Went to the opening night Transformers: Age of Extinction. I went in with low expectations, but had to see it. The Dinobots were one of the cornerstones of my childhood, along with The Avengers and Jedi. So, as I prepare to head off to bed, the next haiku review: Release the Kraken! I mean, unleash Michael Bay! Either way, monsters! Transformers: Age of Extinction is a difficult movie to rate. On one hand, it was terrible. On the other hand, it totally deserved the standing ovation the audience gave it at the end. Trying to figure out how to put those two things together is the trick, but Ill try. A lot of the quality of the movie is dependent on why youre going to see it. It is not, by any stretch, good cinema, even from an action movie standpoint. The plot is paper thin. The dialogue mostly comes across as the director saying hey, we need something to fill time til we can justify another chase scene. The supposed moral lessons range from ludicrous to patently untrue. The franchise is still occasionally grabbing racial stereotypes and calling them characterization (even if they were slightly more positive about it this time). They also spent a fair amount of time very clearly setting themselves up to use this as the launching pad for a couple more movies, but theyd better find a good way to justify some more characters if so... or give the dinobots more screen time. Im ok with that too. Really, thats the point where despite the flaws you could drive a truck through (which they did, repeatedly), parts of the movie managed to rise from the deep muck of a movie to awesome heights anyway. The Dinobots were freaking brilliantly done, without a single line. The characters had life and motion and speed thats difficult to give to robots that are that big. The humans were frequently one-note cardboard. The Transformers often were too, but unlike some of the previous movies, you could always tell them apart, and they got enough lines to at least demonstrate someone put some thought into the single note personalities. Speaking of which, John Goodman frequently stole the show. Stretches of the movie were worth it just for him. Likewise, if Im going to watch a self-contradictory, single-note villain, at least it was Kelsey Grammer, which somehow makes things better. Three hours, more or less, most of it action scenes may make for action overload for some people. While the plot and dialogue were pretty horrible, though, as long as you know youre going to a movie where theyve not only taken the brakes off of Michael Bay, but encouraged all of his excesses, then told him to make some of those things bigger... then its a perfectly acceptable movie to go and enjoy thoroughly. So, if you want something with nuance, or acting, or good-for-an-action-movie plotting, emotional complexity, depth, any of that, save your money. If youre going to the movie to see Optimus Prime and the charge of the freaking-badass Dinobots (and yes, for those wondering, they got more than just Grimlock in there. Not the classic lineup, quite, but they were still the absolute wade-through-everything and destroy all in their way war machines they should be), then this is totally worth a matinee and popcorn, or even full price. By almost any reasonable standard by which most movies are judged, it was not good, at all. However, the one thing it did well, it did well enough to get the opening night audience cheering, and a standing ovation throughout the theatre at the end. Its still not enough to make me go back and watch any of the other ones, but since theyve set the stage for there to be more now, it was enough to convince me to consider seeing the next one. Especially if they give me more of the Dinobots. Overall, too hard to give an accurate grade. It really deserves a D+, but John Goodmans Hound and the Dinobots, and the action in general deserve better. So call it a C+, and go only if you just want action, action, and for a change, a little more action.
Posted on: Fri, 27 Jun 2014 08:43:39 +0000
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