Transformers: A Era da Extinção

I've been playing with Transformer toys since the beginning, loved the cartoon series and animated movie, but have mostly loathed what Michael Bay has done to my beloved franchise. His first movie was decent, the second appalling, the third passable, and when I left the movie theater after watching this fourth installment, my general feeling was, "Whatever." Being a little hard of hearing, I couldn't hear much of the dialog and was seriously confused about what was going on (not that Mr. Bay seems to worry much about telling a coherent story). I had been meaning to get back around to seeing it again at home where I could watch it with subtitles, and I was finally able to do just that. This time, I paid very close attention to try to understand the story and was rather surprised to discover that there was a very nice story that played out in a relatively orderly and logical manner, but with enough unanswered questions to leave you wondering where they might take the story in subsequent installments. Being all too familiar with Michael Bay's brand of humor and obsession with never-ending battle sequences, I had adjusted my expectation and found myself, overall, quite enjoying the film. I liked (or at least, didn't hate) many of the characters, including the main actors. There were also some very cool transformations and special effects. My main gripe with the movie (and I still have many of them) is that Michael Bay just doesn't know when to quit - this movie is entirely too long. He's made the same mistake before. The action sequences are so frequent and so long that I end up getting simultaneously bored and traumatized (never imagined that would be possible). If he could just scale back on the incessant action and ridiculous humor, I might start to actually form a moderately positive opinion of him - but I continue to hope that they'll hand the directing reins to someone (pretty much anyone) else.

The fourth entry into the franchise is a misstep that squanders the will of the preceding entries.

I saw this at a premier event in IMAX 3D. Age of Extinction probably has the worst plot of all the transformers. It's like they didn't even try to develop a story line. It's over 2 1/2 hours of explosions and CGI with cool but uninteresting characters. I feel like they could have done a much better job if they developed the characters more and had better dialogue as the characters had potential. If you are a child this movie is perfect. Lots of pretty eye candy. IMAX 3D looked great although sometimes the picture got blurry. This never happens in Real 3D. I just wish this movie was shorter as I watched it on a Wednesday and didn't get home till late.

Age of Extinction holds a dismal 18% on Rotten Tomatoes and 5.6 on IMDB and whilst there are better blockbusters out there these scores are a bit harsh. Most criticisms focus on the subplot between Shane and Tessa (i.e. the Romeo and Juliet law scene), the catering to the Chinese market, and the product placement. These weren't unwarranted but there were some improvements, like reducing the number of Autobots down to five and giving them some characteristics. I would be lying if a scene where Optimus Prime fights a robot dinosaur appeals to my inner 10-year-old. I personally think the bulk of the plot where Transformers are getting hunted and an company experiments on them would have fitted better as the first sequel.

Good, enjoyable action flick!

Mark Wahlberg looking tough, saving his daughter and the world.

Totally not necessary to be almost three hours long though!?

A sequel movie that is not afraid to make fun of itself though. One of the best lines, "Man, I hate sequels they always suck and never do as good as the first." Bonus points for self deprecation!

Worth a rental - but forewarning it's a three hour tour.