To review Transformers 4 as a 'proper' movie is always relative. We all know how reductive and crude the movies are, bar the CGI. But like so many I grew up with the cartoons, therefore I am 'imprinted'.
I believe those who genuinely care for the concept vibrate more with what Transformers could have been, than what the movie(s) actually gave us. But this is not a 'our imagination is the best' motto: the movies are genuinely poor, and made that way on purpose, unapologetically. Thus we get disappointed. People have a number of different ways to deal with this: criticizing Bay, lowering the standards, quit watching, and , perhaps, entertaining the hope that some day it may get better. In the meantime, those that are still willing to go see Transformers are forced to settle for whatever explosive and action-packed crumbs they can get, for fear of letting the big machines die - in the Hollywood assembly lines, and in their minds.
It could be argued that as long as people are willing to pay to go see the movies, there's no real reason to make any effort, any change in style. If it makes money, it means it works well as it is. And that is true to an extent - but for me, that argument also supports the idea that it's not entirely Bay's merit that people want to go see Transformers movies. Rather, he is capitalizing on (and is lucky for) a number of factors: that he is directing movies towards a passionate and loyal fanbase that grew with the cartoons; that he has behind him a giant, toy-selling mega-franchise machine, which targets younger and impressionable minds who may not quite discern, or value, how coherent a story is; that we let a summer blockbuster get away with nonsense and frivolous storytelling if it can numb our good judgement with enough explosions and innuendo; and for the CGI, which I suppose is decent and marries well with the all-action, flashy directing.
I entertain the idea of having a Transformers reboot (there are so many these days anyway) with a director other than Bay, if that would make the film more internally consistent, and take itself more seriously. Something along the lines of Peter Nolan's Batman, perhaps. I know it can be done at least. Special effects don't prevent a movie from behind coherent and be made with self-respect - good scripting and a good director do. As it stands, the fan's seemingly endless goodwill, and their eternal hopes of having their childhood memories portrayed on the big screen with some degree of poise and realism, will continue to be disregarded without shame or remorse, and eternally defended as something "good", as long as hopeful hearts can be used to fill wallets. And we all are guilty of playing along with that.
I believe those who genuinely care for the concept vibrate more with what Transformers could have been, than what the movie(s) actually gave us. But this is not a 'our imagination is the best' motto: the movies are genuinely poor, and made that way on purpose, unapologetically. Thus we get disappointed. People have a number of different ways to deal with this: criticizing Bay, lowering the standards, quit watching, and , perhaps, entertaining the hope that some day it may get better. In the meantime, those that are still willing to go see Transformers are forced to settle for whatever explosive and action-packed crumbs they can get, for fear of letting the big machines die - in the Hollywood assembly lines, and in their minds.
It could be argued that as long as people are willing to pay to go see the movies, there's no real reason to make any effort, any change in style. If it makes money, it means it works well as it is. And that is true to an extent - but for me, that argument also supports the idea that it's not entirely Bay's merit that people want to go see Transformers movies. Rather, he is capitalizing on (and is lucky for) a number of factors: that he is directing movies towards a passionate and loyal fanbase that grew with the cartoons; that he has behind him a giant, toy-selling mega-franchise machine, which targets younger and impressionable minds who may not quite discern, or value, how coherent a story is; that we let a summer blockbuster get away with nonsense and frivolous storytelling if it can numb our good judgement with enough explosions and innuendo; and for the CGI, which I suppose is decent and marries well with the all-action, flashy directing.
I entertain the idea of having a Transformers reboot (there are so many these days anyway) with a director other than Bay, if that would make the film more internally consistent, and take itself more seriously. Something along the lines of Peter Nolan's Batman, perhaps. I know it can be done at least. Special effects don't prevent a movie from behind coherent and be made with self-respect - good scripting and a good director do. As it stands, the fan's seemingly endless goodwill, and their eternal hopes of having their childhood memories portrayed on the big screen with some degree of poise and realism, will continue to be disregarded without shame or remorse, and eternally defended as something "good", as long as hopeful hearts can be used to fill wallets. And we all are guilty of playing along with that.
Nevertheless, for the sake of hope, here are several observations of aspects in the movie that in my mind were either improvements (+), so-so's (0), or negatives (-), taking into account the previous movies in the current franchise. Enjoy.
---- *note: Spoilers ahead* ----
Positives
The majority of positives relate directly with the casting changes, and added script work. Coming from a kid's cartoon, the challenge for the script is always a) finding a believable way to make humans relevant to the plot, and b) create a consistent psychological space where fully-fledged characters (instead of stereotypical caricatures) live and breathe. While all movies happily fell into both of these traps, simply preferring to indulge in mindless action and CGI, I feel that there were some efforts from screenwriter Ehren Krueger to give depth to the tale.
+ Mark Whalberg, Kelsey Grammer
This is a testament to how a single casting choice can affect an entire movie. The change of actors, in particular adding Whalberg and Grammer - and to a degree Tucci - and dropping Labeouf and Turturro, immediately changed the tone of the film. Whalberg seems to nicely fit the glove as an 'action dad', and revel in the action sequences, while Kelsey Grammer plays a crucial antagonist that is dead-serious about his motivations and perspectives. The fact that Whalberg himself doesn't have a direct love interest, instead acting as a parental figure to the young romantic pair, also makes for a nice tweak. Stanley Tucci has a slighly harder time keeping at bay... Bay's influence for the "childish goofy" acting. But even when he starts to cave in, he does so with some class.
The way Labeouf played his character in the previous movies - the stuttering, screeching, facing everything as a clueless, frightened kid - made for a main character that didn't take himself seriously, in a whole movie that didn't take itself seriously. The same way, Turturro used far too much an uncalled for, goofy clown vibe, every time he was on screen - and he was a secret government agent. Having these kinds of caricature characters was like adding jelly to a pit of quicksand. I still have ringing in my head that line "criminals are hot!"... whaaat?
Whalberg and Grammer seem to take themselves seriously enough as actors to lend some tone of commitment and determination, to an otherwise goofy movie. Grammer in particular is a class act, and his sidekick Savoy, played by Titus Welliver, also holds his own extremely well. Actually, Grammer took himself so seriously that he made sure would have at most one Transformers movie in his resume... by getting visibly killed at the end of this one.
The way Labeouf played his character in the previous movies - the stuttering, screeching, facing everything as a clueless, frightened kid - made for a main character that didn't take himself seriously, in a whole movie that didn't take itself seriously. The same way, Turturro used far too much an uncalled for, goofy clown vibe, every time he was on screen - and he was a secret government agent. Having these kinds of caricature characters was like adding jelly to a pit of quicksand. I still have ringing in my head that line "criminals are hot!"... whaaat?
Whalberg and Grammer seem to take themselves seriously enough as actors to lend some tone of commitment and determination, to an otherwise goofy movie. Grammer in particular is a class act, and his sidekick Savoy, played by Titus Welliver, also holds his own extremely well. Actually, Grammer took himself so seriously that he made sure would have at most one Transformers movie in his resume... by getting visibly killed at the end of this one.
+ Cynical, Bitter Optimus Prime
This time around Optimus Prime, the eternal idealistic leader, is given a whole new side to him, as he is hunted down by humans and becomes bitter towards them - with 'angry eyelashes' to clearly get the point across. A significant turn of pace in comparison with the idealistic but one-dimensional attitude of 'save the humans because we're the good guys'.
+ Lockdown's Third Perspective
Another element that brought quite a lot of freshness and a new change of pace, was the presence of a Transformer character that was neither Autobot or Decepticon, having no affiliation other than what he was hired to do. While clearly not a good guy, Lockdown was not hellbent on destroying and murdering everything on sight, would honor barter and agreements, and quite simply didn't give a damn about humans, Autobots, or Decepticons. As a result he is far darker as a character, and at the same time more complex and sharp, than either the clear-cut lawful good Optimus Prime or the always chaotic evil Mega/Galvatron - both very much one-dimensional characters that still inherit a lot from the cartoons. The presence of this third perspective was critical in adding depth and complexity to the whole movie, as well as....
+ Transformer's Origins
...introducing some ideas about the origin of Transformers and their 'Creators'. Teasing the existence of a background, and providing some sort of cohesive reasoning for the existence of these sentient robots, would do wonders for this story. It has some potential - now let's see where this is taken.
+ Fear Mongering
Kelsey Grammer's character leads a black-ops team funded with American government's black budget. He precedes the current president and runs a government entity which is virtually unaccountable, and acts in secrecy, even from of whoever is elected as president. In turn, he is attached to the monetary interests of a corporation heavily invested in Transformer tech. Thus his motivations are a blend of convenient black-and-white xenophobia with personal monetary interests, and he is ready to put in jeopardize and sacrifice innocent lives in the name of patriotism and 'national security'.
As long as these humor bits are of the witty and 'spontaneous' kind - not vulgar physical comedy like having a robot pissing on a human - they connect much better with the viewer. They would also work better in a more serious tone where they can be used to vent accumulated tension, rather than in a silly Universe where everything is silly and nothing really matters.
+ Slightly Improved Humor
For the first time in any Transformer movie I genuinely giggled at a few of the jokes. Some were Hound's lines "I'm a fat ballerina taking names and slitting throats"; "I'm going to cover for you, if I'm not covering for you it means I'm dead"; also Drift's line "I was expecting a big car!" (partially covering the unexplained reasons for those big robots to turn into dinosaurs). Also, the SMS response to what the radius of the Seed detonation would be: "a tactical nuke LOL *smiley*".As long as these humor bits are of the witty and 'spontaneous' kind - not vulgar physical comedy like having a robot pissing on a human - they connect much better with the viewer. They would also work better in a more serious tone where they can be used to vent accumulated tension, rather than in a silly Universe where everything is silly and nothing really matters.
+ Detachment From the U.S. Army
The slot of the perfectly honorable, benevolent, cavalry-to-the-charge U.S. army, is replaced by the black-ops men-in-black, whose intentions and ways of operating, under the blanket cover of national security, are shady at best. Again this gives a multi-dimensional perspective over the previously simplistic points of view.
+ Dinobots
Despite several dubious things about them (see below), and despite not talking at all, the actual presence of Dinobots is something that was wished for a long time, and to be praised for.
+ Imagine Dragons - Battle Cry
A nice song.
So-So's
Aspects that are debatable and improvable, usually gaping holes in the plot, but that may not ruin the movie by themselves - at least compared with the 'Negative' ones...
0 Transformium
When all man-made Transformers were converted to Decepticons by Galvatron, did they gain personalities of their own? If so, did Galvatron gave them 'souls'? How did this work? Are Decepticons by definition any Transformers built without souls? Or are they all still mindless robots being remotely controlled by Galvatron?
In the movie we see Transformium be converted into [product placement]xN, human regular weapons, and whole Transformers. But to me, it is a stretch to state that humans managed to reverse engineer every single alien tech that it takes to make a fully functional Transformer. So can Transformium be converted into anything, limited only by imagination? Can it form into a high-tech beam gun, or something else that is actually beyond known technology? Can it copy any technology even if it's not scientifically understood?
Such a plot device is risky. It's similar to the Eagles in LOTR, being hypothetically able to just carry around all characters without any need for travelling, thus, for much of the whole story to happen. It's also like adding powers to R2D2 over and over in Star Wars movies, until R2D2 becomes a tool that can do anything - and at that point everything in the movies is rendered meaningless, including retroactively. What keeps these powers in check? What are the limitations of these plot devices? It's the screenwriter/director to balance this out, not the viewer's responsibility to shut down in its mind all the things that aren't properly explained. If I want to work my imagination I'll go read a book.
Even when having the Transformer's raw material in the movie, there was no need to take it to these lengths. For humans to be able to build Transformers from scratch was probably powerful enough. I'm sure some other way could be found for Galvatron to be born, without having this miraculous substance that breaks far too many rules. Galvatron, who survived perfectly fine, now possesses the new materialize, de-materialize ability. So if he is to show up in future movies, is this going to be dealt with, or... just left in the bin for no discernible reason, I guess. Yeah, that'll work too.
0 Movie One Third Too Long
A full one-third of the Movie is basically a repetition of the plot elements of the middle third. This gives the impression that the movie is way too long. The 'final battle/resolution' happens twice: the first is dealing with the Transformer-designing corporation, which ends with inside the Bounty Hunter ship after Prime is captured; the second is when the main plot device - the Seed - finally is in human hands and is taken to Asia, which leads to yet another battle with the same alien ship, now in Hong Kong. The repetition is made so the movie can cater both to the western and to the oriental audiences.0 Humans Shoehorned Into Plot
Humans struggling to be relevant to the story was always going to be a risk, when dealing with high-tech, sentient, oversized robots from space, and where the primary plot elements are also high-tech objects related with these robots.
However, at no point does the movie mercilessly shoves humans into the story more than when Tessa is scooped up by an alien net bounty-hunter net (?), inside a truck, along with Optimus Prime, as if she or the car weren't really there. Having her be taken into the ship will obviously continue to necessitate having humans working with Autobots to rescue them.
This scene worked much like a horror movie: at one point she could have clearly fled through the car's open door on her side, but decided to move to the back seat instead; she could have run onto her father and boyfriend, as they were a few yards away, or even sideways, as she wasn't relevant to the attacking robots anyway. The movie even goes out of this way to justify, through the other two characters and even Optimus Prime, that she could have fled the truck. Instead, she was very conveniently left just under Optimus Prime. Both are inexplicably and conveniently picked up with a net (?), which must have taken some time, effort, and attention, to deploy and envelop them.
However, at no point does the movie mercilessly shoves humans into the story more than when Tessa is scooped up by an alien net bounty-hunter net (?), inside a truck, along with Optimus Prime, as if she or the car weren't really there. Having her be taken into the ship will obviously continue to necessitate having humans working with Autobots to rescue them.
This scene worked much like a horror movie: at one point she could have clearly fled through the car's open door on her side, but decided to move to the back seat instead; she could have run onto her father and boyfriend, as they were a few yards away, or even sideways, as she wasn't relevant to the attacking robots anyway. The movie even goes out of this way to justify, through the other two characters and even Optimus Prime, that she could have fled the truck. Instead, she was very conveniently left just under Optimus Prime. Both are inexplicably and conveniently picked up with a net (?), which must have taken some time, effort, and attention, to deploy and envelop them.
0 Hentai Tentacle Porn Reference
The only purely organic alien form in the movie manages to strap its huge tongue around the innocent babe's leg, from behind, across a cage... catering to the target audience, oriental style.0 Prime's Feet Thrusters
So I guess Optimus Prime is going to scour the Universe looking for his creators... on his feet thrusters?0 Broadcasted Autobot Messages are in Audio and in English
And they replay audibly when you spark the Autobot with some electricity. I guess the message was being taped and broadcast on all radio frequencies.
0 Mini-drones store video in themselves (instead of remotely) and across missions.
Because, how else would anyone be able to hack into these tiny, nearly useless and easily captured, information receptacles, to retrieve vital plot information?
Cade: We're humans, we make mistakes. But out of those mistakes came beautiful things. Look past the junk and see the treasure.
Because alien robots are little kids just waiting for a human to give them insightful life lessons, lessons that are so profound that instantly make another character's revise its guiding principles. No wonder Prime is such an influential leader. Nevermind inventions, honor, technology, armament: those who speak things that sound nice are the kings of this world. All is well if you can look past the junk and see the treasure.
0 Where Do New Autobots Come From?
Where they on Earth all along? Did they come in the first 'meteorite' wave? Did they come when Optimus invited them in the first movie? From where? Are they forged in the Earth's molten center of the Earth? Were they always here, but they weren't involved in the previous movies, or we didn't "get to see them"?
0 Unnecessary Dogfights
'Enemy ships are approaching', because reasons, and these enemy ships wait just long enough, after half an hour of humans dangling in wires of their ship with robot hyenas, and after everyone climbs aboard, so that they can be chased for another action-packed scene. I suppose the bounty-hunter's ship doesn't need any sort of sensors to know if there are intruders aboard, or they haven't been invented.
0 Cade Yeager's Paradigm-Changing Pep Talks
Optimus: How many more of my kind must be sacrificed to atone for your mistakes?Cade: We're humans, we make mistakes. But out of those mistakes came beautiful things. Look past the junk and see the treasure.
Because alien robots are little kids just waiting for a human to give them insightful life lessons, lessons that are so profound that instantly make another character's revise its guiding principles. No wonder Prime is such an influential leader. Nevermind inventions, honor, technology, armament: those who speak things that sound nice are the kings of this world. All is well if you can look past the junk and see the treasure.
0 Dodgy Dinobot Circumstances
What incredible coincidence is that the Dinobots (somehow inspired on prehistoric Earth, but recently arrived from space) are on that one bounty-hunter spaceship, and, in the detachable sub-ship hijacked by Autobots. I guess Cybertron must be really be on the other side of Jupiter, for Earth to be so frequently visited. Either that, or Lockdown is the only bounty-hunter in the Universe.Why does Prime need to use force to subdue the Dinobots, and why do they just align with him, just like that, by having him mount Grimlock? I suppose there's some kind of background in there, somehow related to Prime being a knight, involving some form of ritualistic display of might, stylized armor included, started by activating the sword that can only be dislodged by the knight (a device which coincidentally happens to be inside the bounty hunter's ship!!!).
I guess there wasn't enough time left in the movie to say something minimally cohesive about this.
0 Dry Acting, Poor Character Setup
With so much relevance given to Cade Yeager's setup of on-the-limit financial struggle, one could argue that he logically had far more to gain by handing over the unknown Transformer, for the monetary reward, which would instantly solve or help with his problems - impending foreclosure, Tessa's college, his work - than risk fixing the robot against the law. This would later reveal to not turn out as advertised, but Cade had no way of knowing it at that point. The premise that Cade was 'an impulsive and passionate inventor' is somewhat forced.
From the point of view of the characters, Cade's choices were reckless and impulsive, and directly lead to his business partner getting killed. This is even acknowledged by Tessa - only to be easily brushed aside with a stare into the horizon and no sign of guilt. I guess one person doesn't matter all that much, as long as you get to tell jokes and fire alien guns.
Sadly the two actors playing the romantic couple didn't manage to get their characters to shine. Nicola Peltz was always going to get plenty of screen time with Bay, but Jack Reynor and his racing driver character felt irrelevant next to Whalberg, even if he was supposed to save them with his driving. Lucas, perhaps the supporting character with the most charisma and potential, is readily killed in the beginning of the movie, by a metal-lava attack that everyone else miraculously manages to outrun. Therefore all the character building and bonding with the audience that was done for that character was instantly flushed down the toiled, and providing no emotional charge in return, thus rendering it meaningless.
On this note, why did Lockdown halt pursuit of Prime in that scene? He wasn't far away, and he wasn't defeated: he was just on top of the building, and Prime was waiting for the humans to jump into him. Prime transforms into a battered truck while Lockdown is a sports car. So did someone call timeout? Do grenade attacks equate to a 5 minute truce? Did Lockdown give up? Was he marveled at the success of his own attack? We'll never know.
It's inexplicable and instantly kills all immersion. By far the worst offense in this movie, and the others as well.
These are not the robot's alternative, transformed mode: it's their "real" them. So were Autobots built to appeal to small human children? Are they trying to blend in with humans by their robot personas? Are they imaginary cartoons in the mind of one of the characters, and it's all a dream in the end? Unless... the Creators are really humans from the future, who agonizingly miss Earth's XX century's culture, so they made their own stereotypical army generals, samurais, spies, armored knights... Einsteins?
As the screenwriters said they were going to develop and showcase the 'personality' of each Transformer, one would suppose that would be giving them a background, a quirk, a nuance, a tough choice they went through, a idiosyncrasy - but not this. One thing is to give a Transformer subtle nuances; another is to make them nothing more than cartoons. Lockdown is the only Transformer properly done, and this is why he's the most conceivable: grey/neutral robot form with small high-tech-y nuances; a high-end gray car when transformed. Purpose over style.
Either you clearly and irrevocably state explicitly that Transformers as machines absolutely need to copy cultural aspects of human society, and why, and then run with it; or, you make them have their own unique traits and features, but as genuine characters, not walking stereotypes - sometimes insulting ones.
At one point a missile shot by a Decepticon explodes inches away from the human protagonists on a Hong-Kong rooftop. Sparkles fly through the air... but they carry on running, completely unaffected. One would think that shrapnel, the explosion's blasts, or the heat, would at least mildly injure someone. One would think that robots would tend to be super accurate, and super deadly, in each of their shots, missile or otherwise. Alas, they are always shooting and firing as blindly as possible.
But when Cade grabs hold of the smallest of 'alien guns' from some 'special armament storage', he is now deadly, capable of taking out robots in one shot.
Second instance. Lockdown's humongous cannon manages to hit Prime squarely in the chest - multiple times if I recall correctly - leaving him severely damaged and with no reaction. So damaged, in fact, that an smaller alien craft with a rope net (?) can simply pick him up and carry him to the main bounty hunter's vessel. Later, when he is released by the other Autobots, he is simply... back to full health? So much that he can first face and overcome Grimlock, and then go through all the fight sequences at the final part of the film.
Did the cage Prime was in had regenerative abilities? Did he regenerate himself? Did someone fix him while he was trapped?
My guess is, those holes in his chest fixed themselves because fuck you.
From the point of view of the characters, Cade's choices were reckless and impulsive, and directly lead to his business partner getting killed. This is even acknowledged by Tessa - only to be easily brushed aside with a stare into the horizon and no sign of guilt. I guess one person doesn't matter all that much, as long as you get to tell jokes and fire alien guns.
Sadly the two actors playing the romantic couple didn't manage to get their characters to shine. Nicola Peltz was always going to get plenty of screen time with Bay, but Jack Reynor and his racing driver character felt irrelevant next to Whalberg, even if he was supposed to save them with his driving. Lucas, perhaps the supporting character with the most charisma and potential, is readily killed in the beginning of the movie, by a metal-lava attack that everyone else miraculously manages to outrun. Therefore all the character building and bonding with the audience that was done for that character was instantly flushed down the toiled, and providing no emotional charge in return, thus rendering it meaningless.
On this note, why did Lockdown halt pursuit of Prime in that scene? He wasn't far away, and he wasn't defeated: he was just on top of the building, and Prime was waiting for the humans to jump into him. Prime transforms into a battered truck while Lockdown is a sports car. So did someone call timeout? Do grenade attacks equate to a 5 minute truce? Did Lockdown give up? Was he marveled at the success of his own attack? We'll never know.
Negatives
Elements that are ludicrous and instantly break any immersion in the movie.- Transformers As Earth's Cultural Stereotypes
A sargeant/general figure, with a beard, a detachable helmet, and smoking a cigar. A samurai, 'proficient with blades'. A paratrooper wearing a cape. The accents. Oversized WWII grenades. Prime in medieval armor. And don't get me started on Prime coughing and breathing air out of his mouth...It's inexplicable and instantly kills all immersion. By far the worst offense in this movie, and the others as well.
These are not the robot's alternative, transformed mode: it's their "real" them. So were Autobots built to appeal to small human children? Are they trying to blend in with humans by their robot personas? Are they imaginary cartoons in the mind of one of the characters, and it's all a dream in the end? Unless... the Creators are really humans from the future, who agonizingly miss Earth's XX century's culture, so they made their own stereotypical army generals, samurais, spies, armored knights... Einsteins?
As the screenwriters said they were going to develop and showcase the 'personality' of each Transformer, one would suppose that would be giving them a background, a quirk, a nuance, a tough choice they went through, a idiosyncrasy - but not this. One thing is to give a Transformer subtle nuances; another is to make them nothing more than cartoons. Lockdown is the only Transformer properly done, and this is why he's the most conceivable: grey/neutral robot form with small high-tech-y nuances; a high-end gray car when transformed. Purpose over style.
Either you clearly and irrevocably state explicitly that Transformers as machines absolutely need to copy cultural aspects of human society, and why, and then run with it; or, you make them have their own unique traits and features, but as genuine characters, not walking stereotypes - sometimes insulting ones.
- High Tech Sentient Robots Shoot Firecrackers
All missiles shot by any robot are completely aimless, dumb-fire projectiles, that not only don't any some sort of guidance, but never travel straight - unless the plot demands for it. Missiles never have any hope of hitting any target, and are almost expected to explode in the ground at some indefinite point in time, hopefully sending a lot of debris, dust, and fireworks into the air. The movie makes fun of itself with the "there's a missile in the living room", and "you told me it was dead" bits. The missile goes into the house through walls and windows, hits things along the way, or the ground at the very least - and doesn't go off? 'Missiles' pose zero danger and are as dumb as the minds who thought the movie was great this way.At one point a missile shot by a Decepticon explodes inches away from the human protagonists on a Hong-Kong rooftop. Sparkles fly through the air... but they carry on running, completely unaffected. One would think that shrapnel, the explosion's blasts, or the heat, would at least mildly injure someone. One would think that robots would tend to be super accurate, and super deadly, in each of their shots, missile or otherwise. Alas, they are always shooting and firing as blindly as possible.
But when Cade grabs hold of the smallest of 'alien guns' from some 'special armament storage', he is now deadly, capable of taking out robots in one shot.
- Humans Above Physics
Humans must be made of rubber, since they can fall from any height, be caught by a Transformer while flying though the air, take a spinning robotic metal cigar to their heads, and be involved in any vehicle crash, and still come out perfectly fine, ready for the next adventure. In real life people may need medical assistance even for moderate traffic accidents; here they can crash in a flying alien ship into a car and come out of it in their witty best. In this movie, it is also the humans who are cartoons.
During the bounty-hunter's mini-ships dogfights, Bumblebee hooks a (human) cruise ship out of the water and up into the air, in front of pursuing flying ships, destroying it in the process. I really want to believe Bee was completely sure that the ship had no no one inside it...
But the most significant offense is when at the end of the movie Lockdown bears down on Cade and is about to strike him with his arm, and Cade fends off the Transformer with nothing but his gun and his human arms. Layman physics would postulate that in that situation, a single gesture from the Transformer - even with the human holding an indestructible gun - would probably just squash the human... But hey. You can't have everything, right?
During the bounty-hunter's mini-ships dogfights, Bumblebee hooks a (human) cruise ship out of the water and up into the air, in front of pursuing flying ships, destroying it in the process. I really want to believe Bee was completely sure that the ship had no no one inside it...
But the most significant offense is when at the end of the movie Lockdown bears down on Cade and is about to strike him with his arm, and Cade fends off the Transformer with nothing but his gun and his human arms. Layman physics would postulate that in that situation, a single gesture from the Transformer - even with the human holding an indestructible gun - would probably just squash the human... But hey. You can't have everything, right?
- Optimus Prime's Amazing Healing Powers
First instance. A beaten up Optimus Prime, a high-tech alien sentient life form, lies full of projectile holes and is 'unconscious' with a 'hit in his power source'. At some point even his right helmet ear-cover-thing falls off, and he is clearly shown coughing... barely on his last breaths, right? Then a human civilian 'mechanic/inventor', using scrap parts and a blowtorch, completely fixes him back to full health. And scan of a different truck is what it takes to turn the holes in metal into a pristine newly-painted chassis. If even Ratchet couldn't heal/fix/mess with Bumblebee's eternal 'vocal processor' problems...Second instance. Lockdown's humongous cannon manages to hit Prime squarely in the chest - multiple times if I recall correctly - leaving him severely damaged and with no reaction. So damaged, in fact, that an smaller alien craft with a rope net (?) can simply pick him up and carry him to the main bounty hunter's vessel. Later, when he is released by the other Autobots, he is simply... back to full health? So much that he can first face and overcome Grimlock, and then go through all the fight sequences at the final part of the film.
Did the cage Prime was in had regenerative abilities? Did he regenerate himself? Did someone fix him while he was trapped?
My guess is, those holes in his chest fixed themselves because fuck you.
