SOME SPOILERS MAY FOLLOW
I am going to preface this review by saying this is a 'Transformers' movie and I am going to review it as such. I never look to rip apart movies in reviews. I go looking to appreciate it for what it is. With that out of the way, I really enjoyed this movie. I in fact thought this was the best 'Transformers' movie to me. The only huge problem I had with it was the length. It was good for characters, but it also was just plain long. Other than that, no huge complaints.
The plot was basic, as is usual with the Transformers movies. A government official teams up with a tech mogul to achieve his goal. The government thought that the bad guys were rounding up only Decepticons. The entire operation gets screwed up when Cade Yeager (Mark Wahlberg) finds Optimus Prime and decides to help him. When they focused on the story, this was the best Transformers movie. I feel the fresh cast, I'll get to them later, really helped imrpove the story. The other story-lines were fairly basic too, though. Cade is trying to protect Tessa (Nicola Peltz) from the Transformers, bad guys, and boys. Some of the scenes were cringe-worthy as expected, but a lot were done well enough. I know this sounds like there was a lot of human story, and the parts with the humans were the best handled human scenes in the series, but this was a story about the robot aliens. The story had a lot going on for all the Transformers. Lockdown was hired to hunt down Optimus Prime for the Creators. This is the storyline that seems to be the link in new trilogy. I am excited for them to continue on this story, because it was really interesting in this one. There was also the recreation of Megatron as Galvatron. There was also the actual relationship between the Transformers and humans. I wish they had gone a little deeper down this path. The relationship between the aliens and humans was rough and I really liked the angling of the dispute on both sides of it. After seeing Optimus Prime give his life in every movie so far with no appreciation from the humans, it was nice to see him say screw you guys, I am done. I really liked what they did with this story, even though a lot of it was basic. The tone of the movie helped differentiate itself from the other movies. It felt darker, but not too dark. Even though the editing was herky-jerky and the story wasn't pieced together very well, it still ended up being better then others. It was all well done and left interesting storylines for the next movie to explore.
The cast was better then any other Transformers film so far. Mark Wahlberg is always a personable guy and he brought his charm to the screen. He was certainly better then Shia. He was the most important human character and it showed. But he never took up too much screen time. Stanley Tucci was the other key human piece. He was the creator of man-made Transformers and he was knew his job. Tucci was mainly used for comedic support, but he was the second most interesting human character in the movie. Mr. Bay really toned down the eye-candy in this film. Nicola Peltz is improvement over Megan Fox in every way, but he never over-used or overly-sexualized her (I know right!?). In fact I felt her along with Jack Reynor were underused. The didn't have much to really say besides yelling for help. I wish they had more important stuff in this moie. Kelsey Grammar was also a nice add-on piece, but also wasn't a huge contributing factor. I did enjoy his scenes, but they were mainly exposition pieces or plot-movers. I am a fan of T.J. Miller, but he was just not funny in the movie. As for the Transformers, I loved Optimus Prime. You really connected with his character and got in his mind this time around. He is the most recognizable Transformer, and I loved the focus on him rather then Bumblebee. Bumblebee was rarely seen in the movie actually, he is usually there just for action, but he was really only there for the action this time around, which was a bit disappointing. The other new additions weren't too memorable. I did like John Goodman's Hound. He was my favorite new Autobot. As for the villainous robots, Lockdown was awesome. He had no allies, just jobs which made his desire to takedown Prime more interesting. Galvatron was horrifically underused. I barely felt like he was a villain. He didn't appear in it, but for maybe five minutes. The Dinobots were just plain cool. Overall, not a lot of the characters felt like extreme caricatures.
The action was even better then the last. The action didn't feel as constant which is a good thing. Bay slowed things down and let them develop a little more naturally. There was still the gigantic explosions and wreckage you have come to expect from a Michael Bay movie, but it was all much better placed. The effects were also amazing. I liked Bay taking the Transformers designs back down to a more simplistic level this time around. They looked a lot cooler then ever before. The new transforming mechanism was also cool. But the best new effect was the man made Transformers. The way they changed was just flat out awesome. The Dinobots also looked really darn cool. I loved the more intimate feel of the setpieces too. The fights felt closer together and compacted to really get you into the fight. There were a couple of times when the VFX looked rough, but not enough to really distract from the movie.
Overall, this was the best Transformers film to me, just for the actual focus on the robots. There were also a few funny jabs at the Hollywood industry and some really cool shots and setpieces in the film that added onto what I've already described. This film isn't going to win any awards, but that's not what it was made for. It was a good 3 hours of watching some robots beat the crap out of one another.
I am going to preface this review by saying this is a 'Transformers' movie and I am going to review it as such. I never look to rip apart movies in reviews. I go looking to appreciate it for what it is. With that out of the way, I really enjoyed this movie. I in fact thought this was the best 'Transformers' movie to me. The only huge problem I had with it was the length. It was good for characters, but it also was just plain long. Other than that, no huge complaints.
The plot was basic, as is usual with the Transformers movies. A government official teams up with a tech mogul to achieve his goal. The government thought that the bad guys were rounding up only Decepticons. The entire operation gets screwed up when Cade Yeager (Mark Wahlberg) finds Optimus Prime and decides to help him. When they focused on the story, this was the best Transformers movie. I feel the fresh cast, I'll get to them later, really helped imrpove the story. The other story-lines were fairly basic too, though. Cade is trying to protect Tessa (Nicola Peltz) from the Transformers, bad guys, and boys. Some of the scenes were cringe-worthy as expected, but a lot were done well enough. I know this sounds like there was a lot of human story, and the parts with the humans were the best handled human scenes in the series, but this was a story about the robot aliens. The story had a lot going on for all the Transformers. Lockdown was hired to hunt down Optimus Prime for the Creators. This is the storyline that seems to be the link in new trilogy. I am excited for them to continue on this story, because it was really interesting in this one. There was also the recreation of Megatron as Galvatron. There was also the actual relationship between the Transformers and humans. I wish they had gone a little deeper down this path. The relationship between the aliens and humans was rough and I really liked the angling of the dispute on both sides of it. After seeing Optimus Prime give his life in every movie so far with no appreciation from the humans, it was nice to see him say screw you guys, I am done. I really liked what they did with this story, even though a lot of it was basic. The tone of the movie helped differentiate itself from the other movies. It felt darker, but not too dark. Even though the editing was herky-jerky and the story wasn't pieced together very well, it still ended up being better then others. It was all well done and left interesting storylines for the next movie to explore.
The cast was better then any other Transformers film so far. Mark Wahlberg is always a personable guy and he brought his charm to the screen. He was certainly better then Shia. He was the most important human character and it showed. But he never took up too much screen time. Stanley Tucci was the other key human piece. He was the creator of man-made Transformers and he was knew his job. Tucci was mainly used for comedic support, but he was the second most interesting human character in the movie. Mr. Bay really toned down the eye-candy in this film. Nicola Peltz is improvement over Megan Fox in every way, but he never over-used or overly-sexualized her (I know right!?). In fact I felt her along with Jack Reynor were underused. The didn't have much to really say besides yelling for help. I wish they had more important stuff in this moie. Kelsey Grammar was also a nice add-on piece, but also wasn't a huge contributing factor. I did enjoy his scenes, but they were mainly exposition pieces or plot-movers. I am a fan of T.J. Miller, but he was just not funny in the movie. As for the Transformers, I loved Optimus Prime. You really connected with his character and got in his mind this time around. He is the most recognizable Transformer, and I loved the focus on him rather then Bumblebee. Bumblebee was rarely seen in the movie actually, he is usually there just for action, but he was really only there for the action this time around, which was a bit disappointing. The other new additions weren't too memorable. I did like John Goodman's Hound. He was my favorite new Autobot. As for the villainous robots, Lockdown was awesome. He had no allies, just jobs which made his desire to takedown Prime more interesting. Galvatron was horrifically underused. I barely felt like he was a villain. He didn't appear in it, but for maybe five minutes. The Dinobots were just plain cool. Overall, not a lot of the characters felt like extreme caricatures.
The action was even better then the last. The action didn't feel as constant which is a good thing. Bay slowed things down and let them develop a little more naturally. There was still the gigantic explosions and wreckage you have come to expect from a Michael Bay movie, but it was all much better placed. The effects were also amazing. I liked Bay taking the Transformers designs back down to a more simplistic level this time around. They looked a lot cooler then ever before. The new transforming mechanism was also cool. But the best new effect was the man made Transformers. The way they changed was just flat out awesome. The Dinobots also looked really darn cool. I loved the more intimate feel of the setpieces too. The fights felt closer together and compacted to really get you into the fight. There were a couple of times when the VFX looked rough, but not enough to really distract from the movie.
Overall, this was the best Transformers film to me, just for the actual focus on the robots. There were also a few funny jabs at the Hollywood industry and some really cool shots and setpieces in the film that added onto what I've already described. This film isn't going to win any awards, but that's not what it was made for. It was a good 3 hours of watching some robots beat the crap out of one another.
Highlights:
My Opinion: This should be experienced in a movie theater. I would give this one a shot even if you didn't like the others, just because it feels so different. If not, it is still worth a rent. | The Score: 7.5 out of 10 Stars It might seem high to you, but I never expected this movie to change the game. I expected to see more of the same, but the changes made helped reinvigorate this franchise for me. |