Transformers: Age of Extinction

When one has faith on a franchise, one will see each film released hoping that for each installment it will be redeemed in one way or another. It has been 3 films. The first one is a breath of fresh air. The second was a clattering collection of junk. The third one is a moderate attempt to make the franchise redeem its glory. The fourth one? Well, the image of Optimus Prime riding a Dinobot in the trailer is more than enough to make go to the cinema and sit through its 160-minute run.

4 years or more has passed since the events that damaged almost half of Chicago, Optimus Prime goes into hiding as one by one the Autobots are hunted and destroyed by the humans. The reason is unclear until parts of Megatron is used to create another set of transformers. While the amount of Transformium are not enough for corporate moguls, they decided to locate "The Seed" that can make more Transformium, the element that makes the possibility to create the robots.

There is absolutely nothing new with the latest installment, except maybe the cast. Completely ignoring the fact that the Witwicky's exist, Michael Bay decided to have another set of human characters who are so shallow we don't care if they die or not. I care for the Autobots more than I care for the new human characters.

The action scenes are not even new. If you have seen the first film, you practically has seen the same sequences all throughout the franchise. The inclusion of the Dinobots, however, changed how I look at the film for a few seconds. Remember the scene where Yoda fought Count Dooku on Attack Of The Clones? That is how I felt when Optimus Prime rode one of the Autobots. When their exposure is done the film went bleak.

The trend of awfulness in the Transformer franchise may be associated not only with the Director but with the writer himself. Ehren Kruger has been writing the screenplay from Revenge of the Fallen to Age of Extinction and somehow you can actually feel that the plot is similar. Optimus wins, Megatron dies, then resurrected then dies again and then reborn. It feels like the franchise is going nowhere and for almost a decade, it did not.

The number of annoying ad placements could be one of the factors that made me cringe while watching the film. If there were a checklist, it will be filled out fast. This does not help either. I know Transformers 4 will make a lot of money, but to push us with ads like this?!

The Transformers franchise has been clinging at a very thin thread. Age of Extinction was the scissor that cut off the thread. Michael Bay should leave the franchise because obviously he is too tired of it.

GRADE: D

trailer