Transformers: Age of Extinction (2014)
Cast: Mark Wahlberg, Nicola Peltz, Jack Reynor
Director: Michael Bay
Country: USA
Genre: Action | Adventure | Sci-Fi
Official Site: Here
Editor’s Notes: Transformers: Age of Extinction opens in limited release today, June 27th.
By the fourth installment, it seems almost pointless to complain about how loud, obnoxious and vacuous the whole experience is with these Transformers films, and yet it is almost impossible to stop.
Destruction obsessed director Michael Bay seems hell bent on leaving no building un-demolished, no metropolis un-pulverised, no construction un-crushed and no brain cell un-blemished in this franchise of battling masses of metal. Each sequel exists simply to be bigger, louder and have more visual effects and lamer dialogue than the last.
…Destruction obsessed director Michael Bay seems hell bent on leaving no building un-demolished, no metropolis un-pulverised…
Bay has torpedoed the characters that did all the running, yelling, wisecracking and shooting in the last three (Shia LaBeouf, Megan Fox, Josh Duhamel, John Turturro), and replaced them with a bunch of equally tanned fresh faces for the franchise.
However, he and scriptwriter Ehren Kruger have stuck them with the same unbearable dialogue shouted among the pyrotechnics in this more of the same ear piercing action porn.
In a rare nod to the consequences of blockbuster mayhem, the alliance has been severed between humans and Transformers in the wake of the devastation of the Chicago-set war between Autobots and Decepticons in 2011′s Dark Of The Moon.
Autobots, who were once allies to humans, are now in hiding, one of which is discovered by accident in Texas by failing farmer and inventor Cade Yeager (Mark Wahlberg).
Meanwhile, corporate heavy Joshua Joyce (Stanley Tucci in a rare nerve grating performance) is trying to build his own Transformer army using the heads of Decepticons, which, of course backfires and war is re-ignited.
Yeager, his over-protected daughter Tessa (Nicola Peltz) and her Rally car boyfriend Shane Dyson (Jack Reynor) get caught up in the chaos, trying to outrun the authorities, not get blown up by Transformers exchanging bullets and explosions and coming out of it all scratch-free.
…Transformers - Dinobots - that make a ridiculously goofy entrance in the later stages of the film’s punishing 165 minute running time.
Bay’s perceived cherry on the top of all this carnage is the highly publicised dinosaur Transformers - Dinobots - that make a ridiculously goofy entrance in the later stages of the film’s punishing 165 minute running time.
As a big middle finger to his critics, Bay has soldiered on with his “bigger is better” mantra. Action sequences, though largely more coherent than last installments, seem to go on for hours, and to the point in which it is increasingly difficult to care about these characters because they keep surviving each life-threatening incident with ease and without a mark on their perfectly sculptured bodies. Despite the high amount of destruction and stunts, there is not a single second convinces us that their lives may actually be in danger.
In 3D Imax there are some truly awesome scope capturing moments, and the occasional adrenalised rush from some hairy situations is a much needed boost to keep one awake when action fatigue sets in.
Just as rampant as the action is the sexism and hypocrisy.
Bay has Yeager moralise about his 17-year-old daughter being too young to date boys, while she is constantly framed in up-short shots to highlight her inappropriately revealing attire. Not only does Bay objectify this, as we are reminded repeatedly, under-age beauty, but to have her be merely a damsel in distress is, well, distressing. Her character is relegated to the sidelines, called upon only occasionally to make the smallest of contributions or weep and sob when the going gets tough.
This exercise in boy’s club film making (a term used loosely in this context) gets old pretty fast, which is daunting considering the length of the film.
This exercise in boy’s club film making (a term used loosely in this context) gets old pretty fast, which is daunting considering the length of the film.
