‘Transformers Age of Extinction’ sobrang haba pero waging-wagi pa rin sa aksiyon

ALTHOUGH it’s way too long, “Transformers Age of Extinction” still thrills. It was movie night for us last Thursday, as always sa Greenbelt 3 na again as usual ay all five cinemas showing the same movie.

Specific lang kami this time to watch the fourth installation of the Hasbro remake in a 3D dahil we remember that the franchise is really best watched in 3D, the first movie we really recommended watching in this format.

And so kahit very early kami past 7 p.m. pa lang, we bought the 8:30 p.m. cinema 4 3D ticket and while our time away eating our dinner and having some me-time at the spa.

By the way, one suggestion lang, don’t get the last row pala kapag 3D dahil minimum enjoyment na lang ang mapapanood mo but then we couldn’t choose a better seat being almost everything taken.

Three years after the last “Transformer: Dark Side of the Moon”, outcast na ang mga Autobots and being hunted not just by the Decepticons but also by the humans.

Wala nang Chicago na sinira ng last Transformer wars, wala na rin obviously ang original cast and characters of the first three stories as this focuses on small time scientist Cade Yeager (Mark Walhberg), his daughter Tessa Yeager (Nicola Peltz) and his assistant Lucas (TJ Miller).

In trying to buy scrap, Cade found a very old truck and bought it not knowing it was Optimus Prime himself, the leader of the Autobots na nagtatago nang lahat.

With Joshua Joyce (Stanley Tucci’s) big company bent on creating its own transformer nang nagkaroon ito ng deal with a corrupt government official kapalit ng “seed” given by the Decepticon leaders that want to terraform earth again, the war has started and so BumbleBee and the rest of the transformers including one that “died” in the last movie.

The first “Transformers” movie really wowed us and we remember our glowing review. Every time the truck or the car transformed into a transformer, gusto mong pumalakpak dahil the CGI was so fast you’d really by impressed how it looked easy on the transformation part.

The second edition Revenge of the Fallen, also impressed us, kasi may mga bagong machines. The third movie, without Megan Fox (as if straight boy kami), we’re not that interested na although it has the best storyline when director/producer Michael Bay took it to the moon, something new pa rin.

We gave “Transformer: Age of Extinction” a chance to redeem its franchise and we’re not disappointed naman. For one, Mark is a better actor and more likeable one than the original star Shia LeBeouf.

That he agreed to portray a father of 17-year old daughter whose “shorts get shorter by the second,” he seems to be more human.
But this is the first reason kung bakit humaba ang movie.

Michael Bay decided to really dwell on the story of the human being from Cade’s family to the CIA and company of Joshua. In another type of movie, it’s a welcome development but in something where the fans wants lot of action and special effects, once in a while, nakakabagal ito.

The second reason, Michael also decided to show a lot, destroy a lot and went to a lot of location. Hindi siya nagkasya sa Chicago, Illinois and the whole of Texas, nang patapos na ang movie, nag-Hong Kong and Beijing pa sila to introduce yet another group of transformers, the dragon types.

We clocked the movie in over two and a half hours and with one of our eyes having problem being opened for a long time, paglabas namin sa sinehan, sure enough, pulang-pula na ito. Remember 3D pa ang movie.

No, it’s not a bad thing to extend the story to different parts of the world or that more character development but if only the movie cut back on the action for which it has plenty, baka mas naging tight ito.

Big example ang rooftop to the death battle of Mark and the second main kontrabida, CIA henchman James Savoy (Titus Welliver). That was around 10 minutes of action, up and down the rooftop and it could have been shortened.

The final war between Optimus Prime and the “resurrected” Decepticon at the end of the movie was quite long too and what is so funny about it, with giant robots, guess kung sino ang nakapatay sa kontrabidang transformer, we will give you a clue; a father and daughter team.

Still, these are small cons compared to a lot of pros for the movie. It has so many pros Michael Bay’s penchant for flying kurtina he first used noon sa first movie niya na “Pearl Harbor”, the one na nagliliparan sa foreground and background habang may nangyayaring action, ginawa niya ulit dito kaya natawa kami.

Go the CR first before watching “Transformer: Age of Extinction” and bring food because the length of the movie will really be surprisingly but yes, it’s still thrilling.

( Photo credit to EAS )