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

[Sutton]

Oh, and Bumblebee's radio-speech is now almost exclusively voice clips, most of them with the same sound/accent, to the point where he's practically talking anyway? What's the point? Either do the cute radio thing or just give him a voice already.

[Zommael]

Oh, and Bumblebee's radio-speech is now almost exclusively voice clips, most of them with the same sound/accent, to the point where he's practically talking anyway? What's the point? Either do the cute radio thing or just give him a voice already.

I honestly thought they had just cast a voice actor for him. It was very ambiguous as to whether they were meant to be clips or if he was just talking through some sort of synthesiser.

[GoktimusPrime]

Oh, and Bumblebee's radio-speech is now almost exclusively voice clips, most of them with the same sound/accent, to the point where he's practically talking anyway? What's the point? Either do the cute radio thing or just give him a voice already.

Hear hear! Sadly with Ratchet gone, there's no chance of seeing his vocal circuits ever being repaired (unless they introduce a new Autobot medic like First Aid, Fixit or Pharma).

I honestly thought they had just cast a voice actor for him. It was very ambiguous as to whether they were meant to be clips or if he was just talking through some sort of synthesiser.

Judging from the fact that noone's credited as being Bumblebee's voice actor, I'd say that it's all just spliced together sound bytes. Although arguably better than TF Prime Bumblebee's "digital farts."

[reillyd]

Just saw, and completely lost.

Was the little hug eyed robot with wheels chasing New Girl/Farm Daughter (on the alien ship) Wheelie from the previous movie? They looked kind of the same.

Did anyone recognise some of the other captured Cybertronians on the ship. Saw a few faces, and there was one I thought might be Starscreams head, but not sure - it was too fast.

What happened to the captives, and their captured sparks Lockdown was collecting? Popped out for a moment and missed that explanation....

Any insight would be greatly appreciated. Is there a novelisation coming out?

[Sky Shadow]

Was the little hug eyed robot with wheels (on the alien ship) Wheelie from the previous movie? They looked kind of the same.

Brains, from the previous movie.

[Paulbot]

I think he meant the drones that took the car to the furnace with their silly comedicaly big eyes.

Given that Brains and Wheelie were last seen going down in a ship in DOTM, it appears only Brains made it (with the nasty leg injury) and was captured from the wreckage.

Also, I guess the Autobots that survived DOTM just ran off without offering to help clean up the mess (or look for missing allies) and leaving it to the government so they'd get all that Transformer tech.

I thought Lockdown had captured Ratchet's spark but I think he just ate it (like Megatron in the first movie novelisation), since he kept his captives whole on the ship.

[GoktimusPrime]

I noticed this the first time I watched this film, but keep forgetting to mention it -- and I'm sure most other people noticed it too, but there's a yellow truck with the Tonka logo printed on the side which appears in the film. As most (if not all) of us would know, Tonka is the company that created Gobots (Machine Men) and has since been acquired by Hasbro (where they also made some lines of Transformers aimed at preschoolers like 1-2-3 Transformers etc.). Apparently it's a customised Ford F-250 Super Duty that's known as the "Tonka T-Rex", so another reference to the Dinobots' later appearance in the film.

And something which griffin pointed out to me before I saw my latest viewing, and I looked out for it -- there's a "TFP Vehicon" car in the scene where we first see Stinger (when Bumblebee, Cade and Shane have infiltrated KSI). I had a look at it, the car isn't an exact duplicate of the TFP Vehicon (as I think that's a fictitious vehicle), but some other kind of car that resembles it and has been painted in the colours of a TFP Vehicon (the dark eggplant colour with purple highlights). It's only on screen for a second, but the homage is there.

Also, I noticed that when Li's character is speaking in Chinese, she refers to Transformium as "Transformium" in English, i.e. I hear her saying "Blah blah blah Transformium blah blah blah." IMO it would've been cooler at least for Sinophone audiences if they tried to approximate a Chinese word for "Transformium." The Chinese word for Transformers is 変形金剛 -- I don't know how you say this in Chinese, but in Japanese it's Henkei Kongou, and kinda translates as "Transformation adamantine" (adamantine meaning a super-hard material, which is of course where Marvel got the word 'adamantium' from). This would seem like a cooler translation for "Transformium" to me. Or would the audience not accept it because it's too direct a translation for "Transformers" (and thus be too confusing)? An alternative translation may be 変形合金 (Henkei Goukin), which means "Transformation alloy". <shrugs> I'd be curious to see what the Chinese version of this film decides to translate "Transformium" as (though possibly they may just directly call it 'Transformium' ). I suspect that the Japanese version will do just that and call it トランスフォーミウム (Toransufoomiumu). It'd be cool if another language version decided to translate it as "Cybertronium" though.

I also noticed that Optimus Prime does use his leg jets quite shortly after his Arms Up, including when he first dismounts from Grimlock -- so the film does seem to establish that he does have these jump jets soon after his upgrade. But I still don't understand why it didn't have him using it during more crucial moments such as controlling his ascent towards Lockdown's ship, or especially after he's destroyed the Super Magnet and is seen crashing back down to Earth... surely he could've used those leg jets to try and land more safely! Aaargh...

And someone told me that they saw dinosaurs aboard Lockdown's ship, but I don't recall seeing that, just alien creatures and the DinoKnights. If Lockdown had captured dinosaurs from prehistoric Earth, surely they'd be dead. Those cages didn't seem to have any form of suspended animation. :/ Unless they're alien dinosaurs... or alien ninja turtles. Hrmm...

Brains, from the previous movie.

He's talking about those other robots with the big oogly eyes who Tessa initially kicks away to get out of the car. I don't know what they are, but I don't think they're related to Wheelie in any way.

[Sinnertwin]

I think it's best not to overthink these movies Just switch off, sit back & enjoy.

[SkyWarp91]

Best Scenes:

Autobots Reuniting

Attinger gets blown by Optimus Prime

[Magnus]

Saw it a second time on the weekend, this time in 3D. Things really 'pop' in 3D, with debris and objects flying at the camera adding to the depth perception.

I think it helps to watch it a second time, because even though I had no trouble following the story and characters, there is a lot to take in, such as the fact that the ship was a former exploratory vessel used by the 'Knights' that Lockdown appropriated, and the name of the chamber where Lockdown kept Optimus and the other Knights: the Knights' Terminus (I wasn't able to find anything about it at the Transformers Wiki - is this from a comic, or would it be something new for the movieverse?).

The line in the news montage stating 'thirteen hundred dead' is an excerpt, so it could easily have been 'thirteen hundred dead on the first day of the invasion alone' or something.

I read on another forum that the ship has some Unicron-esque elements to it, namely the mechanical arms used for disposal in the furnace and the circular maw that sucks in metallic objects. Interesting...