Transformers: Age of Extinction is a critic proof film. There's nothing anyone in the media can say about this film that will have any resonance whatsoever. It'll be a huge box office draw and probably be the most successful film of the year; as its three predecessors have been. Now that's out of the way, I scratch my head, repeatedly, at why these films aren't getting any better. The special effects and action scenes are well crafted. Director Michael Bay is Hollywood's king of blowing stuff up. But the story, acting, and plot continues to be ludicrous. It boggles the mind that on their fourth effort, Paramount and Michael Bay have not addressed any of the weaknesses that continue to permeate this franchise. I suppose there's no reason to change the formula if you're printing money, but I would like to believe that the studio and director, deep down inside, want to make a better film. It's just incredible to me that they haven't been able to do so. I sincerely hope that a new director takes the helm for the next installment.
Age of Extinction begins in Texas, after the battle that destroyed Chicago in part three. Mark Wahlberg stars as Cade Yeager, a down on his luck inventor with a farm in foreclosure, and a daisy duke cut-offs wearing daughter (Nicola Peltz). He discovers a beaten up Optimus Prime (Peter Cullen), drum roll please, hiding in a dilapidated...movie theater. He's ratted out to the feds, who sick a cutthroat goon (Titus Welliver), and evil CIA boss (Kelsey Grammar), on the hapless Yeager's. They've been hunting down and killing Transformers with the help of Lockdown (Mark Ryan), an intergalactic, bounty hunter Transformer, who's hell bent on catching Optimus Prime. So why are the feds killing Transformers? To use the metal in their bodies - Transformium, insert golf clap here - to build their own transforming robots.
Transformium, wow, meant to be funny, but is really a whole lot of stupid. The script by Ehren Kruger is totally disjointed, with some of the strangest dialogue ever uttered by huge, shape-shifting robots on screen. Optimus Prime's ending monologue had me laughing out loud. Bizarre is an understatement. The fatal flaw in this film is that the set ups for the action scenes are completely illogical. The climactic battle in Hong Kong has an all out chase scene in the city with robots fighting, buildings crumbling, total devastation. Cool to see, but guess what, Optimus Prime can fly, one of the Autobots is a freaking helicopter, why on earth are they running around? It makes no sense. The entire film is like this. Why is Mark Wahlberg's character, totally unbelievable as an inventor, fixing Optimus Prime, when all the Transformers have that scanning ability to update themselves to the newest model of the vehicle they are imitating?
Michael Bay's rampant misogyny continues to astound. This guy cannot direct women. The female characters in this film are insulting. It seems that a girl in Transformers can only be sex objects or needing rescue. Nicola Peltz, who plays Tessa Yeager, spends the entire film screaming for help with her booty hanging out. Chinese actress, Bingbing Li, huge in Asia, has a few kung fu kicks, but is basically eye candy for Stanley Tucci's billionaire jackass character. It's the 21st century, you can have hot babes galore in a film, I don't think anyone has issues with that. But get out of the stone ages and have them actually be a part of the story. Seriously, what do parents say to daughters who see this film?
The lone high note is, predictably, the action. It looks great. Age of Extinction has tremendous action scenes. But at a butt numbing 165 minutes, it needed to have better filler between the robot carnage. I would have loved this movie if it was just a 90 minute deluge of Transformer violence.
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