‘Transformers: Age of Extinction’- Throwback Review: A Low Point for Michael Bay and This Franchise

So many anticipated movies were on my radar during the summer of 2014. How would we forget about Dawn of the Planet of the Apes or X-Men: Days of Future Past to continue the excitement of franchises returning to prominence? That could’ve been the same with the fourth installment in Michael Bay’s series, Transformers: Age of Extinction, but who were we kidding? Was there really anything positive to say about these movies from this point? Because this was never a franchise everybody got crazed about, and I certainly don’t care for them. The last three films didn’t get the best reviews from critics, but they have a way of making money. Too much, to be exact. But the fact we were getting another one brought no joy, and I was not getting fooled again by how bad those trailers were beforehand. Usually, I’m all in for big entertaining blockbusters that have that sense of fun without being dumbed down for our enjoyment. But to be truly honest, Transformers: Age of Extinction is just as worse than Revenge of the Fallen, improving very little to make it cool.

What’s the Story: Five years after the battle between the Autobots and Decepticons in Chicago, the humans have been tracking down and terminating the remaining robots on Earth to ensure worldwide events like what happened never happen again, leaving the Autobots to go into hiding. In a small town in Texas, Cade Yeager (Mark Wahlberg), a failed garage inventor, struggles to make ends meet to support his home and teenage daughter, Tessa (Nicola Peltz). With his last-ditch effort to make some money, he buys this rusty semi-track to sell for parts, only to discover a badly damaged Optimus Prime (voiced by Peter Cullen) and helps him instead of turning him over to the government for a reward. The CIA unit, Cemetery Wind, gets information about his whereabouts and threatens Cade and his daughter to find out where he’s hiding the Autobot leader. Together, along with Tessa’s race car driver boyfriend Shane (Jack Reynor), they escape and are wanted by the government and must stand with Optimus and the surviving Autobots in a battle to determine the fate of humanity.

The last time I saw this was in 3D with my mom during its opening weekend, with little respect I had for these flicks. After it was finished, I was filled with rage because I couldn’t believe this series had descended to a new low to please its audience. The amount of regret watching this again after nearly nine years with no recollection of what I saw made me wish I wasn’t much of a completest to review of ones I haven’t written about. Maybe I was being too harsh on it when it first came out. But, no, I was right with the same perspective, and nobody could change my mind.

We all hoped the fourth installment would be very different in focusing the movie on the Autobots vs. the Decepticons. Not only that, though this takes an interesting angle to have the story setting place after the events in Chicago, there’s no Shia LaBeouf, any figure that is a girlfriend, his parents, or John Turturro. This was going to be on new characters for a change. But they made the same mistake in having to involve humans once again.

I remembered hearing Bay was done with the franchise after the third, and he should’ve stayed away not to stroke his ego. Watching this explains why Bay is one of the worst directors out there because there’s never this willingness to change things up with Transformers. For being a sequel/ reboot, this could’ve been an unexpected metaphor for immigration or terrorism when we see the government’s plans to track down any robots in sight for protection. But, instead, everything comes together as another bloated attempt to be intelligent and adventurous, only to be the opposite of what we wanted.

There’s no clear reason for the different motivations of the villains when told through boring exposition and a reason to achieve this film’s so-called MacGuffin, The Seed. I’ll say it got me in the first three minutes, where it shows the robots were responsible for the extinction of the dinosaurs. There’s no apparent reason for the different motivations of the villains when told through boring exposition. I’ll say it got me in the first three minutes, where it shows the robots were responsible for the extinction of the dinosaurs. Shortly after, it devolves into the casual tropes that haven’t changed.

With this introducing new individuals, it’s no wonder that it creates no form of emotional connection with anyone from returning screenwriter Ehren Kruger’s script, which contains some of the most cringe-worthy dialogue you’ll hear from all these movies. This never provides them much development in their lives and not makes us worry if they survive. This marked Wahlberg’s second collaboration with Bay a year after the rather mediocre crime biopic Pain & Gain (yes), and it’s a shame he has to go along with this script not to make him the leading man we wanted him to be. Sometimes he’s more likable than Sam Witwicky, but he is still not as good. At no point do you ever believe he’s an inventor, especially when his inventions don’t work. And if it wasn’t clear enough when we last saw Nicola Peltz as Katara in The Last Airbender, this film confirms she’s not cut out to be an actress. Tessa, her character, is simply another lady who has to look nice all the time, even though destruction is all around her. And, of course, Bay must include gratuitous shots of herself in shorts.

But nothing compares to Jack Reynor. He’s an actor I like now since Sing Street, but in this, this was a supporting character that was bad all over. This guy would do anything for his girl but can sometimes appear weak through this journey. I didn’t think he added any importance to the film besides driving a car and explaining to Wahlberg that he’s legally allowed to date his 17-year-old daughter under the “Romeo & Juliet Law.” Why is this in a movie? Why give Perves this idea? And why are we more considered about this instead of showing us freakin’ robots?

It’s such an embarrassment seeing the likes of Kelsey Grammer and Stanley Tucci get involved as the government official Harold Attinger and Joshua Joyce, respectively. First of all, did we make the mistake of having a human villain when we had to deal with Patrick Dempsey in the last one? Second, Tucci, especially as this billionaire, is made out to be this sequel’s Turturro. They only made his character more of an annoyance, thanks to the useless humor that’s never funny. He’s one of the few actors who can be the saving grace when in a bad movie; this failed to be that. Speaking of annoying, bringing in T. J. Miller was unnecessary. But at least he wasn’t in it long, thank Goodness. There’s also an intergalactic bounty hunter named Lockdown (voiced by Mark Ryan), who can make a gun from his face. Sure. I even forgot there was this villain Galvatron (voiced by Frank Welker), who’s supposed to be a reincarnation of Megatron? Sure.

Even the visual effects don’t look as good as the previous films. It’s even baffling that Dark of the Moon got that Oscar nomination for visual effects. When you look at the new Deceptions that turn into blocks when transforming (Transformium?) threw me off every time. You look up to Optimus Prime and Bumblebee, but the other new additions, such as Hound (voiced by John Goodman), Drift (voiced by Ken Watanabe speaking in an offensive Samurai voice), and Crosshairs (voiced by John DiMaggio), were utterly useless. Hell, this made Bumblebee into a jealous baby half the time.

And if you were looking forward to the Dinobots, they’re in this briefly until the last act. Bringing in the Dinobots for Otimus to ride one of them was probably the only thing this had to go for it, and what a complete waste of them. Imagine retiring to the restroom to escape the noise and returning to discover them engaged in combat. It’s nearly three hours long, clocking in at 165 minutes, which nothing of this kind should be that long when it feels like the entire time they spend in Chicago and it goes on forever and ever where I stopped caring about the plot and wondered if I was getting dumber with each passing minute it kept going.

It’s pointless to suggest the action is mesmerizing since it isn’t. Everything was poorly handled, with explosions galore during every bloated episode; you’re bored watching it, and unsteady camera work and exaggerated slow motion provide painful migraines throughout. The transition from the United States to China appears suddenly during the third act. And with every Transformers movie, there’s a heavy amount of product placement, making me want to drink a refreshing Bud Light or, better yet, listen to music with an expensive Pez by Beats. Shockingly, Michael Bay doesn’t know how to film action anymore or at least have a brain. I even noticed a few plot holes back then, including the biggest one of why Optimus can suddenly fly and never thought of using that power to gain the goal quicker.

But what can you bank on to be a positive? The score is by Steve Jablonsky. This wasn’t the most memorable because “Lockdown” and “Autobots Reunite” stood out from the rest, but it sounds decent despite being related to this. Age of Extinction didn’t have Linkin Park returning to perform a track. Instead, they called in Imagine Dragons and their single “Battle Cry.” A part of me is sad they brought in what I believe is an underappreciated alternative band to a piece of crap like this, yet this was a kind of short period where they contributed to less-than-perfect movies. Is it one of their best? Not really. However, the song isn’t too bad, used best during the end credits, and not integrated into the score. They also have a song called “All for You” that was never released.

With a significant portion of his career committed to action as he can only imagine it, it appeared that Bay doesn’t care what we think of his trade. He should, though, if he ever wants to win over critics because his big-budget films show that he has lost touch as a director. Watching these Transformers movies makes me angry that he became successful when he shouldn’t and continues to annoy franchise fans. I nearly take offense when someone says they actually like this. Moreover, this is the second Transformers sequel to gross over a billion dollars globally, with a large portion coming from China (I wonder why).

Much like Revenge of the Fallen, the Razzies made the right call in having seven nominations for the movie, including Worst Picture and Worst Screenplay. In addition, they won two: Worst Director for Bay (his second win) and Worst Supporting Actor for Grammar. To this day, not only was this the worst movie I sat through that summer, I still consider this the worst movie to come out of 2014. No apologies. Though what’s worse: This or The Last Knight? I’d call it a tie since they’re both abominations of cinema.

Transformers: Age of Extinction capitalizes on ridiculously loud noises, an overlong runtime, needless action, depressing Bay humor, and poorly written dialogue, resulting in a painful experience sitting through a summer blockbuster that takes no pleasure in being fun at all.