Transformers: Age of Extinction
With his fourth film in this billion-dollar movie franchise, Michael Bay inadvertently points out the fundamental flaw in these movies that has been in plain sight, but never more apparent than it is in this film. That flaw? That by setting these movies on Earth, a human storyline is important to the narrative in some capacity. Of course, the film has to be made on Earth, so I guess it was natural to get a human story that worked the Transformers into it, but can’t the audience be trusted to have a story, set off the Earth, about the robots in disguise? (Hopefully, the last shot of the movie shows that we will be getting just that in the inevitable fifth film.)
Michael Bay is a filmmaker that is very hit-and-miss with me. Case in point– the morning on the day I watched “Age of Extinction,” I also watched Bay’s “The Rock,” which is still my favorite movie of his. By and large, I enjoy Bay’s films, but when they’re bad (see: “Armageddon,” “Pearl Harbor,” “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen”), boy, there’s not a lot you can point to that works. Even after the pumped-up absurdity of last year’s “Pain and Gain,” I didn’t really expect “Age of Extinction” to do anything dramatically different from it’s predecessors, but holy Hell, I was very wrong.
Let’s start with the story. Like the first three films, it’s tells a story about ordinary humans who are thrust into the larger war between the Autobots, led by Optimus Prime, and the Decepticons, led by Megatron. The part about the Transformers in Ehren Kruger’s script is greatly compelling: five years after the Battle of Chicago at the end of “Dark of the Moon,” ALL Transformers have become enemies of the United States (and humanity), including the Autobots, and are being hunted down by a black ops team (lead by a character played by Titus Welliver) with the help of a Transformer bounty hunter, who’s especially interested in Optimus Prime, who has been hiding in truck form for years. It’s in truck form that Optimus is found by Cade Yeager (Mark Wahlberg), an inventor and handyman in Texas who lives with his daughter (Nicola Peltz), just finishing up high school. Once he realizes what he’s got, Cade and his daughter’s lives as they know it are over, and they’ve got not only the government on their tail, but some wicked Transformers, as well.
The way Kruger plays off of the finale of “Dark of the Moon,” and expands the world of the Transformers to include the idea of their “Creators,” to say nothing of bounty hunters and Dinobots (dinosaurs transformed into robot aliens by a blast millions of years ago– yup, more conspiracy theory revisionism by Bay with this series), is great fodder for a Transformers movie. Unfortunately, despite their billing in the title, the Transformers (actually called that in the movie) take secondary billing to Cade Yeager and his daughter, with Cade unable to accept her as a young woman who would be wanting to be normal and, you know, date, as we discover she is when we meet Shane (Jack Reynor). Seriously, folks, this makes up the majority of the tension in the film when Cade, Optimus and co. aren’t running around or trying to find out the secrets at a science and research facility run by Stanley Tucci’s Joshua Joyce, who thinks he can replicate the Transformers and control them. (Tucci, by the way, gives the film’s “best” performance, as you would expect from him.) Along with being a direct lift from the similar storyline in Bay’s appalling “Armageddon” between Bruce Willis, Ben Affleck, and Liv Tyler (without the cringe-worthy animal crackers make out scene, thankfully), it makes me rue the day these damn alien robots landed on Earth, meaning the filmmakers had to include human beings in the action to be our surrogates in the film. A part of me gets it, because hey, how else are they supposed to justify transforming into trucks and tanks and fighter jets and dinosaurs, but if you’re going to give us a 160 minute “Transformers” movie, can we please let the Autobots and Decepticons take center stage, and spend the entirety of the time kicking each other’s asses, or following through with the inspired ideas you introduce here? (Come on, Transformer bounty hunters after Optimus Prime? That’s got the makings of an awesome action epic. So does the existence of Dinobots. If only they showed up in more than 20-30 minutes near the end.) In terms of wasted potential, I can honestly say a franchise blockbuster hasn’t pissed me off quite this much since “Alien vs. Predator” screwed the pooch on those iconic creature’s long-awaited big screen team up ten years ago.
For as much of a head of steam this movie built up in me while watching it, I can’t say I have much more to say about it that I haven’t said already. Yes, the visual effects on the Transformers continue to dazzle, as does the sound design, but when it’s all at the service of a storyline that seems more like a Mark Wahlberg vehicle than an honest to God Transformers movie, and I can’t even say the action scenes in the movie blew me away (something I could easily say about previous series-worst entry, “Revenge of the Fallen”), there are problems that need addressed. (About Wahlberg, none of this is his fault. He does what is asked of him, although the film continues to illustrate that the Oscar nominee is far more interesting as a comedic performer than the action star studios keep trying to turn him into.) Of course, the film will likely be another hit for Bay, which means audiences will be voting for his “vision” of this franchise with box-office dollars, leading to more of the same, but is it delusional to hope for a course correction anyway? Again, the last shot promises that might be the case, but I guess we just have to wait a couple of years to find out for sure. Whether I’ll want to after the boredom endured during this film is another story.
