Transformers: Age of Extinction (2014)

Yes, it's all well and good and rather easy to bash on Michael Bay's view on the Transformers-franchise. But honestly? This one also gets a lot more flak than it actually deserves.

Does that mean this is a good film without flaws? Hell no. I'm just saying that at this point the amount of hate these films got was ridiculous. There is some good still to be found, even if you have to take a long hard look first. 

It's been five years since the events in Chicago and all Transformers have now been outlawed and are hunted. There is a new government black ops team that is tasked with this, aided by - funnily enough - another Transformer called Lockdown. Sure, he might be an interspacial bounty hunter, but he's still a Transformer. Meanwhile, a down on his luck inventor named Cade Yeager (Mark Wahlberg) discovers a dilapidated truck that turns out to be Optimus Prime. So of course, he and his daughter become hunted as well, as the last remaining Autobots are trying to survive both human and alien assault ànd are trying to discover just what the heck is going on. The trail leads to a robotics firm called KSI that uses Transformer-technology to build an army of their own, not realizing that the software is corrupted by a not quite dead yet-Megatron. It all comes to a massive battle in China, where they have to fend off the haywire army.

Yes, it is a lot to take in. There's a reason this film is nearly three hours' long. Is it too long? 

Unequivocally yes.

A lot of things could have been trimmed down, because by the end, you will feel fatigue. Especially because the final battle is a non-stop barrage of images. And all that at the rear end of a film that takes a while to get going. Once again, characters (especially Transformers) are introduced without us knowing who, why or what they are and most of them don't get any character whatsoever. The only one who does manage to stick out in a good way is Hound, but maybe that has more to do with him being voiced by the wonderful John Goodman and less with his overall persona. The same goes for the Decepticons. Beside Lockdown, who is neither Autobot nor Decepticon, the only real Decepticon is Galvatron, who is in fact Megatron reborn. 

So it's just Megatron with a sort of new face. Yes, I know Megatron got a makeover in the animated film to Galvatron as well, but there it made more sense. Here, it does not.

Stanley Tucci's character is pretty pointless. Just another CEO bent on money, who bizarrely has a change of heart near the end. I don't buy it. Oh, and the boyfriend of Cade's daughter? Skip! There's no reason he's in the film. 

The stupid jokes (a Bay trademark) are also here, but there are a lot less, which is a good thing. Now he just needed to trim some other scenes. The 'Romeo & Juliet law-thing? Why is it even in this film? It has no impact and is a pointless 5 minutes. Less is sometimes more. Except for the explosions. There, more is definitely more.

So once again, story- and characterwise, this film falls fairly flat on its face. Although I must admit: I like Mark Wahlberg better than Shia Laboeuf as our main character. But maybe that's because Wahlberg acts more convincingly. 

Yes, I know what I just said.

What absolutely, completely irritates me to no end though, is the morphing of the random Decepticon drones. They don't transform, they become a whirly cloud of pixels that manifest themselves. This makes no sense and should have been scrapped from the start. It takes away what makes Transformers Transformers and it is an abomination unto Primus or Vector Sigma. 

(If you got that reference, I salute you.)

However, I must point out the unpopular opinion that there is still good to be found. 

First off: because it's Transformers. I know this might seem meagre, but it still is great to see beloved cartoon characters come to life and as long as Peter Cullen can voice Optimus Prime, that will always be a win. Even bigger win is that this time, they finally got Frank Welker on board to voice Galvatron/Megatron. You can't imagine how wonderful it is to hear that man again as the prime nemesis. 

Second: Kelsey Grammer is a great human antagonist. Sure, he is usually a likeable person, although that might have a lot to do with his portrayal of Frasier Crane in both 'Cheers' and 'Frasier', but he works well as a driven, menacing government agent. He is probably the scariest villain in this film. 

Third: Bay is good at car chases and explosions. Especially because he wants to do as much as he can for real instead of relying too much on CG. Which is also weird in films like this, filled to the brim with animated characters. 

And fourth and possibly most divisive: I love the Dinobots. Okay, in all fairness, I will always prefer the cartoon versions that we have grown to love, but it was still a joy to see them come to life on the big screen, even if it is only for a short time. I gather many people hate their rendition, but I for one and glad they finally introduced them here. Too bad they didn't follow up on that in the next installment, but that is for another day.

Is this a good film? Not exactly. It is enjoyable to a degree, but it is bloated and chaotic, no denying that. Is it for hardcore fans then? I would again say no, because it takes way too many liberties with the source material and logic. But do I hate this film? No. I actually can enjoy it for the brainless romp that it is. It is not my favourite Transformers-related picture, not by a long shot, but it really is not as bad as the Internet would have you believe. There's a lot worse tripe out there, even if I'm not sure that this qualifies as a rousing approval.