AOE movie reviews

Money, violence, sex, computer graphics, scatalogical humor, racism, robots designed to be rednecks but given European accents, and maybe another sequel to the saga... what's not to love? TF m1, Revenge of the Fallen, Dark of the Moon and now Age of Extinction.
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JediTricks
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AOE movie reviews

Post by JediTricks »

Here's the first one I've seen, it's from IGN and it's a 6.3/10 result with a bit more spoilers than expected:
http://www.ign.com/articles/2014/06/24/ ... ion-review


Variety's review is taken as positive, it's not on a scale:
http://variety.com/2014/film/reviews/fi ... 201238365/


The NY Post calls it a "Decepti-yawn" and "Loud, ridiculous and nonsensical — even for a Transformers movie", ouch:
http://nypost.com/2014/06/26/transforme ... epti-yawn/


The Hollywood Reporter says "Occasional glimpses of hope for a fresh reboot are extinguished by a generally bloated and dull spectacle", that's sad:
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movie/ ... iew/713864


There are more, Variety's and IGN's reviews are literally the only positive ones I can find of known sources... ok, Drew McWeeny gave it a "B-" but his arguments are everything that's wrong with cinema today, he's basically saying that if you're a junkie then this movie gives you more junk to shove in your veins, and he somehow views that as a positive.
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See, that one's a camcorder, that one's a camera, that one's a phone, and they're doing "Speak no evil, See no evil, Hear no evil", get it?
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andersonh1
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Re: AOE movie reviews

Post by andersonh1 »

If the critics don't like it, I probably will. Not sure when I'm going to see it yet. Movies for me and the wife always involve babysitters, so all that's got to be worked out first. But I hope to see it soon.
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Sparky Prime
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Re: AOE movie reviews

Post by Sparky Prime »

Just got back from seeing it!

I'll try to avoid spoilers, just want to post some quick thoughts... I have to say I thought it was a big improvement over the previous films. Lot more focus on the Autobots and character development this time around, and a less stupid humor. Dinobots sadly don't do very much but we do get to see plently of action when they do show up. Some interesting developments with the storyline as well. I heard rumors of a post credits scene but I stayed through them all and there wasn't one. Overall, I very much enjoyed it.
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Tigermegatron
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Re: AOE movie reviews

Post by Tigermegatron »

Spoiler
I'd say this was a bling,bling movie. It had a lot of bling to cater towards the commericials trailers to get people to see it in theathres.

It was disappointing to only see the dinobots in the last 4th quarter of the film. think the Dinobots should have been introduced in the 2nd or 3rd quarter. Since Hasbro is making such a big fuss in the commericials trailers and toy line that this is a Dinobots movie.

I thought the human cast was much better than Shia la barf and his parents. It was a much more serious movie. Thankfully the humor was toned down.

The robots got much more persona and dialogue. Which was a good thing in my book.

Megatron/Galvatron was in the movie but he played second fiddle to Lockdown. Similar to Megatron's role in in ROTF and DOTM.

Didn't really see much plot in this movie. This movie felt like it was starting/building up plot for the 5TH TF movie. this 4th movie felt like it was working off the left over plot in Dotm and slowly building up a plot for the 5th movie. The 4th movie felt like, a were still alive,lets pick up the pieces movie and try to adjust.

Otimus left at the end of the movie using his rockets on his feet to go into space with the seed and looking for the creators. Would have preferred optimus leave earth in his 1st movie meteor/space ship alt mode.

It was mentioned in the first quarter of the TF4 movie. That bumble was the temp leader on earth and giving orders to the other three robots. While optimus was damaged and offline in retro1980's truck cab mode.

Think TF4 Decepticon Steel deserves a Generations deluxe or Voyager sized toy. Would prefer it be Voyager sized.

Lockdown is the definate main villian in this TF4 movie. I feel TF4 Lockdown needs a Voyager or leader scale toy. Since lockdown is fighting optimus and appears tom be the same size as optimus. Hasbro did those eight inch sized $29.99 Human alliance sports cars-bots toys and those leader/ultimate/supreme scale Bumblebee toys. So I don't see the big deal in doing a TF4 Generations leader sized Lockdown toy. I know i'll buy this in a heart beat.
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Almighty Unicron
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Re: AOE movie reviews

Post by Almighty Unicron »

So there were literally only three decepticons in the whole fucking film?
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Tigermegatron
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Re: AOE movie reviews

Post by Tigermegatron »

Almighty Unicron wrote:So there were literally only three decepticons in the whole fucking film?
Spoiler
There were almost 60 Decepticons in this TF4 Movie. The humans built about 50 Transformers. Galvatron/Megatron was playing possum the whole time so he could trick the humans into building him a new body. Galvatron/Megatron took control of the 50 human built Transformers and gave them life. Then there was lockdowns Three Transformers dogs that hasbro named Steeljaw. Lastly there were a half a dozen humanoid looking Decepticons that looked like lockdown and were on lockdowns huge ship.

When Megatron gave the 50 human built transformers life. They were able to act on there own. They probably had limited intelligence similar to the TFP-BH Vehicons.
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Sparky Prime
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Re: AOE movie reviews

Post by Sparky Prime »

Almighty Unicron wrote:So there were literally only three decepticons in the whole fucking film?
I guess in a way you could say there was more than that...
Spoiler
Lockdown and his crew I wouldn't say count as Decepticons since they're free agents. But KSI had built 50 prototype Transformers, and after Megatron is 'reborn' in the human built Galvatron body, he corrupts the rest of them to use as his new personal army. Also, Stinger is the only other one actually named in the film but we do see that the other prototypes have unique designs.
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Re: AOE movie reviews

Post by Dominic »

Saw the movie, short review:

"Age of Extinction", aka Bayformers 4, is better than the last three. Mind you, that is a low bar. But, it is an improvement.

Compaints to debunk:
-Acting: The acting is actually pretty good. The scenes that are "played badly" are likely being played to spec. Blame the script writer and/or Bay, not the actors.

-length: The length was not out of order. (I am saying this as somebody with over-active kidneys by the by.) It is not like the movie was more expensive for being longer any more than a ticket would be more expensive for the movie being better.

-plenty of Decepticons. Not many named though.

Misc:
-No appearance by the military in this one. They are mentioned favouably, but not shown. Odd for a Bay movie.

-One of the more annoying characters
Spoiler
gets a spectacular death. I was genuinely pleased with the scene. The character had to be obnoxious to "work" for their part in the movie. When they had played that part, they got incinerated by Lockdown. Well played Mr. Bay. Well played.
-really hoping that the nano forming does not become too much of a thing outside of Bayformers. It makes the characters too powerful.

-Drift sucks. (Never thought I would say that. The character is slightly less annoying that the Derp brothers from Bayformers 2. And, the copter mode serves no purpose that I can determine other than pushing a repacked toy from the last line.

-along with Drift, the Dinobots make "Age of Extinction" seem like a toy commercial. They do nothing aside from look cool. (And, they do look cool, but.....)

Bayformers 4 is a more uneven movie than the previous outings. The best is better and the worst is far worse. There are some scenes and plot beats that show legitimate thought in both creative and intellectual terms. But, the movie is punctuated by enough Baypravity that I cannot say the movie is good.
Spoiler
There is a scene on Lockdown's ship where the Autobots make the opening sequence of Bayformers 2 look restrained. I am not bothered by main characters being less than heroic. But, for some reason, the Autobots descended in to 40K levels of malignancy for a few minutes. They also managed to lose track of the humans they were working with. This was all done for the sake of laughs and action sequences, so I am less willing to give it a pass. If the movie were better over-all, I would give it a thematic pass for being consistent with the idea that different species cannot get along easily. But, I am not sure the movie deserves that much credit.

Grade" C/D
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Mako Crab
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Re: AOE movie reviews

Post by Mako Crab »

Saw it. It was a dumb action flick, but we had fun and enjoyed it. So good enough for me.
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Almighty Unicron
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Re: AOE movie reviews

Post by Almighty Unicron »

Just got back from seeing it. It was 3 hours long- it really could've been pared down to one hour. It felt to me like it went through massive script rewrites that added too many plot lines. Galvatron and his army could've been hinted at with lockdown and his crew forming a much more cohesive story.

Also, did anyone notice how weird it is that the transformers in this film almost universally switched to hand-held weapons rather than weapons integrated into their arms? Bumblebee and Prime still do it (during the fight with Galvatron, Prime has his energy sword coming out of his hand, but later he just starts carrying around a sword that he got in Lockdown's ship), but all the new 'bots, including the autobots who have supposedly been on Earth since at least DOTM do it too. 'Sweird.


Overall, it was a great action flick with great visuals, though I've got to deduct points for shameless, annoying pandering to both Flyover States America and China (seriously, Bingbing's character is a Mary Sue if I ever saw one). Tucci stole the show, though part of me wishes John Tuturro was also in it- imagine those two playing off eachother! Tessa was annoying and superfluous, though I've got to say Marky Mark was pretty proactive as a character... but the weird gunblade he carries around looks extremely far from ergonomic. What transformer would design a weapon like that?

I'm still really, really pissed by the lack of decepticon figures in the toyline, but I'm also a bit miffed that Drift's fig isn't a triple changer like he is in the film- even though his robot mode doesn't have many helicopter parts, making me think it was a late addition.

EDIT: Oh, also: how can bumblebee scan a random yellow Camaro and get an all new body but he can't fix his fucking voicebox?
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