by Shuttershock » Sun Jun 29, 2014 2:23 am
Much like a new coat of paint only hides the structural flaws of a poorly built building, AoE is for the most part just a facelift. We've got a slightly better pedigree in terms of cast, but they're still forced to act like blithering incompetents when the slag hits the fan. The terrible script is still there, the terrible editing is still there, and the terrible plot holes are still there.
What little structure/plot the last films had to push them to their conclusions doesn't exist here. We have no feel for the stakes or any sense of urgency, so the movie feels nightmarishly long and I found myself being bored and just wanting it to end. And by that point, every tedious moment of forced comedy and bad editing did nothing but generate ill will for the movie as a whole, even the parts that I had been okay with previously.
I'll be honest, I was liking the first third of the movie, which was paced soberly, took time to set things up and, frankly, tricked you into thinking themes and attitudes had been overhauled. The worst I thought we'd have to weather was T.J. Miller being a douchebag and Mark Wahlberg being a tired stereotype of a "protective dad". I am now firmly convinced that this segment was directed by a second unit, because by the second act, we loose all focus, all subtlety, and crank the stereotype generator on full blast.
More than anything else, the writers, producers and directors STILL haven't learned that we'd much rather see a story with the Transformers as the stars, and adding big names like Wahlberg, Tucci and Grammer aren't helping that matter. Wahlberg is a good action star, but this is not HIS action movie. And what truly baffles me is that the Transformers franchise has to put up with this treatment. Consider this: if a superhero movie took drastic amounts of time away from the titular character to focus on uninteresting rehashed side characters, you'd hate that movie as a poor adaptation. But we have to put up with what I call the "Godzilla Syndrome" because our superheroes, now with 30 years of history and lineage to their names, just happen to be originally be based on a toyline? Is it because they don't think they can write alien robots as convincing characters, or that they don't want to try?
Either way, why do we have to grit our teeth and bear the fact that the most public branch of one of our favorite franchises, the one that likely dictates said brand's future, is at best just "okay" and at worst a tedious, unpleasant, poorly-written slog that shows no interest in changing or adapting? I'm not saying that we DESERVE more, but shouldn't we WANT more?
