Movie Review - Transformers 4 : Age Of Extinction (spoilers)

[GoktimusPrime]

That chest hole goes all the way through Galvatron in the film. I'm surprised Optimus Prime never exploited that by putting his arm right through it and attempting some serious grappling. By quite literally penetrating Galvatron's centre of mass, Optimus Prime would easily end that fight in seconds and Galvatron would be majorly screwed.

[griffin]

That chest hole goes all the way through Galvatron in the film. I'm surprised Optimus Prime never exploited that by putting his arm right through it and attempting some serious grappling. By quite literally penetrating Galvatron's centre of mass, Optimus Prime would easily end that fight in seconds and Galvatron would be majorly screwed.

The chest hole cut his old sword in half when he stuck it in there, so I don't think it would be a good idea to stick his hand in there.

(it was probably why Optimus grabbed a new sword later... one that the writer probably wrote in as a significant plot element, but the Director failed to emphasise)

[GoktimusPrime]

The chest hole cut his old sword in half when he stuck it in there, so I don't think it would be a good idea to stick his hand in there.

(it was probably why Optimus grabbed a new sword later... one that the writer probably wrote in as a significant plot element, but the Director failed to emphasise)

DJD'd! That makes sense though.


On another note, this pretty much describes why I found the Dinobots to be disappointing in this film...

I would have accepted them as caricatures. It's what I've come to expect from Bay and it would've been a lot more preferable over seeing them being treated as set pieces. Just simple things like giving them some cheesy dialogue would've made a world of difference in seeing the Dinobots become caricatures rather than set pieces. Like say when Optimus Prime attempts to recruit them, Grimlock could snarl at Prime and say, "Among winners there is no room for the weak! Only the strong may command the Knights of Cybertron!", which then leads into the big smackdown fight.

I hope that they'll be at least portrayed as caricatures in the sequel. Better if they can be characters. Optimus Prime's portrayal in AoE proves that Michael Bay can portray a Transformer as a character. Although considering it's rarity, I'll stick with just hoping for caricaturisation rather than characterisation.

Although on a visual level, I was pleased that Grimlock has red eyes in both robot and dino mode. Although Slug, Strafe and Scorn have blue eyes in robot mode but red eyes in dino mode. :/ They really should just put in a greater variety of eye colours in the Transformers regardless of faction (reinforcing the notion that Autobots and Decepticons are political factions, not races - as Jetfire pointed out in ROTF, it's an intensely personal choice).

[Deonasis]

Overall, I guess I liked the movie. The pacing of it is what I disliked the most. Bay's frantic shooting schedule Lockdown was fantastic (Shockwave should have been this badass) and it was a damn shame they killed him. Ratchets death was very sad but very important and in my mind it was the most well done piece of the movie. I liked Prime's empassioned talk with Tucci at KSI about how they are living beings/destruction of Transformers (but I do think they should've destroyed the KSI lab beyond repair). There are plenty more points but I only have internet access via a mobile and typing is way too slow.

[GoktimusPrime]

Some interesting reads:

Eleven Things I Would Like to See in "Transformers 5"
Top 10 Plot Points in Disguise
Top 7 Things to Fix

[Omega Metro]

Some interesting reads:

Eleven Things I Would Like to See in "Transformers 5"
Top 10 Plot Points in Disguise
Top 7 Things to Fix

Yep some interesting reads there. Agree AND disagree with a lot of it though.

[5FDP]

Seen it twice in the last week and now that I've had a chance to digest what I saw, I would rank it as the third best live action movie behind the first one and DOTM.

I agree with most comments here regarding Galvatron being a plot device only, the Dinobots not speaking, and Optimus being able to fly. To me, it started out really well but the last hour (or so it felt) just descended into chaos and I left the cinema both times with a raging headache. It should be noted that these were 2D sessions.

I'll probably see it again for a third time - promised to watch it with my nephew when he comes back from OS, but unlike the first movie which I saw 5 times at the movies, I'm not hanging out for it.

[GoktimusPrime]

[M-bot]

Saw a pretty insightful short examining the visual language of Michael Bay films, aka "Bayhem", including much of what is seen in all of Bay's TF films. About 8:40 long. Worth a watch: https://player.vimeo.com/video/99798626

[Sutton]

Seen it twice in the last week and now that I've had a chance to digest what I saw, I would rank it as the third best live action movie behind the first one and DOTM.

I agree, it's definitely better than ROTF, but still behind #1 and DOTM. Great to see much less forced awkward humour, and lots more dedicated screen time and dialogue for the TF's - now they just have to learn how to give the TF's something interesting to say. They went to the trouble of giving Hound, Crosshairs and Drift decent voice actors, but then gave them horrible lines - I kept waiting for John Goodman to crack me up, and it just didn't happen. Drift came off as a buffoon. And I think they meant for Crosshairs to come off as surly, but they overdid it and instead he came off as an asshole. Lockdown was alright though, except for the 'I don't care' come back. Seriously, it takes months to animate these guys, you can't come up with some witty dialogue for them to say while you're waiting for them to render...?

And why did they have Hound call the humans meatbags when DiMaggio was voicing Crosshairs...?