Movie review: Transformers: Age of Extinction (M)

Transformers: Age of Extinction (M), 165mins

If the Transformers franchise needed a jump-start after the second disastrous movie, this latest effort completes the resurrection started by Dark of the Moon in 2011.

No longer is it good enough to have endless mechanical fight scenes and constant transformations of the robots.

A strong storyline, plausible characters and action are the keys to turning good into great.

Transformers: Age of Extinction is a cracker ride as the Autobots fight back from virtual extinction to help humanity one last time.

Following the battle between the Autobots and Decepticons that levelled Chicago in Dark of the Moon, there is a new fear of these mechanical Goliaths.

Autobots are no longer seen as friends and government agencies are hunting them down and destroying them.

Cade Yeager (Mark Wahlberg) is a humble Texan inventor. From the rustic rural property he shares with his daughter Tessa (Nicola Peltz), Cade tinkers and creates hoping to make enough money to survive.

When he buys a broken-down old truck, little does he know the badly damaged Autobot Optimus Prime lurks within.

It is not long until government agents descend on the farm forcing Cade, Tessa and Optimus to go on the run.

Cade soon discovers that Optimus Prime can be trusted and he realises there is more to the Transformer hunt than meets the eye. He wonders just who is the real enemy?

After Optimus has rounded up the remaining members of his Autobot team, they know they must go after the mysterious organisation that appears to be creating its own Transformers.

The final battle pits Cade and the Autobots against an army of new Transformers led by Galvatron, a reincarnated Megatron, while an alien warship lurks menacingly overhead with only one mission: to take Optimus Prime with it when it leaves.

And what a battle -- for over 20 minutes we are led around Hong Kong in a fierce, merciless fight between the most powerful of creatures.

Watch the full trailer here: