Explosions, dinobots save fourth “Transformers” movie

Optimus Prime is back, and this time, he’s brought some friends.

“Transformers: Age of Extinction” is the fourth — and, at 165 minutes, the longest — installment in Michael Bay’s box office behemoth Transformerssaga. With the city of Chicago having been torn apart at the end of the last film, humans have severed their ties with the heroic Autobots, who are without the guidance of their leader, Optimus Prime.

The Autobots, alone and beaten, are being hunted down and exterminated by an elite CIA division by the name of “Cemetery Wind”, with some help from a transformer bounty hunter by the name of Lockdown.

Mark Wahlberg takes on the starring role in the film, portraying Cade Yeager, an overbearing father figure to his teenage daughter Tessa (Nicola Peltz), as well as a struggling inventor, who ends up with more than he bargained for when he invests in a beaten-down semi-truck that he hopes to strip down for parts to sell. He soon discovers that this isn’t any ordinary truck, but a gigantic transforming robot.

The first hour or so of the movie is a pleasant surprise. The storyline is relatively compelling, the characters have some pretty solid dialogue, the humor is wittier than usual, and there is rather impressive character development. For the first time in the series, you kind of care about the people on the screen.

Then, it starts to evolve into a true Michael Bay film.

Though there were certain compelling segments during the second half of the film, the movie begins to deliver on both its promises and its expectations; it turns into a smorgasbord of gunfire, explosions, giant alien warships, fire-breathing dinobots, our heroes narrowly escaping certain death over and over (and over), and monstrous robots generally beating the living crap out of each other.

And no, that is not a misprint — fire-breathing dinobots. As it goes on, the film really takes the “jumping the shark” idiom to entirely new levels.

The film is a really long one, and certain parts of the movie — particularly toward the end — are really drawn out and may have you wondering when this battle scene is going to end. Well, it doesn’t. But that is the nature of a film directed by Bay. It follows suit with the previous entries in the serious, and certainly has no shortage of action.

Bay went big, aiming for a film carried purely by the epicosity of towering CGI robots with the sole of intention of destroying each other — and cities, in the process — in as exhilarating a way as possible. And frankly, if, as a movie-goer, that happens to be exactly what you’re looking for, he nailed it.

But if you’re looking for a compelling and dynamic storyline with equally dynamic characters that will constantly keep you on the edge of your seat waiting for the next twist in the plot; then you’re probably going to be disappointed by an incredibly predictable plot which is really just explosions, fighting robots, and more explosions. Which, frankly, I thought was awesome. But we’ll get to that.

The film has two real saving graces. The first is an excellent showing from lead man Mark Wahlberg, and what I found to be the best performance of the film, Stanley Tucci in his role as Joshua Joyce, a billionaire designer attempting to create his own Transformers. Wahlberg finally delivers a character — a struggling inventor and loving, single father — that we can actually root for. This being in stark contrast to the main protagonist of the first three installments, Sam Witwicky.

Witwicky was played by an unbelievably arrogant Shia LaBeouf, who happens to be so devoid of any sort of charisma that his performance nearly overshadowed the whole giant transforming robot thing. Wahlberg, however, brings a fresh new face to the head of the series, one that audiences can adore rather than want to throw tomatoes at.

His overprotectiveness as a father and his constant banter with his daughter’s not-so-secret-boyfriend Shane (Jack Reynor) provide for some surprisingly legitimate laughs.Tucci manages to take some misplaced humor (of the “I’m holding a device that can destroy mankind and I’m laughing psychotically about it” variety) and turn it into some pretty comedic moments that I found hysterical. Kelsey Grammer and (briefly) Thomas Lennon also turn in solid performances, the latter of which providing some comic relief early in the film.

The other element that saves the film as a whole is, predictably, the constant explosions and giant robots battling to the death with the fate of mankind in the balance. It’s a Transformers movie. It was going to happen.

This movie gives you exactly what you would expect from a Michael Bay film. It is simply a big-budget film with the intentions of captivating audiences with its special effects and — I’ll say it again — gigantic transforming robots. That being said, it isn’t a movie that has been carefully crafted to wow movie critics and intellectuals. During the press screening, I heard an overwhelming amount of groans, snickers, and occasional full-on laughter at things that weren’t even remotely aiming for comedy from an extra-pretentious cinematically holier-than-thou contingent — so it’s not a film for everyone.

As for bringing children, there are a solid amount of swears, giant scary robots, and quite a bit of destruction. So, kids 10 and under should probably be left with the baby-sitter.

If you’re a 47-year-old person who likes to spend weekends enjoying classics like “Casablanca” and “Citizen Kane,” I would take a rain check on this one.

But it isn’t meant to be that. The Transformers franchise (and Bay’s career as a whole) has never had the intention of making movie buffs and film critics drool over character development. It is a movie made almost entirely for the fans.

So, if you’re like me, and you think constant explosions, intense robot duels, and fire-breathing dinobots are absolutely awesome; this is just the film for you. If you don’t care about the plot at all and just want to go on a rollercoaster of pure, brain-cell lacking, action-packed awesomeness, then you better hold on tight. For a really long time.

And also, don’t sleep on the fire-breathing dinobots.

Rating: 3 stars out of 5. Wahlberg brings a fantastic new face to the franchise, though the never-ending action is nearly overshadowed by the lack of a real plotline and the excessive running time. Director Michael Bay delivers on his usual expectations, aiming to overwhelm your senses with an over-the-top action films.

–June 27, 2014–