So Transformers 4 takes place 5 years after the Chicago and all the transformers have gone into hiding and the humans have completely turned against them, even the Autobots. A group called Cemetery Winds hunt down the remaining Autobots with a little help from Lockdown, the films main villain who is after Optimus Prime for reasons unknown. We are presented with a new human cast, Cade Yeager who is a struggling inventor trying to get his daughter into college or whatever, he stumbles upon an old truck which turns out to be the great Optimus Prime heavily injured and extremely angry. The CIA come looking for Cade and Optimus and as they go on the run things start to unravel, humans intend on making their own transformers from an element delivered millions of years ago known as Transformium. A new batch of Autobots must race to stop the development of these Transformers and stop a much larger plan involving a newly reincarnated Megatron.
I didn't want to go into too much detail but the story is very interesting obviously it has issues but nonetheless the conventions involved are cool and it makes sense to a degree. I love the idea of humans gaining the upper hand by creating better transformers and with the newest villain introduced I thought it was brilliant to tease a larger plan, it left a lot of questions about these so called "creators" and Lockdowns purpose as well why Optimus Prime is a target. Megatron simply wanted control over the planet and his rivals dead however Lockdown is a very complex character who's purpose remained clouded which worked really well and it also gave the character some depth, it should also be noted that Lockdown is not a Decepticon which again is very intriguing. So the story was very good, it didn't sidetrack like the 3rd one which was good and the Transformers definitely got the screen time they deserved.
The Human side of the story involving father issues was really good compared to the Sam Witwicky story however I felt they tried to use it too much as a devise to create comedy which came across too forced but it was still funny, Mark Wahlberg was very funny but I think they shouldn't have brought up the "protective dad" issue as much, it became a bit repetitive.
What did I think of the human cast? well they were great, Mark Wahlberg was a great father figure and a fun character who's connection with his daughter was more real as well as humorous and that made the story a lot more grounded and believable, it didn't feel AS scripted, it felt more fluent. The Daughter Tessa was definitely an improvement from Mikaela and Carly, what was great was that she didn't have much to say she was surprisingly a quiet character but again exploited for eye candy however she had a decent role and I felt people could perhaps connect more with her. Tessa was accompanied by her Irish boyfriend Shane (or lucky charms) who reminded me a lot of Seth Rogen. Anyway! he was a really good addition to the film, not only did he create a fun conflict between the characters but he also had a purpose in the film as a driver which created an amazing car chase later in the film. I was really impressed with Stanley Tucci's character who offered more comic relief but was ultimately a difficult character to predict, at first I saw him as the villain but he changes. There are loads of human characters, most of them are interesting and cool but there are a few that are just meh however it is a big improvement from Dark of the moons who's cast was a mixture of positivity and negativity.
The new transformers introduced was very limited which was a shame however the additions were really cool, especially drift and hound. Obviously it was great to see Optimus and Bumblebee with badass upgrades which made them look more heroic and strangely like knights, this appeals more to Optimus's new structure which looks more ancient. Bumblebee is fun as usual and he has some really funny moments as well as pulling off some awesome combat moves, I mean he rides a flying dinosaur for god sake what do you expect!
Optimus Prime was definitely the highlight of the entire transformer cast along with Lockdown. Optimus's attitude towards mankind changes which makes him a very different character but he still possesses the elements of leadership and courage which show later on but it was really interesting to see Optimus's hate towards the human race and it pushes him a lot and we do get to see a very violent Prime and its epic!
So the new Autobots were great and they all had their moments to shine however in terms of the Decepticons I was very disappointed by the lack of Decepticons, there just weren't any in there and I wish they brought in some familiar characters from the Transformers universe however the designs we saw were spectacular especially for Stinger and Galvatron who was very cool but I felt his screen time wasn't long enough but they may have done that on purpose ready for the future. The overall designs of all the transformers was amazing as always but the ones that stood out were of course the Dinobots!
the Dinobots were so amazing! the designs and effects for them were superb and their transformations were so cool... but (yes there is a but) I wanted to see more of the Dinobots in their robot forms, they were colossal and that would have been a perfect opportunity to create one of the most memorable battles and they missed it unfortunately.
The effects were amazing as always, everything was so details from rain particles on the Transformers to the destruction of a tree causing individual leaves to fly around so visually it was stunning, the explosions of course they were over the top but they were epic and they made the experience so much more enjoyable.
The music was amazing, Steve Jablonsky did a fantastic job creating a new soundtrack and it fitted the action brilliantly as well as making the best scenes even better, I just hope it's released on CD.
To finish off I am going to do a pro and con's list just to give you a better idea of what was good and bad!
Pro
- Action- The action was over the top but absolutely amazing, especially when the Dinobots arrive
- Effects- This film dealt with more complex designs and nailed it as well as creating a realistic dinosaur landscape and a brilliantly detailed ship thats details are unparalleled compared to anything the Transformers have done before
- Car chases- There is one scene involving Shane who drives the family away from trouble and it is so good!
- Human cast- definitely an improvement in cast and character roles, most characters were significant in some way instead of them being absolutely useless
- Script- I've seen people comment on the "cheesiness" of the script and I didn't think it was that bad, I really enjoyed the script
- Lockdown- By far the strongest villain, he was interesting, beautifully designed and mysterious which opened up a lot of question as well as widening the Transformers universe
- Optimus Prime- awesome!
- Soundtrack
- Dinobots
- Its connection to "Dark of the moon"
- Frank Welker- original Transformer voice actor!
- Imagine dragons
Cons
- Transformations- there simply weren't enough
- Lack of Decepticons and familiar characters from the franchise
- General issues showing laziness
- some characters were pointless
- Chinese fighting (watch it and you'll understand)
- Not enough Dinobots
- Not enough footage showing the fate of the other Autobots such as Sideswipe or the other Wreckers
- Strange obsession with Chinese Milk and other product placement
So thats it from me! I get it a reasonable 7.5/10 it was such an amazing experience however it had issues but they didn't bother me as much as I thought and I will definitely see it again just for the amazing visual effects and the overall improvements. Go and see this! stop what your doing and go!
I apologise for the lack of blogging but I've been busy and a tad lazy!
I hope you enjoyed this very long post
thank you for reading
Until next time!
No comments:
Post a Comment