Should Kids See the Transformers Age of Extinction Movie?

Are your kids begging you to go see the latest installment of the Transformers movie? Since the series has received a reboot there have been some changes to the franchise, and even cast members have said the new film is darker, but how violent is Age of Extinction? Read our review to find out.

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Basic Info:

Director: Michael Bay

Stars: Mark Wahlberg, Nicola Peltz, Jack Reyner, Kelsey Grammer, Stanley Tucci

Rating: PG-13

Run Time: 125 min/ 2hours 5 minutes

**How Violent is Transformers?**

If you watch the trailer below, or have seen any of the previous Tranformers movies, you’ll have an idea of what the movie is going to be about. Giant robots fighting giant robots; the new entry doesn’t stray too far from beaten path. Some of the fight scenes can get pretty brutal with robots losing limbs, being impaled, or shot, stabbed, and crushed in almost any way imaginable. While the other movies featured more violence between robots or between humans and robots, this entry has more human vs. human violence.

There is a scene early in the film in which a villain is holding a gun to an innocent person’s head, and is given the order to kill, though it’s not carried out. Amid high-action and multiple fights, three people die; one is shown on-screen and one is shown falling from a building. There is another scene in which a human is attacked by a robot and turned into metal. The character is shown in a “frozen” state in metal.

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Is there profanity?

There are a lot of minor curse words, such as ‘damns’ and ‘hells’ throughout the movie. There are other instances in which a ‘B’ word, one ‘S’ word, and one ‘F’ word are used. All uses are very out of place and it’s disappointing they were used in the film at all. It almost seemed like the producers signed a contract that required use of the words and added the scenes at the last minute. There is a lot of threatening dialogue in the movie as well; phrases such as “we’ll kill him,” “they will die,” or “kick his a**.”

Is there explicit content?

Surprisingly, not as bad as previous entries. The director is notorious for explosions, American flags, and using scantily-clad attractive women in his movies. There are plenty of the first two, and while the women in the film are very attractive, the explicit nature of their presence has been turned down. By the way, a fun game could be to count the American flags in the film.

**Is Transformers educational?**

No. In every movie we’ve reviewed on Learning Liftoff, there has been some type of educational value. For this movie, I’m at a loss. There isn’t a strong moral standard represented, or a character who is going to inspire your student. The only thing I can think of is if your student is interested in making films, they will see the importance of corporate sponsorship.

Your child should see this movie if:

They’ve seen the the previous films. As far as movies go this isn’t great, as far as Transformers movies go this is a great entry. The director gets knocked for making movies that don’t get a critical response, but he knows what he’s making: an action movie, and by that standard it’s great.