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Transformers: Age of Extinction (1 Viewer)

Edwin-S

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Okay, don't laugh. :) I saw the trailer for this in front of TRANSCENDENCE and I have to wonder if, after three tries, Michael Bay has managed to make a Transformers film that might be good. The cinematography of the film looked different from what his previous efforts. It had a more natural, grittier look to it and the story, from what little was revealed, looks to be going darker.

Tom Cruise's new one, Edge of Tomorrow, looked like it could be good as well. It looks like the SF version of "Groundhog Day".
 

Carl Johnson

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When the first Transformers movie came out I waited till I could pick up a used copy from Blockbuster, and was unimpressed. I'd put the franchise into my not worthy of watching on Netflix category.
 

Scott Burke

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I bought the double pack of one and two. I enjoy one immensely, but do not like any of the sequels all that much. I have little hope for the fourth.
 

Vic Pardo

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Edwin-S said:
Okay, don't laugh. :) I saw the trailer for this in front of TRANSCENDENCE and I have to wonder if, after three tries, Michael Bay has managed to make a Transformers film that might be good. The cinematography of the film looked different from what his previous efforts. It had a more natural, grittier look to it and the story, from what little was revealed, looks to be going darker.
Uh-oh. The reason I liked both TRANSFORMERS 1 & 3 is that they had a sense of humor; they were genuinely funny movies. I'm not sure I want "natural," "gritty" or "dark" Transformers.
 

Josh Steinberg

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I'll probably see this, but mostly because I'm curious about the new IMAX-branded digital camera that Michael Bay used for part of the movie.

Somehow I managed to avoid the first Transformers (which ironically is the one i've heard good things about), but ended up seeing 2 and 3.
 

DaveF

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If it wasn't a Michael Bay movie, I'd be interested. But the first three were: mediocre, atrocious, and boringly bloated. I don't have hope for the fourth.
 

Edwin-S

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DaveF said:
If it was a Michael Bay movie, I'd be interested. But the first three were: mediocre, atrocious, and boringly bloated. I don't have hope for the fourth.
I don't get that. They ARE all Michael Bay movies. All of his films are mediocre, bordering on atrocious and/or are bloated. Probably the best movie he ever made was THE ROCK and even that one was only saved because of Sean Connery's performance in it.
 

Robert Crawford

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So nobody bother to watch this flick early last night? The Rotten Tomatoes reviews are awful.
 

Sam Posten

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Taking my nephew to IMAX 3D of it tonight. I liked the first, meh on second and hated the third. Cautiously optimistic, prepared for disappointment tho!
 

Yavin

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I didn't hate it!!! Actually, I enjoyed it for what it is, which is a big popcorn action extravaganza. We all know what to expect from Michael Bay by now, and here he delivers everything he's got -- nearly 3 hours worth. Yes, the running time is pretty grueling, but this was actually the most enjoyable entry in the franchise so far, thanks to the (intentional) humor of Mark Wahlberg's performance. Yes, there were some unintentional laughs as well, from a few lines of bad dialog and the overused action clichés, but if you like Transformers you should like Age of Extinction.

3 out of 5. Here are a few excerpts from my full review:
The (appropriately insane) storyline is definitely cut from the same cloth (or sheet metal, as it were) as the earlier films. No surprise there, as screenwriter Ehren Kruger also had a hand in penning the last two installments. But there's one notable difference this time around: the film's humor. Age of Extinction is the franchise's funniest and (by extension) its most fun entry, thanks to Wahlberg (whose character is always quick to shoot off quips) and a silly sense of self-awareness that rears its head every now and again.

Wahlberg's back-and-forth banter with T.J. Miller (who plays Cade's friend, Lucas) early on in the film doesn't just help to establish the tone for the picture as a fun thrill ride, it's one of the highlights. So is Tucci, who does a better job filling the comic relief role than John Turturro in the installments that came before. The other humans, however, don't fare nearly as well: Grammer is relegated to a villainous role that doesn't afford him much dramatic mobility; Peltz plays a character who's equally as shallow as Megan Fox's Mikaela Banes; and Reynor (whose main asset is clearly that he looks like a cross between Chris Hemsworth and Chris Pratt) seems to be there only because certain scenes require someone adept at a fast and furious vehicular getaway.

Ultimately, this makes Age of Extinction feel like the poster child for the old adage: the more things change, the more they stay the same. In fact, it may even be the most Michael Bay-ish movie that Michael Bay has ever made, chocked full of the director's signature flourishes, left, right and center. At just 15 minutes shy of 3 hours, the movie is an orgy of slow-motion lolyygagging, pyrotechnic pirouettes and more action clichés than you can shake a giant Cybertronian sword at. Bay is moderately successful at masking the homogeneity of the action set pieces by churning out a globe-trotting adventure — taking the characters from Texas, to Chicago, to Beijing and then Hong Kong — and throwing the fan-favorite Dinobots into the mix, but it makes little difference by the film's conclusion, when the specifics of any one action sequence have become nigh impossible to recollect. However, isn't that precisely the kind of popcorn entertainment that Bay's name has become synonymous with? For him to deliver anything else would be akin to a betrayal of his own brand. And lest we forget, this is a film franchise forged on the popularity of a toy line, so brand loyalty is to be expected.
 

Patrick Sun

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By sheer boredom, and being near a theater I don't visit much last night, I plopped down my $18 for the AMC FauxMax 3D experience for "Transformers: Age of Extinction". The A/V presentation was fine, and did aid in the immense scale of the Autobots, and the other not-so-nice-bots, and those puny humans who somehow survive the melee.

The story is pretty terrible, merely serving to get us from one set piece to another set piece where the bot-on-bot action could be initiated, and lead into other chase scenes throughout a really long movie. Its running time may have clocked in around 2:45 hours, but it felt like 4 hours. Mark Wahlberg, in a fatherly role of a wealth-challenged robotics inventor with a fresh-faced 17 year old daughter introduced to the audience in super short-shorts showcasing her legs as only Michael Bay and his camera can, is fairly humdrum in the role, while trying to extract whatever actiony-dramedy with the script that is filled with cliched motivations (when it tries), and some hodge-podge of confrontational antagonists from more than one front.

But if you just like the special effects of bot-on-bot violence we've come to expect from the Transformers franchise, the film will deliver that in spades, to ultimately a dull, brain-droning conclusion.

I finally figured out, the daughter in the film reminds me of a taller, tanner, rosier-cheeked version of Tara Reid, but with a little more personality of an annoyed teenager with an overly protective father.

I pitied the cameramen, for they were surely on their backs filming alot for the footage with the cameras aimed upwards (at extreme angles) at both the actors, and the imaginary autobots and the sky in the frame. LOL!
I give it 2 stars, or a grade of C.
 

Edwin-S

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Looks like I got it wrong when I thought that he might actually make a good film in this franchise. I'll probably skip this unless boredom overcomes reason.
 

Tim Glover

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Well even though I've made fun of these films I got invited to go tonight and somehow I said.."sure I'd love to" :) Then I read James Berardinelli's review. OUCH.

3 hours of my life I can't get back but that's ok I guess. I waste a lot of time as it is.

I will confess though when I was in Dallas 2 weeks ago and saw Edge of Tomorrow in IMAX 3D there was a trailer for T4 and it was actually damn cool. Of course Michael Bay is awesome at 90 second movies.
 

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