"This is not war...It's human extinction."
Firstly, this is way better than the last two Transformers films. Is it superior to the first film? I would probably say that Age of Extinction is the best out of the series.
Several years after the events of Dark of the Moon, Autobots are in hiding from a bounty hunter named Lockdown, who is working in conjunction with a CIA Black ops team led by Attinger (Kelsey Grammer), who are attempting to wipe out all Transformers to protect Earth from future wars. Simple inventor Cade Yeager finds Optimus and together they must find out why humans are trying to rid the world of transformers, all while a secret project is being carried out that will change everything.
The humans are way more bearable and relatable than the likes of Shia LaBeouf and Megan Fox. Mark Wahlberg, Kelsey Grammer and Stanley Tucci are the most interesting although Grammer I felt was a little underused. The new transformers all have a personality and are big improvements on some of the previous racy types. The Dinobots make their debut and although they are on screen for the end scenes, they were fascinating to watch.
Added to this are potentially three different villains and the story ends ups stuffed with too much. Even the 2 hour 45 minute running time doesn't establish every main details of the story. More on the Transforium element origin would have been nice but that will probably be saved for the sequel. I guess time was needed for the action scenes.
Visual effects are top-notch as they usually are. The film is great to look at. The action scenes are, as usual, incredible and exhilarating to watch. This film definitely delivers in entertaining fights and carnage. The slow-motion technique is used again and I've accepted it for this type of film, as it does look very cool and helps viewers see every detail going on.
The tone of the film has taken a drastic change to be more serious than the goofy nature of the previous films. I guess the dismissal of Shia LaBeouf helped with no annoyances. The serious tone helps push the end of humanity scenario which seems to be the theme of all the Transformers films.
One major problem is the familiarity. A lot of scenes and scenarios in this film are just rehashes of similar ones in the previous films. The climatic fight scenes occurs in a large city & humanity is at stake, again! A change of scenery, such as the remains of Cybertron, and different plot, such as an origin story, would be a great benefit for future films and would add freshness to the franchise.
Age of Extinction features the familiar Michael Bay formula of explosive action and underdeveloped story, just like the previous three films, However, despite the over-long running time, unfinished storytelling, familiar situations and limited screen-time for the Dinobots, I enjoyed this much more than I was expecting.
★★★★☆
