Transformers: Age Of Extinction
A Bay to forget
Release Date: 17 November
2014 | 12 | Blu- ray/ DVD Director: Michael Bay Cast: Mark Wahlberg, Stanley Tucci, Kelsey Grammer, Nicola Peltz, Jack Reynor
There’s a new human cast, but otherwise it’s business as usual for Michael Bay’s unstoppable juggernaut of a movie franchise. Age Of Extinction is a by- the- numbers mixture of huge explosions, scrapping machines and nonsensical plot that feels like an insult to anybody caught in its substantial blast radius.
Having drawn the short straw of becoming Transformers’ new flesh- and- blood face, Mark Wahlberg fights insurmountable odds to bring some personality to his cardboard cut- out of an overprotective father. Alas, his family troubles aren’t the worst thing about the movie – though singling out the nadir is a near- impossible task. You could get annoyed that nothing makes a blind bit of sense. That Optimus Prime is now such a pompous blowhard that you want the robot baddies to kick his ass. That Kelsey Grammer and Stanley Tucci are slumming it with material way beneath their talents. That you could cut out the needless slow- mo and shave roughly half an hour off the excessive 165- minute runtime. Or you could just cover your ears and accept that when a movie makes over a billion dollars at the box office it must be doing something right. Right?
Extras: The Blu- ray ( rated) boasts a two- hour Making- Of doc, plus four featurettes ( 56 minutes) and a load of trailers. The DVD is vanilla.
John Goodman ( Hound) can also be heard in one of his classic roles – Bumblebee samples a line from The Big Lebowski.