Director Michael Bay has made a career out of loud, bombastic action films. The director himself jokingly refers to his style as ‘Bayhem’.
The 'Transformers' films have proven themselves to be overlong exercises in ‘Bayhem’ that have captured the imagination of the global audience and provoked scorn from the world's critics. So with a brand new cast of humans and a few dinosaur-themed robots along for the ride this time, one wonders if this fourth 'Transformers' outing has finally seen the series outstay its welcome, or rather, is this a fresh new chapter that finally gets it right?
Set five years after the previous instalment, this adventure quickly introduces Cade Yeager (Mark Wahlberg), a mechanic and 'tinkerer’ for want of a better term. When Cade discovers by accident the shell of a deactivated Optimus Prime, his world is turned upside down and before long he’s dodging government agents (played by Kelsey Grammar and Titus Welliver) and businessman Joshua Joyce (Stanley Tucci) in order to work with the Autobots and combat the latest Decepticon and human threats. The biggest sin that 'Age of Extinction' commits is that it is simply far too long. At 165 minutes in length, this film is exhausting for its audience rather than exhilarating. The action sequences that make up the vast majority of 'Age of Extinction' stack up one after the other with precious little to differentiate one urban/ highway battle from another.
In the past the 'Transformers' films have almost always come unstuck at a fundamental script level, fortunately, screenwriter Ehren Kruger manages to give the cast just enough to get them through to the end credits with their pride intact. The same cannot be said however, for their robotic counterparts. The Autobots themselves get landed with some of the worst 'comedic' material in the film and many of the jokes and visual gags simply fall flat.
In short, for existing fans of the Transformers saga, this latest instalment will not disappoint, however if you take issue with the style of...well 'Bayhem', then this film should be avoided. It's a definite step up from previous instalments...just not a very big step.
★★
This review first appeared online at This Is Film.
