Age of Extinction Transformers 4 is going to be AWESOME. - Part 1

[Donut]

Grammer's fate was satisfying in this movie

 

[AVEITWITHJAMON]

Going to see this tonight, a couple of years ago the reviews would have gotten me worried as back then me and the critics saw eye to eye on most movies..

But the last couple of years I have disagreed with the critics a lot, especially last year, so I am still looking forward this. Also, based on the reviews it seems a lot of the problems of the last 2 movies have been fixed.

 

[Loki882]

That's fine, but then they shouldn't have made a point to show him talking normally at the end of the first movie (and then had Shia even call attention to it). Then his voice is gone in ROTF and there's absolutely NO explanation for it. That's one of my pet peeves actually. Something happens in a movie that contradicts what happened in the previous one, and they make no effort to give any kind of explanation. It's the height of laziness. If you're going to do that, fine, but then give one of two lines of dialogue explaining why. It's not that hard, nor is it too much to ask.

 

[Drizzle]

That's fine, but then they shouldn't have made a point to show him talking normally at the end of the first movie (and then had Shia even call attention to it). Then his voice is gone in ROTF and there's absolutely NO explanation for it. That's one of my pet peeves actually. Something happens in a movie that contradicts what happened in the previous one, and they make no effort to give any kind of explanation. It's the height of laziness. If you're going to do that, fine, but then give one of two lines of dialogue explaining why. It's not that hard, nor is it too much to ask.

Either Shia or Megan said that Bee was still having voice problems in ROTF. There was definitely a line in there.

 

[Loki882]

Yeah, but that doesn't explain WHY or HOW and it still directly contradicts the end of the first movie. "His voicebox was damaged on a mission" there, I just explain it in one sentence. There's no excuse for the film not to do so.

 

[roach]

Either Shia or Megan said that Bee was still having voice problems in ROTF. There was definitely a line in there.

[Sam shows Mikaela Bumblebee testing his vocal processors]
Mikaela Banes: Is he still having voice problems?
Sam Witwicky: He's playing it off.

 

[Jake Cassidy]

That are the general audience could care less what they think when it comes to this series.

They couldn't care less when it comes to any movie. I highly doubt that the majority of people even read film reviews.

 

[Piper Maru]

This movie was an incoherent mess.

 

[Sith]

This movie was an incoherent mess.

The 6 word review pretty much sums up Tran4mers

What was the point of Marky Mark's surfer dude buddy?

 

[def28]

What was the point of Marky Mark's surfer dude buddy?

Spoiler

1. So Wahlberg has someone besides his daughter to talk to + early comedic relief before Tuuci . 2. Responsible for getting the ops team to the house 3. Kill count

His reasons for being there seemed fairly obvious and (unlike the other films) he didn't over stay his welcome when he wasn't needed. After he was used for the plot he was killed.

Could they have written around and switched a few things up? Sure, but he served his purpose.

 

[Sharkboy]

Just saw the film, pretty much what you'd expect from a Bayformers film, a beautiful loud mess. I do like the new protagonists and I enjoyed how the autobots did have a bit more character to differentiate thenselves from one another. I liked Grammer, I loved Tucci (easily the best human character they've done in these films) I didn't miss the hyper-active dialogue from the previous series. The film still ultimately suffers from the usual lack of characterization and an overly convoluted plot.

I didn't like how the dinobots were just bunged in the film in the end purely for the ending climax without any real build up, i also really didn't like how the film pretty much devolved into another basic decepticons want to destroy the world plot, because they spent so much time building up the very scary idea of bad humans in power being able to create and control soulless and powerful transformers of their own. So I would have been far more interested in seeing Attinger (who becomes pretty much redundant in the third act) take control of this potential terrifying US black ops team of fully controllable and programmable transformers vs Optimus and his flawed team of autobot survivors, instead we get galvatron and his band of indistinguishable decepticons play 4th fiddle villains with no real build up.

I also really liked how this film actually threatened to have some legit emotional subtext, with optimus finally showing some personality, acting vengeful and frustrated over humans, and i liked the parallels they tried to convey with him and marky mark playing fathers to their rebellious children (nicola peltz and bumblebee) but outside of a few throwaway lines, they never really make Marky mark all that conflicted between helping his family for money and helping the autobots nor do they really show any real father son relationship between bumblebee and optimus. That climatic battle could have really benefitted from a scene or two exploring these concepts.

ultimately, these films are getting better, but this one more than the others had some real potential to be a legit good movie, it's a shame that it just fell into the old traps the others did, it would just settle to be a beautiful and fun but ultimately "bad" movie.

I will say though, the biggest "win" for this film is easily Lockdown, the main problem this series is bays inability to characterise the transformers, which is why they need to focus on humans so much, it's tough to do, but once you get an autobot or a decepticon with real character then you've pretty much cracked the code on how to build some real drama with these special effects, Lockdown is EASILY the closest they have come, he's a real character, he's interesting, he's cool and he's somewhat dimensional. When he talks, you believe in him as a real character, rather than someone like megatron who has always just seemed like a phoned in villain. Heres hoping they can give us more like Lockdown.

Overall, i still recognise the transformers series as a "guilty pleasure" series, they aren't good films I'd reccomend to anyone, but Age of extinction is easily the most satisfying on the lot.

 

[AVEITWITHJAMON]

Saw it tonight, and it was a great time at the movies. I agree with a few others who have said its the best one since the 1st movie. My brother who went with me actually thinks its the best one yet, but personally I would still put TF1 above it.

A lot worked in this quasi re-boot though, Cade Yaeger and his story and family were much more interesting and easy to root for than Sam (especially after the 1st movie) ever became. Cade had real problems and it was great that his story in this sort of paralleled the story of Optimus, who has a real arc here. They are both fathers tryings to protect their children, but in the end they come to terms with the fact that they need to let their children grow and become their own person. Thats much better and easier to get invested in than anything in the last 2 movies.

It was great to see Optimus against the humans for once in the movie-world as well, this definitely took influence from a recent comic book which had similar feelings from Prime. It was great to see him ready to give up on the humans and leave them to make their own mistakes, but seeing what Cade had done for him brought him back to Optimus we all know and love. But it was great seeing that conflict.

The other Autobots got plenty to do as well, Hound was the best new-comer, mainly because he had the best lines and the most screen-time, even more than Bumblebee which was a surprise, but with John Goodman voicing him perfectly and Bay giving more focus to the bots in general he was a welcome new addition.

The rest of the Autobots in general were given more to do as well, Crosshairs was the cool, rebellious one, Drift the honourable samurai type and Bumblebee the young, irresponsible soldier. Personally, as a fan of Drift and Bumblebee I would have liked to see more of them but it wasnt a big issue.

Galvatron had an interesting origin here, I would have liked to see them delve into the fact that Megatron had more influence on the new machines than they thought, but overall he was a set-up for the next few movies, and so it was good to see him here and show us that, the series main villain is still alive and kicking in some capacity.

The Dinobots arent in it much, but when they do come in in all their glory its a great moment.

Lockdown, was simply awesome, a great villain and just a very good character in general. I believe he is a newer addition to TF lore and in that regard I dont know much about him but I loved him here, I hope whatever villain we get next is written as well.

The action was probably the best its been since ROTF, if not the best of series, everything could be seen clearly, and the bots were easy to make out. My only problem was the 1vs1 fights, ever since ROTF they just havent been that good, and here didnt really make up for it. Optimus vs Lockdown was good, and the brief moments of Bumblebee vs Lockdown were great, but overall they just lack something. The rest of the action is stunning, especially with Lockdown's ship at the end, amazing stuff.

The cast were good, Bay gets good actors in his movies at least, and while the gratuity and sleezy shots are mostly gone, Peltz, the chinese actress and the lovely Sophia Miles provide eye candy. Grammar was great as the human villain, and Tucci was equally good as the inventor who lost his way and decides to fight back in the end. And of course Wahlberg holds it all together as the father fighting for his and his daughters life.

Overall I really enjoyed it, its overlong yes, a good 10-15 mins could have been cut and the movie wouldnt have suffered for it, the amount of slo-mo got a bit annoying as well and of course with it being a Bay movie the editing and tone were all over the place. But overall a good time, and best TF movie since TF1. Dont know what the critics are watching, they are so far off base with this franchise.

7.5/10.

 

[Loki882]

I do find it kind of annoying that Bay keeps killing off villains at the end of movies. Lockdown was really cool, and now he's gone. You know, it's ok to have the villain escape at the end and come back later.

 

[AVEITWITHJAMON]

^I would normally agree, but Lockdowns arc was done here, so I didnt mind them killing him off. He was a great 1-time villain for me, there are plenty of other villains out there they can use for the next movies. Someone sent him, and they are real problem from here on out, hence Prime going into space at the end to find them.

 

[roach]

I do find it kind of annoying that Bay keeps killing off villains at the end of movies. Lockdown was really cool, and now he's gone. You know, it's ok to have the villain escape at the end and come back later.

like Galvatron did at the end of this movie with his human made Decepticon army?

 

[Marvin]

I do find it kind of annoying that Bay keeps killing off villains at the end of movies. Lockdown was really cool, and now he's gone. You know, it's ok to have the villain escape at the end and come back later.

I for one would prefer if mags actually did die(for good anyways).

 

[X Knight]

so, maybe I missed it, but where did the Seed device come from?

is it something Lockdown extracted from Optimus after he caught him?

or did Lockdown already have it in his possession, but only gave it to the humans once he captured Optimus?

 

[roach]

so, maybe I missed it, but where did the Seed device come from?

is it something Lockdown extracted from Optimus after he caught him?

or did Lockdown already have it in his possession, but only gave it to the humans once he captured Optimus?

The seed was something Lockdown possessed and was going to give to the humans in exchange for Optimus...the seeds were used in the opening scene of the movie.

 

[X Knight]

The seed was something Lockdown possessed and was going to give to the humans in exchange for Optimus...the seeds were used in the opening scene of the movie.

ah, thanks.

so are we to also assume that the Dinobots were early Transformers who arrived during the time when they wiped out the dinosaurs and seeded the planet back then ( which is why they take the shape of dinosaurs ), and then somewhere along the way, they were captured by Lockdown?

 

[Loki882]

like Galvatron did at the end of this movie with his human made Decepticon army?

Except that Bay already killed off Megatron TWICE, and brought him back to life TWICE. Either kill him off for good, or don't do it at all. Enough with the "psych he's not really dead" crap.

 

[Marvin]

Spoiler

1. So Wahlberg has someone besides his daughter to talk to + early comedic relief before Tuuci . 2. Responsible for getting the ops team to the house 3. Kill count

His reasons for being there seemed fairly obvious and (unlike the other films) he didn't over stay his welcome when he wasn't needed. After he was used for the plot he was killed.

Could they have written around and switched a few things up? Sure, but he served his purpose.

I'd personally be satisfied with the title of "comic relief". Nothing new and consistent staple of animated feature fare. The other points do make sense though.

 

[Mace Dolex]

That made me scratch my head at first too, but remember Prime said that before he knew Cade could fix him. Once Cade worked on him a bit Prime was able to scan a vehicle and fix the rest of the damage himself.

Apparently this is a bit of another plot hole too if every Autobot and Decepticon can just repair themselves by scanning a vehicle why don't they do that moments before they're about to get blown to bits?

 

[jonathancrane]

After reading some of the reviews, I've decided I am going to try to catch a matinee of the film sometime soon.

 

[mkilban2]

Best part of the film is by far that John Goodman is an AutoBot. It made me so happy, his casting was perfect for that.

It actually seemed like this film.gave a lot more to the robots than any other. I think it was pretty solid, and i love Marky Mark so that helps.

 

[Piper Maru]

I still can't get over how Hound has a beard and cigar lol.