Transformers: Age of Extinction Review

I finally got to lay eyes on Transformers The Age of Extinction

SPOILER FREE

Where do I start. I have ALOT to say about this movie and I know im not alone on my feelings towards this film. First of all let me make it clear that I do not hate Michael Bay. I dont think he sucks in general as a filmmaker, just sometimes but thats becoming more of a common thing for him these days. Bad Boys was a pretty solid action and comedy. The Rock is a great action movie and one of the best of the 1990s. Armageddon was a fun disaster movie that was exciting as hell. I feel the hatred for Bay began at Pearl Harbor. If you look at it as a summer blockbuster, its a guilty pleasure. If you go into it looking for historical significance than its a bad movie. He did not do a good job in that aspect. Bad Boys ll is a fun but ok movie. The island was pretty good and I did like The first Transformers movie out of them all. Thats pretty much when my liking of Michael Bay stopped. Transformers 2 was terrible and insulting to everyone who looks for a quality film. Transformers Dark of the Moon was a slight improvement but only in the action aspect. The storyline and acting much like Transformers 2 was awful. Its become abundantly clear that Bay is clearly making movies for money now. And now we have Transformers The Age of Extinction.

I think everyone knows where this is going after the first paragraph. I did not like the film. No as a matter of fact, I despise it. This movie is a manifestation of everything im against in the realm of good filmmaking. This was garbage. Sure its got lots of nice explosions and the special effects and technology in the film is amazing, but thats about all that can be said about it thats good. There was absolutely no real character development in this movie and no real story arc. The introduction of Mark Wahlbergs daughters boyfriend was so painful and a slap in the face to the whole concept of a great character intro and setup. They just threw him in there in the middle of an action scene and expect no questions to be asked about his background. Not good enough for me. Another thing was the dialogue was so terrible. Whenever they talked about the seed plot device I chuckled unintentionally. This is not how people talk and not how you give proper exposition and information to the audience. Michael Bay has always had this problem with developing his characters and creating story arcs that has begun as early as Pearl Harbor and carried onto these films. Each Transformers movie has gotten worse with the character development and acting. Mark Walhberg was pretty bad here and often embarrassed himself at times such as the moment where he pops open a Bud Light and starts chugging it. WHAT THE. Product placement was all over this frigging movie and it was disgusting how much Bay used it and didnt care that it had nothing to do with the story. It was almost like Bay decided going into the making of this movie that he was fed up with all the hatred he gets from critics snd audiences and decided hes going to do whatever he wants. This is clearly a movie made by a man wno doesnt care anymore and as far as im concerned is an arrogant fool. Michael Bay, I have never seen so much racial stereotyping in movies before until I laid eyes on your Transformers series. Its disgusting. You created two twin robots in Revenge of the Fallen that was supposed to be a way to entertain the young audience but ended up becoming two of the most hated characters in film history next to Jar Jar Binks. You then went back on your word that you dont listen to critics and take them out of the third movie but NOW youve added an asian Transformer who not only looks like a samurai but speaks in a heavy accent. What the hell were you trying to accomplish with that. That was wrong in so many ways. You pretty much have shown people that you have no idea what youre doing wrong with these movies or that you dont care if people label you as a guy who loves to use racial stereotypes in his movies. You want to be taken seriously and respected as a filmmaker but how do you expect that to occur when you pull shit like that. That really says alot about you as a person and filmmaker.

Aside from the obvious horrible character development and ridiculous over the top afting from everyone including Kelsey Grammer and Stanley Tucci, two high quality actors who deserve so much better than the script they received for this movie, Age of Extinction is a ridiculous, loud, and over the top action movie with no soul in it and its only objective is to make millions to billions of dollars by suckering people into watching it with flashy explosions and robotic battles. Sure they can be very impressive at times and the climax of the film takes the word insane to the next level, but that does not compensate for the shitty effort put into the story of the film and its characters. This was Wahlbergs worst acting performance since The Happening, and tbe whole film ranks as being so bad its fucking hilarious because of how absurd it allis. This is not a good movie. It will never be known as one. It has a much greater chance of sweeping the razzies for next year with virtual locks in the categories of worst picture, worst director, and screenplay. To me thats sad because its not that hard to have an even balance with great special effects wnd good storytdlling. True filmmakers put the first over the latter, Bay is not a true filmmaker anymore. He sees dollar signs and only wants to make movies for teenage boys and cover all his inadequacies as a filmmaker with mindless explosions. At this point I consider him a dangerous filmmaker because he knows now that he can make bad movies but people will still see them with the name Transformers on it. There were actually people who got up and walked out during my showing. I wouldve been right behind them if I wasnt in the company of my good friends.

This movie gets a huge thumbs down for me and has the mishonor of being the worst movie ive seen in theaters so far this summer. Michael Bay will not fool me again. Im onto him. This is this years After Earth with the only exception that its doing fantastic at the box office compared to how that film did. If you want mindless explosions then by all means, its waiting for you. Buf if you want deeper and more thought provoking movies, go see Days of the Future Past and Edge of Tomorrow. Hell even Fault in our Stars had a way more convincing love story than that half assed Romeo and Juliet shit they gave us here. Sigh. Ok im done.

2 out of 10

Wait one more thing, did it really need to be 3 fucking hours.