Transformers: Age of Extinction

Jays Rating: C. I had one eye open.
Actors: Mark Wahlberg
Director: Michael Bay

Jay and Noel celebrate 15 years of reviewing movies together. This week they review Transformers: Age of Extinction, the newest in the Transformer franchise.

Four years after 2011’s Transformers, Dark of The Moon, director Michael Bay brings us the fourth installment in the action-adventure series, Transformers, Age of Extinction. The story begins when mechanic Cade Yeager (Mark Wahlberg) and his daughter Tessa (Nicola Peltz) find a junked semi and begin to fix it up. Of course, when the truck begins to talk they realize it’s Optimus Prime (voice of Peter Cullen) the leader of the Autobots, who has been wrecked for some time. In fact, all the Transformers have been destroyed by an ex-CIA agent named Harold Ateinger (Kelsey Grammer), and an assassin Transformer named Lock-Down (voice of Mark Ryan). Cade rebuilds Optimus Prime and learns he is being pursued by Lock-Down, so he locates and teams up with the only Autobots remaining alive: Hound (voice of John Goodman), Drift (voice of Ken Watanabe), Crosshair (voice of John Dimaggio) and Bumblebee. Meanwhile, another group is building Transformers and somehow they transfer the spirit of the Decepticons ex-leader into a Transformer named Galvatron (voice of Frank Walker). (Don’t ask me how this happens; there is too much going on even if you can see.) Now Optimus Prime and the few remaining Autobots have to fight all their enemies by themselves – or do they? Enter Dinobots Grimlock, Slag, Sludge, Scorn, Slug and the two-headed flying Strafe previously known as Swoop. (Don’t get too excited – they only appear in the last 20 minutes.) There is really no reason to talk about the ridiculous dialogue, corny one-liners, and painful script because it’s all about the Transformers. If the names of the Transformers I mentioned don’t whet your appetite, then you’re not a true die-hard Transformer fan. (Can you say millions of dollars in new Transformer toys?) Action junkies will love the explosions, Transformers fights, and the two hours and 45 minutes of action. Unfortunately, the story is so over stuffed with action scenes and sub-plots that it’s mind-numbing – at least until the Dinobots show up toward the end. Yes, I realize I can’t see the special effects but it was just too long and drawn out. (I needed my theater seat to transform into a recliner.) I know this film is going to make a ton of money but I still can’t give it anything higher than a C rating.

This movie has been given a PG13 rating by the MPAA