Superhero Media: Transformers - Age of Extinction

Well, it took three films to get here, but Age of Extinction is actually pretty watchable. The normal Transformers series problems are here, like the overly-long third act, occasionally difficult to follow action and too many superfluous characters. Making the overall quality of the film better are elements like better looking Transformers, a human protagonist who isn't Sam and some decent world-building. After the Battle of Chicago in Dark of the Moon, both Autobots and Decepticons have been ruthlessly hunted by the CIA and only a few are left. Cade Yeager is a down on his luck inventor, trying to hold on to the family home and fund his daughter's College when he acquires a damaged Optimus Prime hiding in an old theatre, soon the CIA is after him and he, his daughter and his daughter's boyfriend are on the run alongside the surviving Autobots. There's something interesting in one of the antagonists of the film being the CIA, especially given Michael Bay's propensity to glorify the American Military-Industrial Complex, but nothing really comes of it sadly, with the reveal that it was the doing of just a couple of corrupt people in charge. 

It seems that someone finally showed Bay what Transfomers actually look like, because all of the Autobots are nicely colour-coded, so you can tell who is in each scene without squinting! I still can't remember any of their names, other than Optimus, Bumblebee and Hound, but at least I know which one I'm looking at. There are several villains in Age of Extinction, the above-mentioned CIA guys, a resurrected Galvitron and an intergalactic Bounty Hunter, Lockdown. The film chooses to represent Lockdown as being from Cybertron, but the Transformers Wiki indicates that he's a different alien who clashes with the Autobots. Lockdown is a really neat villain, kind of like a combination of Lobo and The Collector, he would be great in a variety of supers games and settings, I'm even considering something similar for Kill Team, which I'm getting pretty into right now. I wonder if this was a first attempt at building the "Hasbro Cinematic Universe" that keeps popping up in the film industry rumor mill. Could Lockdown have been conceived as a rogue Space Knight or something from MASK? We may never know, but it's nice to have a decent villain in the film. 

What stops this from being a genuinely "good" film is a problem, once again, with the human characters. Cade is actually fine, probably one of the best human characters in the franchise, the difficult relationship with his daughter is a bit cliche, but works fine with the tone of the film. The issues mostly revolve around the boyfriend, Shane, the nature of his relationship with Tessa, and the reasons for him in the narrative. The core of the conflict between Cade and Shane is that Shane is 20 and Tessa 17, which really isn't a big deal until Shane states the specific Texas State Statute that means it's not statutory rape for them to be together. That's kind of creepy. Not the age difference, when I was 23 I dated an 18 year-old and no one really arced up at all, but pointing out a specific law that makes it "not a crime" smacks of someone on the crew wanting to point that out for a long time and not having the opportunity to do so. Someone creepy. With a fixation on teenage girls long after they're of an age where that's appropriate. After that, Shane just kind of fades into the background and doesn't do anything to drive the plot. Age of Extinction is far from perfect, but is probably the best film in this series; if you only give one a go, make it this one.