Transformers: Age of Extinction

It is with a heavy heart that I tell you Transformers: Age of Extinction is Michael Bay's most disappointing movie since Pearl Harbor.

This is especially disheartening considering Bay's last movie, Pain & Gain, was so great. I realize the two movies have absolutely nothing to do with each other, but I hoped that P&G had given my man enough of a rejuvenation to make a fourth robot flick feel worth it.

Turns out it didn't, as Age of Extinction's biggest problem is that Bay seems more bored with this world than anyone else. Which is weird because I've never gotten that feeling from any of his movies. I could always feel 100% enthusiasm from him even in his worst movies, which at their worst delivered awesome action and/or ridiculous visuals.

The first three Transformer movies are no different. I find the second one, Revenge of the Fallen to be my least favorite of those three, mainly due to an insane amount of non action and exposition scenes in the film that even I couldn't make myself care about despite my love for everything Bay. But the first one is a lot of fun and the third has an entire hour of Bay demolishing Chicago that ranks among the best action the man has put on film.


But Bay's lack of enthusiasm for Age of Extinction just oozes off the screen. It's baffling really, because there is a lot of stuff in this fourth film that would seem to be an upgrade from the previous installments. For example, he has an entirely new human cast here. I'm not the Shia hater a lot of you seem to be, but it's hard to deny that Mark Wahlberg is a step up in the leading man department. The dude gives 100% every time, no matter how good or terrible the movie might be, and his previous collaboration with the Bay was a career highlight for both men. 

Also gone is a lot of the silly and out of place gross humor that was a big part of the first three movies thanks to Shia's on screen parents and other random characters. Don't get me wrong, there is still a lot of silly and out of place humor in the film, just not as much. This stuff never really bothered me though, because the human characters were never a strong point of the franchise. It's called Transformers, after all, not Humans. Anyway, I digress.

My point is, it seemed like Bay was trying to keep things interesting, at least for himself, in order to keep him from doing the same ol' thing he had been with this gigantic robotic franchise.

It doesn't work though, as the movie is boring. Along with his general disinterest in the movie, it also feels like Bay wasn't even interested in trying to top himself action wise, which propels a lot of the fun I get from most of his movies. For instance, if I could put it into a dialogue of how Bay challenged himself on the first three films, I imagine it would go something like this:

"Oh, you like my action movies huh? Well check this out, I've added giant robots!"

"Oh you liked that, did you? Well check out part 2 where I destroy one of Earths' greatest monuments with giant robot balls!"

"Can't get enough, can you? Alright you fuck, watch me murder thousands of people and lay waste to an entire city while I'm at it!"

But with the fourth one, Bay just says,"Here's some more."


So disappointing.

In the end, I don't dislike Transformers: Age of Extinction, but compared to other Bayhem flicks, this one has a tough time reaching the high/low standards I've come to expect from the man. 

I still love Michael Bay though, and I hope he's done with this franchise. Here's wishing that his next movie is something more along the lines of Pain & Gain. Small, insane, and filled with depravity. That or Bad Boys III.


Oh, sidebar. I also just realized how insane the cast of every Michael Bay movie is except for the Transformer films. The dude got people like Nicolas Cage, Sean Connery, Will Smith, Martin Lawrence, Ewan McGregor, Scarlett Johannson, Bruce Willis, Steve Buscemi, William Fichtner, Billy Bob Thornton, Ben Affleck, Michael Clarke Duncan, Owen Wilson, Peter Stormare, Ed Harris, Liv Tyler, The Rock. INSANE. I know there were some great actors who popped up in the robot movies too, but none got to have as much fun or be as memorable as they were in his other movies. Here's also hoping he can get back to amazing casts as well.

Edge of Tomorrow

I promise I'll do my best to not make this post one giant love letter to Tom Cruise, except that I promise nothing and that's probably what's going to happen.


Really though, Edge of Tomorrow is great and Tom Cruise is a big reason as to why.

In the film, Cruise plays an officer in the U.S. Army whose job it is to sell the current war on an invading alien race to the public. He's a PR man plain and simple, with not a soldier's bone in his body. And when a British General hires him to sell an upcoming surprise attack that wold require him to be front and center during the battle, Cruise panics and his attempts to get out of the job get him marked as a deserter. Before he knows it, he's been shipped off and getting prepped for battle 24 hours before the big invasion.

Oh, and after dying within minutes of crashing ashore on the battlefield, Cruise discovers that every time he dies he wakes up in the same spot exactly 24 hours before before the attack.

This is all information given within the first 15-20 minutes of the film. That's a lot of set up, not to mention the number of characters we meet in that short period as well. Of course, that's part of the beauty of Edge of Tomorrow. The flick moves at an amazing pace but it never sacrifices quality to do so. Everything and everyone is set up and introduced in an exciting and easy to remember way. Even the squad that Cruise is 'assigned' to has a moment of some sort to be remembered and recognized. Even if you can't remember their name, at least they stand out in some way.

Also, the movie has to do a lot of information dumping, which can usually slam the breaks on any momentum a film has going. Not Edge of Tomorrow though. The film uses it's time loop gimmick to drop those pieces of information little by little so that as a viewer you're never feeling like you're listening to Basil Exposition, instead making the discovery part of the fun.


The thing that surprised me the most about Edge of Tomorrow though, was it's sense of humor. I had heard that the movie was funny, but I was still taken aback at how early and often the humor was displayed, and the flick is all the better for it. Director Doug Liman ( Swingers, Mr. & Mrs. Smith) takes extra enjoyment in killing Cruise in every way imaginable. There is one particular gag involving Cruise attempting to sneak under a moving truck that almost had me in tears.

Granted, the film is not a comedy, and it somehow manages to balance the fun tone with some actual stakes.
 And this is where Cruise and Emily Blunt shine. The film has one goal. Stop the invasion. Simple as it might sound, Cruise and Blunt both give a sense of urgency to the proceedings and completely sell it to the viewers. Blunt in particular is a bad ass here, continuing to build her Sci-Fi credentials with this and the amazing Looper.


And this is where the Cruise love fest starts. His character, Cage, is the first time in a while where Cruise gets to play a bit of a doofus, at least in the beginning. He perfected the bad ass persona long ago, but here he gets to start off as a corporate loving coward and he relishes the chance. His enthusiasm for any role is always infectious, and even more so here as we see him die so many times and in so many different ways and it feels like a great comeuppance for his cowardice in the beginning. Also, it's hilarious and Cruise knows it.

Seriously though, Cruise is such a good performer that puts everything into every role and Edge of Tomorrow is no different. Who else can go from PR slime to ultimate bad ass hero within 20 minutes?

Look, Edge of Tomorrow is great. It's smart, funny, filled with exciting action and has two lively lead performances from its stars. SO GO SEE IT ALREADY!