My Review of Transformers: Age of Extinction (OUTDATED) · 8:12pm Jun 20th, 2020
Rating Scale:
12/10—a complete masterpiece; flawless and outstanding
11/10—Excellent, near-perfect film
10/10—the standard rating; awesome with a couple of flaws
9/10—a wonderful film with several flaws
8/10–a great film with numerous flaws but not enough to ruin it
7/10—a fun and entertaining movie; not great but still enjoyable
6/10—a slightly above average film; might not watch it again but still happy I watched it for the first time
5/10—mediocre movie; not awful but not great either
4/10—a below average film; it could have been much better
3/10—a bad film; poorly written and poorly executed
2/10—a very bad movie; the few good things in the movie overshadowed by the bad things
1/10—a terrible movie; a total waste of time
0/10—a worthless piece of abomination; should have never been made
***********
Hey, friends. Here is my review of Transformers: Age of Extinction. To be honest, I was unaware of this and the next movie’s existence. I have always thought that the third movie was the last part of the trilogy. However, back in 2014, I did see the posters of the film at Walmart, but I thought that it was the next series of the live-action Transformers. So, I still thought that the Bayverse series truly ended with Transformers: Dark of the Moon. For many years, I was unaware of this movie. Oh, I wish I remained ignorant of this film...
It wasn’t until the summer of 2018 (the time period I discovered MLP: FIM) that I found out Age of Extinction clips on Youtube. The first clip I was spoiled on was... Lockdown killing Ratchet. Okay, I had three reactions: 1). LOCKDOWN IS IN THE BAYVERSE?! 2). RATCHET DIES?! 3). DARK OF THE MOON HAS A SEQUEL?!
As the curiosity got the best of me, I watched this movie online. After watching it, I really didn’t know what to think of it at first. Months later, I decided to watch it again the second time. The truth is... I don’t like this film at all. Let’s get this over with:
PROS:
1). Optimus Prime does seem to have more character... in a way? And he has 22 minutes of screen time. That’s a lot of attention.
2). The new Autobots have open-wide personalities... which leads to a problem.
3). Cade Yeager is a much better human protagonist than Sam ever was. His absence was such a breath of fresh air.
4). Lockdown was an intimidating badass. Too bad he was killed off at the end of the movie.
CONS:
Yeah, that’s all the positive things about this crap fest. Let’s talk about the problematic issues I have with this film.
1). There is a clear difference between character development and character assassination. This unfortunately did exactly the latter to Optimus Prime. You mean to tell me that he was angry over Ratchet’s death WAY more over Ironhide’s death and over Jazz’s death?? You mean to tell me that he felt betrayed by the very species whom he fought for and protected with energon and tears shed? For those of you who are defenders of this film, have you not payed any attention to the last two films? In the second movie, Galloway made it clear to Optimus that he wanted him and the Autobots OFF of earth to avoid the incoming wrath of the Decepticons. Plus, he hated the Autobots. In the third movie, Bill O’Reilly revealed the poll that the majority of people felt unsafe with the Autobots around them. Thus, they wanted them GONE. So why the hell would Optimus feel “betrayed” because the humans had enough of them blowing up stuff? I honestly wouldn’t blame them because, firstly, Optimus and his allies battled their enemies in a city full of innocent civilians where most of the people DIED. They didn’t even THINK about taking their war in a non-populated area. Secondly, people were not able to tell the difference between the Autobots and the Decepticons (sounds like how many fans complained similarly of their confusing designs where they couldn’t tell the difference either. Heh, nice job, Bay), so can you really blame Savoy that he lost his sister in Chicago? Therefore, Optimus’s rage and anger is unjustified and overall childish. This is like a child bothering strangers in a neighborhood in an attempt to help them out except they don’t need his help, and then he lashes out to them because of their rightful indignation. Yeah, this is hardly a betrayal since the humans (except NEST military and Sam) never loved them to begin with.
2). The new Autobots are unlikable stereotypes with one-dimensional personalities. Let’s talk about them one by one, shall we? Drift says something wise at one moment then does exactly the opposite of what he says the next moment. I don’t care if that’s the point of his “character” because he is nothing more than a Japanese stereotype with an appearance of a samurai. Crosshairs is the worst of the bunch; he is basically a carbon copy of the G1 Starscream (having a desire to become leader while everyone is out of the way). He is arrogant, selfish, and loud-mouthed. Why is he an Autobot anyway? Hound is no better; while I love John Goodman’s voice work (he is also one of my favorite voice actors), he is a knockoff of Ironhide... Ironhide 2.0. Once Michael Bay realized the kids were crying over Ironhide’s death, he decided to comfort them by giving them another Ironhide who looks more like Bulkhead than the real Hound. On a side note, they all look too humanoid. Speaking of which...
3). The majority of these Transformers look NOTHING like actual Transformers. For example, Galvatron (voiced by Frank Welker) has a truck mode which his robot mode has no parts of. Where are his truck parts? The same can be asked of Optimus’s robot mode. I hate his knight design. The only truck parts he carries are his smoke stacks.
4). The CGI looks terrible. They are nowhere as good as the CGI of the first trilogy.
5). The soundtrack is mediocre at best. Nothing memorable at all.
6). You know I have to mention the Romeo and Juliet law scene. That was the most cringe-worthy scene I have ever watched between a young adult and a teenager. Seriously, Michael Bay? You actually took the time to expound on this law yet fail to explain the plot holes and continuity errors of your story? Why even have Tessa as a teenager? Why not have her at least 18 or 20 years old to make it less creepy?
7). The new human characters are embarrassingly stupid. Tessa and Shane are actually worse than Sam Witwickey. Remember the part where he said to Cade, “Hey, I’m not here to get your daughter; you’re here to help me get my girlfriend.” WHAT... THE... HELL?!??! Who the heck do you think you are?! If any young man said that to a father like that realistically speaking, the latter would punch him in the face and break his neck for talking to him that way especially about his daughter.
8). Harold Attinger’s plan makes no sense whatsoever. He wants to rid the world of Transformers; however, he wants to create his own Transformers... just so that they could destroy them? Umm, you do realize that these robots can go haywire at anytime, right? Plus, even if that works for you, what will the man-made robots do after the real Transformers are killed off? Considering the fact that you didn’t even care about the casualties made by Galvatron and that humans have extreme phobias of alien robots, how exactly can you “save lives”?
9). Once again, the Transformers timeline has been retconned. This time, the Creators have “cyberformed” parts of the earth to create Transformers. Wait, wait... hold up. If that is the case, then how exactly did they reach Cybertron to create their own civilization? In fact, did the Creators even create Cybertron? Where did the seeds even come from? This raises more questions than it should. One of which is the next point:
10). Optimus said that the Creators “destroyed” earth to create the Cybertronians. (Sigh)... guys... I trust you guys know the actual definition of the word. You guys are smart, so you see that this is bullshit. Here, allow me to remind you:
DESTROYED
VERB
destroyed (past tense) · destroyed (past participle)
- put an end to the existence of (something) by damaging or attacking it.
You see? Yet... the earth is still alive and... functioning... wow, my head hurts.
11). How did Optimus even know of Galvatron’s plan? Their fight was the only time they interacted in this whole 2 hours 45 minute long film! Not once did Galvatron exposition-dump on Optimus, so how exactly did he know his plan?
12). The plot of this story is the same as the first movie’s plot: the main character gets an old vehicle that later turns out to be a Transformer, both robots get captured, they are later rescued, the villain plans to create an army to take over the world, blah, blah, blah. Same story, nothing new.
13). The transformations of the man-made robots look horrendous. I know it is to separate the real robots from the fake ones, but if they’re made out of... Transformium (even my autocorrect thinks that’s a stupid word)... then how come they can’t have the robots transform naturally like they’re SUPPOSED to?!
14). Stinger is forgettable. Moving on...
15). The Dinobots look ugly with their robot designs. Grimlock not saying “Me Grimlock” was severely disappointing. They are in the movie for about six minutes and that’s it.
16). The worst part of Optimus’s character assassination... he threatened Grimlock with death if he didn’t help him save the city. What... what... WHAT?! That was completely out of character! Optimus would NEVER threaten anyone with death if they would not cooperate! Let me jog your memory a bit. Remember in Transformers: Animated season 1 finale “Megatron Rising” when Optimus offered the Dinobots the chance of helping them defeat the Decepticons? After the Dinobots outright refused to help them, Optimus accepted their choice and walked away. Yeah, that Optimus knew better than to pick a fight with them right after that. Here, he does the exact opposite. Because that’s exactly what the real Optimus would do, right? Screw freedom I guess...
17). Of course, I hate the fact that Ratchet died in this film. That almost made me cry. I didn’t care that Leadfoot died though.
18). Lastly, the final fight between Optimus and Lockdown was beyond stupid. Lockdown managed to flawlessly nail Prime, yet he couldn’t even try to kill Cade and tripped around like a complete idiot despite being a highly skilled bounty hunter? This is worse than Optimus ridiculously defeating The Fallen.
Ughh... this was a chore to sit through. I rate this a 2/10 I wish I never watched this film. Any thoughts, fellas?
Peace.
P.S. You see Optimus in the poster? That’s him crying in pain from the gunshot of character assassination.
“AGHHHHH, that hurt! Why am I going through this garbage film?! WHYYY?!” Poor Optimus...
EDIT: Holy shit... I was so opinionated back then. This entire “review” is no longer valid as I now fully love this movie. People can change their opinions on things, you know. Here are my updated thoughts on this film.
Once again, you have succeeded in summing up everything I hated in a Transformers movie. Good job
I agree. It was like they weren't even trying.
5289368
5289369
Thanks, guys. Prepare yourselves for some painkillers as I will prepare for my review of... ugh... you know what.
5289377
Never did see the what came after 'Bumblebee'.
5289380
YOU ARE BLESSED! I envy you for that 😩
5289402
(Chuckling) thanks.
Don't forget they turned Grimlock into what amounts as Yoshi. A badass design just becomes a mount for Optimus' lazy ass to ride on after threatening them with death
5289434
“Me Grimlock love death threats! Ride me, Optimus! Ride me!”
Ugh...
I think the reason why Harold Attinger wanted to build his own transformers army was to take over the world. Simple bad guy 101 agenda. He just used the excuse of committing wrong for the good of Earth to justify his actions, not that anyone believed him.
There's also a nifty scene of a Rainbow Dash plushie as one of the things the "Transformium"(weird name) they were testing to turn into.
Wished they included more MLP references in the movies honestly.
5292183
There was also that G3 Pinkie Pie plushie in the first movie when the little girl wakes up and meets Ironhide.
5292217
I remember that bit too
Wished they added in more MLP references.
Or even a cameo.
I wonder, was some of the humans that tried to hunt down the Autobots also originally part of NEST?
If so then why the actual hell? The Autobots fought alongside NEST as partners to stop the Decepticons and helped save the planet and yet this is how many of the members repay the Autobots there?? By turning on them??
5299334
No, they weren’t. Lennox later became leader of TRF. We don’t know what happened to Epps or the rest of the soldiers. None of them became part of Cemetery Wind.
5299374
Strange, thought I heard somewhere that some of NEST became part of Cemetery Wind.
So pretty much NEST outright mostly disappeared?
5299383
Yeah, pretty much.
5299399
That's really jarring honestly.
5299404
🤷🏼♂️ Thank Michael Bay for that.
5299406
Wonder what other movies did he do besides Transformers?
5299425
He directed Bad Boys, Bad Boys 2, Armageddon, The Island, and Pearl Harbor.
5299438
Was that meme about his need for explosions true for those movies too?
5299450
Obviously. He always uses his explosions excessively in all his films.
5299482
If he somehow touches a MLP thing, just imagine explosions just happening whenever someone tries to talk about the magic of friendship.
5299485
Like this?
5299488
Oh boy
I can just imagine Twilight trying to talk about the magic of friendship at NMM only for the castle to start blowing up
Or even a random building in Ponyville exploding.
Nightmare Moon: How about you shut up about the friendship stuff, this wrecked castle is still my damn castle. Your making it harder for me to fix it up!
5299524
5299529
Ponyville is going to need a huge budget in repairs with how often Twilight or someone else talks about the magic of friendship.