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When it comes to the presentation of this film, I expected both the 3D Blu-ray and 2D Blu-ray versions to retain the IMAX ratio for the 1.90:1 scenes shot in that format, but only the 3D version does. Shame for the 2D version, which is 2.35:1 throughout, but at least the better of the two versions can be seen in all its full glory. The discs are in 1080p high definition and are pin-sharp throughout and looking absolutely stunning. You can be confident that you won’t be disappointed in this purchase.
The sound is presented in Dolby Atmos for this who have such technical ability, but I watched it in DTS 5.1 and the crash/bang/wallop is all over the show, giving your speakers a great workout, so Paramount have done a fantastic job with this transfer.
The extras are as follows and they’re all on disc 3 and in HD:
- Bay on action (10:45): Michael Bay on how he directs the action scenes and how he’s learned more as he’s gone on. There’s a ridiculous amount of cutting and frame-changing simply when Bay is talking. He doesn’t even seem competent of completing a full sentence in one go! The action shots are good, but at no point does he explain why he’s takes 165 minutes to tell the whole story.
- Evolution within Extinction (2:02:50): Effectively a multi-part feature looking at all manner of aspects of the film: The new ‘generation’ of Transformers characters (Wahlberg, Peltz et al, replacing those people from the first three) as well as the new Transformers themselves; then there’s the cars; shooting in a small town for a big film; shooting on location throughout the whole film;
and then sort-of doing the opposite by bringing Hong Kong to Detroit; the dinobots; and a section on other bits and pieces including editing and a look at Transformium. - Just Another Giant Effin’ Movie (10:03): After giving us the revelation that Michael Bay’s mum, Harriet, has never seen any of the Transformers films, we then see a lot of explosions followed by clips of the crew messing about, so it looks like they had a lot of fun making it.
- A Spark of Design (15:24): A look at the Hasbro HQ, showing designs for the Transformers and also the staff who work there.
- T.J. Miller: Farm Hippie (19:43): The actor, who played Wahlberg’s friend Lucas, drops in on Wahlberg at home, then at Bay’s office, then dropping in on Kelsey Grammer and… erm… Optimus Prime. Sort-of. All of it’s done in a tongue-in-cheek fashion, and the subtitle of this segment is revealed towards the end.
- Trailers: Two for the film (2:28 apiece, the second of which is a better all-rounder), one for the KRE-O Transformers taking us through the series (3:42) and also one for Angry Birds Transformers: Origin Story (1:16).
- Audio Description: Does what it says on the tin.
The menu is in 3D or 2D depending on the disc you’re watching, and shows a brief 30-second clip of the film where Optimus Prime finds what he’s looking for and says, “Hello, Mama!”. As for chapters, Paramount go for a slightly odd number of 22, but as the film runs for 165 minutes, I think it could use some more, as I work on the rule of thumb of one every five minutes.
Dialogue comes in five languages – English, French, Italian, German and Spanish, while subtitles are available in 10 flavours: English, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, Spanish and Swedish.
Yes, Transformers: Age of Extinction is a daft film, but overall, if you have a great sound-setup at home and can view this in 3D, it’s a must-buy.
Transformers: Age of Extinction is now available to buy on 3D Blu-ray, 2D Blu-ray and DVD, and click on the packshot for full-sized image.
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FILM CONTENT PICTURE QUALITY SOUND QUALITY EXTRAS |
6 10 10 9 |
| OVERALL | 8 |
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 165 minutes
Studio: Paramount Home Video
Cat.no.: BSP2608
Year: 2014
Released: November 17th 2014
Chapters: 22
Picture: 1080p High Definition
Sound: Dolby Atmos (English only), Dolby Digital 5.1
Languages: English, French, German, Italian, Spanish
Subtitles: English, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, Spanish, Swedish
Widescreen: 1.90:1 (IMAX 3-D version: some scenes); 2.35:1 (Redcode RAW (6K))
Disc Format: 3*BD50
Director: Michael Bay
Producers: Ian Bryce, Tom DeSanto, Lorenzo di Bonaventura and Don Murphy
Screenplay: Ehren Kruger
Music: Steve Jablonsky
Cast :
Cade Yeager: Mark Wahlberg
Tessa Yeager: Nicola Peltz
Joshua Joyce: Stanley Tucci
Harold Attinger: Kelsey Grammer
James Savoy: Titus Welliver
Shane Dyson: Jack Reynor
Darcy Tirrel: Sophia Myles
Su Yueming: Bingbing Li
Lucas Flannery: T.J. Miller
Gill Wembley: James Bachman
Chief of Staff: Thomas Lennon
Wembley’s Associate: Kassem Gharaibeh
Optimus Prime: Peter Cullen
Galvatron: Frank Welker
Hound: John Goodman
Drift: Ken Watanabe
Ratchet: Robert Foxworth
Crosshairs: John DiMaggio
Lockdown: Mark Ryan
Brains: Reno Wilson
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.