Transformers: Age of Extinction Review

I’m doing a movie review for “Transformers: Age of Extinction”. As usual I will do my general disclaimer in that this post may (most likely) contain spoilers. It is also solely my opinion. I always encourage people to go watch the films for themselves to form their own opinion of the film.

I watched the new “Transformers: Age of Extinction” movie today. I’m going to be honest and blunt in that overall I really didn’t enjoy it. I don’t feel it furthered the story, but rather gives an introspective of the past movies. There were points (about 1/3 - ½ way through) where it felt like the movie’s sole purpose was to set up the arrival of the Dinobots who show up for the last quarter of the film. It felt like a story that we didn’t really need. Does that make any sense? I say it like that because the progression of events are what we expected, in a realistic way rather than a fairy tale happy ending kind of way. There were elements that were added that didn’t seem necessary, nor did they feel like they fit.

Let me do a more specific breakdown of points to further illustrate what I’m saying. I’ll start with the negative aspects, but then I’ll say what I think the movie did do well.

The first three scenes were so jumpy in content that I had no idea what was initially going on. First it’s Earth during the Dino age getting a glimpse of aliens that are not Transformers, then suddenly in the Arctic looking at what appears to be a Dinobot, but isn’t, and then suddenly in Texas with Mark Wahlberg. None of it seemed connected and only later gets explained half way through the movie.

What’s going on is pretty much what you would expect. The Government mistrusts all Transformers because of the Chicago incident. One man (who is CIA) is secretly hunting all Transformers down, including Autobots who have a pardon for their defense in Chicago, with the help of a new Transformer bounty hunter, Lockdown. The CIA head has a contract with Lockdown and Joshua Joyce, who owns KSI technologies where with the Transformers that have been taken out and what was found in the Arctic have learned to make Transformers. Also, as is typical black ops secret CIA them or us kind of behavior, this man as no problem killing innocent people in order to achieve his goals, but then criticizes Wahlberg for siding with the Autobots.

The introduction of the new alien race, the Creators, feels like a puzzle piece that doesn’t fit, but was jammed into place to try to have things make sense. I picture them to be like The Creators in “Prometheus”. The introduction of these new species leaves more questions than answers. Their main purpose in the story seems only to be to give Lockdown motivation.

Also Megatron manages to reincarnate himself through Joyce’s flagship creation Galvatron. I haven’t fully decided if this is a good point or a bad one yet. It could go either way. In terms of Megatron’s nature it makes perfect sense, but as many times as Megatron has been killed and brought back it kinda feels like beating a dead horse. So again, it really could go either way

Now lets move onto the positive things. I will say that this movie is a fantastic story for Optimus Prime. It gives you an in depth profile of his character, his struggles, and his motivations that helps to give an insight to the past films. This story truly does center around Optimus. Plus for a wee bit you get to see him in his classic flat nosed cartoon truck form. There is also at the end of the film where you see Optimus go into knight form. Very badass indeed!

What you do see of the Dinobots is dynamite. Granted you have to wait till the end of the film to see them (anyone surprised by that? Seriously?), but they are amazing once they do make their appearance. The end battle is epic, as is expected, with the Dinobots coming to the Autobots rescue as they are outnumbered by Joyce’s version of Transformers who have all been infected by the reincarnated Megatron.

It was also refreshing to see a main character who is a 180 from Shia Lebouf’s Sam Witwicky. Wahlberg’s Cade Yeager has nothing to lose. His tech firm went under, his wife died, he’s broke, and he’s about to lose his house. The only thing that matters to him is his daughter, Tessa, played by Nicola Peltz. As long as she’s safe Cade doesn’t really care what happens to himself. He also says this wonderful quote to Optimus, “You gotta look at all of the junk and see the treasure.”


I was also impressed with the talent they got to participate in this latest installment. Mark Wahlberg aside there was Stanley Tucci as Joshua Joyce and Kelsey Grammer as Harold Attinger the head of the CIA who has no problem killing people who get in his way. You know I never thought I would ever be happy to see Kelsey Grammer die. I love the man’s work. There was also some great talent for the Autobots as well; John Goodman as Hound, Ken Wantanabe as Drift, John DiMaggio as Crosshairs, and here is the biggie, Frank Welker as Galvatron. That’s right, for once we get the original voices of Optimus Prime and Megatron in the same film. That is a big perk indeed!

So that’s my 2 cents on “Transformers: Age of Extinction”. If you like go watch the film yourself and let me know what you thought of it. However if I had to give one solitary reason to see it, that reason is Optimus Prime.