‘Transformers: Age of Extinction’ (Film)

‘TRANSFORMERS: AGE OF EXTINCTION’

Please feel free to comment on my review.

Cade Yeager, Galvatron, Dinobots, Bud Light and China

It’s just as well that I didn’t see any more ‘Transformers’ movies by Michael Bay at the cinema. 😐

After three underwhelming efforts by Michael Bay and his filmmaking team, it was time for the ‘Transformers’ film series to undergo a change. And how does one do that exactly? Well, you reboot the series of course. Don’t get excited though. This reboot of the film series isn’t what you’d expect.

Shia LaBeouf decided not to return as Sam Witwicky in the fourth instalment of the ‘Transformers’ film series, which is fair enough. So, you introduce a new human cast to be featured in the fourth ‘Transformers’ film. Initially, Michael Bay decided not to return to direct the fourth film of the series.

Now this could lead to possibilities of a new ‘Transformers’ film with a new director. Hopefully you could get more development of the Transformers as characters compared to the first three films. Also, there could be more of the spirit of the 1980s cartoon featured in a new ‘Transformers’ movie.

Sadly, we would have to wait for ‘Bumblebee’ to be released at cinemas in 2018. Instead, we got ‘Transformers: Age of Extinction’, another ‘Transformers’ movie directed by Michael Bay. Wait! I thought he wasn’t coming back! Yeah, I decided not to bother with checking out this film at the cinema. 😐

And that’s not an exaggeration. There was a moment where I actually considered seeing ‘Age of Extinction’ at the cinema in July 2014. Instead, I attended the ‘Doctor Who’ convention ‘Time Warp’ in Weston-super-Mare in that month, which in retrospect was far more enjoyable and worthwhile. 🙂

I know I sound harsh when it comes to talking about Michael Bay’s ‘Transformers’ films, but it’s very easy to be critical of them. I’m checking out ‘Age of Extinction’ and ‘The Last Knight’ on DVD in 2022. I could’ve easily rented these films on Google Play instead. At least I didn’t get the films on Blu-ray. 🙂

My review on ‘Age of Extinction’ is based on my first viewing of the film. It’s possible I won’t be seeing the fourth film a second time compared to checking out the first three films. To be fair, upon watching ‘Age of Extinction’ on DVD lately, I can see that there was a story of sorts trying to get out.

This is especially when we’re being introduced to Cade Yeager and his family through the reboot phase of the ‘Transformers’ films by Michael Bay. However, it’s a struggle to get invested in this film, as many familiar aspects from the previous Michael Bay films are included for this fourth instalment.

Yeah, there may be new characters featured in the film, but it’s more or less the same as we had before in the first three Michael Bay ‘Transformers’ films. It still feels underwhelming; it still feels too long and the characters are often uninteresting, unlikeable and very unfunny when you watch them.

Incidentally, ‘Age of Extinction’ is about 165 minutes long. That’s the longest compared to the lengths of the first three ‘Transformers’ films. I don’t know how filmgoers were able to endure 2¾ hours of an underwhelming film as this at cinemas. They must have been very brave to sit through it.

I know it’s taking me a while to get into the film’s story and characters, and trust me we are getting to them, but I must stress how frustrating it is to check out these films and find there’s little variety in them. This is especially the case when a lot of missed opportunities can be found in this ‘reboot’. 😦

Once again, the film’s script by Ehren Kruger! ‘Age of Extinction’ takes place five years after the events of the third film. Unfortunately, the humans view the Transformers – both Autobots and Deceptions – as hostile. Soon the joint operations with the Autobots, including NEST, are terminated. 😦

And already, I have a problem with this. In case you didn’t realise, the Autobots were helping to defend the humans against the Decepticons in the Chicago battle in the third film. The Decepticons were killing more people and causing a lot of destruction compared to the Autobots in that battle. 😐

So why the humans should be treating the Autobots as enemies as well as the Decepticons in the fourth film without acknowledging that the Autobots tried to protect them is baffling. I know it’s been five years since the events of the third film and admittedly a lot can happen in that duration of time.

But it does come across as one sided as mostly every human in the film is against the Autobots and they don’t want their presence. Where’s Colonel Lennox when you need him to defend the Autobots in this case? Or is it like that ‘Incredibles’ situation where everyone hated superheroes rescuing them?

It just comes across as lazily-written and not properly explored in order for audiences to process that this is happening and humans are being jerks to the good-hearted Transformers. You see why I don’t feel for the characters, since a lot of them are being very mean-spirited without many grounds for it.

Anyway, whilst all this is happening, a mechanic named Cade Yeager discovers an abandoned truck and keeps it in his garage. Very soon, Cade and his family are caught up in the events of the Autobots’ fugitive run when a bounty hunter is pursuing them. This also includes the Autobot leader Optimus Prime.

As the film progresses and more secrets are revealed about the humans tampering with Transformers technology, the climactic battle takes place in China…for some reason. And the Autobots need the assistance of the Dinobots and the human allies in order to defeat their enemies.

Now since Shia LaBeouf is not featured in this film, you would think that a passing reference to Sam Witwicky would be mentioned in order for the film viewers that are watching ‘Age of Extinction’ to connect with the previous three films. Heck, it might establish a connection on why Cade Yeager’s the hero now. 🙂

Sadly that doesn’t happen in the film and it’s very peculiar that Optimus Prime and Bumblebee don’t mention Sam to Cade, since Sam was very important to the Autobots in their endeavours during the first three ‘Transformers’ films. Did Optimus and Bumblebee forget about Sam already by this stage?

Before we talk more about the human characters, let’s talk about the Transformers themselves. I know there’s not much to say about them, considering their lack of character development in these films, but there are certain issues, especially with the Autobots that I’m not happy about in this film.

The Autobots include Optimus Prime (voiced by Peter Cullen) as well as Bumblebee (Yep, he still hasn’t got his voice box fixed by this stage – Boring!), Hound (voiced by John Goodman of ‘Monsters Inc.’ fame), Drift (voiced by Ken Watanabe) and there’s Crosshairs (who’s voiced by John DiMaggio).

Now, you can see the similarity of the Autobot team featured in the first film compared to the Autobot team in the fourth film. In the first film, there was Optimus, Bumblebee, Jazz, Ironhide and Ratchet. Here, it’s Optimus, Bumblebee, Hound, Drift and Crosshairs. And I don’t care about them! 😦

Yeah, I know that sounds harsh on my part. But the Autobot team in the first film were decent enough and were at least likeable in some areas. Here, the Autobots in this film have become unlikeable to the point they’ve given up on defending the humans and are willing to abandon them.

Now to be fair, the humans have been mean-spirited towards them, but I remember the Autobots in the 1980s cartoon being loyal to the humans and never giving up on them. Here, the Autobots find it easy to pick a fight with each other and are more bloodthirsty in wanting to kill their Decepticon enemies.

That’s not what I want to see in the Autobots who are meant to be the heroes of these stories and they’re meant to be role models for children watching these films. Whether the mean-spiritedness comes from Michael Bay’s directing, Ehren Kruger’s writing or a combination of both, I’m not sure. 😦

All the things Optimus said about the human race and wanting to protect them in the first film is taken away in the fourth film. This is especially when Optimus learns about the humans tampering with Transformer technology, which we’ll return to shortly, and he’s lost his faith in the human race.

I get this is meant to set up a scene between Optimus and Cade, where Cade is encouraging Optimus to keep fighting for the humans and not to lose faith in them. But surely Optimus is stronger than that and should be setting an example for his fellow Autobots in order to follow him in their battles.

If this film had ‘Beast Wars’-like writing with enjoyable, engaging and thought-provoking character development for both humans and Transformers, maybe this film would be better handled and better executed in its output. Sadly it’s not, and it’s so saddening and frustrating to dwell upon these facts.

The film’s villain of this movie happens to be Galvatron, voiced by Frank Welker. Now in the 1980s cartoon series, particularly the 1986 film, Megatron became Galvatron when recruited to serve Unicron and destroy the Autobot Matrix of Leadership. That was an intriguing story arc to check out.

Here however, Galvatron is built from the remains of Megatron and is meant to be modelled after Optimus Prime. The humans who built him are baffled by the fact that he looks more like Megatron than Optimus Prime. Maybe it’s because he’s really Megatron and NOT OPTIMUS, YOU MORONS!!!!!

The set-up of Galvatron in the 1986 film is far more interesting and impressive compared to the set up of Galvatron in ‘Age of Extinction’. Why couldn’t Michael Bay do a live-action version of the 1986 film where the dead Megatron encountered Unicorn and was transformed in order to become Galvatron?

I also don’t like how Galvatron transforms into a grey truck in the film, with the Transformium creating the molecular effect. The name Transformium also sounds stupid and it contradicts what was established in the first film about Transformers being created by the Allspark, which is baffling.

And yes, Frank Welker is voicing Galvatron instead of Hugo Weaving. Hugo Weaving obviously left by this point in the film series, having had enough of voicing Megatron. I don’t blame him. I still think Leonard Nimoy would’ve been great in voicing Megatron/Galvatron in all of the ‘Transformers’ films.

Mind you, Frank Welker would probably have taken over by the time we got to ‘The Last Knight’, since Leonard Nimoy sadly passed away in 2015. I still remember Leonard Nimoy fondly for playing Spock in ‘Star Trek’ and voicing Galvatron in the 1986 ‘Transformers’ film rather than Sentinel Prime.

Ratchet (voiced by Robert Foxworth) does appear in the film, but unfortunately he gets killed early on when Lockdown and his human allies are hunting him. I suppose it’s sad that Ratchet got killed, but honestly I don’t feel we knew much about him as well as Ironhide, as his death feels very empty.

Also, when Optimus hears about Ratchet, he goes into a fitful rage and wants to get back at those who killed him. That’s not the Optimus Prime I remember from the 1980s cartoon. The Autobots in these ‘Transformers’ films are likely to go “HULK, SMASH” with destroying everything in their sights.

In fact, I’m surprised the entire world hasn’t been destroyed by Michael Bay with so many explosions going off. There’s a scene where Cade, his daughter and her boyfriend are escaping and a ton of explosions are going off all around them. That’s freaking ridiculous when watching that certain scene!

Anyway, back on track. Like I said, there’s Lockdown (voiced by Mark Ryan, who voiced Bumblebee in the first film and Jetfire in the second film, and played a military drone operator in the third film). Lockdown happens to be a ruthless Cybertronian assassin and bounty hunter throughout the film. 😐

He’s helping the humans to hunt down and destroy any Autobots and Decepticons on the planet Earth. I don’t know why Lockdown would be helping the humans like that and why he isn’t either an Autobot or a Decepticon himself. He seems to have been hired by the mysterious Creators in this. 😐

Talking about the Creators, why couldn’t they be called the Quintessons like in the 1980s cartoon five-part story ‘Five Faces of Darkness’? It would have made the film a little more interesting in providing the Transformers more of their backstory concerning where they came from and who created them.

The film also features Brains (voiced by Reno Wilson), who appeared in the third film with Wheelie. I suppose we should be thankful that Wheelie isn’t in the third film (even though we don’t get an explanation on what happened to him), but it doesn’t make it less annoying with Brains still around.

And this leads me onto talking about the Dinobots, which include Grimlock, Slug, Strafe and Scorn. Now with a film like ‘Age of Extinction’, you’d think that from the film’s beginning, we’d be exploring how the Dinobots were created; why they were created and how they’re helping the Autobots here.

Sadly, we don’t get any of that and the Dinobots are only in the film for its third act when the Autobots need them to stop Galvatron and his minions as well as Lockdown. This is so annoying, as you could’ve easily edited them out and they wouldn’t have been wasted like they seem to be here.

Also, the Dinobots don’t talk. I recall Grimlock being one of my favourite characters from the 1980s ‘Transformers’ cartoon, since he had great dialogue in saying “Me Grimlock” a lot. I would’ve liked to have seen that in this film with Grimlock talking. But instead, Grimlock just breathes fire and that’s it.

For your enjoyment, here’s a selection of memorable quotes said by Grimlock in the 1986 film.

‘Me Tim’ no like what they’ve done to ‘him Grimlock’ in ‘Age of Extinction’. Also, shouldn’t it be Grimlock, Slag, Sludge and Swoop in the film as opposed to Grimlock, Slug, Strafe and Scorn. Honestly, I recall the Dinobots’ names from the 1980s cartoon more than their names in the live-actions films. 😦

There are also characters like Stinger, who works for Galvatron; Junkheap (who could easily be Wreck-Gar from the 1986 film), who is an Autobot; and Leadfoot, who is the leader of the Autobot Wreckers. Honestly, with these characters being non-speaking ones, they’re easily forgettable here.

And now it’s time to talk about the human characters that are in ‘Age of Extinction’. First there’s Mark Wahlberg as Cade Yeager, taking over from Shia LaBeouf in these movies. Now, you may know Mark Wahlberg for appearing in ‘The Happening’ by director M. Night Shyamalan where he said this:

Elliot: “What? No!”

Yeah, that’s the one. As established, Cade Yeager is a mechanic who has a 17-year-old daughter and is struggling with financial strife in his life. Now ideally, Cade’s journey should be relatable, especially when he’s trying to maintain his home before the Transformers come along and they change his life.

But often at times, Cade comes across as an unlikeable jerk, especially in how he treats people who are interested in his home and how he treats his daughter’s boyfriend. I know Sam had his faults in the first three movies, but at least he had some traits which make him more likeable compared to Cade.

The fact that Cade Yeager is an inventor also seems to be forced in the movie. This is especially when he’s building things at his home and he becomes involved in how the Transformers work when repairing Optimus Prime. Cade’s character development seems flat when you consider him on that angle.

Cade: “I’m an inventor! This could be a game-changer for me. If I can apply that technology to my inventions, we’d never have to worry about money again.”

Sorry, Cade, but I doubt you’re going to be the next Wallace from ‘Wallace & Gromit’ here! 😀

Also, Cade aggressively drinks a bottle of Bud Light in front of someone after crashing into his car that contained a lot of Bud Light bottles. Say, did you know Michael Bay directed the first ‘Got Milk?’ commercial before directing the ‘Transformers’ films? It must have been better than these movies! 😦

There’s also Stanley Tucci as Joshua Joyce, an ambitious and arrogant businessman who builds his own molecular Transformers at K.S.I. Industries. Now, I’ve seen Stanley Tucci before. He played Abraham Erskine in ‘Captain America: The First Avengers’. He was also in the first ‘Beethoven’ film. 🙂

And he was in 2017’s ‘Beauty and the Beast’. He was good in those films. Here however…well, I hate to say it, but Stanley Tucci has become the new John Turturro. The performance he delivers beggars belief. He’s often over-the-top and the lines delivered by him which are meant to be funny are uneven.

I don’t know what it is about actors that appear in these Michael Bay-directed ‘Transformers’ films. Their acting often comes across as bad and the characters they play are often unlikeable. I hope when I see 2022’s ‘The Batman’, I’ll find John Turturro better in that than the ‘Transformers’ films. 🙂

I also don’t get Joshua Joyce’s motivation in wanting to build his own Transformers, apart from selfish reasons. There’s no explanation as to why he’s doing this and there’s no backstory given to his character. The Michael Bay-directed ‘Transformers’ movies seem to lack a lot of character drama.

There’s also Kelsey Grammer as Harold Attinger. Oh, Kelsey Grammer! Why are you in this movie?! You did well as Frasier in ‘Cheers’ and ‘Frasier’ as well as Beast in ‘X-Men: The Last Stand’ and Stinky Pete in ‘Toy Story 2’. How is it you happen to be in this ‘Transformers’ film directed by Michael Bay?

Harold Attinger happens to be a rogue CIA operative and governmental official who created the CIA black-ops unit Cemetrey Wind to eliminate all Transformers from Earth. Whilst I appreciate him as the film’s human villain, I wish more was given in terms of why he wants all the Transformers destroyed.

Nicola Peltz stars as Tessa, Cade’s daughter who is secretly dating Shane. I don’t know if it’s me, but Mark Wahlberg’s Cade doesn’t look old enough to be Tessa’s father in the film. Then again, Dalla Adams didn’t look old enough to be Peri’s stepfather in ‘Planet of Fire’. It’s a matter of perspective.

Also, it becomes awkward when Cade objects to Tessa dating Shane when she’s a 17-year-old and her boyfriend’s older than her. But Shane states that it’s perfectly legal to date Cade’s daughter. I agree that making Tessa 18 years old instead of 17 would’ve saved a lot of that awkward legal stuff.

I also feel that Marlin being overprotective of his son in ‘Finding Nemo’ was easier to relate to compared to Cade raising his daughter in the film. The father-daughter relationship in the film is often unbalanced, not helped by the action sequences getting in the way of the heart of the story. 😦

Jack Reynor stars as Shane Dyson, Tessa’s boyfriend and an Irish rally car driver. Ideally, I would’ve liked Shane attempting to win the favour of Tessa’s father Cade throughout the film, but it’s not helped when Shane himself can be a jerk at times. I struggle to find anyone likeable in these movies!

There’s Sophia Myles as Darcy Tyril, Joshua Joyce’s geologist assistant and ex-girlfriend. Aww, Sophia Myles! What are you doing in this film?! You could have played Lady Penelope in another ‘Thunderbirds’ film. I also enjoyed you playing Madame de Pompadour in ‘The Girl In The Fireplace’.

Honestly, I don’t know why she happens to be Stanley Tucci as Joshua’s ex-girlfriend in the film when she could’ve easily been Cade’s ex-girlfriend or something. That would’ve made the film more interesting had the film gone in that direction. I also think Sophia Myles is underused throughout the film.

Li Bingbing stars as Su Yueming, the owner of the Chinese factory used by K.S.I. Industries to build their artificial molecular Transformers. Essentially, Su Yewming is the muscle in Joshua Joyce’s team during the film. Joshua Joyce also fancies her (awkwardly I might add), which she doesn’t take to. 😐

Titus Welliver stars as James Savoy, a ruthless and corrupt CIA agent who works for Howard Attinger and is the second-in-command of the Cemetery Wind unit. I almost forgot about him before reviewing this film, though he’s a pretty mean jerk throughout. He also has this bad line of dialogue. 😐

Cade: “You don’t have a warrant!”
Savoy: “My face is my warrant.”

(groans) This is a very stupid movie!

There’s also…T. J. Miller as Lucas Flannery, Cade’s best friend and a mechanic? As in T. J. Miller from the two ‘Deadpool’ movies where he played Weasel? And he’s killed off early, since his body is burnt to a crisp by one of Lockdown’s grenades. Yikes! I wonder what Deadpool would have to say to that.

Deadpool: “Alas, poor Weasel. I knew him so well. Killed by a CGI robot.”

Actually, whilst we’re on the subject, wouldn’t it have been better to make Lucas the boyfriend for Tessa instead of Shane. It would’ve saved the unnecessary death Lucas had in the film and the friendship between Cade and Lucas could’ve been explored on a different angle if the film was very brave.

There’s also James Bachman, who’s been in the first ‘Paddington’ film, as Gill Wembley, a scientist that works for Joshua Joyce at K.S.I. Industries. Honestly, he’s someone else I forgot about when it came to this review and he’s not as funny as intended, especially since James Bachman is a comedian. 😦

The film also features Greg Anderson, Melanie Specht and Victoria Summer playing Joshua Joyce’s assistants at K.S.I. Inudstries. There’s Han Geng as himself, Edward T. Welburn as a K.S.I. executive, and Kevin Covais and Ray Lui as motorists. I’ve already forgotten about these particular characters. 🙂

Like I said, the final act of this film takes place in China where our Transformers heroes and human allies are fighting against Galvatron, Lockdown and the other bad guys. Honestly, I don’t care about the climactic battle featured in the film, as a lot of what was in the previous films is repeated here. 😐

I could question why most of the film’s second half takes place in China when we’ve been spending a lot of time in the USA, but I’ve given up on the logic of these films to even care about it. Clearly the filmmakers wanted to cater for the Chinese audiences when making ‘Age of Extinction’ as a movie. 😐

I’m surprised the film’s second half didn’t take place in Japan, since some of the spin-off ‘Transformers’ cartoon shows like ‘Headmasters Transformers’/‘Takara’ were Japanese productions. Honestly, you could argue the logic of these live-action films is based on the Japanese productions. 😦

I’m sure I remember an Autobot in a ‘Headmasters Transformers’ episode saying “Decepticons! I’ll blow you off the face of the Earth!” Perhaps that’s where the inspiration came from for the Autobots to be so bloodthirsty in wanting to kill the Decepticons when they should ideally be heroic and very noble.

The film concludes with Galvatron saying “We shall meet again, Prime, for I am reborn” (He could’ve easily said “I’ll be back!” from ‘The Terminator’ film). Optimus also takes one of the Creators Seeds (Yeah, I didn’t mention them before as it’s not important) and he goes off into space to confront the Creators themselves.

Wait! Optimus can fly! I know he was able to do that in ‘Revenge of the Fallen’ and ‘Dark of the Moon’, but why couldn’t he transform into a jet instead of a truck? Optimus also asks the Autobots to protect Cade Yeager and his family before he leaves. Joshua Joyce offers to help the Yeagers build a new home.

Whilst I appreciate Joyce helping the Yeagers out this way, I’m not really sure where this is going to go, considering Tessa and Shane don’t make on-screen appearances in the next film. It’s mostly about Cade Yeager in ‘The Last Knight’. But that’s something to discuss more on when we get to it. 🙂

Depending on the Blu-ray edition you have, the Blu-ray special features are as follows. There’s ‘Bay on Action’, the eight-part making-of documentary called ‘Evolution with Extinction’, ‘Just Another Giant Effin’ Movie’, ‘A Spark of Design’, ‘T.J. Miller: Farm Hippie’, two trailers for the film; ‘Kre-O Transformers: Take Us Through the Movies!’ and ‘Angry Birds Transformers: Origin Story’.

I wish I could say the ‘reboot’ of the Michael Bay-directed ‘Transformers’ film is better compared to the previous three films, but despite having a new human cast, ‘Age of Extinction’ is more or less the same as we had before. It’s another mess of a film filled with lots of noise and aggressive characters. 😦

I’m pleased I didn’t see this movie at the cinema when it came out in 2014, as I would’ve been very disappointed, especially concerning the missed opportunities with Galvatron, the Dinobots and such. Not even Mark Wahlberg can save the ‘Transformers’ film series in taking over from Shia LaBeouf. 😦

At this point, I can only imagine how worse it’s going to get with checking out ‘The Last Knight’ next.

‘Transformers: Age of Extinction’ rating – 4/10

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