The Transformers Get Down In This TV Spot And Introduce Mark Wahlberg’s Character
This article is more than 2 years old
Michael Bay is preparing to assault the collective eyeballs of the entire world with Transformers: Age of Extinction next week. Considering that the previous three films have raked in multiple billions of dollars, it’s rather likely that just about the entire world will wind up seeing this movie. Even though that is almost a given at this point, Paramount Pictures isn’t one to skimp on promotion, so they’re back to tease the June 27 release date with a new TV spot, a featurette introducing you to the human protagonist, and the announcement that Transformers 5 has already been scheduled. And if that isn’t enough, there’s even a brand new Honest Trailer for the second film, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.
This latest television ad–apparently the 20th, which is totally believable–is like a conglomerate of clichés. You have giant robots entreating others to roll out, the old gang gets back together, and someone gives something a whirl. And Mark Wahlberg calls Bumblebee by the affectionate nickname “B,” because he has to prove that he is hip and relevant, and because Bumblebee’s name does in fact start with the letter B. At least they didn’t include the bit where the nerdy guy asks Wahlberg for his insurance after an alien spacecraft crashes into his car, which might have made me cry.
But if that’s too much, wait until you get a load of the Autobots having an impromptu dance party with a teenage girl. Yeah, there’s dancing in a barn with giant robots. At least the others echo your own sentiment, of “You’ve got to be kidding.” This does, however, seem to support my theory that Age of Extinction may be the film where they finally embrace the inherent ridiculous and absurdity of both the earlier incarnations of the property, as well as the overall basis.
Because Shia LeBeouf is too busy being an artist and wearing a paper bag over his head, Wahlberg’s character Cade is the new human face of the franchise, and you get to meet him in this quick featurette. A struggling inventor, his motivation appears to be suitably simple for a movie like this, he just wants to make sure his daughter, Tessa (Nicola Peltz), is safe and taken care of. There’s not much more to it than that.
One thing you may wonder while watching this video is, why is there an explosion when Optimus Prime commando rolls out of that very old, very wooden barn? There don’t appear to be any incendiaries, then again, this is a Michael Bay movie, and when has reason or logic ever slowed him down?
We’ve known for a while that this is supposed to be the start of a new trilogy, and it looks like the studio isn’t even going to bother waiting to see if this is a success or not before going ahead and penciling in more movies. If this isn’t the biggest movie of the summer, money wise, it will be a surprise, so this assumption is probably a rather safe bet, and Paramount announced that Transformers 5 will drop in 2016.
And just in time for Age of Extinction, Screen Junkies, the folks behind those crowd-pleasing Honest Trailers, are back at it again, taking aim at the second installment in Bay’s franchise, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. If you’re a fan of these videos, you’ll definitely want to check this out, but you already know what to expect. I do like that they describe the Autobot/Decepticon battles as looking like “two junkyards having sex with each other.” That’s the most apt description I’ve encountered yet.
