It's hard to believe it's been seven years since the original "Transformers" blockbuster and now we get a fourth installment with an entirely different cast except for the robots.
Gone are Shia LeBeouf, John Turturro and Josh Duhamel from the previous three films. Instead we get the hero played by Mark Wahlberg; villain by Kelsey Grammar; and, the dubious businessman/scientist by Stanley Tucci. Due to chaos of the last film, many of the public and government officials have now turned on the humanistic Transformers (Autobots), who are now hunted like fugitives, despite saving them many times from the tyrannical ones (Deceptacons).
Mark Wahlberg plays a small-time inventor in rural Texas who purchases a run-down, semi-trailer truck, which turns out to be Optimus Prime (voiced by Peter Cullen), who is the leader of the Autobots. When corrupt government officials and a new mechanical villain threaten Wahlberg and his family to retrieve Optimus, Wahlberg must now team up with the Transformers to protect his family and expose a corrupt government official (Grammar).
Better than the third, entertaining in parts, but the action grows a bit tiresome at times and lacks the charm of the original.
**1/2 out of five
Community on 07/17/2014