First things first, Transformers: Age of Extinction is a
long movie. At 165 minutes, it more a test of endurance than a film. Second, it is a Michael Bay movie and as such, things blow up, all the things blow up. The fourth entry in the franchise follows up on the events of the last, although it replaces any familiar faces. Mark Walberg plays Cade Yeager, a blue-collar Texan who builds robots in his garage and comes into possession of Optimus Prime when he buys an old beat-up semi-truck to scrap for parts. When the FBI shows up looking for Optimus, now considered an enemy of the state, all hell brakes loose and Yeager goes on the run with his new transformer buddy, his whiny teenage daughter (Nicola Peltz) and her boyfriend (Jack Reynor). Optimus summons the remaining Autobots who've all but given up on humanity after discovering that the US government, led by a deliciously psycho Kelsey Grammer, has teamed up with bounty hunter, Lockdown and is hunting and killing all Transformers, Decepticon and Autobot alike. Lockdown is aided in his pursuit by a squad of man-made bots led by Galvatron who turns out to be a reincarnation of the Decepticon leader Megatron. The creator of the neo-Decepticons, a stunningly Steve Jobs-like character played by Stanley Tucci joins in the fight after realizing the power of what he has unleashed. Optimus seeks help from an ancient set of Dinobots who are sadly underused but utterly awesome. Battles ensue and much of Hong Kong is either smashed or blown up. The screen is taken up by flying shrapnel and car parts more often than not. As I walked out of the theatre I felt unsure as to what actually happened. Thats not to say I didn't enjoy it, I did but I didn't love it. I found the daughter annoying and whiny and needlessly jailbait-ish (not unlike Megan Fox in the first movie). I was waiting for the moment when she came into her own and got badass, which sadly never came. I loved the Dinobots and waited long into the movie for their appearance.
