So today I was very fortunate to get my hands on a ticket to the advanced screening of Transformers: Age of Extinction in Toronto. Before you read on... know that there will be a
few
spoilers in this soft review. I will not mention any critical events.
The film has a similar cinematic feel that the previous ones had. This time, however, not a single notable (human) actor from the previous films reprise their role in Age of Extinction. Which is some what relieving as the film series should be mainly revolving around the Transformers and not on specific human characters.
Mark Wahlberg plays the main character of the film: a financially struggling, robotics inventor who lives with his coming-of-age-daughter in a rural area of Texas. The film focuses a lot on these two and the dynamics of fatherhood. The theme runs through beginning till end. Some may consider it sappy, but its a good way to give the human characters a sense of purpose in the film and drive.
If your concerned the film may lack action, you'll be ever surprised with multiple battles that erupt unexpectedly. The films also seems to be a bit more daring than ever before, in terms of violence and unexpected loss. You will see a human casualties in menacing fashion. So there is more of that sense of danger whenever you seen an approaching Transformers baddy. I say baddy as the Decepticons are not the only enemy in this film. Which is a refreshing new arch for the series. There are a total of 5 factions of Transformers in Age of Extinction.
Here's my main problem with the movie: I felt there weren't enough interesting Autobots in this film. We get Prime and Bumble-Bee back which is great but the new filler characters just aren't interesting enough to make you feel any empathy for them or concern during battles. It also seems that Bumble-Bee has seemingly adapted the character traits of Jazz from the first film in the series. In personality and combat. The 3 new autobots lack personality. I honestly can't even remember one "the green one's" name. One of the 3 is a samurai with twin swords. Which is interesting to a degree... you'd expect to see him get into some pretty awesome fight scenes... but sadly you only see him fight once and when you do its literally not even a minute long (unless you count the random, pointless fight between him and bumble-bee).
They did however add a few new good Transformers to the mix, of which I must say was pretty awesome. The addition of the dinosaur bots. Once they took to battle it was just a crazy fun rampage to watch.
Film overall was "good" and it does keep an opening for further films in the series.
