TRANSFORMERS: AGE OF EXTINCTION
A new leading man but not much else has changed for the fourth
instalment of the live action Transformers movie series. I desperately WANT
these films to be good, to pay homage and do justice to one of the great
animated TV shows, certainly of my childhood.
Unfortunately the product hasn’t really lived up to the hype so
far. The first three movies ranged from passable to so-so and there was never a
real zip about them for me. Sure there is still something great about seeing
Optimus Prime, Starscream. Megatron and the like on the big screen but the
storylines never really inspired. Can Age of Extinction (AoE) buck the trend?
Well, Shia LeBeouf has gone and has been replaced by Mark
Wahlberg’s inventor and single-parent Cade Yeager. Joining him are relative
newcomers Nicola Peltz (as Cade’s teenage daughter Tessa) and Jack Reynor (as
her boyfriend Shane). The remainder of the main human cast is rounded out by
Stanley Tucci’s billionaire company owner, Sophia Myles’s geologist and Kelsey
Grammar’s ruthless CIA Agent.
But it is always the Transformers that make these movies and there
is no greater sight than Optimus Prime laying waste to large numbers of
Decepticons. Peter Cullen is back to supply Prime’s seminal, powerful voice and
he is joined on the Autobot side by John Goodman (Hound), Ken Watanabe (Drift),
John DiMaggio (Crosshairs) and the still-talking-through-a-radio Bumblebee.
Frank Welker once again leads the Decepticons, this time as the
Megatron “clone”, Galvatron, but he is generally devoid of help and relying on
his own cunning to trick the humans into creating a Decepticon army for him.
The robotic cast is completed by Mark Ryan as an intergalactic
bounty hunter (Lockdown) with ties to neither side and, drum roll please ……………….
Grimlock, Strafe, Slug and Scorn – the DINOBOTS!
Ever since the live-action franchise was announced the question
has been, will we see the Dinobots? Finally they have arrived.
Cast wise, Wahlberg was much more enjoyable to watch than LeBeouf
(who looked uninterested by #3) and there was an injection of humour from Tucci
which I thought worked well to remind us that this is supposed to be a bit of
fun after all. Myles is criminally underused but Grammar’s CIA Agent adds a bit
of gravitas to proceedings. Peltz and Reynor didn’t get masses of screen time
but I thought they gelled together nicely when they did.
The Autobot actors got to have a bit fun with plenty of
wise-cracks and inter-team dynamics, though the speed they are getting through
them (Autobots that is, not actors) is alarming!
One of the criticisms of the Transformer movies is that they are
all a bit samey and unfortunately AoE does fall into that category. The
set-pieces are always impressive, the Decepticons sneaky, the Autobots heroic
and the plucky humans just kinda get in the way a bit. There is always a
climactic battle at the end and then Prime does a stirring speech.
Plot wise AoE pretty much followed that mould, though the addition
of a “neutral” Transformer in Lockdown was something a bit different and gave
us a glimpse into the fact that Transformers society is not all about the
Autobot-Decepticon war.
There is also a sense with these movies that each one is actually
just a prequel to the next one and, eventually, something big is going to
happen. We appear to be getting there but you always leave with a sense of mild
annoyance at the fact that nothing ever really gets resolved.
The actual introduction of the Dinobots also felt a little bit
forced, almost exactly like they have been trying to find a way to use them and
only just worked it out now. It wasn’t too clumsy though and it was great to
see them back so maybe it was worth it.
Overall though, this wasn’t bad. It certainly wasn’t as bad as #2
or #3 but I just felt it was still lacking the zing that you’d expect a movie
about robots that can transform into anything should naturally have.
You still get spine tingles whenever Cullen is doing one of his
“I’m Optimus Prime” bits and there is certainly enough here to justify spending
2-3 hours of your life in front of it if there is nothing else on.
Verdict: 3.5 stars out of 5
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