunger Games”) and Kelsey Grammer (“Frasier”) alongside him, the writing is so utterly bland that there isn’t much the actors can do.

Wahlberg and Tucci both give enjoyable performances and their characters are the only ones that possess anything resembling a character arc. Grammer is completely wasted, turning what could have been an interesting role for him into a one-note greedy and shady villain.

Nicola Peltz gives a fine performance but it’s hard to get over just how annoying her character is. She’s by far the least interesting of the Transformers’ women, and that includes Victoria’s Secret model Rosie Huntington-Whiteley’s attempt at “acting” in “Dark of the Moon.” But at least her character is memorable; Jack Reynor is 100 percent forgettable and has no purpose in the movie other than to set Wahlberg up for some “angry dad” bits.

Image via turntherightcorner.com

The new Autobots are a bit eccentric in design but overall are fun additions to the series. John Goodman (“Argo”) voices the bulky and wise-cracking Hound, Ken Watanabe (“Godzilla”) voices the samurai Autobot Drift, and voice acting veteran John DiMaggio (“Adventure Time”) plays Crosshairs as they square off with the most menacing villain of the series, Lockdown.

Lockdown is voiced by Mark Ryan, who voiced Bumblebee in the first movie, Jetfire in the second, and played a drone operator in the third. Lockdown isn’t as iconic a villain as Megatron, nor is he as interesting as Sentinel Prime, but he is truly entertaining and is one of the few highlights of the film. Plus he’s infinitely better than The Fallen, but then again who isn’t?

What’s unfortunate is that, at its core, “Age of Extinction” has an interesting story to tell. Mankind has delved into the technology behind the transformers and ends up playing with forces they can’t comprehend, much less control, Lockdown presents a foray into the cosmic side of the transformers universe, opening the door for several interesting questions and additional storylines, and Cade Yeager is the protagonist this series needs.

But beyond the basic elements the writing loses its way. Most of the characters are static and flat, the pacing is erratic, and the dialogue is horrendous. Not to mention it’s missing one of the redeeming elements of the original “Transformers” trilogy: the comedy. Try as it might, “Age of Extinction” fails to land with just about every joke it attempts.

That being said, what this “Transformers” film set out to do was entertain its audience for three hours with giant robots and explosions, and it does just that. The action set pieces really are incredible and once the much lauded Dinobots finally make an appearance the result is one of the most exciting showdowns in blockbuster history. Never mind that almost nothing is explained about who or what the Dinobots are, all you need to know is that they’re even bigger robots who turn into dinosaurs–what’s not to like?

If you pay for an “Age of Extinction” ticket you know what you’re getting into: everything’s going to blow up for three hours. If that’s what you want then by all means pack the seats, but if you’re looking for a refreshing sci-fi adventure look elsewhere, like “Snowpiercer.”

I for one was hoping this would be a fresh start for the series. This movie was envisioned as the beginning of a new trilogy and was supposed to be the last one under Michael Bay. That doesn’t look to be the case anymore, so things are unlikely to change in the future. “Transformers” will never get better under Bay, so in the meantime get used to products like “Age of Extinction.”

Rating: 2/5 Stars

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