"Transformers: Age of Extinction" : Rock 'Em - Sock 'Em At Its Best

   

Michael Bay's latest Transformers movie has made itself known to the world after not even a week. Already bringing in more than $100 million, "Transformers: Age of Extinction" is on track to rake in the dough as its predecessors have done. The question is though, does the success in the box office validate it as a good movie? Maybe even the best of its franchise? Or does it validate the roaring success of big blockbuster movies in general?

   "Age of Extinction" is the fourth film in Michael Bay's Transformers franchise and at 165 minutes, it's by far the longest. I know that every film isn't perfect, and when discussing Michael Bay and his filmography, for some they find a sour taste forming in their mouths; but he's not all that bad* (granted "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" has yet to be released, so this opinion may be pending). The Transformers movies are a ton of fun, and this one is no different in that aspect. However I'll be honest, I had to see it twice before I felt confident in giving a review. All tastes aside, if you're optimistic about the movie being good and you want to see it because these movies are loud and action packed, and you liked the other three, I don't think you'll be disappointed.

   The movie takes place five years after the events of the last film "Dark of the Moon", (which for the record I feel was the best iteration to date...with the nostalgia of the first taken into consideration). Mark Wahlberg steps into the leading role as Cade Yeager, a struggling mechanic and single father who, through various events, finds himself and his family thrown into survival mode alongside the Autobots as they are targeted by a bounty hunter from space. Although this is a continuation in a set franchise, it has the feel of a reboot. In essence I suppose it it. With an all new cast and an expanded story, we get the bests of both a sequel and a reboot.

 "Age of Extinction" follows the same formula as the previous films: it's straight-forward "good guy v.s. bad buy", it has humor, some heart, and a mega-load of rock 'em-sock 'em robot action. Of the four films, "Age of Extinction" has some of the best action/fighting sequences than any other. In contrast to the second film, "Revenge of the Fallen" where the action was convoluted and confusing, AoE's sequences are clear and powerful. There's more time spent in this film with the robots in general, however there wasn't much character development with them. I guess it's tough to do that when the only constant characters used is Optimus Prime and Bumble Bee. Each movie as a slew of new transformers, causing you really to only care about Optimus and Bumble Bee. With that said, it was a nicer reprieve to delve into the emotions of the robots as the plot unfolds, making the awesome action sequences draw in more emotion than just a blatant attempt at showboating the special effects.

   The new cast was a nice change as well. Though a lot of people hate on Shia LaBeouf, I'll say this for the guy, he can act. There are other roles in other films that are, by leaps and bounds, better than his time as Sam Witwicky, but he did a good job in the previous films nonetheless. However I won't hesitate in saying it was nice to make that change. In addition, bringing in a father-daughter relationship this time around made for a nice emotional investment change. We've seen the boyfriend/girlfriend shtick in three movies thus far. Doing it again would've been a disaster.

   "Transformers: Age of Extinction" is not the best of the franchise. You may think otherwise, that's the beauty of being opinionated. It doesn't mean it's not good. The movie is long, it's action-packed, it has flippin' sweet cars transforming into awesome fighting robot warriors who dish out some of the best transformer-fight scenes to date, it has pretty good acting, and over all it's fun to watch. If you've liked the franchise thus far, you'll like this one.

...also the Dinobots were pretty sweet. Just sayin'.