8. Disappointing Action
Paramount PicturesSay what you will about Michael Bay, but there's one thing he has consistently delivered throughout the Transformers franchise, and that's top-drawer set-pieces. Age of Extinction certainly has the sense of scale, and a number of individual moments are jaw-droppingly impressive, but on the whole, it feels like something of a comedown after the ludicrous, sustained intensity of the Battle of Chicago at the conclusion of the previous film. While that relentlessly long set-piece formed the majority of Dark of the Moon's third act, the action here is much more piecemeal, fragmented by far too much dialogue rather than simply letting the carnage unfold continuously. Above all else, despite the location shifting to China, there's just not a lot about the movie's action that's truly memorable: unlike Dark of the Moon's finale, everything just blurs together eventually, and there's not a whole lot that distinguishes it from everything Bay has shown us throughout the series. The Dinobots almost got us there, but, well, we'll get to them later...