To clarify this before I ramble on about my (negative) thoughts on the newest movie in the Transformers franchise, I loved the first film, enjoyed Revenge of the Fallen and didn't like Dark of the Moon. Apart from the first trailer from Superbowl last year, I intentially avoided all other trailers, spoilers, rumours and reviews so that I could enter into this movie fresh and not having developed any expectations. Anyway, even before the first hour is up, I knew I wasn't going to enjoy Age of Extinction. There was a lot of issues that irk me and a lot of design and approach decisions that I don't agree with. Be warned, this is going to be spoiler heavy. This is effectively a reboot, apart from Optimus and Bumblebee, all the Autobots are new and the Decepticon side isn't any better. The human cast is replaced which I don't have an issue with. Yet the behaviour of the Autobots goes contrary to what they believe in. They are much more ruthless, eager to kill, whether it be humans or fighting each other. They are basically acting like Decepticons. I understand that they are being hunted but when Optimus is constantly yelling out that he's going to kill "him", it defeats the whole idea of Optimus' leadership and forgiving nature.
Perhaps the biggest thing of all is the fact that these are Transformers, NOT morphing things. They way the new prototype Transformers transformed by just breaking down into cubes and reforming again is not how this should work. It's bad enough that the robot's designs lack vehicular kibble but when you have to cheat like that? That's just pathetic and probably a way for them to save money. The movie is also way too long, you can easily cut out 30 mins of footage and this causes severe pacing issues. It felt boring and the climax didn't justify any of the boredom you had to sit through. It's your standard things exploding and shrapnel flying everything. Bland and doesn't elevate or make you care. The characters are one dimensional, even Lockdown who is supposedly an awesome villain. The Autobots aren't likeable characters at all, I wouldn't care if they all died because they all acted like jerks. It felt Age of Extinction was trying to do too many things at once, what with the two villains (such that both gets shafted in some way), the Dinobots and introducing the new cast of humans. Despite being so prominent in marketing materials, it was disappointing to see Dinobots only appearing in the final sections of the film.
I knew that they would disappoint but it still didn't brace me for how poorly introduced they were. They felt like a gimmick and shoehorned in, lacking a proper introduction and whilst they are supposed to be super powerful, they easily submit (in a very quick amount of time too) to Optimus. They weren't crucial at all. The human's plot can get grinding when the main character's dad issues come up way too often. The boyfriend Shane is an unnecessary character woh does nothing useful. To be fair, when it was the human's screentime, it didn't go to the point of "what the hell" like it did in the first three movies. I know consistency isn't Transformers' strong point but the product placement coupled with the whole "Beijing is within driving distance to Hong Kong and there's a giant secluded valley of lush green fields right outside Hong Kong" really killed the immersion and made the whole thing more improbable. Overall, I hate how the Transformers movies are straying more and more into the mainstream alien invasion area. It feels much more generic and Age of Extinction isn't a movie that I would go watch again.