UPDATE: Willever recently clarified his statement about the "kids movie" aspect, saying:
“I misspoke in my last interview when I said that Transformers 4 was not a kids movie…what I meant was that this film, will in fact expand their target audience and bring in a bigger fan base. Following the huge success of Transformers and their toy line, it is certainly a kids movie and with the addition of Mark Wahlberg, Transformers 4 will be the coolest in the franchise.”
Michael Bay previously said TRANSFORMERS: AGE OF EXTINCTION won't be goofy at all, but since some people don't think too highly of the director's opinion, maybe you'll be convinced by someone else making similar comments. While speaking with Nerdist, actor Titus Welliver (RED 2, ARGO, television's LOST, AGENTS OF S.H.I.E.L.D.) was asked about the upcoming film, and he says it will be darker than the first three films.
“It’s a bit more of a darker vision of the Transformers world… It’s not a kids movie, I’ll tell you that much.”
Obviously TRANSFORMERS: THE AGE OT EXTINCTION will still be marketed towards children, but adopting a more serious tone could help the film. Although the franchise has made an insane amount of money, they haven't received glowing reviews from critics, and one of the reasons is because the films have been a little silly. Just because there's going to be robotic dinos running around doesn't mean the film itself can't be serious, and I think this is the right approach for the new movie.
Some aren't going to bother with the fourth film, either because they don't like Michael Bay or because they've had enough of his TRANSFORMERS series. But there are some things I do like about the new movie (Grimlock, Kelsey Grammer as the villain), and it should feature plenty of great action. As long as the next movie is better than TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN, I'll be happy.
TRANSFORMERS: AGE OF EXTINCTION also stars Mark Wahlberg, Nicola Peltz, Jack Reynor, Stanley Tucci, Sophia Myles, T.J. Miller, and Li Bingbing, and will be released on June 27th, 2014.