Transformers: Age of Extinction

It’s nice to watch how the behind this film know very well what the trendiest thing of day is, because almost everything is here. The ideal measurements of 90-60-90 for the main character, always dressed and made up exactly as it should look, the best sunny landscapes we could wish for, with of course great weather, the most modern cars of the last five years zooming by, and when we happen to encounter scene indoors, we have timeless square design and noble materials. The only thing missing are the men's sexy hairstyles that have been in fashion for the past two years – the guys here still stick to classics. It's as shallow as it can be, and it's meant to make a billion dollars. All of this is okay, but it shouldn't be a 165-minute borefest about crap. Basically, it doesn't matter if it's the second, third, or fourth installment, the concept is always the same. The introduction to the characters, filler (some sort of plot), and choose one big metropolis where the final opulent showdown will take place, where half of the skyscrapers, cars, and ships will be blown up. Visually, it's robust, but not inventive or even captivating (Zack Snyder with Man of Steel is a class above). All that remains then is amazement at how it's possible to shoot so many big explosions for just 210 million dollars, and you can look forward to more installments, because it will certainly have all the trendiest stuff in in all key segments at that time. (06/28/2014)

Contrary to many users here and the rating of the film in general, I liked the fourth episode of Transformers more than its predecessor, which is also due to the recasting of Shia LaBeouf, who was very annoying in the third. While Mark Wahlberg is not to blame for the somewhat crappy script, he was nevertheless much more tolerable, which cannot be said for his daughter and her boyfriend, who were similarly annoying as Shia. The partner-family story line went completely over my head and the film could have done without it just fine. Stanley Tucci could have been given more space and Kelsey Grammer was fine, but his villain didn't have enough charisma. To accuse the film of an over-long running time, lack of emotion and a silly script would be like carrying firewood into the woods, as the franchise builds on this combination – and in this case it bothered me less than with the third part. As for the technical execution, it is again an audiovisual orgy, of which I liked the alien ship, the escape from it and the final battle in Hong Kong the most. Besides that, as a die-hard dinosaur fan, I liked the film incorporated these giant creatures into the plot, even though it might have looked excessive. In the end, it's a weaker three stars, but since I found Extinction better than its predecessor, I'll give it a boost to differentiate the two works qualitatively. If I’d seen the film in the cinema, however, it would be a clean three stars. (09/01/2019)

Undiscerning lovers of robots big and small will be satisfied, I’m sure. But what about the rest of the unfortunate audience? This reboot confirms that the cast of the first trilogy was far from bad. Installment number four lacks the human element of Shia LaBeouf, not to mention the comical element provided by excellent actors such as Frances McDormand and John Turturro. The fourth Transformers contains exactly one funny line of dialogue (“The movies nowadays, that’s the trouble - sequels and remakes, bunch of crap”) and it comes in the very beginning. The following two uninteresting hours leading to the Hong Kong climax contain just two short relatively good sequences (Tessa’s kidnapping and the steel cables in Chicago), the first one being the only moment in the movie capable of evoking some emotion and the other the only original idea we haven’t seen done before. The Chinese metropolis setting is pleasantly refreshing, but I wonder how many viewers are able to follow the plot line through the scuffle in the city streets, after the previous two hours of staring at the screen in bafflement. There’s nothing to talk about regarding the characters and their relationships (like in the first episode), and the climax loses in epicness to the militaristic sequence in Transformers 3. The marines, by the way, are also missing here. They had their place in the Transformers universe. Watching this to the end took a lot of effort on my part. (06/25/2014)

In a world of thrifty ninety-minute movies, this could have been a blockbuster trying for the title of “best part of the saga", there’s certainly enough material for it. For some mysterious reason this spuriously swelled to the length of two regular feature films and so each great minute/scene/wisecrack is alternated by two to three minutes/scenes/wisecracks that are boring, irrelevant filler (at best) or brought ad absurdum to kitsch infantility in Bay’s inimitable style (at worst and unfortunately most frequently). (09/20/2014)

Alright, Mr. Bay, here’s $210 million, and do the same thing you did in the third installment because it raked in a billion dollars. Oh, and by the way, since Shia has become a total jerk and we don't want to waste money on the rest of the crew either, choose a completely new cast of actors, said the guys at Paramount. As unbelievable as it sounds, Bay followed these instructions to the letter. It would get hard for me to remember which movie was which after a while, so Mikey didn't let me down and made a couple of changes...for the worse. The story takes place in Chicago again (miraculously rebuilt in just 4 years!), the old favorite crew has been replaced by a wishy-washy new one without the marines to help them. Jablonsky is still great, but compared to the first installment, the music isn’t as good (plus, for reasons that escape me, the creators replaced the awesome Linkin Park with Imagine Dragons, who are okay, but compared to Linkin Park a disappointment). In addition to the old Autobots and Decepticons, you get new Transformers, most of whose names you have no chance to remember. But what you expect to get out of this movie is simply mindless entertainment, which won’t allow you to use your brain for even a second, with a disgustingly exaggerated runtime. If you accept that, you are in for the biggest ride of this year full of plagiarized but visually stunning effects. PS: Never in my life have I seen a movie so jam-packed with product placement. PSS: Michael Bay should really pass it on and finally make something new. (09/20/2014)