Sunday, July 2, 2017

MOVIE DIALOG OF THE DAY ― TRANSFORMERS: AGE OF EXTINCTION (2014)

Connection with the previous post (DO THE RIGHT THING): Jn Turturro co-starred in  both both films.  

RATINGS: IMDB ― 5.7/10, Rotten Tomatoes ― 18%, ME ― 40%



Cade Yeager: When you said you were done fighting for humans, you didn't mean that, did you?
Optimus Prime: How many more of my kind must be sacrificed, to atone for YOUR mistakes?
Cade Yeager: What do you think being human means? That's what we do. We make mistakes. Sometimes, out of those mistakes come the most amazing things... When I fixed you, it was for a reward. That was it. That was why. The money. And it was me making a mistake. Without it, you wouldn't be here. So even if you got no faith in us, I'm asking you to do what I do. I'm asking you to look at all the junk and see the treasure. You gotta have faith, Prime, in who we can be.

Mark Wahlberg as Cade Yeager and Peter Cullen (voice) as Optimus Prime

Trivia (From IMDB):

According to the filmmakers, ninety percent of Mark Wahlberg's stunts in the film were done by him.

Originally, director Michael Bay was not going to direct a fourth Transformers movie, but he had an experience that changed his mind. After Transformers: Dark of the Moon(2011), Bay finally got to visit the Transformers ride at Universal Studios. Upon seeing fans waiting three blocks for the attraction, he realized he was not ready to give up the franchise just yet.

Seventy minutes of the entire movie are dedicated to action sequences.

Dwayne Johnson was offered the role of Cade Yeager, but he declined, due to scheduling conflicts with Hercules (2014).

Mark Wahlberg asked that his children, Ella Rae, Michael Robert, Brendan Joseph and Grace Margaret, receive roles in this film since they were Transformers fans.

Optimus Prime's alternate mode in this film is a cabover Peterbilt, and later a customized Western Star 4900 SB truck. The cabover truck is an homage to Optimus Prime's original alternate mode in The Transformers (1984), and the tanker truck pays homage to Prime's G2 mode (where he was a 1995 Western Star 4964EX tanker truck) and Transformers Prime (2010) mode (before he took on the alternate mode of a military truck).

This film was part of a deal that director Michael Bay agreed with Paramount in exchange for financing Pain & Gain (2013).

Michael Bay describes Lockdown as the film's most interesting character: "He travels the galaxy, he works for somebody else. He's here for one person, one alien, and then he's out of here; so he doesn't really want to take sides. The cause and balance of the galaxy is kind of messed up when different species play with different species, and that opens up a whole other gigantic world for Transformers."

A gigantic Hong Kong set was constructed in downtown Detroit. The set was so big, that the Detroit People Mover track ended up becoming part of the set, and shooting had to be adjusted to allow the track to move through the set.

Crosshairs (John DiMaggio) refers to humans as "meatbags." This is a tribute to Futurama(1999) where DiMaggio had voiced the robot Bender, who also refers to humans as "meatbags."

While filming in Hong Kong, Michael Bay was a victim of an extortion incident, where he nearly got assaulted by a man wielding an air-conditioner unit. On October 17, 2013, the Mak brothers barreled into the Quarry Bay set, with the younger Mak demanding a thirteen thousand dollar (one hundred thousand Hong Kong) payment from Bay, having accosted several other crew members. When he refused, the elder Mak swung the unit at Bay, which he managed to duck and wrestle away from the man. Several police officers were injured in the scuffle, with the brothers arrested. Less than a week later in Kowloon, four men extorted a production member who was setting up on the roof of a building demanding payment. One was captured, while three escaped in what was suspected to be members of a triad gang.

This is the first Transformers live-action movie where Optimus Prime does not provide an opening prologue.

The film introduced a less complex, smoother design for the robots, inspired by the designs from the IDW Transformer comics and Transformers Prime (2010). Director Michael Bay compared the redesign to Batman getting a new suit in each movie.

This is the longest installment in the franchise, at 2 hours 45 minutes.

This is the first film that doesn't have a Linkin Park soundtrack, with Imagine Dragonscomposing a song for the film. Linkin Park would instead compose a song for the tie-in video game Transformers: Rise of the Dark Spark (2014).

Roland Emmerich, Joe Johnston, Jon Turteltaub, Stephen Sommers, Louis Leterrier, and David Yates were considered to replace Michael Bay before he decided to return for the fourth film.
Many of the actors have starred in live-action adaptations:

  • This is John Goodman's fourth live-action adaptation of a cartoon series, after The Flintstones (1994), The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle (2000), and Speed Racer(2008).

  • This is Nicola Peltz's second live-action adaptation of a cartoon series, after The Last Airbender (2010).
  • This is T.J. Miller's second live-action adaptation of a cartoon series, after Yogi Bear(2010).
  • This is Stanley Tucci's first live-action adaptation of a cartoon feature, he would later star in Beauty and the Beast (2017).
Michael Bay had resisted including the Dinobots in previous installments, as the writers had not come up with a convincing in-story reason for why giant robots, who (according to the first few installments) seek to maintain a low profile by disguising as everyday vehicles and appliances, would take the metallic form of giant reptiles who went extinct eons ago.

The Decepticon Stinger, who transforms into a 2013 Pagani Huayra automobile, is based on the Transformers: Animated (2007) Decepticon Wasp, who was an evil counterpart to Bumblebee.

The KSI building in the movie is actually the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois building in Chicago. It is the headquarters of Health Care Service Corporation. Scenes were shot both on the exterior and interior of the building.

Ratchet appears to have already known Lockdown prior to the movie's events. This could be a reference to the online Cyber Missions episodes, which took place between Transformers (2007) and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009), and featured Ratchet and Lockdown fighting against each other (itself an homage to Transformers: Animated (2007)).

There are about 55 brands of product placements in the film.

Hound's original alternate mode in The Transformers (1984) was a Mitsubishi J59 military utility vehicle, but this was revised to an Oshkosh Defense Medium Tactical Vehicle. His beefy design also pays homage to the Autobot Bulkhead from Transformers: Animated(2007) and Transformers Prime (2010), and his cigar-chewing military ways are a tribute to the Autobot war veteran Kup from The Transformers: The Movie (1986).
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Crosshairs' original alternate mode in The Transformers (1984) was a Cybertronian off-road van-buggy kind of vehicle, but this was revised to the 2014 Chevrolet Corvette C7 Stingray.

In Boogie Nights (1997), Mark Wahlberg sang "The Touch", which came from the first "Transformers" cinematic feature The Transformers: The Movie (1986). Wahlberg joked with Michael Bay about singing and rapping for the movie's title track.

Counting the fire-breath from the Dinobots, there are 563 explosions in this film. This almost doubles the amount of explosions from the previous installment, Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011), which had 283.

The robot bird logo on Yeager's mailbox and the basketball-shooting robot in his shop are from an actual competition robotics team from Austin, Texas. They are FIRST Robotics Team 2468, from the Spring 2012 competition.

Originally, three more Dinobots were to appear in the film, but were cut from the finished script; the apatosaurus Slog, the velociraptor Slash, and the stegosaurus Snarl. However, toys of them were still released as part of the film's toyline.

Originally, Lockdown was to carry the torn-out eyes of his victims as trophies tied to his hip.

Concept Artist Vitaly Bulgarov created an evil female Transformer called Widowmaker as a potential helper for Lockdown. She was considered, but finally did not appear in the film, having been replaced by the Stingers.

Drift recites a haiku, to Hound's annoyance. The haiku is an homage to Transformers: Robots in Disguise (2000)'s Sky-Byte, a Predacon who enjoyed reciting haikus and other poetry (as the show was Japanese animé, this quirk was carried over into the English dub).
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During filming, the filming camp had a sign that stated "E7". In the seventh episode of The Transformers (1984), Grimlock, Slag, and Sludge, were built to help the Autobots.

During filming, Michael Bay utilized the Shotover K1 platform for aerial shots in IMAX and 3-D-converted footage, for high-speed action sequences.

Paramount Pictures entered an agreement with teaming with the Chinese film companies China Movie Channel and Jiaflix Enterprises, to enable filming in China.

Lockdown was originally envisioned with a vehicle mode closely resembling his appearance from the cartoon and comics, a modified muscle-car with a visible engine block, and his trademark black, green, and gray coloration. This was changed when the Lamborghini Aventador LP700-4 was chosen as his vehicle mode.

Through the miracle of film editing, early in the film, Cade Yeager arrives in front of a store bearing the name Kincl, this store, and the other buildings on the same side of the street, are located on 2nd Street in Taylor, Texas. Cade walks across the street to the abandoned Uptown Theater, which is located in Chicago, Illinois.

This is only the second time in all the live-action movies that Optimus transforms into a vehicle mode on-screen. The first was when he engaged Demolishor in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009).

For all of the films, the filmmakers and screenwriters have visited Hasbro during development of the script to help build the story from the extensive mythology of the Transformers line.

In Cade's house, is a poster for SXSW, or South by Southwest, the annual festival of music, film, and technology, in Austin, Texas.

In the scene where Shane and Bumblebee are in the design center with Stinger, the KSI executive that approaches and asks Shane what he touched, is actually Head of GM Global Design, Ed Welburn. His office, also the office of former GM executive Harley Earl, is used when Attinger meets with the Chief of Staff earlier in the movie.

Isabelle Cornish, Margaret Qualley, and Gabriella Wilde auditioned for the role of Tessa Yeager.

The characters of the Autobots in this film (the leader, a big green robot, an ex-Decepticon, a snarky hacker, and a yellow teenager) are similar to the main cast of the Maximals in Beast Wars: Transformers (1996) (Optimus Primal, Rhinox, Dinobot, Rattrap, and Cheetor) who have the same characteristics.

In one scene, Mark Wahlberg walks past a robot launching basket balls. This robot, used in the 2012 FRC season, belongs to FIRST Robotics team #2468. FIRST Robotics is an annual competition for high schoolers around the world.

This was the highest-grossing film in Malaysia, grossing about 13.52 million dollars.

The Detroit-based Hong Kong set took sixteen weeks to build from start to finish.

Landon Liboiron, Luke Grimes, Luke Mitchell, Hunter Parrish, and Brenton Thwaitesauditioned for the role of Shane.

On the front of the bike, used in Hong Kong during a chase scene, there is clearly a Kremzeek painted on the front, which was a creature from G1 Transformers, and feature in the Transformers Devastation game as collectibles.

Among the Autobots, Hound and Crosshairs never transform on-screen. Drift transforms into helicopter mode and back on-screen, but is never seen transforming into car mode.

On average, there is a different camera shot every 2.8 seconds, in comparison to Stalker(1979), which has a different camera shot about every ninety seconds.

Titus Welliver (Savoy) and Mark Ryan (Lockdown) have appeared on television shows produced by Michael Bay, Welliver in The Last Ship (2014), and Ryan in Black Sails(2014).

The film takes place in 2016.

The GM design center stood for the CIA office, and the director's office is the legendary car designer Harley Earl's office. All furniture in the office was designed by Earl himself.

Michael Bay is proud of shooting this film in IMAX 3-D, and asserts that it's far better than any post-converted movie.

The stunt team trained the young stars for four weeks back in Los Angeles before the shoot. The training involved boxing, sprints, cross training, and was important, because they built a relationship with the stunt guys.

Jack Reynor was chosen after his critically acclaimed performance in What Richard Did(2012).
T.J. Miller was one of the leads in the 2008 film "Cloverfield", which had its teaser trailer premiere in front of the first "Transformers" movie in the summer of 2007. A poster for "Cloverfield" can be seen in Sam and Leo's room in 2009's "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen".

Producers Lorenzo di Bonaventura and Ian Bryce split responsibilities: Lorenzo worked more in the development of the script, and Ian dealt more with the logistics of filming.

Kelsey Grammer and T.J. Miller are part of the X-Men film franchise: Grammar played Hank McCoy in two films (and had turned down one X-Men film to appear in this one), and Miller is the sidekick of Deadpool (2016). They are the second and third cast members from the X-Men films to appear in a Transformers feature. The first was Ty Olsson, who played Mitchell Laurio in X2: X-Men United (2003), and also played played Downshift in Transformers: Energon (2004).

This is the first movie in the franchise without Hugo Weaving.
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In the credits, Bingbing Li is listed as Li Bingbing and Bingbing Li.

Director Cameo ― 
Michael Bay: the driver of the truck that Bumblebee and Optimus destroy after they jump over bridge during Galvatron's attack.

Spoilers ― 

According to the producers, the Dinobots weren't going to appear in the film, and would appear in the fifth film instead. But because Hasbro and the producers pressured Bay, he eventually decided to put them into the end of the film, so they can be introduced, and have a bigger role in the next film.

Galvatron is based on his original version from The Transformers: The Movie (1986) (Megatron resurrected as a minion, who eventually rebels and returns to leading the Decepticons), and Nemesis Prime from Transformers Prime (2010) (a human-built duplicate of Optimus Prime). His black color scheme is also an homage to the The Transformers (1984) Decepticon Motormaster, an Earth-built clone/rival of Optimus Prime.

At the end of the film, Optimus Prime leaves Earth to embark on a quest to find the creators of the Transformers. This was one of the originally proposed ideas for the plot of The Transformers: The Movie (1986) that was rejected for unknown reasons.

A scene was shot where Attinger kills a Chinese citizen to steal his car. This scene was removed from the film, due to objections from the Chinese government.

According to Michael Bay, Lockdown's Knight ship plays a major role in the film and its sequels: "The ship has a lot of meaning and backstory that can go into other movies."

Harold Attinger is the first human being Optimus Prime has ever killed in any movie.

Bumblebee is the only original Autobot from the first movie to not have died. (Optimus died and later resurrected in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009))

The two main villains, Lockdown and Galvatron, never meet face to face.

The film contains tributes to Transformers: Animated (2007):

  • The film is set in a future era (2015, four years after Transformers: Dark of the Moon(2011)).

  • Ratchet and Lockdown know each other.
  • Megatron's head is online in an industrial complex, and he uses human technology to reform himself.
  • Lockdown, the Dinobots, a Japanese-styled Transformer, and Stinger, a Bumblebee clone, appear.
  • Inventor Cade Yeager is based on Dr. Isaac Sumdac (both are single parents with daughters).
  • Joshua Joyce is based on industrialist Porter C. Powell (both have large glasses and end up creating Decepticons).
The KSI storyline of building man-made Transformers is similar, though probably unintended, to the controversial "Transformers: Kiss Players" series, where an agency formed a anti-Transformer army from the components of Decepticons and ended up reviving the Decepticons.

The film draws inspiration from the Transformers IDW comics:
The Transformers on Earth are being hunted down in the aftermath of a devastating battle.

Attinger's plan of getting a government contract through man-made Transformers was taken from the Machination story arc (the Machination forms Transformers for profiteering).

A human operative justifies his actions as necessary for protecting mankind, said actions include working with evil robots (in the comics, it was Spike Witwicky, in the film, it's Attinger).

Optimus Prime acquires the ability to fly, just like RoboCop does.

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