Talented cast keeps “Transformers 4” a human story

Academy Award-nominee Mark Wahlberg and two upcoming young actors, Nicola Peltz and Jack Reynor, lead the human cast of Paramount Pictures’ new action-adventure, “Transformers: Age of Extinction” from director Michael Bay.

Wahlberg, who stars as single father Cade Yeager in the fourth instalment to the franchise, promises that, despite the expected carnage, moviegoers will still be able to resonate with the brand new cast of characters in the film.

Cade Yeager is a struggling inventor who finds a buried Transformer, and that discovery and its consequences set off the chain of events that “Age of Extinction” will follow.

“Technology is advancing but there was such a strong emphasis on the human element and the emotional aspect of it and the connection between a father and a daughter,” Wahlberg says. “These are the kind of characters I can root for – this kind of ordinary guy thrust into this situation.”

Jack Reynor, who plays Shane Dyson, a racing driver secretly dating Cade’s daughter Tessa, echoes Wahlberg’s sentiments, explaining, “Mark’s character and I have quite the tentative relationship throughout the course of the film. But it kind of culminates in us gaining a mutual respect for one another through our love of Tessa.”

Nicola Peltz, who plays the aforementioned Tessa, added, “This has a father-daughter story that people can relate to so easily.”

Together, the three find themselves caught up in the epic bout of global robot mayhem.

Jack Reynor appeared in the recent Vince Vaugn comedy “Delivery Man” and in the latest cinematic version of “Macbeth” starring Michael Fassbender. Reynor’s in a rare position of starring in one of the most expensive movies of the year, and also character-driven indie dramas with modest budgets.

“I think that it’s not so different from any other film you try to do, like I said, it all happens in your imagination and it is just an extension of that,” Reynor shares. He also stressed that fans in his home country of Ireland were very excited to see an Irish actor play an Irish character in major Hollywood release. “We don’t have Irish characters in movies like this, this is the first time we’ve seen an Irish character…in a large supporting role.”

Meanwhile, Nicola Peltz is the daughter of multi-millionaire Nelson Peltz and has been working in Hollywood since “The Last Airbender” in 2010, and got rave reviews for her work on the TV series “Bates Motel.”

In “Transformers: Age of Extinction,” four years after the catastrophic events in Chicago, Earth has mostly recovered from the great war between the Autobots and the Decepticons. But when Cade Yeager (Wahlberg), a struggling inventor, and his daughter, Tessa (Peltz) discover Optimus Prime, they bring down Decepticons, Autobots and the US government on them.

Now with the Decepticons plotting to destroy Earth once again, and a paranoid government official on his tail, Cade must join the Autobots, and Optimus Prime must align with the ancient Dinobots to save Earth.

Opening across the Philippines on June 25, “Transformers: Age of Extinction” is distributed by United International Pictures through Columbia Pictures.

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