Transformers: Age of Extinction (1 Viewer)

[Robert Crawford]

It was alright for a matinee viewing, but much too long in length. I'll give it a grade of "C" too. Loved the video and audio presentation on that giant screen with the Dolby Atmos audio track.

 

[Chuck Mayer]

As the ward of two young boys today, I took in a fauxMax screening of this today. As nonsensical and moribund as the previous three films, with almost the exact same "narrative" flow as the last two films. It feels like mad lib filmmaking. However, it was much less offensive than the last two as well, so I guess that is something.Absolutely too long by at least 30-40 minutes. Gorgeously shot by Bay, however. The buttrock song is played about three times too many. Wahlberg has quite a bit more charisma than Shia, at least, so the people scenes are more tolerable. The plot is incoherent garbage, which only makes sense occasionally (and randomly). The autobot designs are a bit better, but the bad guy bots are terrible. Except Lockdown, who looks very cool, even with the wannabe Western personality.Michael Bay should really shoot top end commercials. He is a salesman, and his movies are products, with the facsimile of people in them. But it often looks great, and those gorgeous cars shine.The Dinobots aren't in this very long. They sort of show up, roar, fight for OP, and then disappear like Aragorn's Army of the Dead. But their action scenes are decent.Anyways, if you like the previous films, you'll like this one. If you didn't like the previous ones because of the humans (but you like the robots), maybe you'll like this one. If you didn't like 2&3, this is basically more of the same. It really does feel like the same movie over and over.See you in two years for 5. The long march continues.

 

[Tim Glover]

Just got back. Well....I liked it much more than I thought. I'm sure it was the extremely low expectations but just about 1/3 into it I was thinking; "this is actually ok and could turn into something good". Then the bots starting talking and like always takes me plum out. Like way out. I realize there is no way to prevent this. They are supposed to talk. But it's bad bad dialogue. LOL as I write this I should say the same thing about the humans.

As Chuck states, Wahlberg is way better than Shia & he is believable in an unreal movie. Actually Stanley Tucci steals the film for me. He's pretty terrific in this.

The first one was ok...hasn't aged that well but still not bad. The second film, Revenge of the Fallen is among the worst films of all time and I nearly left. I hated it so much I never saw Dark Of The Moon.

Whats a shame is that somewhere in this very long 3 hour movie really could be a solid 2 hour film.

Not sure where to rank on my 1-10 scale except that I liked it much more than I thought.

 

[mattCR]

I think it was the second one that I basically did walk out of. I became nearly sick because all of the movement on the screen (camera plus just flashing blurs of metal) made me sea-sick. One of the few experiences I've ever had in a theater where the presentation of the film made me think I was going to vomit.. and I don't mean that in a coy 'the film is bad', I mean I was absolutely feeling like I would be sick if I didn't walk out for a bit.
Only other film to do that to me was Blair Witch, and I'm not sure what caused that.. but woof. I didn't see the third one because of that effect. I may or may not catch this over the weekend.. but the real question for me is: how steady is the camera?

 

[Tino]

I liked it. Much better than I thought it would be. Granted I went in with very low expectations but was pleasantly surprised. Delivered exactly what it promised. Pretty much a 3 hour non stop assault on the senses. I was entertained. *** out of ****

 

[Tim Glover]

How Matt, Bay uses a lot of that camera that circles around and around. I honestly don't remember feeling like it was shaky but there's LOTS going on in front. It's a little overload but we sat further back than normal and was fine.

Thinking back the next day I liked this movie. Masterpiece it is not but like I said, it was way more enjoyable than I imagined.

 

[McCrutchy]

I enjoyed the hell out of this, and I cannot understand the hugely negative critical reviews this is getting, especially compared to the first three films.

As many have said, Wahlberg is preferable to LaBoeuf, and Peltz to Fox/Huntington-Whiteley, so the human scenes are better. I also enjoyed Grammer, and especially Tucci, with his crush on his impossibly attractive, "she's-the-full-package" subordinate played by Li Bingbing (playing a woman and not a girl).

The plot, of which there is little, is merely an excuse for giant talking robots to fight. This is the way it has been (or should have been) in the past films. I never gave a damn about LaBoeuf and his impossibly hot girlfriend(s) and I don't really care about Wahlberg and his (thankfully less sexualized) daughter either, though as pointed out, Wahlberg is easier to root for.

Now, there are two things I always think about with these films:

If an auteur director wanted to make a great Transformers film, they would have done it already.

Michael Bay makes movies that explode.

So when I see this installment getting poor reviews, and I go and look back at other Michael Bay movies, many of which have a stronger positive consensus, it is truly baffling.

Of the four films Bay has made in the series, this one is easily the best. It is visually and aurally stunning, and every dollar of that $165 million budget is on the screen. Any of the action sequences in this film could have been the finale of a lesser action movie.

With this film, you know exactly what you will get: Action Porn. Transformers: Age of Extinction is the Deep Throat of Action Porn, and Michael Bay is its Linda Lovelace.

Easy 3.5/5

 

[vidiot33]

Well said. I consider the Transformers series a sort of guilty pleasure. It's not Shakesphere, but it's a visual and auditory treat, and isn't that why we invest all these resources in home theater?

 

[Tim Glover]

Agree with McCrutchy here in not really understanding the negative reviews. I mean they are really negative on this. Perhaps it's become cool to bash these and I'm a member of that group....that said, I can admit when I'm wrong. It's not a great movie....but it's pretty good.

 

[schan1269]

I predict...T:AoE Will be the Atmos demonstration go to BD.

 

[Vic Pardo]

I think it was the second one that I basically did walk out of. I became nearly sick because all of the movement on the screen (camera plus just flashing blurs of metal) made me sea-sick. One of the few experiences I've ever had in a theater where the presentation of the film made me think I was going to vomit.. and I don't mean that in a coy 'the film is bad', I mean I was absolutely feeling like I would be sick if I didn't walk out for a bit.
Only other film to do that to me was Blair Witch, and I'm not sure what caused that.. but woof. I didn't see the third one because of that effect. I may or may not catch this over the weekend.. but the real question for me is: how steady is the camera?

I didn't have this reaction when I saw TRANSFORMERS 3 in IMAX 3-D, which was the best 3-D experience I've had in the modern age, but I did have it when I saw PACIFIC RIM that way. It was mainly the sound that just shook up my nervous system and gave me a stomachache. I'm not sure I want to have that experience again, so I've been avoiding IMAX since then.

 

[Aaron Silverman]

I was pretty meh on this. WAY too long, with WAY too much down time between action sequences. The story was fine, but instead of exploring interesting philosophical questions, they went with extended scenes of cliched, pointless dialogue. Really -- the plot had the potential to be interesting, but they put very little effort into developing it.

The action sequences were fine; there just weren't enough of them. I truly appreciated the fact that Michael Bay seems to understand that an extended, wide, slo-mo shot is infinitely preferable to quick-cutting close-up shaky-cam nonsense.

As a fan of the whole series, IMO, Dark of the Moon is still the best combination of action and story in the franchise. Age of Extinction is closest to Rise of the Fallen, interspersing spectacular action with spectacular dumbness. But it's more disappointing in that the story had so much unrealized potential.

I was also disappointed with

Spoiler

TJ Miller getting killed off so quickly. That guy is hilarious!

FWIW, my son loved it, although he didn't like

Spoiler

the scenes early on of Autobots being murdered.

 

[Edwin-S]

I feel torn about going to see this film.

 

[TheBat]

I feel torn about going to see this film.

perhaps you should see 22 jump street. a much better sequel then transformers 4. same goes with xmen for that matter.

Jacob

 

[Edwin-S]

perhaps you should see 22 jump street. a much better sequel then transformers 4. same goes with xmen for that matter.

Jacob

I've seen the Xmen film which was pretty good. I don't think I would get as much out of "22 Jump Street" as a lot of other viewers because I've never seen the first movie and I have no familiarity with the original TV show. I have almost zero familiarity or knowledge of most 80's and 90's mainstream TV series, because I worked afternoon shift, so was never able to watch any primetime TV shows.

 

[Sam Posten]

Spoiler alerts, and brain deader alert:http://io9.com/transformers-age-of-extinction-the-spoiler-faq-1598579492?utm_campaign=socialflow_io9_twitter&utm_source=io9_twitter&utm_medium=socialflow

Spoiler

Does Cade have any redeeming features?Well, when he discovers Optimus — who is dead, by the way ——what?!Yeah, he's dead again. Non-functional, not going anywhere, until Cade gives him a jumpstart and Prime starts yelling "KILL YOU! KILL YOU!"Yikes.

Spoiler

Prime is totally cool with this and is like "Let's go."Really?!Yep. He's ready to let the fucking humans fuck off and die, until Cade convinces him to give humanity another chance.Really? The fate of the human race is the hands of Marky Mark giving an inspiring speech to a bitter robot?Yes.What's it about?Getting girls pregnant in high school.

For the record I enjoyed the movie but knew it was stupid the whole time. Seeing it in print makes it seem MORE stupid tho...LMAO tho:

Is that the end of the movie?No, you simply wish it was.

 

[Sam Posten]

From the comments:

YanktonzipzanderhoffI think it's simply that the abstracted jumble of spinning cameras, American flags and CGI noise create a Pollock-esque canvas of nonsense, leaving each audience participant to try and surmise for themselves what they are witnessing on screen.Some see nothing but robots fighting.Some see nothing but stilted character interactions.Some see a bleak grotesquerie of a twelve-year-old's id made manifest.Some see a series of bright pop-art cake paintings where the frosting is rendered in oil applied with thick sweeps of a palette knife to imply the lusciousness of rich butter cream and meringue.The movies are basically a Rorschach test as applied through the tenants of the theater of cruelty. It's actually sort of beautiful in it's own civilization-ending way.

 

[TheBat]

I've seen the Xmen film which was pretty good. I don't think I would get as much out of "22 Jump Street" as a lot of other viewers because I've never seen the first movie and I have no familiarity with the original TV show. I have almost zero familiarity or knowledge of most 80's and 90's mainstream TV series, because I worked afternoon shift, so was never able to watch any primetime TV shows.

its more comedy action movie then the original series. its more about the concept in name only. its a very funny movie., they do a recap on the first movie. its pretty easy to follow.


Jacob

 

[Brian Dobbs]

Bay's Transformer's movies are great for Home Theater demos, but TAOE...

Terrible script. Just terrible. Stupid characters. Mildly funny.Dialogue for everyone was so amateur. Who are they appealing to, 12 year olds? Lord!The movie was exhausting. I thought it was over and then it had another hour to go.Michael Bay can't keep doing this.I thought the last one overstayed it's welcome, but this one REALLY shows there's nothing there for them to do.

4/10

 

[Sam Posten]

LMAO:
http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2014/10/08/transformers_4_honest_trailer_is_the_masterpiece_that_age_of_extinction.html