Review: Transformers: Age of Extinction

Set three years after the previous film that left Chicago obliterated. Transformers are now seen as unwelcome on Earth, targeted by CIA Black Ops bigwig Harold Attinger (a ferocious Kelsey Grammer) and his team, who are aided by a Transformer called Lockdown, who acts as a kind of bounty hunter taking out all of the Autobots one by one. Mark Wahlberg stars as Cade Yaeger, a supposed eccentric inventor who turns junk into…stuff. His teenage daughter Nicola Peltz thinks he’s just a bit of a quirky ne’er do well who treats her like some little kid, and she frequently sneaks off to be with her race car driver boyfriend with the suspiciously Irish-sounding Texas twang (played by Colorado-born Jack Reynor, who moved to Ireland at age two). Things get dangerous for Cade when his latest pet project (a busted up truck) turns out to be a rusty old Optimus Prime (voiced by Peter Cullen). His well-meaning but nervous pal (a perfectly cast T.J. Miller) calls it in to the government, as one is directed to do so out of patriotism (#Murrica!), and within minutes, Attinger’s goons (led by a no-nonsense Titus Welliver) are on the scene. Cade, his daughter, and the fake Texan petrol-head head on outta there, whilst Optimus Prime rallies the other few remaining Autobots. Stanley Tucci plays Joshua Joyce, a rich tech company guy in league with Attinger. Joyce has managed to develop his own substance dubbed ‘Transformium’ from remnants of fallen Decepticon leader Megatron that allows him to create his very own Transformer, which he calls Galvatron (voiced by veteran voiceover artist Frank Welker). What he doesn’t realise, since he’s an idiot, is that Megatron/Galvatron isn’t able to be controlled.

 

Rejoice, as this 2014 film is the best in the “Transformers” film franchise, to the point where I was surprised to learn at the end that it was yet again directed by Michael Bay (who also directed the similarly noisy and stupid “The Rock”, the obnoxious and stupid “Bad Boys” films, and the slightly more enjoyable but still stupid and noisy “Armageddon”), who made the previous films in the franchise. The downside is, it’s still just a barely watchable film, not one worthy of a wholehearted recommendation from me. I’m not sure we needed a series reboot from the same director, but this series is trending upwards, if it keeps going maybe the next one will be worth seeing.

 

It’s far from perfect, but after four films, Bay and screenwriter Ehren Kruger (who wrote the previous mild best in the series, “Transformers: Dark of the Moon”) have finally realised that the most important characters in the “Transformers” franchise are (get this) the frigging Transformers! Sure, Mark Wahlberg gets far more screen time than any of the Autobots or Decepticons, but at least this time out, we actually get Transformers that we can tell apart, aside from stalwarts Optimus Prime and Bumblebee. If this is meant to be the beginning of a new series of “Transformers” films from Bay (which I’ve read to be the case), he might finally be onto something here. The stuff with the Autobots in this one being outcast by human society is a bit corny, but at least in this film they are taken far more seriously and not annoying, aside from the returning (and idiotic) Brains and the irritating Bumblebee. There’s humour here and there, but it’s not obnoxious, as in previous films (No irritating jive-talking robots or extraneous human comedy relief in this one, thank God), and neither Brains nor Bumblebee are in the film enough to really grate. The Asian warrior stereotype Autobot named Drift (voiced by Ken Watanabe, of course) is a tad on the nose, but cigar-chomping (don’t ask) Hound, wonderfully voiced by John Goodman more than makes up for that. Goodman’s clearly enjoying himself and the character is fun. Damn near stealing the show with him, is veteran voiceover artist Frank Welker, voicing the villainous Galvatron, made up of parts of Decepticon leader Megatron. The films never really got Megatron right, but Welker’s Galvatron manages to have a distinct, expressive voice. Anyone could’ve been voicing Megatron in the previous films, really. Welker (best-known for voicing Fred and Scooby on “Scooby Doo”, and Brain and The Claw on “Inspector Gadget”) is really effective in the role, and you wish he was in more of the film.

 

I’d still prefer an all-Transformers film, but this is probably about as good as we’re gonna get from a man of Bay’s limited talents, and hey, a lot of the human element in the film is pretty decent, too, with one big exception I’ll get to in a minute. The acting highlights here are quite clearly Stanley Tucci and Kelsey Grammer, and that’s probably not a surprise, but perhaps a bit more surprising is the fine work by Titus Welliver. Tucci is good fun as always, here cast as a greedy corporate guy hoping to create his own Transformers, not really realising just what he’s getting himself into. Kelsey Grammer, meanwhile is terrific as the rather villainous, hawkish CIA Black Ops guy. He really goes all out, kind of like a serious version of Sideshow Bob. He’s kinda scary, actually. As for character actor Welliver, he’s perfect as the hardest of hard-arse Black Ops soldiers. Also stealing scenes early on is a very amusing T.J. Miller, and more briefly Thomas Lennon is his usual amusing self as a slimy Chief of Staff to the President (He and Miller provide the only real humour, and it never works against the film or gets annoying). As for leading lady Nicola Peltz, she’s got more range than Megan Fox (But so does a doorknob!), but nonetheless goes to the patented Megan Fox open mouthed pout far too often. And that brings us to the black hole of suckage in the film: Mark Wahlberg. Although he hardly looks old enough to be Peltz’s father (and his maths on when her character was conceived have him way too old to be playing the father of Peltz’s character), that didn’t ultimately bother me. There’s apparently a 24 year age gap between the two actors, so fair enough on that. No, what bothered me is that Mark Wahlberg is cast as a fucking quirky inventor. Does Marky Mark look like Rick Moranis to you? I don’t think so. He doesn’t even look like a university graduate to me. I just couldn’t buy him as someone smart enough to…build stuff. Sorry, but when I think of Mark Wahlberg, engineering doesn’t really come to mind. Others may not have that problem, but I couldn’t get around it (I barely swallowed him as an educator in “The Happening” and “The Gambler”), and his performance is still dull. He’s not as awful as he was in the otherwise fun “Planet of the Apes” re-jig, but I just don’t think this type of film (and certainly not this type of role) is really his thing. He drags the film down single-handedly quite a bit.

 

As for the CGI robots, they look much as they did previously, but a bit improved. More than that, though, the look of the film and the action are vastly improved over at least the first two films. The robot action is especially improved this time out, you’ll have no trouble following it. Other than that, there’s a particularly spectacular, elongated car chase about 40 minutes in through cornfields and onto the streets that is one of the best in years. It’s certainly better than the ridiculous one in Bay’s dopey “The Rock”. There’s some truly awesome cars in this, I must say. There were signs in the previous film of Bay working to make things look prettier and more artistic, and that’s certainly continued here. Does the visual style of Bay and cinematographer Amir Mokri (“Blue Steel”, “Transformers: Dark of the Moon”, “Man of Steel”) get repetitive after a while? Yes, but it’s still good style (I don’t think Bay is the antichrist of filmmakers, just a bit too obsessed with jingoistic imagery and profit-driven for my tastes), and at least there’s very, very minimal shaky-cam. It’s a really crisp-looking film. Yes, there’s too much slow-mo, but at least with slow-mo you won’t get confused by what you’re seeing.

 

Better in every respect than the previous films, albeit only slightly better in every respect. This is nonetheless the series highlight thus far, for whatever it is worth to you. The script is competent, and the film isn’t boring. I nearly liked this one, and I thought going in that it would be easily the worst in the series. That’s low expectations for you. I still think “Pain & Gain” is Bay’s sole solid film to date as director, but this really isn’t bad at all.

 

Rating: C+