Scene Analysis #17: Cade and Optimus Talk-Transformers: Age of Extinction · 12:51am Apr 30th, 2023
Scene Rating Scale:
9/9: Flawless! Outstanding scene!
8/9: Great scene! Totally Rewatchable!
7/9: Pretty good. Not as perfect as I expected though.
6/9: Decent. Doesn’t ruin the movie/episode.
5/9: Mid.
4/9: Pretty bad. One of the weakest scenes of the movie/episode.
3/9: You hear that? It’s the wind of lameness.
2/9: One of the worst scenes of the film/episode.
1/9: Horrible, unwatchable, and unacceptable.
Hello, hello, hello, my wonderful friends! Mr. J is in the house with another scene analysis for you all tonight! This evening, I will be reviewing this little scene between Optimus Prime and Cade Yeager from Transformers: Age of Extinction. Now, I am fully aware that this is one of the most hated TF movies of the live-action universe, and I can understand that. I however think that this movie was actually well-developed when it comes to character development and the epic action scenes despite a number of flaws it may have.
One of the most important scenes is this segment where we see Optimus still hurt and angry from the humans’ betrayal and the loss of his closest allies—one of them being Ratchet. As he was on the verge of giving up on humanity, Cade encourages him to keep looking on the bright side of things and to never give up faith.
Now this is one of the rarest moments in these films where we see some actual character development happening between the main protagonists. Optimus has particularly suffered so much throughout these movies, and I can see why some people like this take on him. He lost so many friends over the years he’s been on Earth, and no matter how many times he’s saved humanity, there were always some ungrateful morons who would blame him as if he wanted the war to destroy these humans’ lives which is untrue. I wouldn’t know what to do or how to respond if I were in Prime’s shoes.
Even though I personally hate the fact he has been degraded into a murder-hungry maniac (and became a meme within the TF community), this movie is the only installment that actually justified his reason for being that way…unlike the two previous films. But in other iterations, Optimus went through the same terrible experience of losing many Autobots and close allies to the Decepticons yet still maintained his self-control and only used violence as a final resort unlike Bayverse Optimus.
But as I was saying, this scene makes Optimus an actual character who has feelings and emotions. And this time around, he gets the receiving end of the “optimistic” lecture (no pun intended). It’s a nice role reversal for the story where the human, despite how imperfect he is, reminds Prime of what he came here for.
Cade has only known Optimus for a few days, and it feels like he is already attached to him as a friend. In fact, Cade and Optimus have more interactions throughout this movie alone (never mind the dumpster fire of the fifth movie) than the latter had with the idiot Sam Wickwicky for three movies. Let that sink in…. You see why I like Cade more as a protagonist?
This is why I think it’s one of the best scenes of the movie. The only flaw is that…it’s too short. As a franchise, it’s always vital to see more human-Autobot interactions, not see Michael Bay spend millions on sex jokes, explosions, product placement, military porn, etc. But I suppose we should be thankful that he bothered to let this scene exist in the movie. At least he tried to make these characters make sense for the plot…despite how convoluted it may seem.
Overall, it’s a great scene! I give it an 8/9! Really wish we had gotten more moments like this.
Peace!
We need more moments like this if Transformers does a (even) darker installment in the future.