The Energon Pub

[-Kanrabat-]

All the reviews I've seen pretty much confirm what I suspected: It's going to be every bit as crappy as every other Michael Bay film. I'm voting with my dollars, and refuse to see it, or TMNT, until I can do so for free on DVD at the library or Redbox. I only hope enough other fans of both franchises do the same to prevent more of these abominations posing as movies.

BUAHAHAHAHA! Not a chance.
Beside, there's a difference between normal critics and the general public. Critics want to see Citizen Kane. The public only want to go for a ride. You go to see this movie to have fun, not to have deep toughts about the significance of life.
Have you read the thread? About all of us love it. Some liked it more, some liked it less, but the overall response of the average Seibertronian is positive.

No matter, if you dont want to see a movie and you go anyway, it will be with a negative mindset. So, you will never appreciate what's on screen, no matter what it is.

[ZeroWolf]

Hmmm...This confirms my suspicion that this movie is like marmite. Seems people either like it or hate it thus can't agree if it's better or worse then DOTM. If I can I'll still watch this in the theaters, or at least watch it on bluray. Still I wonder how it can have such a polarizing effect.

[Nemesis Maximo]

To your point in your review Rodimus, I wouldn't call it the BEST of the TF Films, simply because the first one will always hold a special place in my heart. It may have been goofy racist, and goofy, but seeing it opening day at the age of 14 was - IS - one of my happiest memories.

But this probably beats DOTM as my number two fav. Granted, the Dinobots were ALL wrong, but they didn't ruin the film. And Lockdown was a badass. Honestly, I think the dinobots actually weighed the film down more than helping it. But it was still cool seeing "Grimlock" transform on that bridge.

[Gemini220]

For those who continue to whine & complain they'll never be satisfied?! WTH, it's a science FICTIONAL movie!

[Rodimus Prime]

Age of Extinction had the biggest opening day at the box office this year! $41.6 million!

http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=120056

And I love this comment on the article:

This is Transformers. Its visuals, sounds and explosions are like sex for your eyes and ears. It'll never stop being supported by people. And you're just going to have to accept that. Transformers is here to stay.

[FurStreak]

Alright, so this entire post will be nothing but spoilers and a theory I have about the movie and its sequel in the near future.


For those of you who don't know, there was no 'after the credits' video, which kind of sucked, because I was looking for some clarification to some parts of the movie that left me stumped. But also let room for my theory below.

During the beginning of the movie when Walberg purchased Prime, and Prime first transformed. Optimus stated that his weapon systems were malfunctioning. Walberg proceeded to tell Optimus that he had removed it because it was badly damaged.

Later in the movie toward the end, Lockdown stated that the Transformers' creator wanted Prime, and that was why he was taken alive instead of offline.

The reason behind this is clouded in mystery. We don't know why, but I have a theory.

As you know, the creator (True creator) of the Transformers, and all of Cybertron, was the All Spark. But who created the All Spark? And why would they care to ask a bounty hunter to find Optimus Prime?

Is it clicking in yet? No? Let me elaborate a little more.

In the second movie, Sam uses the sliver of the All Spark to bring Jetfire back from the dead. This would eliminate the remaining All Spark, correct? Not really....

Later, Jetfire combines with Optimus Prime so he can take down The Fallen and Megatron as well (Megatron runs away to fight another day in the third movie)

I believe that the creators of the All Spark want that shard, and Optimus still has it as part of himself, along with the Matrix of Leadership.

Do you remember me saying earlier in this that Walberg had removed the thing from Optimus? Well, it was never clear if he had replaced it or not, so I think he may have left a part out if he did replace it, which might be the shard.

This leaves room in the second movie for Optimus to find the Creators, get his ass kicked, then they come back to earth to try and find the shard. This would also give Walberg ample opportunity to do some epic stuff in between the movies and build a new storyline aside from the main one, which will give him some history while Optimus is flying across the galaxy to find the creators.


What do you guys think? Post your thoughts on my theory. I want to see what else we can think of that could be in the next sequel.

[dreadwing95]

i just got finished with watching the movie. i enjoyed it quite a lot. galvatron was cool and seems more of a capable leader than before and has learned from his prior mistakes (leaving when he had no chance of winning). optimus and the autobots were pretty cool. loved hound, bumblebee was cool as always, hound was badass, drift was amazing with his swords and his triple change ability, and crosshairs was a little over confident and cynical(which i dont mind at all). the movie was a bit long but full of great action, good special effects and fun. might i add poor ratchet my god his death was horrible. i almost cried. almost forgot lockdown was probably the most badass villain in the movie series. kind of wish he lived a little longer. i really didnt mind the new transformations at all. its just a new way to transform faster and greater with ease. humans are always about making it easier for ourselves. as for the humans. i didnt mind any of them. i liked all of the new characters even shane. i give the movie an 7/10.

[FortyDeuce]

I'm not going to deny that the action and the visuals in Age of Extinction are great. If there is one sure thing, if Michael Bay or Zack Snyder are on a movie, you will be entertained.

I liked parts of the story, but to me it was not delivered very well. The movie was way too long, and aspects of the story could have been condensed and combined. The weakest part for me was Mark Wahlberg's story. I don't it wasn't needed. That hit me once it was revealed that the head of Megatron was really manipulating Stanley Tucci's character. That was pretty much lifted from Transformers Animated. Tucci's character should have been the dad. I liked the aspect of humans making their own transformers, and that should have been explored more.

[Dagon]

I know there's no real point in this, but here goes.

Every time we've had a movie, the posts on here are the same thing. Don't listen to the critics, see it for yourself and then make your decision. Then, if you didn't like the movie, there's something wrong with you. The first part presents the illusion of it being ok to have an opinion on these films so long as it's yours and not something you're coming to because of some fabled over-reliance on the opinions of professional critics; the second presents the truth that the fandom really only accepts one answer.
I have yet to see a positive review of this movie anywhere but this board.
I went to the movie expecting very, very little, and somehow I was let down.
The movie was way too long and didn't really accomplish anything. I felt like there were too many things going on at once, and yet nothing really happened. It was the same in terms of the live action movies in that here was some plot point introduced that felt like it just fizzled out. So much Dinobot promotion, and then next to no Dinobot payoff.
Even the action, you know, the stuff we're told to believe is the main driving force of these movies, since they're 'just' summer blockbusters and shouldn't be taken seriously, felt like I'd seen it all before. Open road chase/battle? Yeah, we've had that several times. Battle in Chicago? Yeah, that was so familiar I couldn't even muster interest.
If the action is supposed to be the big draw, and I'm supposed to just enjoy the action of these movies rather than care that they have next to no cohesion or character, AoE really failed there. I've at least been able to feel some action movie excitement in the other three, but this movie was just boring. When things finally shifted to China, I found myself actively wishing the movie would end soon.
Even the actual robots were less interesting to me.
I must say that Wahlberg is a huge improvement over Shia, and the acting was pretty good. The editing was awful, with things just changing from one frame to the next and things like Galvatron breaking free while half of the humans in the scene stood there like there was nothing going on. Or guards just staring off while Bee and Drift are shooting up the hallway of an office building.

My honest opinion of this movie is that the best thing about it was before I went into the theater, my girlfriend showed me a video of del Toro announcing new Pacific Rim material coming in the future.

[-Kanrabat-]

Oh yeah, one thing I --amazingly-- forgot to mention. WE FINALLY HAVE A GALVATRON (Megatron) TRUCK VS OPTIMUS PRIME TRUCK DUEL/PURSUIT! That was a thing I wished for so much that would happen in DotM but they didnt deliver. Now, with AoE, I got my wish!

[Peridot]

I don't see what makes something like The Avengers better than AOE in the critic's eyes. The Avengers had an even shittier story, one dimensional characters you knew would live in the end, even more over the top humor that didn't even have anything to do with the rest of the movie, and the action didn't even start until 20 minutes before the end of the movie, and everything before those final 20 minutes is boring as all hell. Even that last 20 minutes was basically a ripoff of DOTM's last hour. I'm sick of people talking **** about this movie, when they praise things that are even worse than what they give this movie crap for.

It's because people think hating Michael Bay is cool.

[Peridot]

I wonder who that hand in the beginning of the movie belonged to...

As I said earlier...

Yep. It kinda reminded me of an organic version of either The Fallen or Alpha Q's hand claw thingies.
I can only imagine what a Bayformers Quintesson would look like.

[Mindmaster]

I wonder who that hand in the beginning of the movie belonged to...

As I said earlier...

Yep. It kinda reminded me of an organic version of either The Fallen or Alpha Q's hand claw thingies.
I can only imagine what a Bayformers Quintesson would look like.

Probably butt-ugly.

[Flakmaster]

For those who continue to whine & complain they'll never be satisfied?! WTH, it's a science FICTIONAL movie!

Would you say the same for Battlefield Earth?

Something being fictional and scientifically inaccurate doesn't excuse shoddy filmmaking and gaping plotholes.

(Not to imply that this TF film is irredeemable, as I have yet to see it. Just pointing out how bad this argument is.)

[Burn]

Hmmm...This confirms my suspicion that this movie is like marmite. Seems people either like it or hate it thus can't agree if it's better or worse then DOTM. If I can I'll still watch this in the theaters, or at least watch it on bluray. Still I wonder how it can have such a polarizing effect.

But that's like every movie. People either love it or hate it. I don't get why people seem to think it's just a Transformers movies thing. It's not. It's being human, it's having your own individual opinion, your own likes and dislikes.

The problem is, some people simply cannot accept someone liking or disliking something different to them.

I know there's no real point in this, but here goes.

Every time we've had a movie, the posts on here are the same thing. Don't listen to the critics, see it for yourself and then make your decision. Then, if you didn't like the movie, there's something wrong with you.

No, you're being one-sided. Derogatory comments like that come from BOTH SIDES of the fence and are made by a small minority of people who prance around screaming their opinions like they're facts.

Emphasis on small minority, and it's always the same ones sprouting the same lines verbatim. Just ignore them.

[Gemini220]

For those who continue to whine & complain they'll never be satisfied?! WTH, it's a science FICTIONAL movie!

Would you say the same for Battlefield Earth?

Something being fictional and scientifically inaccurate doesn't excuse shoddy filmmaking and gaping plotholes.

(Not to imply that this TF film is irredeemable, as I have yet to see it. Just pointing out how bad this argument is.)

Not interested in that movie plus once again IT'S FICTION!

I don't take movies personal like that, it's more important things in life to worry about.

[Wolfman Jake]

Just saw Age of Extinction this afternoon with my partner. We loved it. It's easily the best entry in the live-action Transformers film series since the first one (perhaps it's the best yet). The Autobots finally had some real personality and the Transformers in general got a lot more screen time. The Autobots didn't just bumble through everything, but managed to be an effective strike force. The humans worked EFFECTIVELY with the Autobots for a change. The human drama was tolerable (but still had too much screen time). The low-brow humor and veiled racism were relatively minimal for a Michael Bay film. I think it's all too plain to see the fix is in with the film critics. They are determined not to like the movie for one reason or another.

[Drift_X]

Drift - Samurai face looks stupid.

Not to sound biased here, but that is actually how a traditional samurai kabuto (helmet) and facemask looks like. So coming from someone familiar with it, it actually looks badass.

[Noideaforaname]

I'm disappointed the fan-theory that Drift's face was actually a mask hiding a Decepticon bug-face wasn't true.

[chuckdawg1999]

Here's a thought, it took 3 blockbusters to get the budget for a mostly robot focused movie.

[SentinelPrime878]

Just saw Transformers 4 movie today. It was a great way to celebrate my 51st birthday today!

Now for the review:

I HIGHLY RECOMMEND this movie to both non-transformers fans and hardcore fans! In my opinion this movie is the best of all the previous ones. Lockdown is a great character in this movie as a bounty hunter. Optimus Prime is awesome as always. He is a more angry Prime, but rightly so, you will see why when you watch it. I really liked Hound, and John Goodman did a great job voicing him. Drift was a surprising good character. Some critics said they did not like his face, I thought it worked well. The Dinobots worked out great in the movie. How Prime got Grimlock to be submissive similar to a G1 transformers episode. Thought that was a great homage touch. The other Dinobots just stood around to see who would dominate.

The CGI in this entire movie is awesome! The human-created Transformers, the way they transform is really cool! Loved Megatron/Galvatron truck mode is great! I got the Galvatron figure today for my collection. As for the human characters: Loved Mark Walberg! Thought he is much better than Shio LaBeouf, in my opinion. Daughter was not only a MAJOR BABE, but a decent actress. The humor in this movie was much better than in previous movies. The human villians: Kelsey Grammer, Stanley Tucci and Titus Welliver were all good too. Overall, you will like the action scenes in this movie. Bay slowed down some of the fighting scenes between the transformers where your eyeballs can keep up and not explode like in the other movies.

I give this movie 5 out of 5 stars! Plan to see it a couple of more times. Sure I will see things I did not see the first time.

[sicstep]

ok....wasn't the biggest fan of this movie....sorry, guys!

I went in knowing that the story was gonna be ****...turn off my brain, enjoy the 'Formers....buuuuut.....it couldn't be helped....and here goes my overview of the film...roughly....

my Cons:

First of all....that damned EFFING SONG!!! my friends and I couldn't help but laugh out loud every time they played that DAMNED song! lol! c'mon guys, U know what i'm talkin' about! lol! it was just soooo damn cheesy!!! I didn't need that in the movie! WE didn't need that in the movie!! once, sure....but about 4 more times?!?! really?? that time could've been used more wisely on the 'Formers! really....

Second....No mention of who, what, wheres of the Witwickys....like they just vanished from the Bayverse! (please, correct me if I missed it in the movie!) Sam was such an integral part of the Transformers' lives that they weren't even worth a mention 5 years after Chicago?? did 'Bee just completely desert Sam??? again...an explanation of that cast would've been more ideal than that repeating song....just sayin....

Third.....inconsistencies.....there were soooo many of them in this movie.....enough for me to question "what the hell? how'd that...? wait what??"
it was also enough to deter my enjoyment of the movie.....guess I couldn't really shut my brain off for long! lol

Fourth (don't hate me too much, folks)....Optimus Prime....that's right...the badass that he was in this movie....was a fault for me....He wasn't a leader anymore....not in this movie...what made him great was his compassion for all life. He's ALMOST like Superman....will put his life in danger before any other life....in this movie, he was just a soldier....a COMMANDING soldier...but far from the Optimus Prime leadership we're used to....I get it, he's pissed at the humans....but again...the way he acts in this movie almost exempts the fact that he's the Prime that he SHOULD be. He shows lil old Optimus here and there...but then there he goes on a rampage...he killed. a. freaking. human. Prime would NEVER take a life like that! a true leader like Prime would have a more reasonable way to have diffused that situation! (and yes, he was helping Cade, but still....I feel like he could've handled that better!) I was just disappointed in how they made him into this very vengeful "leader".

Fifth....DINOBOTS....no talking?? approx. like 10 minutes of screen time and then Prime sends them off..."U R now free"....BYE!! lol!!!! Prime just released GIANT ROBOT DINOSAURS into the population of the world!!! THAT'S NOT EVEN HIS WORLD!!! HAHAHAHA!!! He thinks that they're gonna be easily tameable???? Good luck with that humans! Just pray they stay out of human population! :/

And last of all....all the minor things that also weren't explained.....Drift...triple changer....how? when? where? why? Joshua went from almost "evil" to agent simmons in almost a matter of seconds....how did Attkinson contact Lockdown??.....NO. DECEPTICONS. 2! Lockdown (if he's actually counted as one...and Galvatron??? who's in the movie for like 10 minutes too??....we better see more of them in the next one!!!).....crosshairs....why, out of ALLLLLL the other popular Autobots that r out there, that haven't had screen time yet, was CROSSHAIRS chosen??....it made me going "who again?".....annnnnd bumblebee still can't talk....wait...didn't he wtalk at the end of the first movie??? what happened there?? lol!.....annnnnnd that's it.....for the most part at least! (these r just things I didn't like....I'm obviuosly gonna get some disappointed comments....but hey, it's all good! just wanted to add my 2 cents!)

my Pros...

Hound aka Bulklhead....great character.....wish he did a lil more "Hound-like" things...like being the recon guy that he's actually supposed to be!
but all in all...a fresh character to add to the team!

speaking of teams....the autobots seem to like to roll in that odd number of 5! and this team was pretty cool! i enjoyed drift and hound! and as for the dinobots, i enjoyed what screen time they DID have....albeit the lack of their voices, but we can't have it all now, can we? lol!

Good autobot team to kick some butt.

the CGI, for the most part is ALWAYS amazing! it never ceases to amaze me to watch the 'Bots transform! altho I wasn't too entirely sure how I felt about the new "decepticons'" transformations....

Sound FX, always loud and crisp!

Annnnnnd that just about wraps my "overview" of the movie. Love it or hate it, it's just one opinion...I don't expect any agreeance with this, but I just wanted to put it out there that this was almost as enjoyable to watch as somebody playing an RPG game....going thru ALLL the missions....backtracking....leveling up....at least RPGs have a more COHERENT plot that I could sit thru! lol!

Anyway, I apologize for this long rant! I really wanted to enjoy this movie but it fell way too short for me to enjoy. The 'Bots weren't enough to save this movie. Also, don't get it twisted....I LOVE watching Transformers on a big screen! it's awesome! I guess I was expecting the faults from the first 3 movies be at least wiped clean with this one. But oh well, what can U do....it's Michael Bay.....In about 10 years, I'm expecting a reboot, done PROPER! No Michael Bay involvement...AT ALL!!! that's just what i'm seeing happening in the next decade.

Again, I hope this was informative and I just wanted to share with u guys, my point of view! hope u enjoyed some of my points!

sicstep out!

[Wolfman Jake]

I think it needs to be said, but Optimus Prime, even though he killed a human being, did so for all the right reasons. He saved Cade's life. Fraiser Crane was going to kill Cade. Optimus put a stop to it in about the only way possible from the situation he was in, AND it put Optimus' own life in jeopardy to do so. Lockdown totally got the drop on Prime right after he shot Fraiser.

[chuckdawg1999]

I'm sorry, but in no world is killing Frasier to save Marky Mark ok.

[It Is Him]

Loved it. Especially that one part.