I think that huge opening in China (biggest ever there for a foreign movie) just goes to show how big a movie market China is becoming.
They capitalised on the previous Transformers movies' popularity over there and set a large chunk of this movie in Hong Kong and are laughing all the way to the bank as a result.
I'd expect more big budget movies to be set or at least partly set in China now.
I've just realised that T4 is being released nationwide on 5th July. Just like Bad Neighbours before it, it's another film that won't be released on Friday as per the norm, but Saturday instead. Is this a new trend now?
I've checked the listings. There are showings all day Saturday and onwards but nothing for tomorrow.
I saw Transformers 4 this morning and I've not been as bored by a blockbuster for a long while.Its amazing how Michael Bay has spend billions on 4 Transformers films but not one can match the quality of the 1986 animated Transformers film!
The animated movie is one of my favourite movies of all time.
Wish they'd just hurry up and reboot the Transformers series without Bay's involvement, he's just rehashing the same thing over and over again. And with the reboot, Bumblebee should be the original VW Beetle along with all the other original characters.
It just annoys me how Bay has taken the great Transformers characters in the animated film and reduced them to these bland versions that appear in the films!
I saw Transformers 4 this morning and I've not been as bored by a blockbuster for a long while.Its amazing how Michael Bay has spend billions on 4 Transformers films but not one can match the quality of the 1986 animated Transformers film!
So only 1 person who's seen this by the looks of it. So did you like anything about it? Regarding the running time, does it fly by or does it feel like you're sitting there for ages?
Apologies to all "armchair intellectuals" out there that want to have a good sneer, but for a summer blockbuster it actually alright and personally, I quite enjoyed it. Seriously, who goes to a summer blockbuster expecting high art?
The first half of the movie is the better of the two when you have Prime and the Autobots being hunted down, while the second half suffers from just being bigger and bigger punch ups.
But all in all I've certainly seen far dull and less interesting blockbuster fare.
Hopefully when Bay finally leaves and the inevitable reboot occurs - we will actually get a film that actually focuses on the Transformers themselves and ditches the human sidekicks. Sadly I doubt it will happen though, Hollywood insists on a human we can emphasise with/root for.
Saw this last night and was entertained throughout. It's a CGI summer blockbuster with giant robots kicking lumps out of each other. As Brass says, there's worse out there.
Didn't see much of Galvatron (Frank Welker returning to the series (was Megatron, then Leonard Nimoy was Galvatron, then Welker in as Galvatron) why wasn't he in the first 3? Not that I minded Hugo Weaving) which was a shame. The main bad guy being Lockdown.
Should've had Cyclonus in there too, using the Su-47.
Wahlberg, Tucci and Grammar were all good. The teenagers not so much. Sophia Myles' part could have gone to anyone. 3 scenes, not much dialogue.
Apologies to all "armchair intellectuals" out there that want to have a good sneer, but for a summer blockbuster it actually alright and personally, I quite enjoyed it. Seriously, who goes to a summer blockbuster expecting high art?.
I don't expect high art, but I also don't want to sit through 2 h and 45 mins of this stupidly over long and over blown trash. A summer blockbuster can still be intelligent and enjoyable, it doesn't have to be made for the brain dead. Granted the CGI looks good, but the reviews I trust say it's rubbish so thats enough for me.
Apologies to all "armchair intellectuals" out there that want to have a good sneer, but for a summer blockbuster it actually alright and personally, I quite enjoyed it. Seriously, who goes to a summer blockbuster expecting high art?.
I don't expect high art, but I also don't want to sit through 2 h and 45 mins of this stupidly over long and over blown trash. A summer blockbuster can still be intelligent and enjoyable, it doesn't have to be made for the brain dead. Granted the CGI looks good, but the reviews I trust say it's rubbish so thats enough for me.
I don't expect high art, but I also don't want to sit through 2 h and 45 mins of this stupidly over long and over blown trash. A summer blockbuster can still be intelligent and enjoyable, it doesn't have to be made for the brain dead. Granted the CGI looks good, but the reviews I trust say it's rubbish so thats enough for me.
Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes seems to deliver the goods if you want an alternative (that isn't already out)
It is strange how a film can be both awesome *and* awful at the same time.
There were of course plenty of explosions and giant robots, and the sight of Optimus Prime riding into battle on Grimlock the enormous Dinobot was pretty cool.
But... although I did not remotely expect a tight script, solid story, well developed characters, or emotional involvement, I still left feeling disappointed.
I spent most of the 165 minutes (!) feeling completely detached, waiting for something to happen that would actually interest or excite me, and waiting for the end...
I don't expect high art, but I also don't want to sit through 2 h and 45 mins of this stupidly over long and over blown trash. A summer blockbuster can still be intelligent and enjoyable, it doesn't have to be made for the brain dead. Granted the CGI looks good, but the reviews I trust say it's rubbish so thats enough for me.
Exactly!
It is quite possible for a "summer blockbuster" to have great action and yet also be enjoyable and have interesting characters.
The Avengers managed it.
Hell, Bay's own Armageddon and The Rock had better characters than this, and were far more fun, while his third Transformers film, Dark of the Moon, may have been big and loud and stupid and had *awful* characters (e.g. Shia and Deep Wang) but at least it was far more fun and exciting than Age of Extinction...
Age of Extinction was just dull
Nothing in it was comparable to the Battle of Chicago from DOTM, and the whole thing was just long and tedious.
I think that huge opening in China (biggest ever there for a foreign movie) just goes to show how big a movie market China is becoming.
They capitalised on the previous Transformers movies' popularity over there and set a large chunk of this movie in Hong Kong and are laughing all the way to the bank as a result.
I'd expect more big budget movies to be set or at least partly set in China now.
"THE CENTRAL GOVERNMENT WILL PROTECT HONG KONG AT ALL COSTS!"
Well, that was a shocking disappointment. Saw this film earlier, and whilst it entertained, it was still quite poor. Lets take a look, shall we?
- Tessa, eye candy only, and yeah, it can be argued that Megan Fox and Rosie Huntington-Whiteley shared that intent, they appeared (both of them) to contribute to the direction and development of the film. The character of Tessa did not.
- Mark Wahlberg's acting on this was probably the poorest I've seen. Didn't do the job for me at all. As for a character? An inventor that lives on a farm and is struggling for cash suddenly manages to hack his way in to a top facility and then later turns into a one man soldier with an alien gun.
- The Boyfriend, he might as well not have been there. Honestly? You've got to give credit to his driving though, he managed to get from a farm to a built up area in a matter of seconds.
The only true Decepticon left is Megatron (now Galvatron), and he's seemingly indestructible because of how he's now made. I honestly thought all these new Decepticons were suppose to have been made the same way (indestructible) yet all of the other ones seemed to be able to be taken out, but not MegaGalvatron.
And then come the Creators... Honestly, I feel as though this film has turned into a general science fiction film with a couple of Robots rather than a film about Transformers. Michael Bay should have passed the torch on this one to someone that could tell a story. The film entertained (as it was meant) though it left a lot to be desired.
Those two Green Autobots, Hound and Crosshairs? They annoyed the hell out of me. I thought (initially) that Crosshairs was the former Decepticon we heard about, but then that turned out to be Drift (though I don't believe that was stated in the film?)
I hope we get some more background on the Dinobots in the next film. Why were they initially so reluctant to follow Prime, and why did they seemingly decide to join him so quickly after trying to take him out? Then they were just released to the wild? Where was Sludge and Snarl?
Furthermore, Dino & Sideswipe? They were cool Autobots. Why replace them?
Edit: Something else too; all of the military contingent that helped the Autobots in the first three films, are we suppose to believe that they just let the hunt (of the Autobots) happen? They're a force to be reckoned with themselves, and they have the hand of several government agencies. What are we suppose to make of their ... insignificance?
I haven't actually watched a film at the cinema for several years, but took my son and some friends to see this on the new IMAX in Castleford.
So, with that in mind, bearing in mind that we have no transformers history and viewed through the prism that we aren't particularly 'film-y', we all really enjoyed it. I didn't even know how long it was going to be, and even that didn't seem to drag...
An honest question. What makes people go to see these films? The trailer (awful)? The effects (look bad from the trailer)? The nostalgia value (still, really?)? All I can guess is escapism, but really, can you not see explosions etc. in better 'superhero' films? I honestly see no attraction. I watched the first and second films in the cinema and could not justify spending any more money on seeing any of the subsequent films due to the sub-quality of the films I'd watched.
Comments
Yip, that's what i meant to say. Thanks.
Michael Bay laughs all the way to the bank!
It's not a film for critics.
They capitalised on the previous Transformers movies' popularity over there and set a large chunk of this movie in Hong Kong and are laughing all the way to the bank as a result.
I'd expect more big budget movies to be set or at least partly set in China now.
I've checked the listings. There are showings all day Saturday and onwards but nothing for tomorrow.
Wish they'd just hurry up and reboot the Transformers series without Bay's involvement, he's just rehashing the same thing over and over again. And with the reboot, Bumblebee should be the original VW Beetle along with all the other original characters.
So only 1 person who's seen this by the looks of it. So did you like anything about it? Regarding the running time, does it fly by or does it feel like you're sitting there for ages?
It's only because I've got a Cineworld Unlimited Card that I went to see it by the way!
I was struggling to stay awake during it!
The first half of the movie is the better of the two when you have Prime and the Autobots being hunted down, while the second half suffers from just being bigger and bigger punch ups.
But all in all I've certainly seen far dull and less interesting blockbuster fare.
Hopefully when Bay finally leaves and the inevitable reboot occurs - we will actually get a film that actually focuses on the Transformers themselves and ditches the human sidekicks. Sadly I doubt it will happen though, Hollywood insists on a human we can emphasise with/root for.
Didn't see much of Galvatron (Frank Welker returning to the series (was Megatron, then Leonard Nimoy was Galvatron, then Welker in as Galvatron) why wasn't he in the first 3? Not that I minded Hugo Weaving) which was a shame. The main bad guy being Lockdown.
Should've had Cyclonus in there too, using the Su-47.
Wahlberg, Tucci and Grammar were all good. The teenagers not so much. Sophia Myles' part could have gone to anyone. 3 scenes, not much dialogue.
I don't expect high art, but I also don't want to sit through 2 h and 45 mins of this stupidly over long and over blown trash. A summer blockbuster can still be intelligent and enjoyable, it doesn't have to be made for the brain dead. Granted the CGI looks good, but the reviews I trust say it's rubbish so thats enough for me.
I don't expect high art, but I also don't want to sit through 2 h and 45 mins of this stupidly over long and over blown trash. A summer blockbuster can still be intelligent and enjoyable, it doesn't have to be made for the brain dead. Granted the CGI looks good, but the reviews I trust say it's rubbish so thats enough for me.
Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes seems to deliver the goods if you want an alternative (that isn't already out)
exactly, that looks more like a blockbuster made with a bit more thought than Transformers garbage. Michael Bay truly is a terrible film maker.
There were of course plenty of explosions and giant robots, and the sight of Optimus Prime riding into battle on Grimlock the enormous Dinobot was pretty cool.
But... although I did not remotely expect a tight script, solid story, well developed characters, or emotional involvement, I still left feeling disappointed.
I spent most of the 165 minutes (!) feeling completely detached, waiting for something to happen that would actually interest or excite me, and waiting for the end...
Exactly!
It is quite possible for a "summer blockbuster" to have great action and yet also be enjoyable and have interesting characters.
The Avengers managed it.
Hell, Bay's own Armageddon and The Rock had better characters than this, and were far more fun, while his third Transformers film, Dark of the Moon, may have been big and loud and stupid and had *awful* characters (e.g. Shia and Deep Wang) but at least it was far more fun and exciting than Age of Extinction...
Age of Extinction was just dull
Nothing in it was comparable to the Battle of Chicago from DOTM, and the whole thing was just long and tedious.
"THE CENTRAL GOVERNMENT WILL PROTECT HONG KONG AT ALL COSTS!"
- Tessa, eye candy only, and yeah, it can be argued that Megan Fox and Rosie Huntington-Whiteley shared that intent, they appeared (both of them) to contribute to the direction and development of the film. The character of Tessa did not.
- Mark Wahlberg's acting on this was probably the poorest I've seen. Didn't do the job for me at all. As for a character? An inventor that lives on a farm and is struggling for cash suddenly manages to hack his way in to a top facility and then later turns into a one man soldier with an alien gun.
- The Boyfriend, he might as well not have been there. Honestly? You've got to give credit to his driving though, he managed to get from a farm to a built up area in a matter of seconds.
The only true Decepticon left is Megatron (now Galvatron), and he's seemingly indestructible because of how he's now made. I honestly thought all these new Decepticons were suppose to have been made the same way (indestructible) yet all of the other ones seemed to be able to be taken out, but not MegaGalvatron.
And then come the Creators... Honestly, I feel as though this film has turned into a general science fiction film with a couple of Robots rather than a film about Transformers. Michael Bay should have passed the torch on this one to someone that could tell a story. The film entertained (as it was meant) though it left a lot to be desired.
Those two Green Autobots, Hound and Crosshairs? They annoyed the hell out of me. I thought (initially) that Crosshairs was the former Decepticon we heard about, but then that turned out to be Drift (though I don't believe that was stated in the film?)
I hope we get some more background on the Dinobots in the next film. Why were they initially so reluctant to follow Prime, and why did they seemingly decide to join him so quickly after trying to take him out? Then they were just released to the wild? Where was Sludge and Snarl?
Furthermore, Dino & Sideswipe? They were cool Autobots. Why replace them?
Edit: Something else too; all of the military contingent that helped the Autobots in the first three films, are we suppose to believe that they just let the hunt (of the Autobots) happen? They're a force to be reckoned with themselves, and they have the hand of several government agencies. What are we suppose to make of their ... insignificance?
I guess the sexism and statutory rape jokes are the gherkins.
So, with that in mind, bearing in mind that we have no transformers history and viewed through the prism that we aren't particularly 'film-y', we all really enjoyed it. I didn't even know how long it was going to be, and even that didn't seem to drag...
How depressing. Why cinema going lemmings continue to support this garbage I do not know.