Film Review: “Transformers: Age of Extinction”
Photo Credit: Paramount Pictures
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And the award for most blatant attempt to capitalize on the Chinese middle class’s affinity for all things big, Western, and blow-uppy goes to . . . Michael Bay.
If ever there was any doubt that most big-budget movies these days are made primarily for the international audience (and in particular, the Chinese audience of literally billions of moviegoers), Michael Bay is here to erase that doubt. This film panders with such unapologetic and shameless sycophancy to everything Chinese that you half expect to get a fortune cookie at the end of the nearly three hour ordeal.
Quality-wise, it’s bad. Even for a Michael Bay movie. Even for a Michael Bay Transformers movie. And that’s saying something. The backstory involves Mark Wahlberg as a down on his luck Texan scientist (or lab dude) whose 17-year-old daughter is interesting because she isn’t Megan Fox. An evil human corporate honcho (played by Stanley Tucci) wants to harness all the power of the Transformers because . . . well, he’s evil and that’s what evil dudes do. Kelsey Grammer appears inexplicably as Frasier Crane 3.0.
To call this 3-hour series of explosions a “movie” would be willful misleading on my part, so let’s just call it what it is: the first in a line of desperately bad attempts by Hollywood cash in on the burgeoning Chinese market of moviegoers and movie financiers. It’s so egregious, it’s embarrassing.
And, sadly, Michael Bay is poised to cash in and make yet another brain-drain of a trilogy. Proceed at your own risk.
