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    Transformers: Age of Extinction

    Reviewed by
    adamwatchesmovies@

    The ending of “Transformers: Dark of the Moon” is so definitive I’m still surprised the franchise kept going. Unfortunately, this series shows no sign of righting itself in the correct direction.

    Megatron is dead, Starscream is dead, Ironhide is dead, Chicago is dead. Everyone is dead! Now the U. S. Government has put a bounty on any remaining Transformers. When Cade Yeager (Mark Wahlberg) discovers a damaged Optimus Prime (voiced by Peter Cullen), he learns that scientists have been using dead robots to create their own army.

    On the upside, Optimus Prime eventually rides into battle on a fire-breathing mechanical Tyrannosaurus. On the downside, it’s difficult to care about ANYONE involved. I suppose Cade is alright, though he seems awfully foolish for risking his home, freedom and foxy daughter (Nicola Peltz as Tessa) by fostering Optimus. It’s not like he's ever met an Autobot before… so why the reckless behavior? As far as he knows, they’re all metal space invaders. The rest of the humans aren’t interesting/necessary or are one-dimensional, evil money grubbers who are as subtle in their nefariousness as Megatron was. At least Megatron LOOKED cool as a Mad Max-style truck. CIA director Attinger (Kelsey Grammer) and eccentric mad science man Joshua Joyce (Stanley Tucci), you want to see liquefied underfoot and last-minute would-be character development won't change that.

    Then, there's the Transformers. Firstly, their designs are terrible. No longer are they living Rubix cubes that are fun to mentally play with and rearrange. They’re just metal people complete with hairdos, belts, glasses, and coats. They bicker amongst each other and recklessly endanger everyone. Collateral damage? What's that? Are we supposed to assume that every building is empty, that vehicles drive themselves and that when crashing off-screen, spaceships turn into clouds of bubbles? I thought the Autobots weren’t menaces!

    The flat characters, over reliance on action instead of genuine emotion, lack of tension and bewildering dialogue all make this a bad film. You may say “What did you expect, it’s ‘Transformers’! ” But this isn’t even a good movie about aliens that can shift from vehicle to mechanical form. Characters like Drift (voiced by Ken Watanabe) forget they can fly or hardly ever utilize their disguise skills. They don’t act like space travelers, seeing anything that isn’t bipedal as a horror that needs to be destroyed. The weapons they use don’t make logical sense (check out the sword/gun Cade uses) The script can’t even get its own mythology straight. If the Transformers’ soul and memories are in their “spark”, how can they be extracted from a severed head? “Age of Extinction” didn’t have to aim high, but come on!

    At 165 minutes, there should be some substance in "Transformers: Age of Extinction", but all you get are explosions and the Dinobots tearing up the place. It’s small compensation. (On Blu-ray, June 25, 2017)

    3
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    adamwatchesmovies@  2.7.2017 age: 26-35 2,867 reviews

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