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

[Jinto]

-optimus was to kill this time round

Lol, yeah Prime was super pi$$ed off this movie. I think it worked better this time though. He actually reacted to his friends dying & hurting for once, so it felt more justified when he's all "I'm going to f#@king kill somebody!" (paraphrasing).

That real reaction also made it more in character when he killed that guy. He felt more like a character pushed to breaking point, rather than in the first 3 movies when he just seemed like a nutcase. I like the new movie Prime.

[GoktimusPrime]

Things I liked...
+ Great to hear Frank Welker using his Megatron voice as Galvatron
+ It was kinda neat seeing Galvatron leading an army of Vehicons Having a standard model of Decepticon warrior obviously saves money on rendering, but on the plus side, they did feel like the Vehicons from Transformers Prime.
+ This movie has attempted to strike a better balance between human and Transformer exposure. Unlike previous films, the humans aren't robbing the limelight from the Transformers. For the most part, the humans' sub plots ran concurrently with the Transformers', meshing together better than in the other movies.
+ Much better use of humour to punctuate the action. There weren't drawn out awkward moments where awkward humour was used that overtly stalled the narrative.
+ Drift wasn't a munchkin! He was as tough as the other Autobots, but he didn't come across as some godly superhero 'bot. In some ways, he's kinda like Drift was in MTMTE (i.e. the corny and almost self-parodying hippie).
+ Lockdown was pretty cool and fairly true to the original character, right down to his "collection" of not only weaponry, but prisoners from various species.
+ One of the human antagonists (Joshua Joyce (Tucci)), actually had some character substance. He starts off being fairly clichéd, but is later rises to the occasion. The other human antagonists though were pretty one-dimensional - although the story does offer a premise as to why they behave that way, making them feel less cartoony than they otherwise could have, so I do acknowledge the effort there,.
+ Human protagonists were more useful!
+ The Chinese Vehicon factory has a big sign that said something like 創造美好(的)未来 ("Creating a Glorious Future"), just as we see everyone evacuating the facility as Galvatron and the Vehicons arise.
+ Hound is a great homage of Bulkhead. Too bad his name's not Bulkhead!

Things that disappointed me...
- Dinobots. None of them speak or even named. Completely shallow and one dimensional characters. They only transform _once_ too; after that, they're pretty much giant robotic dino pets for the Autobots. (-_-)
- The story offers no explanation that I can recall as to WHY the Dinobots even transform into robotic dinosaurs (let alone why Strafe is dicephalous). Uhh... a wizard did it?
- Only four Dinobots appear in the film -- Grimlock, Slug, Scorn and Strafe. Slash, Slog and Snarl are nowhere to be seen.
- There's a scene where the Autobots are squabbling like children and wanting to fight each other... umm... kay... ???
- Drift as a triple changer... the robot barely shows any Bugatti Veyron kibble and no perceptible chopper kibble. So does he just magically morph into a helicopter? How the hell did Hasbro ever approve this if it can't be made into a product? (AFAIK there is no triple changing Drift toy in the works, the only helicopter moded one is a redeco of Skyhammer, but isn't the same kind of chopper in the film. :/
- Not a huge fan of Galvatron and the Vehicons' "scatter-morph" transformation. Although from a story telling POV, I guess it's to show the audience which ones are the man-made Transformers and how they haven't quite perfected the TF's genome (or is it that they've improved on it?). But I prefer to see Transformers part-shifting to transform, not scatter-morphing. It's obviously created design challenges for Hasbro, considering what a freakin' backpack-former Galvatron is.
- Since WHEN did Optimus Prime possess interstellar flight capability in robot mode??? Maybe I missed something... maybe it was something he took from Lockdown. I hope so, because if he had the ability this whole time, then there's a lot of other stuff before that otherwise makes NO sense if he could freakin' FLY... without a Jetwing... in freakin' robot mode... wha--??
- Bingbing Li's acting was dreadful.

[Shirokaze]

Really surprised to come on here and see such positive reactions.

I thought as a movie is was barely watchable. Kept checking my phone to see when it would end Maybe I'm too cynical.

[theshape]

yeah didn't think it was that great. Dinobots were nice but dragged too long, plot seemed all over the place.

[doublespy]

Overall I too felt like it could be shorter, can't pinpoint what exactly it is though. I think the pacing was okay.

+Awesome to see the Dinobots in action. They're HUUUGE and all transform, twice
+Decent character development for the 'bots. I particularly like Drift with his, as Gok put it, "self-parodying" humor. AND he's a triple changer!
+Lockdown shines among the robots cast. And I freaking love the little split Lambo logo on his chest.
+Seeing Prime's oldie truckie mode in action makes me appreciate the Evasion mode Optimus figure even more. Such elegant transformation yet staying quite screen-accurate in both modes. Kobayashi you're god like.
+So the seed = the key to Vector Sigma?

-Too much plug-in commercials, a new low even for Transformers
-I don't mind Galvatron's limited screen time, but I'm pretty sure it's one of their money-saving tricks to make the man made robots "morph" rather than actually "transform". I don't wanna pay to see that. and the bots don't transform enough, especially Optimus in his new body.
-even more plot holes and goofs, a new low..

[Paulbot]

Watching the film I thought this is pretty much what I expected and in some cases better than I expected. The new cast was enjoyable, I don't miss Shia but I thought Sophia Myles underused. And the story made general sense although some human motivations were iffy. May have some fridge moments with this film over the next few days.

A few things bugged me during the film. Firstly what's wrong with the perfectly good word "cybertronium"? Secondly why did Drift turn into a helicopter at all (and a stereotype)?

Thirdly: only 1,300 people died in Chicago. Um what? Maybe that redeems the Autobots for their "let the Decepticins destroy the city for a few days before we come out of hiding" action in DOTM, but it doesn't match the body count we should expect. Guess only two people died in Hong Kong in this movie. Right?

And my biggest issue: the mighty morphin prototypes. Every time one of them morphed into robot mode I just didn't care. Save that special effect for some other film, these films have always made a big deal of complicated part shifting transformation sequences. The flowing morphing geometric shapes look like a special effect. It breaks the suspension of disbelief. There's no reason Galvatron, Stinger and the prototypes couldn't have just transformed. It makes more sense that humans could back engineer Transformers rather than create a floating magic morphing metal.

The Dino-Knights were cool and now maybe people will stop complaining that the toys are not biologically accurate since there's no indication their alt modes are meant to be anything but maybe loosely inspired by earth's dinosaurs.

[BigTransformerTrev]

Just got back from watching it in Gold Class with M-Bot and some mates. T'was certainly a Bay flick and I could point out a million flaws but I went into it with an optimistic attitude and just to enjoy it and I did indeed! Good fun and loved the fact it was a bit more gritty

[Omega Metro]

It was good. Wouldn't say great. Seemed very rushed. But started off boring. What's with the 2 headed Shockwave?

[Tetsuwan Convoy]

Really surprised to come on here and see such positive reactions.

I thought as a movie is was barely watchable. Kept checking my phone to see when it would end Maybe I'm too cynical.

Likewise. It was exactly what I was expecting and that isn't a compliment.


The thing that irritated me the most is the whole film felt like a bunch of scenes just slapped together. There was not much in the way of smooth flow from one part to the next. Jumping around China, driving in the city and then suddenly in the desert. The Autobots skiing down mountains yelling "Yay! Prime's here" Where did they come from? Jumping all over the mountains like that is a good way to bring attention to your area.

• Prime has some serious issues with revenge and wanting to kill everything, so at least that's consistent with ROTF onwards Prime. Corsswise wasn't very Autobot like at all, wanting to fight Bee and be leader. Wha? Did I miss something?
  
  Other bits:
• Lockdown was cool and I liked that he even had a hook hand every now and then although I was never very fond of his human looking face. Drift's freaked me out the most though!
• What's this "Legend" Prime suddenly blurts out?
• Why does Lockdown have a huge vacuum thing in the bottom of his spaceship and why does he turn it on so early and just float around the city?
• Why was the movie so frigging long?
• There was so much extra fluff and things that could have been cut or replaced with something relevant that it made it rather hard to enjoy.

Sure the set up for following movies has lots of possibilities (Quintessons, Unicron and much more) but anything that will be done will just be a half assed mess of turd like this movie.

Rather unexpectedly the first two thirds of the movie wasn't bad and I was enjoying it. Then the last part comes along and it's just a mess of poo that ruins the enjoyment I previously had.

Could those Earth Decepticons be called G2?

This just goes to show that Bay still has little idea of how to direct a good movie. I certainly won't see it in theatres again and will only buy the bluray if ridiculously cheap. Then I don't think I'd watch it for a while anyway

In the end, it wasn't bad. But it certainly wasn't good.

[SkyWarp91]

What's with the 2 headed Shockwave?

Created using the genetics of the dead Shockwave from the Chicago battle like how no matter KSI tried to make a copy Optimus Prime it always bended towards Megatron?