Optimus Prime and his Autobots team up with new humans to fight an ancient enemy in Transformers: Age of Extinction. Check out Kidzworld’s review.
By: Lynn Barker
Five years after a war between Transformer Autobots and evil Decepticons trashed Chicago, some humans want to get rid of all aliens; good or bad. When an inventor finds a wrecked Optimus Prime and repairs him, will he turn the Transformer leader in or help him save his Autobots and, in turn, the world?
Way Back When and The War
In a way back flashback we see that the dinosaurs on Earth weren’t destroyed by a meteor after all but huge invading spaceships that scorched the planet’s surface. Flash-forward to a rural farmhouse in Texas where struggling robotics inventor Cade Yeager (Mark Wahlberg) and buddy Lucas (T.J. Miller) buy a wrecked semi-truck hoping to sell parts to put Cade’s hot teen daughter Tessa (Nicola Peltz) through college.
Autobots in auto formsCourtesy of Paramount Pictures
Five years have passed since the final battle between the Autobots and the Decepticons trashed Chicago and killed a ton of humans. The U.S. government has broken its relationship with the Autobots and they are on the run. A sneaky CIA unit called "Cemetery Wind" headed by Harold Attinger (Kelsey Grammer) wants to kill all surviving Autobots.
A huge Dinobot in actionCourtesy of Paramount Pictures
We Can Make Transformers!
Business tycoon Joshua Joyce (Stanley Tucci) uses info from destroyed Transformers to create "Transformium” the unstable metal that they are made of. His creation Galvatron, put together from the info in evil Megatron’s head, is big and bad and can lead an army against all comers.
Shane (Jack Reynor) and Tessa (Nicola Peltz) hide in BumblebeeCourtesy of Paramount Pictures
Optimus on the Mend
Cade discovers that the truck he bought is really the injured Optimus Prime, and soon, bounty hunters and “Cemetery Wind” operatives arrive hoping to kill Optimus who comes forward to hold off the baddies while Cade, Tessa and Lucas are rescued by Tessa’s hot rally car driver boyfriend Shane (Jack Reynor). After a chase in Paris, Texas, the good guys ditch the baddies and Cade fixes a spy drone he has found to learn that the govt. guys are working with tycoon Joyce.
Cade works on the wrecked Optimus truckCourtesy of Paramount Pictures
Rally the Autobots!
Optimus gathers up Autobots Bumblebee, Hound, Drift, and Crosshairs and, with their new human pals, they sneak into Joyce’s HQ in Chicago where they discover that the company is making new Transformers and are holding tiny bot “Brains” captive. Joyce sends Galvatron and Stinger after the humans. Optimus fights Galvatron but he and Tessa are sucked up into an alien ship run by Lockdown, a bot working for the mysterious “Creators” of all Transformers.
Cade with Bumblebee back upCourtesy of Paramount Pictures
Get the Seed!
For bringing Optimus in, Attinger’s guys are given “The Seed”, a bomb that can destroy a city. With the help of the Autobots, the humans are rescued but must prevent The Seed from being detonated. Everyone ends up in Hong Kong where Attinger turns “The Seed” over to Joyce. With Cade’s help, Joyce realizes he’s created Transformers he can’t control and sees the light. Together Joyce, Cade, Shane, Tessa and the Autobots run from Galvatron who has taken over and activated Transformer soldiers.
Cade fights for his life in Hong KongCourtesy of Paramount Pictures
Galvatron Vs. Optimus
Optimus has freed a group of legendary Transformer knights and leads them against Galvatron and his army. Humans are caught in the crossfire. A huge battle rages including a magnetic weapon that sucks up and drops practically everything in the city. Will The Seed blow up? Will Optimus and the good guys win? Will Cade, Tessa and Shane survive?
Tessa, Cade, Shane and Joyce running with The Seed bombCourtesy of Paramount Pictures
Wrapping Up
Okay, straight up. This movie is too darn long! Three hours of even a great thing is too much and Transformers: Age of Extinction isn’t a great thing. It is a popcorn munching, eye-popping, entertaining thing that stretches logic and throws more metal on metal battle action at you than all the World Wars on Earth combined.
Optimus rides a DinobotCourtesy of Paramount Pictures
If you just love to see Transformers do their thing, you won’t be disappointed; flying ones, truck ones, sports car ones, dinosaur ones are all at each other’s shiny throats almost throughout the film. An effort to keep the humans involved by throwing in family tension between Mark Wahlberg’s overly-protective daddy character, his daughter and her hot boyfriend is stretched to the limit and beyond.
The film does look awesome and adds some great fight choreography on the buildings of Hong Kong. Also, some of the efforts at comedy work, although we could use more. Stanley Tucci's industrialist character morphs so easily from evil to good that the change is laughable but, it does provide more laughs during the last 1/3rd of the long film. There is just something about Shia LaBeouf’s cocky yet unsure Sam Witwicky character, his nutso parents and his warm and fuzzy relationship with Autobot Bumblebee that I miss.
Good guy Transformers and human pals assembleCourtesy of Paramount Pictures
With focus all over the place in the film, it is hard to really get into caring enough about a small group of bots and their human pals. You feel like the movie was made just to sell you more cool new action figures. However, if you are a huge Transformers fan and can stick your fanny in a movie theater seat for three hours, you might enjoy. We go three stars.
Transformers: Age of Extinction Movie Rating:
Transformers: Age of Extinction PosterCourtesy of Paramount Pictures
Transformers: Age of Extinction is in theaters now!
