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

[kurdt_the_goat]

* When Optimus Prime scanned the Western Star truck, he not only acquired a new alt mode but became instantly fixed. Even my Kindergarten-aged daughter noticed this! So why didn't he do this sooner instead of having Cade try and semi-repair him in his barn? He could've just asked Cade to drive his truck to the barn door then scan that. If all the Transformers can do this, why didn't Ratchet scan one of Cemetery Wind's vehicles which could've restored his leg and allowed him to escape.

I'll give you this one, tho i'd argue this scenario is more plausible than Cade actually managing to repair him!

* Optimus Prime can Superman fly! I say Superman Fly because it's not just any ordinary flying, he can actually fly into space which requires a massive amount of energy. This is why rockets and shuttles have huge fuel tanks attached to them which break off during take off. Not even Megatron or Starscream seemed able to sustain long range high speed flight in robot mode, only in their jet modes. If Optimus Prime can Super-Fly, then why bother transforming and driving around places in truck mode? It's surely faster and easier to just fly everywhere. We see him driving away from Lockdown and Cemetery Wind... why not just fly away? When Optimus Prime was being dragged up by Lockdown's magnetic device, why didn't he try to fly away (it worked for Strafe, and he was only using winged flight!)? Why did Optimus Prime bother riding Grimlock? Why didn't he fly back as advanced reinforcements? There were just so many moments where he could've moved so much faster with flight rather than rolling or riding to his destinations (or away from enemies). And is this flight ability newly acquired or has he always had it? If it's the latter, then a LOT of other moments in the first three movies retrospectively don't make sense now. Why did Optimus Prime crash on Earth as a protoform asteroid? Why not transform to robot mode and land? Why didn't he fly after the Ark and save Sentinel Prime when it got shot on Cybertron? Why didn't Optimus Prime fly to the moon instead of taking the Xantium? Ratchet could've come along later aboard the Xantium to retrieve Sentinel Prime and the pillars after Prime did a solo recon mission. Why didn't Optimus Prime fly away from Sector 7 forces in TF1 instead of running around in robot mode? All of his fight scenes would've been different if he could've flown -- he wouldn't have needed to sacrificially combine with Jetfire in ROTF nor bothered to even have the Jetwing in DOTM. And the fatal jungle battle might've ended more favourably if he could've flown. It really felt like the writers wanted to have Optimus Prime leave the Earth in order to protect it - which is fair enough - but then realised that they hadn't conceived of an idea of HOW he would actually do this, so they wrote, "Optimus Prime flies into space." It's like one of those, "a wizard did it," moments.

Now that's a rant! I dunno, he flies off at the end of the damn movie, after the story is finished, so it's hardly what i'd call a plot hole. They did it for a cool final scene that's different to the other movies. Can't you just assume he found some shit in Lockdown's ship? It's not like they'd drag out the movie (any longer!) to explain something so small. Plus G1 transformers can randomly fly too so why not :P

* I still don't understand why the Knights of Cybertron transform into robotic approximations of dinosaurs.

I guess the scenario is that they were the first creations (beginning of film) and never changed their form before getting caught at some point? That doesn't explain why Optimus is a knight though. Don't really care though, they could have left out any explanation of who was in the ship i reckon.

It was an alliance of convenience. More hands make light work, and he was essentially enlisting the aid of the CIA and KSI and hunt down Optimus Prime. Lockdown had a job to do, and if siding with some humans can help him get the job done sooner and easier, then why not?

I'll buy that

[CBratron]

* When Optimus Prime scanned the Western Star truck, he not only acquired a new alt mode but became instantly fixed. Even my Kindergarten-aged daughter noticed this! So why didn't he do this sooner instead of having Cade try and semi-repair him in his barn? He could've just asked Cade to drive his truck to the barn door then scan that. If all the Transformers can do this, why didn't Ratchet scan one of Cemetery Wind's vehicles which could've restored his leg and allowed him to escape.

I remember that. Wasn't he dying and desperately needed to find the Autobots?

[Magnus]

Just saw it now - I thought it was great!

I was surprised how dark the first half was - I don't like using the d-word, as it seems to be overused these days, but it's appropriate here. I cringed during the Ratchet scene, and given what happened since DotM, with his people being hunted and killed by humans, it's not hard to understand why Optimus was bitter/jaded throughout the movie.

I also liked the fact that it 'hid' its length very well - I find that after two hours, movies can tend to 'drag'.

I found the plot easy enough to follow, and there seemed to be no massively glaring plot holes or inconsistencies. Some bits may need a bit of mental twisting and turning or a second viewing for them to make sense. The fact that it seems like a 'fresh start' without being a reboot is good.

It's kind of interesting how Galvatron is 'soulless' - perhaps it's because he's a copy-paste of Megatron's memories from his severed head, without that extra 'something' from his Spark.

My only real 'disappointment' was there was no climactic battle between Optimus and Galvatron - ostensibly they're saving him for TF5, so I guess it's 'ok' for him to be sidelined in this movie.

When Optimus Prime scanned the Western Star truck, he not only acquired a new alt mode but became instantly fixed. Even my Kindergarten-aged daughter noticed this! So why didn't he do this sooner instead of having Cade try and semi-repair him in his barn? He could've just asked Cade to drive his truck to the barn door then scan that. If all the Transformers can do this, why didn't Ratchet scan one of Cemetery Wind's vehicles which could've restored his leg and allowed him to escape.

For Optimus, perhaps he couldn't regenerate until a certain amount of time passed since coming back online, since he'd been idle/in stasis for a while. He was certainly capable of regenerating by the time he was captured by Lockdown.

As for Ratchet, he was trying to evade pursuers at first, and was then pinned down by fire from multiple directions. Not an ideal time to scan something.

I still don't understand why the Knights of Cybertron transform into robotic approximations of dinosaurs.

Just because Giant robot dinosaurs are awesome - isn't that the whole point of the Dinobots, anyway?

That said, the Knights of Cybertron part should've been expanded upon - I felt like something substantial was missed there. Maybe it'll be clearer the second time around.

Yes, also true, but we shouldn't have to. The Transformers franchise and Transformers fans deserve better than this IMO.

Fair point; perhaps it could've been better written, but it seems kind of weird to me that people seem to be expecting Oscar-winning screenplays (ok, being hyperbolic here) for a movie about giant robots based on a toy franchise.

It's a Hollywood summer movie, and it's enjoyable/entertaining to watch (the most important point, in my opinion). I intend to go watch it in cinemas again.

[GoktimusPrime]

Now that's a rant! I dunno, he flies off at the end of the damn movie, after the story is finished, so it's hardly what i'd call a plot hole. They did it for a cool final scene that's different to the other movies. Can't you just assume he found some shit in Lockdown's ship? It's not like they'd drag out the movie (any longer!) to explain something so small.

I don't see how having this happen at the end of the movie make it any more acceptable. The very final act of a story is the conclusion, which is supposed to logically tie in with the rest of the story (introduction>complication>climax>resolution); having any of these elements being disjointed is a sign of poor story telling. Imagine if, at the very last act in Return of the Jedi when we see Luke on Endor while the Rebels are celebrating their victory... after seeing the Force Ghosts of Yoda, Obiwan and Anakin, he then takes out his light sabre, holds it aloft... and uses the Force to FLY like Superman! Alright, it would look massively cool, but then it throws a massive monkey wrench into the entire story! Conclusions shouldn't do that! Conclusions can be very important, just look at The Sixth Sense.

And actually, aside from the ridiculous flying thing, I liked the basic premise of the conclusion in Age of Extinction -- i.e. that Optimus Prime has realised that there's a bounty on his head placed by the Creators, thus his continued presence on Earth was placing humans and his fellow Autobots in danger from mercenaries like Lockdown. The best way to protect his friends was to leave them, and then find the Creators in order to address the threat directly. I think that this is a really cool idea. I just wish that they'd found a gooderer way of executing this idea, like say cutting to another scene where we see that the Autobots have either repaired Lockdown's ship, or salvaged parts from it to build a new ship, and Optimus pilots it in search for the Creators. It achieves the same story outcome, but in a far more plausible way that doesn't screw up the previous story of the film (and indeed, its prequels!).

Plus G1 transformers can randomly fly too so why not :P

Only in the pilot episodes of the G1 cartoon, after that only the Decepticons could fly in robot mode. They couldn't fly in other G1 media though, e.g. in the G1 comics, characters like Soundwave and Megatron had to transform to their mass-shrunken alt modes and "ride" inside the cockpit of a Seeker in jet mode in order to get about long distances. Also, they couldn't robo-fly into space! They needed to use a Space Bridge or space-faring vessels or space-faring moded TFs (e.g. Omega Supreme, Astrotrain etc.). Megatron didn't fly on his own from Cybertron to Autobot City on Earth in TFTM.

Also, unlike the G1 cartoon, the live action films are written for an older audience, have far more creative freedom (since the toys are based on the film and not vice versa, so the agenda isn't "to sell toys"), and the G1 episodes didn't have a US$165,000,000 budget! Also, the G1 cartoon was broadcast free-to-air, whereas viewing Age of Extinction requires the price of cinema admission. Okay, I personally did manage to see this movie twice for free, but still -- most people had to buy tickets!

I guess the scenario is that they were the first creations (beginning of film) and never changed their form before getting caught at some point?

AFAIK nothing in the film even remotely suggests this.
The beginning of the film didn't show the Creators creating the Dinobots or even the Transformers. It showed them Cyberforming Earth which wiped out the dinosaurs. We saw dinosaurs becoming cyber-petrified, like the cyber-petrified dinosaur that they found in the Arctic. They weren't Dinobots though.

And we don't know if Earth was specifically the planet where these Transformers were created from. The movie said that the Creators cyberformed thousands of worlds as they did with prehistoric Earth, in order to build their creations. So saying that they Cyberformed Earth to "make you," may not necessarily have been intended as a literal meaning, but rather saying that they transformed planets such as Earth to create beings such as the Transformers. But if it is literal, then that's just yet another AMAZING freakin' coincidence regarding Earth and the Transformers in this universe! First the Fallen just happens to wage a war against the Primes on Earth, then the AllSpark Cube just happens to crash there after drifting aimlessly through space, then the Ark just happens to crash on Earth's moon after also drifting aimlessly (probably would've crashed on Earth too if the moon hadn't gotten in the way), and now we learn that the Transformers' creators just happened to have chosen Earth for Cyberforming and perhaps Earth was the original birthplace for the Transformers all along??? What an amazing series of intergalactic flukes!

I remember that. Wasn't he dying and desperately needed to find the Autobots?

Yup!

Plan A: Scan a new alt mode to initiate instant complete repair, then transform to robot mode and fly off to find surviving Autobots.
Plan B: Let this human try and fix some of you and continue hiding while your fellow Autobots continue to be hunted.

Shoulda gone with Plan A! (Kung Pow'd! )

For Optimus, perhaps he couldn't regenerate until a certain amount of time passed since coming back online, since he'd been idle/in stasis for a while. He was certainly capable of regenerating by the time he was captured by Lockdown.

Really? Because at the very end of the movie, before flying off, we can still see damage on his body, including a half-snapped off waist plate.

As for Ratchet, he was trying to evade pursuers at first, and was then pinned down by fire from multiple directions. Not an ideal time to scan something.

He could've scanned one of the helicopters and tried to fly away. Okay sure, Lockdown probably would've shot him down and still killed him, but at least he could make an effort!

Just because Giant robot dinosaurs are awesome - isn't that the whole point of the Dinobots, anyway?

The original Dinobots had better characterisation than what we got in Age of Extinction. Grimlock was arrogant but brave, eventually learning to become a better leader. Slag is incredibly anti-social and will indiscriminately attack friends and foes when he goes into his Berserker rage (which thankfully rarely happens). Sludge is a simpleton, but is kind of a softie. Snarl is a miserable sod, and Swoop is more thoughtful, but haunted by his past. Heck, even the Animated Dinobots had better characterisation, and they were terrible characters! Most of the Transformers in the Bay films are cheesy, one-dimensional, clichéd caricatures, but the Dinobots don't even seem to be that... they're just set pieces! Massively big accessories for the Autobots.

And yes, I know that the Movieverse is not G1, and I'm not saying that I necessarily want the Movieverse Dinobots to be the same as the G1 Dinobots, but I just want SOME sort of characterisation or even caricaturisation!

Fair point; perhaps it could've been better written, but it seems kind of weird to me that people seem to be expecting Oscar-winning screenplays (ok, being hyperbolic here) for a movie about giant robots based on a toy franchise.

It's a Hollywood summer movie, and it's enjoyable/entertaining to watch (the most important point, in my opinion). I intend to go watch it in cinemas again.

Unlike most other TF stories, the movies are NOT based on existing toys, thus they don't have the impetus of "to sell toys." This allows them MUCH greater creative freedom because they're not dictated by Hasbro in terms of what to do with which character, e.g. which characters they have to remove or introduce at certain times etc.

And you can have a movie that offers exciting and thrilling action, and attempts to tell a good story. No, it doesn't have to be a literary award winning script, but it just needs to make a reasonable effort. Look at the Avengers -- that film is quite limited in its story telling capacity because it's dealing with an ensemble cast of characters, but it still manages to tell what is a reasonably decent story considering. Each character has their own individual journey to go on, and these journeys help to drive the story. Each of them are also changed by their experience in the story, which is what makes them proper characters and not shallow caricatures, or worse, set pieces.

[Mythirax]

It's a Hollywood summer movie, and it's enjoyable/entertaining to watch (the most important point, in my opinion). I intend to go watch it in cinemas again.

Totally agree and will be doing the same Can't wait!

[kurdt_the_goat]

I don't see how having this happen at the end of the movie make it any more acceptable. The very final act of a story is the conclusion, which is supposed to logically tie in with the rest of the story (introduction>complication>climax>resolution); having any of these elements being disjointed is a sign of poor story telling. Imagine if, at the very last act in Return of the Jedi when we see Luke on Endor while the Rebels are celebrating their victory... after seeing the Force Ghosts of Yoda, Obiwan and Anakin, he then takes out his light sabre, holds it aloft... and uses the Force to FLY like Superman! Alright, it would look massively cool, but then it throws a massive monkey wrench into the entire story! Conclusions shouldn't do that! Conclusions can be very important, just look at The Sixth Sense.

The story of the movie is the Humans making Transformers and Lockdown hunting Prime. The conclusion is when Lockdown is killed and Galvatron retreats. The flight has basically nothing to do with it.. it's more like the start of TF5. Regardless, i think my suggestion that he swiped the parts from Lockdown is plausible, or that the sword/upgrade gave him the capability. I agree your Star Wars scenario is borderline ludicrious... but we're talking Transformers not humans. I also think showing Prime going off in space by himself creates a bit more intrigue about the next movie than if he took a space ship. It makes me wonder if they'll start to have some of the space fight scenes like the cartoon did.

Only in the pilot episodes of the G1 cartoon, after that only the Decepticons could fly in robot mode. They couldn't fly in other G1 media though, e.g. in the G1 comics, characters like Soundwave and Megatron had to transform to their mass-shrunken alt modes and "ride" inside the cockpit of a Seeker in jet mode in order to get about long distances. Also, they couldn't robo-fly into space! They needed to use a Space Bridge or space-faring vessels or space-faring moded TFs (e.g. Omega Supreme, Astrotrain etc.). Megatron didn't fly on his own from Cybertron to Autobot City on Earth in TFTM.

Also, unlike the G1 cartoon, the live action films are written for an older audience, have far more creative freedom (since the toys are based on the film and not vice versa, so the agenda isn't "to sell toys"), and the G1 episodes didn't have a US$165,000,000 budget! Also, the G1 cartoon was broadcast free-to-air, whereas viewing Age of Extinction requires the price of cinema admission. Okay, I personally did manage to see this movie twice for free, but still -- most people had to buy tickets!

I only mentioned G1 to suggest that you take the moment a little less seriously. When other elements are nicked from G1 it's usually seen as a good throwback. Who's to say some fans haven't been up in arms about the lack of flight to-date in the live action films? Maybe now those people are really happy! I don't want to get into specifics of G1 but since you did, surely you know in Japanese G1 heaps of them can fly!

AFAIK nothing in the film even remotely suggests this.
The beginning of the film didn't show the Creators creating the Dinobots or even the Transformers. It showed them Cyberforming Earth which wiped out the dinosaurs. We saw dinosaurs becoming cyber-petrified, like the cyber-petrified dinosaur that they found in the Arctic. They weren't Dinobots though.

And we don't know if Earth was specifically the planet where these Transformers were created from. The movie said that the Creators cyberformed thousands of worlds as they did with prehistoric Earth, in order to build their creations. So saying that they Cyberformed Earth to "make you," may not necessarily have been intended as a literal meaning, but rather saying that they transformed planets such as Earth to create beings such as the Transformers. But if it is literal, then that's just yet another AMAZING freakin' coincidence regarding Earth and the Transformers in this universe! First the Fallen just happens to wage a war against the Primes on Earth, then the AllSpark Cube just happens to crash there after drifting aimlessly through space, then the Ark just happens to crash on Earth's moon after also drifting aimlessly (probably would've crashed on Earth too if the moon hadn't gotten in the way), and now we learn that the Transformers' creators just happened to have chosen Earth for Cyberforming and perhaps Earth was the original birthplace for the Transformers all along??? What an amazing series of intergalactic flukes!

Transformers is so far-fetched in the first place that i think it's basically impossible to avoid the 'amazing freaking coincidence' scenario after being long running and going through so many essentially disparate stories.

Yup!

Plan A: Scan a new alt mode to initiate instant complete repair, then transform to robot mode and fly off to find surviving Autobots.
Plan B: Let this human try and fix some of you and continue hiding while your fellow Autobots continue to be hunted.

Shoulda gone with Plan A! (Kung Pow'd! )

Maybe Prime's scanning of the new truck was just superficial and he was in part still injured underneath. Ala Bumblebee in Movie 1, his scan of a brand new car doesn't fix his voice (which seems to be quite a long-standing issue now!) Then.... off screen the other Autobots could have repaired him as Prime suggested earlier. I'm pushing it here :P In the cinema, when i saw Prime scan i thought 'lol, oh well i guess that'll do it ...cool, he looks awesome now'

And you can have a movie that offers exciting and thrilling action, and attempts to tell a good story. No, it doesn't have to be a literary award winning script, but it just needs to make a reasonable effort. Look at the Avengers -- that film is quite limited in its story telling capacity because it's dealing with an ensemble cast of characters, but it still manages to tell what is a reasonably decent story considering. Each character has their own individual journey to go on, and these journeys help to drive the story. Each of them are also changed by their experience in the story, which is what makes them proper characters and not shallow caricatures, or worse, set pieces.

I'm not really disagreeing on what you're saying here but can you honestly see how they could possibly expand on every character within space of a single movie? I'd read your fan-flick if you can! There's just too many of them, and i think it's an inherent problem for Transformers; why it's better suited to cartoon or comic format. And that's not even including the multitude of humans they characterize as well!

[Omega Metro]

People! You really need to not think too much about the so called plot holes in the movie. And use your imagination instead. If you can't make up your own theories/stories, then you shouldn't be collecting Transformers toys. Back in the 80's when I was a kid. I remember playing with my TF's making up my own stories with my Autobots and Decepticon toys. Making missile/gun sounds was great.
I took my 12 year old step-son to AOE yesterday and he came out thinking it was great.......'Awesome'....was his response when I asked what he thought of it. We got home and about 10 minutes later I could hear gun/missile noises (and other various sound effects) coming from his mouth. Yes, that's right!.........he was using his imagination, whilst playing with his Evasion Optimus and Galvatron. Just as I was when I was his age.
He could not give a toss if the plot was silly or nothing related to G1. My kid enjoyed it and made him happy and that is really all this movie needed to be.......and it delivered it in spades!

Oh, and he thought Optimus flying into space was great!

[Mythirax]

People! You really need to not think too much about the so called plot holes in the movie. And use your imagination instead. If you can't make up your own theories/stories, then you shouldn't be collecting Transformers toys. Back in the 80's when I was a kid. I remember playing with my TF's making up my own stories with my Autobots and Decepticon toys. Making missile/gun sounds was great.
I took my 12 year old step-son to AOE yesterday and he came out thinking it was great.......'Awesome'....was his response when I asked what he thought of it. We got home and about 10 minutes later I could hear gun/missile noises (and other various sound effects) coming from his mouth. Yes, that's right!.........he was using his imagination, whilst playing with his Evasion Optimus and Galvatron. Just as I was when I was his age.
He could not give a toss if the plot was silly or nothing related to G1. My kid enjoyed it and made him happy and that is really all this movie needed to be.......and it delivered it in spades!

Oh, and he thought Optimus flying into space was great!

^ That is awesome

[GoktimusPrime]

The story of the movie is the Humans making Transformers and Lockdown hunting Prime. The conclusion is when Lockdown is killed and Galvatron retreats.

I agree. And look, Age of Extinction has the second-most coherent story out of the live action films. TF1 still has the most coherent plot, albeit also the most basic. So in terms of story complexity and coherency, I think that Age of Extinction is arguably the best. It's certainly a lot more coherent than Revenge of the Fallen and Dark of the Moon... although that's not hard. Having said that, ROTF and DOTM had much more brilliant visual effects. The Constructicons combining into Devastator was an astounding special effects feat. But to be fair, AoE's budget is US$35,000,000 smaller than RotF's.

The flight has basically nothing to do with it.. it's more like the start of TF5.

And that is what I think is the problem with it. It's kinda like the ending of Monty Python and the Holy Grail where King Arthur and his Knights are arrested by the police. But of course, that film was deliberately (and yet brilliantly) silly. They should be setting up elements for TF5 with things that don't conflict with events of AoE or the previous films, and to their credit, AoE does do this, such as introducing Galvatron (who doesn't do much in this movie, but is still at large as a threat for future sequels), and of course, the Creators. These are all good "sequel seeding" elements that I enjoyed in the film, as they don't go and conflict with anything else in the story.

Even if the Creator element introduces another incredible fluke, it's not contradictory. In fact, one could argue, that the entire reason why all the other stuff happened on Earth was possibly because the world had previously been Cyberformed by the Creators -- thus something about the Earth's "genome" attracted the Cube, the Fallen and ... the Ark? Okay, that last one makes no sense (sounded better in my head until I typed it ). Yay, Earth!

Regardless, i think my suggestion that he swiped the parts from Lockdown is plausible, or that the sword/upgrade gave him the capability.

I was looking out for any evidence of this when I was watching the film for a second time. Optimus Prime's body does physically morph when he takes the sword, mostly in the hands and forearms -- it's possible that his legs might've changed too, but I haven't noticed it on my first two viewings. So either it wasn't shown in the visual narrative, or it was too discreet. This sort of thing needs to be exaggerated or highlighted more for the sake of the audience (much like how Archibald Witwicky's glasses were enlarged to the size of a freakin' bicycle when Optimus Prime scanned the lenses to obtain the Cube's location -- it's silly, but was a necessary cinematic cheat to allow the audience to see the glasses clearly while Prime was holding them). Something simple like a quick shot of his lower legs "armouring up" and then having the jet vents pump out would've sufficed.

But... if this is true, then why didn't Optimus Prime use these jets to fly back to urban Hong Kong instead of riding Grimlock? Why didn't he use these jets to resist Lockdown's gravity device, or at very least, control his ascent to get a clear shot into the device and destroy it (instead of struggling to hold onto that building)?

I agree your Star Wars scenario is borderline ludicrious... but we're talking Transformers not humans.

But the best Transformers stories treat Transformers with the same level of respect as those with humans; e.g. G1 comics, Beast Wars, IDW. Even the G1 cartoon to a certain degree, as well as the better episodes of Animated and TF Prime.

I also think showing Prime going off in space by himself creates a bit more intrigue about the next movie than if he took a space ship. It makes me wonder if they'll start to have some of the space fight scenes like the cartoon did.

I don't doubt that it looks crazy cool. I was half expecting Optimus Prime to smile at the camera before pulling away from the Earth. I know it's a very visually thrilling moment, but story wise it grates against me. Even my brother-in-law was laughing at this, and he knows nothing about Transformers.

I only mentioned G1 to suggest that you take the moment a little less seriously. When other elements are nicked from G1 it's usually seen as a good throwback. Who's to say some fans haven't been up in arms about the lack of flight to-date in the live action films? Maybe now those people are really happy! I don't want to get into specifics of G1 but since you did, surely you know in Japanese G1 heaps of them can fly!

The Japanese cartoon had a lot of silly moments (Ultra Magnus' final fight w/ Sixshot remains what I consider to be one of the most ludicrous moments in TF history ). But again, it was a cartoon aimed at kids without a US$165000000 budget and had "To Sell Toys" (thus restricting creative freedom). Kaneda Masumi would've been in a rush to off Magnus and make Sixshot look cool in order to showcase the new toy. David Wise's original treatment for The Rebirth was actually pretty cool, but Hasbro instructed him to make changes because it was the final story for the US G1 cartoon and he had to introduce virtually the entire 1987 toyline within those eps (which also had a budget cut and episode length was reduced from 5 to 3 eps). Michael Bay has FAR more creative freedom than any TF writer during G1, and he has acknowledged this in interviews for the previous TF films. And remember that audiences have to pay the price of cinema admission to see this film, whereas G1 was either free-to-air on TV or just $1-2 for a comic book issue.

So considering that this movie is:
* targeting an older audience
* has a massive budget
* has far greater creative freedom
...I am inclined to hold it to a higher standard than G1.

I'm not really disagreeing on what you're saying here but can you honestly see how they could possibly expand on every character within space of a single movie? I'd read your fan-flick if you can! There's just too many of them, and i think it's an inherent problem for Transformers; why it's better suited to cartoon or comic format. And that's not even including the multitude of humans they characterize as well!

That's why I compared it with Avengers, because that movie was also dealing with an ensemble cast. And look, to be fair, Age of Extinction does highlight on each of the Autobots, and Optimus Prime does go on a journey as he deals with his loss of faith in humanity and being consumed by doubt (the latter being reminiscent of his G1 Marvel comic persona). It would've been nice if each of the other Autobots were allowed to go on some kind of "mini-journey" in the film -- again, much like each of the Avengers did. Aside from Optimus Prime, the other Autobots felt like walking clichés -- they were caricatures rather than characters. But IMO being a caricature is better than being a set piece! I would've been more satisfied with the Dinobots if they had even been given that level of superficial caricaturisation (e.g. "Me Grimlock bash brains!"), but we didn't even get that. As clichéd as the Autobots are, at least we do know something about their personas -- Bumblebee is an immature hothead, Bulkhead is brave and loyal, Crosshairs is rebellious, and Drift is a wannabe hippie. What do we know about the Dinobots? What makes Grimlock, Slug, Strafe and Scorn so unique or distinct from each other besides their looks and alt modes? The G1 cartoon Dinobots were clichéd caricatures too, but they still had distinct traits. We don't even know why Optimus Prime had to fight Grimlock to win his allegiance. Even something as simple as, "Only the strong may command the Knights!" would've sufficed. Let's face it, the Dinobots had about as much "personality" as the Kaijuu in Pacific Rim (only that they're good guys).

People! You really need to not think too much about the so called plot holes in the movie. And use your imagination instead. If you can't make up your own theories/stories, then you shouldn't be collecting Transformers toys. Back in the 80's when I was a kid. I remember playing with my TF's making up my own stories with my Autobots and Decepticon toys. Making missile/gun sounds was great.
I took my 12 year old step-son to AOE yesterday and he came out thinking it was great.......'Awesome'....was his response when I asked what he thought of it. We got home and about 10 minutes later I could hear gun/missile noises (and other various sound effects) coming from his mouth. Yes, that's right!.........he was using his imagination, whilst playing with his Evasion Optimus and Galvatron. Just as I was when I was his age.
He could not give a toss if the plot was silly or nothing related to G1. My kid enjoyed it and made him happy and that is really all this movie needed to be.......and it delivered it in spades!

Oh, and he thought Optimus flying into space was great!

It sounds like he was enjoying the action rather than the story. And there's no denying that the action in this film was great. And I don't think that the story is without merit either, there are some good elements in it, which I've mentioned before.

Also... why are you referring to your own playing of Transformers in the past tense? I personally still actively play with my toys. I was playing with my Leader Class AoE Optimus Prime in the cinema while watching the film for the second time, and my daughter was playing with Slumblebee alongside me (so we were playing alongside w/ the film).

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Benson Yee has posted a review on BWTF, where he has offered what I consider to be a reasonably balanced and well justified opinion of Age of Extinction. His review does point out several of the film's strengths and weaknesses.
http://bwtf.com/articles/aoe

[Polursine]

Saw it late last night. Thoroughly enjoyed it.

Few things though.

Would've liked to have seen a slimmed down (~2 hours 15) version that's a standard release, and the full movie being a director's extended cut or something.

Transformium. Now, I understand that the humans that named it probably didn't know of the term of the actual metal of the Transformers but don't you think if they had Brains in their labs that he would've said something? Now thats its been dubbed as "Transformium" I want an Autobot to approach someone and say "Hang on, it's actually called ___" (since there's some many metals used in Transformers bodies)

I WAS pleased with the amount of dinobot screen time was had. Slug with his raging feet at one point and panicking during the magnet building scene. Scorn latching onto some poor Vehicon and later slipping into the water. More robot action would've been cool. No voices now means that later Grimlock should surprise everyone ala Animated Grimlock by saying "Me Grimlock".

Also pleased at how long Prime stayed in Evasion mode. However, when it came to upgrade time he could've said "Thankyou Cade for all your work. Systems regenerated".

Superman. My explanation is that when he picked up the sword from the ship and went all knight like that he somehow acquired jet boosters. Just would've been nice to find out why now of all times he can fly.


RATCHET NOOO. HE'S A MEDIC. DON'T SHOOT.