Movielogr

Rating: 7.5 stars

Tags

moviepass AMC sequel robot Chicago China robots spaceship cia amc randhurst 12

All movies seen on 07/17/2014

View on: IMDb | TMDb

Transformers: Age of Extinction (2014)

Directed by Michael Bay

Science Fiction | Action | Thriller

Most recently watched by sensoria, CaptainBigTime, schofizzy, ashe5k, jeneot33, themarc, Javitron

Overview

As humanity picks up the pieces after the battle of Chicago, a shadowy group reveals itself in an attempt to control the direction of history…while an ancient, powerful new menace sets Earth in its crosshairs. With help from Cade Yeager, Optimus Prime and the Autobots rise to meet their most fearsome challenge yet.

Rated PG-13 | Length 165 minutes

Actors

Mark Wahlberg | Peter Cullen | Stanley Tucci | Kelsey Grammer | Nicola Peltz | Jack Reynor | Frank Welker | Sophia Myles | Li Bingbing | Titus Welliver | John Goodman | Ken Watanabe | John DiMaggio | Mark Ryan | T.J. Miller | James Bachman | Thomas Lennon | Charles Parnell | Erika Fong | Han Geng | Michael Collins | Zou Shiming | Richard Riehle | Patrick Bristow | Cleo King | Calvin Wimmer | Glenn Keogh | David Midthunder | Richard Gallion | Nick Horst | Kassem Gharaibeh | Edward T. Welburn | Yanis Kalnins | Peter A Kelly | Jessica Gomes | Andreas Beckett | Alexander Leeb | Jamison Haase | Drew Wicks | Gene Shieh | Woei Bee | Wang Ying | William Wang | Melanie Specht | Abigail Klein | Greg Matthew Anderson | Austin Lin | Victoria Summer | Kevin Covais | B. Adam Baillio | Mikal Vega | Andrew Arrabito | Tyrone Smith | Kenny Sheard | Kevin Kent | Michael Wong | Winston Yeh | Ray Lui | Candice Zhao | Li Jun Ting | Howard Y. Woo | Jingsheng Yu | Ben Wang | Eddie San Chan | Zhang Tianyu | Wu Gang | Teresa Daley | Robert Foxworth | Reno Wilson | Michael Bay

Viewing History (seen 1 time)

Viewing Notes

Well, that was surprisingly enjoyable. Like really enjoyable. Honestly went in not expecting that I would like this movie. Maybe my expectations were so low that somehow the things that worked really worked for me. I wasn’t even bothered by the length (and it didn’t even feel that long to me). Could be because I came off two days of epic long films with deliberate pacing (LoA & 2001) that the pacing here was hustling to get through each of the story beats.

I kept wondering why this film is so much better than the last two, which I really despise and have no desire to revisit. Could be the framing (making the humans at odds with the Autobots), the cast (stronger and more sympathetic), the VFX (only a a few of the composite shots bugged me), the setting (Texas, Chicago, China) or probably the combination of all of these.

The story also makes more sense once past the setup that somehow the Autobots are now bad and being hunted. I like bringing in Lockdown to up the badass factor and how Megatron was reintroduced. Really dig the Legends / Dinobots! There isn’t anything complicated about the story.

My only nitpicks are dumb plot devices wedged in to further the story. Like Optimus Prime leaving the Seed with the humans to transport, which makes no logical sense when the Autobots can move faster and aren’t fragile. Then later to find out that Optimus can fly?!?! Maybe he always had this power but to not use that ability until the final scene is just insulting. Esp. when they need to get from place to place quickly. “Oh we’ll just drive to the desert, to Chicago, etc.” Granted he’s transporting passengers in vehicle mode but for other times it’s dumb that he’s not just flying, i.e. he could have quickly flown into Hong Kong after getting the Legends on his side. But, yeah, it’s cooler for Optimus to ride a dinosaur. Whatever.

Those are my main issues and there’s probably a few more but I was too busy having fun to notice. I would definitely watch this again and maybe I’ll notice more things that bug me. Now I’m curious why this movie was dumped on by nearly every outlet. Definitely want to read some reviews and hear some podcasts.

Or maybe I wasn’t myself and I’m entirely wrong.

Comments