“Transformers: Age of Extinction” was exactly what could be expected at this point from a “Transformers” film. It was a big, loud, explosive movie that was about 45 minutes too long.

“Transformers: Age of Extinction“ begins five years after the massive battle in “Transformers: Dark of the Moon“ and as a result, the Autobots have been cast as fugitives by the FBI. Soon after, using information gathered from destroyed transformers, businessman Joshua Joyce, played by Stanley Tucci, discovers “transformium” and with it creates his own transformers. After being awoken by robotics inventor Cade Yaeger, played by Mark Wahlberg, a weakened Optimus Prime has to both evade capture by the transformer hit squad “Cemetery Wind” and save the planet from a powerful new foe.

I wasn’t a big fan of the last three “Transformer” movies, and this really didn’t change my opinion of the franchise. I love watching robots fight and when done right, you get a great action film like “Pacific Rim.” Even with robot dinosaurs, this film is too unfocused and the battle scenes are too busy for the film to really do anything spectacular. The film borders on self-parody with how insane some actions scenes are, and it’s almost as if the creators expected the Dinobots to make up for no new ideas.

One thing I thought was an improvement on the franchise was the casting. Tucci and Wahlberg may not be at their best in this film, but they are leagues ahead of Shia Labeouf in creating characters I was actually interested in. Tucci has shown plenty of range over the years and he does a fine job as the menacing Joshua Joyce. Wahlberg isn’t amazing, and I still don’t buy him playing any type of scientist or engineer, but for the most part he is game to get thrown around in the action sequences and he does pretty well on that end.

My biggest complaint with this movie is the product placement. The incessant, unrelenting, brought-to-you-by-Oreo product placement. Clearly the studio couldn’t justify the $165 million price tag for the film and just decided to sell every blank space for advertising. It’s all over the film and it gets old extremely fast.

I didn’t like “Transformers: Age of Extinction.” It’s unoriginal, way too long and full of extremely stupid plot choices. There are some fun visuals throughout the film, but overall it doesn’t outweigh how aggressively mediocre the rest of the film is.

1 out of 5 Stars