Now that TF4 is out of theatres, a review of the series

[joshimus]

I have been wanting to write a review for TF4 since I first saw it, but now that I have downloaded a pretty damn good copy (until I buy the dvd) and had a chance to re-watch it, why not share my thoughts on the series.
First and foremost, I do not care if you like/dislike the movie. Options are opinion, so keep it respectful.
Secondly, I am a "moments" movie viewer. If a movie has enough memorable moments for me, I enjoy the movie. I generally watch movies at home by skipping the boring parts and unless I watch a movie with people, that really the only time I watch it again in its entirety.
P.S., Will have SPOILERS

It's a long time ago....again, and we have what we assume are Quintessons seeding the planet with metallic stuff and wiping out the dinosaurs. Now, I liked the "creators" showing up but did we really need a FOURTH reason why Earth and Transformers are connected? The time lines are so messed up and this is really where the plot holes take the most affect...cause no one knows WTF is going on.
First we had the Cube, then Fallen has this device in the Pyramid and needs the Matrix followed by Megatron and Sentinels plan to meet up at Earth, kick back and then move Cybertron on over. Megatron REALLY loves leaving doors open cause he's got the Allspark in one card, the plan with Fallen in another card, and his plan with Sentinel in another card. Now we have a new card, and though Megatron is technically not part of that equation, he becomes part of it by seeking the Seed. So I guess he is playing that card too. HOLY SHIT!. Damn writers. Millions of years here, thousands of years there, 100's of years here. Is one day on Cybertron 1000 years on Earth? WHAT IS THE TIMELINE. Okay, rant over, but it does confuse the hell out of me.

So, we have a new cast of characters several years after TF3 and things have become very bad for the Autobots. Optimus has warned his fellow comrades to hide and not trust humans, which makes me wonder if Sam and Lenox survived being so Autobot friendly. You can feel the the serious tone of the humans actions during Ratchets entire scene. Personally, that was hard to watch and I LOVED Ratchets line "What's wrong with you humans" as they keep firing at him after his leg is blown off. It shows the brutality of Cemetery Wind, defining them as the "bad guys". Then enters Lockdown, an onscreen presence that I really enjoyed.
Enter Cade, Tessa and Lucas, our new "heros" characters. In all honesty, the one thing I would complain about with Cade is his "inventor" status.
I think it would have been better to either have Cade a brilliant Mechanic or have Cade an Inventor where his inventions didn't suck balls. This is where the disbelief really kicks in. That aside, I really like how he chose to not fear Optimus and helped repair him. This set him apart from the other humans including Tessa and Lucas.

By now we have learned of Attinger (Kelsey Grammar) and Savoy (Titus Welliver) are the main human antagonists and their motives, which are kinda fuzzy, especially Savoy whom says "I lost a sister in Chicago" to Ratchet when he KNOWS Ratchet fought to protect humans. So, he's just a bad guy no matter what, blinded by hate. Same goes with Attinger, just mean motherf***ers.

Go back to Cade and co, they are now on run and we meet up with fellow Autobots, whom are kinda assholes, including Bee. Thankfully that wears off, except on Crosshairs who remains a dick the whole movie.
Que Joshua Joyce (Stanley Tucci) who seems like an eccentric brilliant power hungry guy with plans on replacing Cybertronians with his creations. Now, at first he's a big douche and he seems like he should be part of the Attinger/Savoy crowd, not a likeable character, but not lost.

So, Autobots are pissed, Cade is trying to get their lives back and Joyce tells Prime "We don't need you anymore" and then the big Galvatron battle happens..and by big I mean brief, but was still pretty cool, but really it was Lockdown that stole that scene.
Skip forward, do the whole spaceship thing, on to China.
So, now that things have gone to shit for Attinger and Savoy, Galvatron has an army and Joyce listened to Cade's warning, things get intense and the battle begins, lets get the Dinobots...FINALLY.

Dinobots, oh the Dinobots. Ya know, for a movie promoting Dinobots, much like Godzilla, they needed their stars. Now, I LOVE the scene where Optimus battles Grimlock. The way Prime tries to talk to them about letting him lead, the score, the transformation scene, the "I was expecting a giant car" from Drift, it was fantastic. So, now that they have that, why did they not use them properly?
It suffered from TF2-3 syndrome.

In the first movie, you have the McGuffin Allspark. That's fine, we get a mass shifting transformation and the Robots are really your CGI special effects for the entire film. Since they lost at the Oscars, it feels like they keep trying to amp up the effects and this is where things fall flat. Now, this is just my opinion, obviously not fact.
The biggest problem with ROTF, DOTM and AOE is that they keep adding these unnecessary BIG wastes of CGI.
In ROTF, we get Devestator, a giant trash can and opportunity for a big giant robot death match wasted. In DOTM, we get Shockw...I mean a giant snake thing. Again, another wasted CGI moment where Shockwave, whom I hear was in the movie, could have shined...or had more than one word. Again, in TF4 we get a giant magnet ship thing. Another wasted opportunity for something greater.
Instead of giving the Dinobots something to fight in robot mode, we got Dinobots being lifted into the air and never really see them battle in robot modes...in fact, only Grimlock is seen doing anything in robot mode. Instead we get wasted time and money on an overly special effect scene that could have gone to better more simple use. They could have spent that time with the Dinobots facing off Galvatron's army or something other than what happened. In my opinion anyway.

Finally, Optimus Battle with Lockdown has Bee and the new humans working together. I dug that.
Que rocket boots, say goodbye, que Prime end speech. Roll credits.

So, overall I really do like the movie, but like all of them, they have flaws, and one of those major flaws is the overly done scenes that could have been better more focused on story and the robots than being what they ended up being.

The thing about TF 1, love or hate it, was that it was simple. The CGI was focused more on the robots than on adding BIG set scenes to ooh and awe the crowd. It was simple and it worked. Transformers 1 is still the best reviewed movie and I honestly think part of that is because it was simple in terms of special effects, something the series has clearly lost.
Another issue is the series the human element. While I liked Sam and Mikeayla overall, and Carly was a nice replacement, Turturro's character only got good in ROTF. HATED him in TF1. Just too annoying. I also really liked Lenox's team throughout the first 3 films. While I wasn't bothered by the main humans, the screen time, especially with secondary cast (Maggie and Glen in TF1, that annoying guy in TF2, Dylan TF3) that's where the things became an issue. Did we really need that much wasted time in ROTF at University? Did we need the Egypt scene to take so long? Did we need to take so much time with Dylan and Sam's jealousy? Did we need so much of Tessa and Shane interactions that didn't actually add to the movie?
While I get that it is important to lay out ground work for your human elements, but Transformers spends far too much time on them over little shit that is better suited in the Special Features of your Bluray.

If the writers focused on the robots a bit more, maybe viewers might have more attachment for them. Take Jazz, Ironhide and Ratchet. Their deaths bothered me because I am invested in the series. For casual viewers who don't know their names, why will they care if they die?
I would have loved to see more about the Autobots killed by Cemetery Wind. We got a brief glimpse from Attinger, but that's it. Not enough time to really feel anything, except for Ratchets scene. What about Sideswipe, Dino Or the Wreckers? Leadfoot got mentioned, again briefly, but how can you strike a cord with audiences if you aren't showing them the true brutality of what happened to your previous Autobots?
In an early script, Mudflap and Skids protect Bumblebee from Sentinel after he kills Ironhide, and Sentinel kills them. As annoying as the characters were in ROTF, that had potential but instead the time was wasted on too much human screen time. Personally, I think that scene would have made the betrayal of Sentinel that much more horrific, especially since I saw his betrayal coming. Then you'd also have the cheering crowd happy to see the twins die, so best of both worlds. Just saying.

It's late. I should go to bed.
I guess when all is said and done, for myself, it's the memorable moments that makes me enjoy the films, even when the plot holes are large, the story incoherent, and the stars aren't the Transformers (Except Bee and Prime)

So, back to TF4. If I could change anything it would be:
-Add more info about the Autobots being slaughtered to create an even more serious tone
- Tell Optimus to stop saying "I'll kill you"
- Tell ILM to NOT do the particle shifting nonsense
- Made Cade a brilliant Inventor that actually did something better than the crap in his barn. Instead of Joyce just offering to build him a new house, why not set it up so Cade could have been been offered a job with Joyce's company for the ending instead of...whatever happened.
- News flash. Tessa did not survive her fall out of Prime's hand. Even if she did, she broke a lot of bones. At that speed, the fact that it's a ROAD and not super soft happy foam, she's broken. I mean, the guys landed on grass which is a bit softer, but Tessa...Nope. Movies need to stop with the super improbable surviving after things like that. Just, you know, don't do it.
- The damn Magnet scene. Skip it!
- Bring in the Dinobots...oh, wait. Shockwave syndrome. Well, they got to eat stuff heading to the main battle, but then they didn't do anything else. I mean, they protected the bridge...but they forgot to add Dinobots protecting the bridge. So why even bother with that scene if they aren't gonna have anything happen.

Pros
- I liked the new Autobts. John Goodman was awesome as Hound. He really brought out the character. Ken Wattanabe was great voice for Drift and Crosshairs reminded me of Leadfoots voice...probably was Dimaggio too.
- I liked how angry Prime was until Joyce told him "we don't need you anymore". It was a realization for Prime that made all his efforts in the past seem without purpose. Similar to how whats her name called Sam a Messanger after all his previous efforts.
- I liked how Cade and Prime bonded.
- I LOVED the score for Prime and Grimlock.
- I love the subtle humour throughout the movie
ex (on the spaceship, Autobots tells them they have 10 min for hyperdrive, Shane Panics, Drift says "Maybe 9, worst case 7". It's subtle, and the movie has plenty of these moments if you listen to it, but it adds that extra life into the CGI bots. I thought the voice work added a lot to the characters on just the subtle things. Maybe that's just me
- Oddly enough, I liked that Shane wasn't really in the think of the battle being the big hero like Cade was. It reminded us that not everyone is going to be all super awesome. Though Shane did help, as did Tessa, it wasn't on the same level as Cade and kept them grounded.

Is it a perfect film. Not even close, but there are plenty of moments for me to justify liking this movie.
It's midnight. Goodnight folks.