Transformers: Age of Extinction

Michael Bay, Sci-Fi Action, 165 mins, Aug 8
Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Nicola Peltz, Kelsey Grammer, Peter Cullen

Big explosions, huge robots and long, sultry shots of gorgeous sweaty people, this is Michael Bay 101, and it has the critics on one side calling it pure dribble, and the fans on the other ferociously defending it, saying it does what it sets out to do. This may well be a valid point, but not only is the unnecessarily convoluted narrative a headache, the motion-sickness inducing fight scenes and painfully-long running time may well finally see this franchise begin to topple…but the same was said after Transformers: Dark of the Moon, which lead to Bay getting three more of these in the bag!

There are some glimmering sparks of potential here that are drowned in the fluff. Such as the increasingly annoying Witwicky family being surgically removed from the franchise like a diseased tooth. Wahlberg and Peltz are great…for the first 30 minutes or so, then slow-mo running takes precedence. The Dinobots are also a great addition for fanboys (and girls), producing one of the most awesome scenes in the film (spoiled by the trailers unfortunately), but much like Falcon’s flying in Captain America and Rhino’s rampage in Spider-Man earlier this year, don’t get your hopes up for anything more than a satisfying glimpse.

Although there is a little less redundant toilet humour, the peripheral characters (be they human or transformer) are seriously lacking in any character, so there is little to no tension during most of the more dangerous scenes. This lack of investment can also make the fight scenes difficult to follow, as telling Autobots and Decepticons apart can be tricky.

Even for true Transformers fans (like myself), this movie is a hard sell. It is an hour too long, has too many subplots filled with characters the audience doesn’t care about, and the talent of the central cast goes to waste.

Don’t forget you can find a list of local cinemas (and what’s playing) online at: www.kansaiscene.com/cinemas/