People were bound and determined to hate it. The critics most definitely did.
It's too long, it's too loud.
The Romeo & Juliet scene is unnecessary.
There were Dinobots, but they weren't "my Dinobots" which is... Yeah. *SMH*

That said, it was the most coherent story with the most characterization, John Goodman as Hound (A+) and I absolutely connected with Cade's plight far more than I did Sam's.

I think the problem is it was a bit too grounded and too close to reality when the previous films were overly... everything, and bordered on fantastical (not saying they're actually fantastic, in case anyone asks) nonsense and hype. Then, you have this one come along and it's a government conspiracy flick about killing aliens to make money all while trying to silence a family that got too close. One of the more compelling plots.

Lockdown was a fierce villain who needed more screentime, but a good one, nonetheless.

I think people just had enough of loud craziness that went on for 2.5 hours, 3 times in a row and here we were getting more of the same, but at nearly 3 hours.

You get burnt out.

 

TF4 isn't a good film by any means. But I would also not call it a bad film either. It does have some really stupid moments like the above mentioned Romeo and Juliet law that seemed to be less aimed at the couple, and more aimed at the audience after hours of Michael Bay having her run around in super short shorts, and having her underage. Not to mention all the close ups. Michael Bay treating her no different than Megan Fox, who's character's age is never told within the films. Tessa could have easily been 18, and that scene would not even matter.

The Dinobots were pretty much shoe horned into the film at the last second, just like Izabella in TF5. Both pretty much bookend the film. With no mention of them in between the beginning and the end of the films. The Dinobots should have either been the focus of the film, or not in it at all. As they are completely unnecessary to the plot. Same with the Dragon in TF5. Which could have been deleted altogether, and you'd miss nothing important.

With that said, the film isn't a bad film. I mean, I've seen 5 of them, and Battleship, which was pretty much a TF film. And I will certainly see the 6th, and Bee film as well. They are enjoyable for a one time watch in a theater, if you can spend a total of under $10 to see them.

It's a much better made film, but I personally probably enjoyed Turtles III more. It is a lot of fun to laugh at. It was basically the plot of Amazing Spider-Man with Turtles instead. But Shredder looked pretty awesome. I personally think the sequel is a vastly improved film.

But, I haven't seen Next Mutation since it was on TV, so, can't comment on that. lol But I've enjoyed all the Turtle films to some extend.

 

The only thing I can think of that's worse than The Next Mutation was that stage show where the costumes didn't move. Otherwise, yeah, Next Mutation has probably earned itself a permanent place as the lowest point of Turtles canon. Pray it is never dethroned.

 

Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles dethroned Next Mutation.

 

I kind of dig the stage show. It's almost as ridiculous hilarious as the holiday special for Star Wars.

 

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of The Shadows

As a kid I always imagined what a live action Krang would be like. So at least this movie exists just to give me that.

But overall this movie is at least fun. I don't hate it. Bebop and Rocksteady are really good too.

I actually liked that they decided to just put in all the things that people remember from the cartoon. Krang, Bebop, Rocksteady, Baxter Stockman, Casey Jones and even the Technodrome.

Baxter was totally getting set up to become a fly if a third movie was made.

By the way I paused at the bit when Krang puts Shredder into his prison, the only other character I could make out in the cells is something that looks like Alpha 5 from Power Rangers. Plus something that could be a Triceratops crest ie a Triceratron. But it's not clear and most things are hard to make out.

 

Transformers: The Last Knight - 3.5/10

As I lifelong fan, this is the first TF movie I decided to skip seeing in theatres (going back as far as the ‘86 G1) and it’s clear I made the right choice.

Plot is completely nonsensical, ESPECIALLY if you try to factor in all the previous films’ tying Earth’s past with TFs (pro-tip: don't try). So much awfulness that I’m sure has already been pointed out, but the "stand-outs" for me were:
-Lennox fo shizzle recognizing Megatron's voice. Umm, weren't you only around for Hugo Weaving voiced Megs?
-way, WAAAY too much shit is dumped in our laps for the first half of the film, 99% of which is utterly pointless and goes nowhere
-that Suicide Squad style intro for the latest Decepticons (half-expected them to reveal "Decepticon Captain Boomerang") that also ends up being pointless
-heard of the "Garfield minus Garfield" web comic? Well this is a "Unicron minus Unicron" plot
-even more fan service being shoehorned in that only end up being distractions. Hot Rod! But he's...French?? And NEMESIS PRIME be NEMESIS PRIME-ing all up in here, yo!

Admittedly the film does improve and tighten up once things hit the water when Bay does his best “Abyss-era James Cameron” impression. But yet again that final act is a slog to get thru and by then I barely cared.

Question: I watched this on Netflix and I noticed the aspect ratio was constantly changing/jumping. I'm aware that's usually the case where entire scenes switch to IMAX mode, but we're talking mid-scene back-and-forth (ie. in conversations between two people). Did this happen for anyone else?

 

A Quiet Place: 9/10

My second fave of the year so far after Annihilation.

 

It happened for everyone. That's how the movie was produced.

 

The Social Network: 10/10.

Just a perfect film.

 

Andre The Giant [HBO Documentary] - 9/10

I'm a documentary nut, so I was really looking forward to this one. HBO premiered it last night, and it's an exceptionally well done look into the life of Andre The Giant. Super cool for those of us old enough that remember the early days of wrestling, and the explosion that happened once it went from low budget Maple Leaf to the monster that became WWF. Great interviews and footage of those early days, what guys like Andre and Hulk Hogan did for the industry, how big those first Wrestlemania's really were, and just an all in all fantastic journey of Andre starting out in France and becoming the phenom that he did in North America. Also pretty sad when they highlight exactly how difficult it really was for Andre to even function at his size, and the lead-up to his death.

Anyway, can't recommend this one enough.

 

Lupin the Third: Orders to Assassinate Lupin:
Wooooow... even the simple premise of Zenigata getting laid off the case and replacing him with an assassin to take him dead or alive can't be made to an exciting feature. These specials ARE the Dork Age of Lupin.

4/10

 

Suicide Squad : Hell to Pay

7/10

Surprisingly better than I expected, with some surprising twists in terms of the larger DC Animated Movie Universe. Warning: goes above and beyond for it's R-rating. Definitely a mature audience only film. "Hiss".

 

You make lots of great points, although the funny thing though is the AoE Dinobots, despite not talking, are actually treated much better on-screen than guys like Devastator and Shockwave in its predecessors. At least they're giant, powerful, brutish robots who don't die, aren't the victims of juvenile humor, transform into dinosaurs, and act like dinosaurs, or at least how humans might imagine dinosaurs to act.

 

Wrecker(2015)--6/10.

This movie is a remake from the classic film "Duel" from Steven Spielberg. This movie involves two hot young women driving a 5.0 Mustang GT.

 

Rampage

I'm not generally interested in anything starring Dwayne Johnson. A generic action star doing generic action things.

But at least he does have the screen presence to carry the lead role for a movie like this and isn't just a charisma vacuum.

Is this movie worth going ape about or is it a total croc? Everybody knows my genre bias so this review probably won't mean anything to anybody but I was totally happy to wolf this movie down.

First parts of the movie are completely generic monster movie material and don't really contain any storytelling or visual cinematic technique for monster movies that we haven't seen before. Not bad, just not original. Although the final part of the movie definitely delivers a lot better than the start and the three monsters, their fights and even the carnage are really well done here.

 

I've seen quite a lot of Dwayne Johnson films. Good ones, and not so good ones. But Dwayne has always been entertaining. Even in the worst of films he's been in. Kind of like Arnold. Never seen him give a performance I didn't enjoy, either.

 

Suicide Squad Hell to Pay - 7/10

 

Lupin the Third: Dragon of Doom:
This one was better than previous three entries. The plot was kinda interesting since it involved a treasure related to Lupin in a personal level and not a random something they decide to steal and the animation and character designs were an improvement. However this movie also confirmed to me the problem these TV specials have: They bring in a plot full of potential, but they focus more on a lesser B plot for the most of the movie. This one for example the original title (Burn, Zantentsuken) makes this one about Goemon's Zantetsuken and you think Goemon is the main focus, but they push him aside for yet another heist plot we've seen countless times in the franchise. Well, the good thing about this movie is giving a good balance between plots A and B so it's about both the dragon and Goemon making them both relevant and interesting.

7/10

 

I can't remember if that's the last one with Yamada voicing Lupin, or the first with the imitation voice actor.