Sci-fi reboot is thrilling–but exhausting

WAHLBERG. Takes up the cudgels for his shape-shifting new pals.

Michael Bay’s “Age of Extinction,” the fourth installment of the “Transformers” film franchise, is more a reboot than a sequel—with cash-strapped amateur inventor Cade Yeager (Mark Wahlberg) taking up the cudgels for the Autobots  four years after the events in “Dark of the Moon.”

Optimus Prime and his shape-shifting buddies have gone into hiding after the ungrateful humans they saved many times in the past began exterminating all kinds of robots, including Decepticons and Autobots—who, they believe, should be destroyed to guarantee the perpetuation of the human race.

Bay expands the Transformers’ mythology by conjuring up wildly imaginative assumptions (like, the nuclear winter that wiped out the dinosaurs was caused by sinister alien forces, not a wayward asteroid), as well as introducing a new set of characters to keep the lucrative sci-fi series going.

This time, the robots’ cause is championed not by a witty college kid with a hot girlfriend, but by a down-on-his-luck mechanic and his runway-ready daughter, Tessa (Nicola Peltz)—who are on the verge of losing their home to impatient creditors.

Disheartened robot

Cade finds Optimus Prime as a rusty Marmon ’97 semitruck that is damaged almost beyond repair. He whips the disheartened robot into fighting shape to prepare him for his reunion with doe-eyed Bumblebee, Hound, Crosshairs and the sword-wielding Drift. The enormity of their mission convinces them to seek the assistance of another group of allies—the Dinobots, gloriously realized by the special-effects guys from ILM!

With the help of Cade, Tessa and her boyfriend Shane (Jack Reynor), the Autobots must work side by side and beat bounty hunter Lockdown, sabotage specialist Stinger and Megatron’s incarnate, Galvatron, at their own game!

Cade and the Transformers are considerably slowed down by arrogant inventor Joshua Joyce (Stanley Tucci) and his business partners, who are about to launch an army of invincible robots made out of a rare and powerful metal.

If you want mayhem on a global scale, you can’t go wrong with Bay, who wreaks havoc like nobody can—you’ll see boats, trains and automobiles getting sucked into and spewed out by a humongous intergalactic space vessel, and witness Ratchet getting pummelled like a useless piece of junk!

Bay gets a kick out of seeing his tireless visions of chaos and apocalyptic doom relentlessly realized in all their cinematic glory—and, for two hours and 45 minutes, the film just goes on and exhaustingly on!

Halfway through this exercise in self-indulgence, your attention starts to waver because, while there are many things happening onscreen, the personal stories of its underwritten human characters are merely milked for shallow, repetitive comedy—which is common in the director’s cinematic oeuvre.

Bay spends more time cramming in multiple fantasticating narrative threads than paying attention to his productions’ incoherent bits. However, the robots and monsters look terrifyingly real—and, that’s good enough for many fanboys!

As for Mark Wahlberg, the well-meaning father he portrays in “Age of Extinction” is neither smart nor easy to root for: For instance, why would a doting dad put the life of his only daughter in grave danger to protect a missile-toting robot he’s just met? —But, then again, when has logic ever been Michael Bay’s strongest suit?