(Spoilers)
So finally after all the Transformers chat that has been happening across the pond us in the U.K. get to join in! There is just so much in this movie and there is so much to talk about, one thing I can say to start though is that I liked this movie a lot more than most people did.
Lets start with the bad, which to be fair there was quite a bit of. I love the original Transformers trilogy, I actually think those films are fantastic and I will re-watch them many times. When you have a cast that includes Josh Duhamel, John Turturro, Tyrese Gibson, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley and Shia LaBeouf who work so well together you shouldn’t recast. This was a worry of mine from the start, now the new cast has its positives too however for me there was no comparison. I wasn’t impressed with Nicola Peltz or Jack Reynor, I am not sure if it was their characters or the actors themselves but I just didn’t think that they gelled so well. Mark Wahlberg was decent but for me at times was a little unconvincing. There were also some changes to the Transformers too, what this film does to Megatron did suck a bit changing him into Galvatron. I missed the whole Autobot versus Decepticon feel that the previous films had, yeah I understand the story should progress but this was almost a staple to the other movies and it was a strength! Another aspect of the previous films I also really missed was the inclusion of Linken Park on the soundtrack. They have had a song in each Transformers movie before hand and they are always so badass, although the soundtrack here was good.
In terms of action there is plenty of this however before the events of the movie reach China the film feels disjointed. Before the main plot is revealed the whole film feels very overcomplicated and the action never seems that strong. It felt that Bay was trying to have consistent action whereas I think 2 or 3 very definite set pieces would have worked a lot better. There were many scenes included here obviously made for 3D, unfortunately I saw this movie in 2D and some of these parts looked really poor in the 2D which was a shame because the past Transformers movies have always looked pretty great. Anyway, I have talked enough negatively about this film, I just wanted to outline that I understand where the criticism for this film comes from, however what I am failing to understand is how everyone is looking past all the awesome parts of this movie that I will now discuss.
My favourite thing about this entire movie was Stanley Tucci and his character Joshua Joyce, easily the best casting decision made for this movie. His character was the most interesting of the entire cast and you were always guaranteed a laugh when he was on screen. Tucci played this role so well and really enriched this film and especially the finale. The humour used through this character was so much more successful that the attempts at the start of the film through Lucas. As I have already mentioned this movie really gets going when the story moves to China, it is here where all the elements of the story come together and things get really badass. The finale that we get is as awesome as always in terms of Bay and the Transformers franchise. For me in Transformers Dark of The Moon the finale featured is one of the strongest for any action movie, in Age of Extinction the finale doesn’t quite measure up to that but it was still fantastic. It balances everything so well, Transformers fighting Transformers, Humans fighting Humans and oh yeah Dinobots!
Optimus Prime and Bumblebee are back again and as usual they kick ass, like the other films we get the epic final speech from Optimus and those fantastic lines as he dispatches enemies. I did miss the relationship that Sam and Bumblebee had in the previous films however what Bay gives us here is a relationship between Wahlbergs character Cade and Optimus which was cool to see. Also keeping the Autobot numbers up is Ken Watanabe as a Samurai style Transformer, this was kick ass. As I have already said I did like the soundtrack despite the lack of Linken Park and excluding the dodgy 3D moments the film looks great. Transformers Age of Extinction had me undecided for the first half of the film but what I saw in the second half of the film easily convinced me that what I was watching was great. It left me no choice but to leave the cinema absolutely buzzing and quickly in search of my next Transformers fix. Michael Bay I love you, keep doing what you are doing because despite the critics people love what you do and I would have to agree with the recent statement that says his films are critic proof and I love this.
BIGGEST FLAW – Recasting
BIGGEST ACHIEVEMENT – Stanley Tucci as Joshua Joyce
Rating – 8/10
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