TRANSFORMERS: AGE OF EXTINCTION DVD (2014)

SYNOPSIS: With humanity facing extinction from a terrifying new threat. It's up to Optimus Prime and the Autobots to save the world. But now that our government has turned against them, they'll need a new team of allies including inventor Cade Yeager and the fearsome Dinobots.

MOVIE REVIEW:

Some things in the world just never changed and Michael Bay’s Transformers series is one of them. No matter how they changed the cast, the design of the robots or the setting, every instalment just played liked the one before and the one before. 

Five years have passed since the events of Chicago, Sam Witwicky and his hot girl is mysteriously gone. In come a down-on-his-luck Texas inventor Cade Yeager (Mark Wahlberg) and his equally hot daughter, Tessa (Nicola Peltz). At the same time, the government has grown fearful of the Autobots and they are sending their own men led by an ambitious ex-CIA agent Harold Attinger (Kelsey Grammer) to hunt down the Decepticons and also the Autobots.

When Cade stumbled upon an injured Optimus Prime and hid him in the barn, the latter and his daughter find themselves pursued mercilessly by incoming government agents. With Tessa’s boyfriend Shane (Jack Reynor) in tow, the remaining Autobots must once again join hands with the humans to unravel the conspiracy.    

The mumbo-jumbo continues with the mention of metallic dinosaur remains during the movie’s opening and quickly forgotten. In an instant, you know scriber Ehren Kruger is cracking his head on how to introduce the Dinobots. In the later part of the movie, we learnt that an Apple-like corporation called KSI has somehow created Transformium, a powerful element in which the alien robots are made of and everyone’s favourite Decepticon Megatron now have a chance of being revived. Not forgetting there’s additional confusing talks about seeds and creators happening in the Transformers universe.

For every fanboys and kids out there, we just want to watch robots kick-ass for the umpteenth times. With that, Michael Bay delivers yet another loud, visual effects spectacle. He did improved on the robots cast this time round, giving them approximately 10 minutes more of screentime is this excruciatingly long 165 minutes movie. There’s still Prime, Bumblebee and newcomers Hound (John Goodman), Drift (Ken Watanabe) and a superbly cool-looking villain Lockdown that is transformed from a slick black Lamborghini.      

Because the incredible lucrative China market is involved, Mainland actress Li Bingbing played a small role opposite Stanley Tucci, the head of KSI. Other familiar Chinese actors Ray Lui and Michael Wong have a blink-and-miss cameo. But humans simply don’t have the same appeal not even Mark Wahlberg as the major battle sequences seen in the movie. Bay with the magicians of ILM expectedly produced dazzling visual effects and mind-numbing explosions that took place in locations across the country particularly climaxing in China and Hong Kong.

Transformers Age of Extinction is not going to change your mind about the record-breaking franchise if you are not a fan since the first one. All the accolades are going to the technicalities; those looking for a decent story please kindly look away. It’s pure Bay-hem at work. 

SPECIAL FEATURES:

NIL

AUDIO/VISUAL:

Without saying much, it’s a chaotic and solid listening experience. The Dolby Digital 5.1 reproduction is strong and perfect. The picture quality is incredibly sharp, colours deep and this is for sure the finest DVD title on display this year. 

MOVIE RATING:

DVD RATING :

Review by Linus Tee