Transformers: Age of Extinction (2014)

'Transformers: Age of Extinction'... what the hell happened here?! I actually seriously enjoyed a movie from this franchise, I'm honestly flabbergasted. It's written, directed and produced by the same people, though I wouldn't have predicted that whilst watching.
This, to me, felt almost entirely different to the preceding films in the series, despite the aforementioned. The opening 45-60 minutes are especially entertaining, it does wobble in that regard once or twice but when all is said and done I actually had a lot of fun with this!
I was, for the first time, actually invested into not just the robots but also the human characters too. It's a new bunch on the latter side and, despite minimally liking Shia LaBeouf & friends, I found this lot to be a big upgrade - the change also made it feel fresh. Mark Wahlberg is great as lead, Stanley Tucci and T.J. Miller (for once) are pluses as well.
Nicola Peltz and Jack Reynor are the weakest members of those onscreen, though even then I was still marginally interested in them. Kelsey Grammer, despite playing a fairly standard antagonist, is good, as is Li Bingbing in a relatively smaller role. Peter Cullen, John Goodman and Ken Watanabe, meanwhile, impress with their voices.
Upon starting this review, and still now, I was struggling to come up with negatives. I guess the near three-hour run time truly ought to be one, yet somehow it really... isn't, rather unexplainably. As for a criticism, the excessive product placement is all I've got, I'm afraid.
I'm yet to see the reception that this got, as usual I'm hoping my thoughts are not an outlier in a sea of dissatisfaction. I'd guess it's rated as mid-ly as the prior installments, at worst. Not that any of this is all that important of course, because I enjoyed it and that's all that matters. I did not expect to be saying that, at all!
*checks reception*: Welp. An outlier I seemingly am. Then again, 12k (on Letterboxd) others agree with my rating (and it incredibly again made a billion on the big screen, I see) so I guess it isn't as bad as it looks. Some uncertainty has crept into my mind, I'm thinking it over and comparing it with other films I've rated similarly and... it's not even in doubt. Wild.

Is there any excuse available that will justify spending 2 hours, 45 minutes to watch this film? Or why I am gifting it three stars?
It was a free rental at Redox.
I normally enjoy Mark Wahlberg movies.
I love Bumblebee.
Do any of these hold water?
I know one thing that doesn’t hold a lot of water – the story. Does it really matter at this point in the franchise? There are good guy Transformers called Autobots and bad guy Transformers called Decepticons and standing between them are stupid humans that betray their species for profit – normally it’s the U.S. Government. BUT wait – there is one hero that will change all of this and talk Optimus Prime (Autobot Boss Daddy) into fighting one last battle (for the fourth or fifth time – I’ve lost count at this point) while some hot-looking woman runs around explosions in short-shorts.
You now know all you need to know about the entire _Transformer_ franchise.
For this incarnation we trade out Shia LeBeouf for Mark Wahlberg and Courtney Fox for Nicola Pelz. And now for the twist…wait for it… Mark Wahlberg plays Nicola Pelz’s FATHER. That’s right – the FATHER. Yeah, it totally doesn’t work. At all.
There’s a point in the movie about 90 minutes in where it looks like all the loose ends are going to get tied up and I thought: You know, that wasn’t so bad. Good action flick, a bit hoaky at points but watchable.
And then the movie keeps going. And going. For another 90 minutes. And you basically watch the movie again except instead of it being in Texas and Chicago, it’s in China and Hong Kong.
It’s too long, too many explosions, too many American flags and Texas flags in the background. This movie desperately needs an editor or it needs to be euthanized. Probably the latter.
John Goodman and Ken Watanabe lend their voices serve as decent comic relief but there’s not a lot that can save this film. Bumblebee deserved better.