My Revised Review of Transformers: Age of Extinction · 4:54pm Nov 8th, 2020
Rating Scale:
12/10—a complete masterpiece; flawless and outstanding
11/10—Excellent, near-perfect film
10/10—the standard rating; awesome film 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; it is something I might watch again
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
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NOTE: MY INITIAL REVIEW OF THIS MOVIE IS NO LONGER VALID. PLEASE READ THIS REVIEW ENTIRELY AND RESPECT MY OPINION ON THIS AS I DO YOURS. THANK YOU.
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This was written in Oct. 4, 2020 on my Deviantart page.
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 2013 or 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.
It wasn’t until the summer of 2018 that I discovered 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 at that time. 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 didn’t like this movie at first. But after I rewatched the movie yesterday, I now fully love this movie! I feel as if I had been too harsh on it, and my previous negative review was rather uninformative and opinionated. I can now honestly say that I can finally accept Age of Extinction for what it is and the great story it has. So here is my review of this misunderstood gem of the series:
1). First of all, Optimus Prime has arguably the most character development out of all five films. He not only has the most screen time but also finally has more emotion and feeling after everything he went through in the series until this point. I know how many people expect him to be like his original G1 counterpart—gentle, forgiving, and optimistic (his own name) besides being brave and bold. However, you have to think about it like this: this version of Optimus went through the most hellish experience then ever. He suffered many losses from his allies and friends including Ratchet, Ironhide, and Jazz to name a few. To add insult to injury, he was betrayed by his own mentor who murdered his close friend and allied himself with his worse enemy. And as the icing on the cake, he was betrayed by most of the humans. I once made the argument that it was barely a betrayal since they never liked the Autobots to begin with. I was so wrong on that because they actually knew what the Autobots had done for the humans, but they still had their headstrong doubts about them. For example, they saved earth during the Battle of Chicago from Sentinel and the Decepticons. Despite their heroism, the government didn’t give a rat’s ass about their good deeds and declared them outlaws. That’s still humanity being ungrateful about what the Autobots had done for them. Although I don’t like how they always fight battles in populated cities where innocent civilians can die, the Autobots at least saved the entire world from utter destruction.
That and Ratchet’s death were the main points which crossed the line for Optimus. That tells me that he had a very close relationship with Ratchet for millions of years. It’s a shame we never saw that kind of relationship in the first trilogy. So hearing of his death by Cemetery Wind and Lockdown actually enraged him and made him take action. That was the first time Optimus actually showed extreme emotion over the death of his close friend (I’m still wondering why he never mentioned Ironhide after his death). Finally, that scene between Cade and Optimus in the escape ship was really touching and heartwarming. One of the few moments of character development for both of them. That speech he gave to Prime was one of the main lessons I got from watching this film which is about determination, faith, and looking deep in the inside— “beneath all the junk”. It’s very similar to “more than meets the eye” catchphrase of Transformers.
All that I’m saying is that Optimus actually went through character development that made him more human-like than what many of us view him as. It’s like what Sam said to him in the previous movie: “It makes you human for a change.” Some say it deviates from what he is supposed to represent or that he is out of character; in my perspective, considering what he went through, it would have been nonsensical if he just brushed it aside with a stoic demeanor that he is normally portrayed as. I am really happy to see him having personality flaws. THAT is what makes him a relatable character! I’m glad Michael Bay took that direction for Optimus. This is more of a realistic take on how the Leader of the Autobots would be reacting after suffering numerous betrayals from his mentor AND humans and losing many friends. Kudos to the writers for character development! I mean it.
2). The designs of the Transformers were actually decent and eye-catching. I honestly don’t mind the humanoid faces of Hound, Drift, and Crosshairs. Weren’t the G1 Transformers like Wreck-Garr humanoid as well? Scourge? Unicron? Arcee? Shall I go on? Anyway, I actually like the personalities of the new Autobots. Crosshairs may be cocky, arrogant, and ambitious about being a leader, but he still has the bravery and commitment of an expert sharpshooter. You won’t always find good angels amongst the Autobots; you will also find heavily flawed ones among them... good and bad. But as long as they do the right thing, then all is well. Hound on the other hand is a 50/50 for me still. While I love John Goodman voicing him, it’s hard to love him mostly because of his robot design. Nonetheless, I like him based on his personality. Ironhide would be proud of him. Drift is my favorite out of the bunch. I like his cool & calm demeanor, wisdom, and witty humor. He can make hilarious moments time after time. I don’t care if he’s a Japanese stereotype; this guy is awesome!
3). Oh, and I am so thankful this movie did not focus on Bumblebee too much. In my opinion, he is the most overrated character of the entire franchise. The fact that he is so popular with kids and Transformers with no defining character trait or quality to the point where he is Hasbro’s number 1 cash cow makes me hate him so much. Screw him...
4). Lockdown is the best character and one of my favorite villains of this series. His cold, sadistic, no-nonsense attitude won me over. His Lamborghini car mode looks amazing, his face cannon is impressive, and is overall a different yet faithful incarnation to the original Lockdown (from Transformers Animated). He is one of my favorite Transformers of all time ever since I watched that show, so seeing him on the big screen was really epic for me. Mark Ryan did a fantastic job voicing him. Still, it was really sad seeing him kill Ratchet like that. RIP Ratchet...
5). I noticed how there were a few references to Transformers Animated. One, Megatron’s head being hooked in a laboratory; two, Lockdown and Ratchet having a history together (Ratchet being able to both recognize him and call him by name says it all); and Optimus appealing to the Dinobots to join forces with the Autobots to stop the Decepticons. These references make me love the movie even more.
6). The CGI is good, the soundtrack is great, and the ending score is fairly passable. My favorite soundtrack is when Optimus reunited with the Autobots in the wilderness. Another one is during the final battle with the Dinobots arriving in the city. That was really awesome. But the number one theme soundtrack that gives me goosebumps is Lockdown’s theme. Oh. My. Gosh!! I listen to it almost every day! It’s that epic! You can feel and sense him coming near you! Really enjoyable!
7). I honestly love how the final battle is handled mostly by the robots themselves. They are doing the bulk of the fighting with no military assisting them at all. It’s always refreshing to take a break from praising the military and showing them every 10 seconds (of course, that’s an exaggeration).
8). Cade Yeager is more developed, more likable, and more interesting than Sam Wickwicky ever was. I hate that character for obvious reasons, and not seeing him or him not mentioned by anyone in this movie was a sweet relief. I will definitely watch Mark Wahlberg over Shia LaBeouf any day of the week. However, Shane was quite annoying in this movie especially with his “secret boyfriend” persona. I hate his “I’m not here to get your daughter...” line as it was so cringeworthy and disrespectful to Cade. I was surprised he didn’t knock him out for that. Tessa is decent and thankfully not worse than Sam. But her stubborn and disobedient personality was really annoying still. She has her stupid moments, but she is still a decent character. Lucas was... an okay comic relief character... but some of his jokes were not funny for me. I hate how he sold Optimus out to Cemetery Wind while having no idea what would exactly happen to them. So, the sight of him being brutally killed by Lockdown was a little satisfying although quite sad. But he deserved it after what he did.
9). Harold Attinger and James Savoy were good human villains too. To be honest, I was genuinely confused with Harold’s overall plan in creating man-made Transformers to kill the real ones. I asked myself if he hated the Transformers and wanted to kill them all with the help of one of them, why create new ones that could go havoc at any time especially since humans are now paranoid of alien robots? Well, just yesterday while watching the movie, I created this theory based on that. My theory is that Harold is deep down obsessed with Transformers. He hates them for their violence and destructive nature, but he sees something in them that could be of potentially good use. Something that made him so obsessed with them which would explain why he collaborated with Lockdown (besides having the same goal in mind) and allowed Joshua Joyce to create the prototypes. He wanted to create a new race of Transformers that would protect and serve humans without the Autobot/Decepticon war spirit. That kind of vision is something he wanted to create. To me, this theory makes sense. What are your thoughts on that?
10). So yeah, I really love this movie! I still find that Romeo and Juliet law scene cringeworthy and some of the jokes in the film falling flat on the ground. But the action scenes were great, and Galvatron was... okay. His robot mode and transformation was mediocre though. I’m still not fond of the KSI transformation, but I’ll get used to it eventually.
I give this movie an 8/10! Great movie with excellent Transformers interaction and dialogue! I’m happy I have the DVD thereof. Thanks for reading and have a great morning! Peace!
This movie does a feature a lot of improvements that the series desperately needed at that point. It almost seemed like Bay was finally listening to fan opinions and making the necessary changes.
Too bad he basically threw it all away when he made The Last Knight.
5394753
That’s true.
So what you said about me wanting to bleach my eyes if I watched this is no longer valid (remember a discussion on my user page all those months ago?)
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Oh, I definitely remember. I take those words back. Please watch this movie if you haven’t already. Watch the first three movies first though.