Movie Review: Transformers: The Last Knight

Introduction: Before I start my review, I should say I’m a massive transformers movie franchise fan, ever since I watched the first one all the way back in 2007. Why? do you ask. Well it’s because of a ton of factors, but mainly because it’s the only movie franchise nowadays that gives me the insane non-stop epic over the top action I love. And unlike many people, that for reasons I will never understand, come to these films expecting Oscar nominated plots and acting, I know what’s these films are and want to be, action films with robots fighting bad robots.

So, when I watch a transformers film I do it for the fun and joy they it gives me not to judge it for something it never said it was or intended to be. So, for the people that in the fifth instalment of this franchise continue to rant about transformers, I will give the following advice: just don’t watch it. No one its forcing you to watch. And if by the fifth entry you don’t already know what you’re going to get, then shame on you.

The first film is probably the best, but my favourite continues to be ”Dark of the moon” (the 3rd one). But then came Age of Extinction and I couldn’t be more disappointed, even though I I really wasn’t a fan of the choice to have Mark Walberg be the new lead. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a huge fan of his, but Shia Labeof had a special every man vibe and not a straightforward action film type. And the film screamed laziness as it was nothing but a best of the previous films, but just poorly executed. Also, it was painfully apparent that Michael Bay just wasn’t interested in this franchise (especially when compared to the previous entry) and was just doing it for the sake of doing or the sake of money of course.

But, no matter how disappointed I was with age of extinction, that’s nothing compared with the last knight. This is a terrible film in every way possible. And when a diehard fan of the transformers movies says this, well you can see what that says for this film…

Review: First, the story is a huge mess that jumps from one place to another, (yes, I know what I said about story, but all the previous entries had a great story or premise at its core and focus) without ever explaining anything that’s happening or why these characters are where they are, and nothing feels connected. They had so many great story points but instead the writers just don’t do anything with them. And honestly, I read so many reviews about the script having too much in it, well I felt the opposite. For 2 and half hours nothing really happens. Which leads to biggest problem I had…

The tone. Its relentlessly rushed where it should take its time and painfully slow where it should be fast paced or at least moving. And this means that…

There’s literally no action in this film! Sure, there’s flashes of action that take like 1 minute each, every half an hour, but that to me not even qualifies as action, as its nothing but cars moving fast or some robot shooting at something. There’s the big climax at the end, after 2 painful hours, but it’s just something so bland, unimaginative and simplistic that it just falls so flat. Where’s the insanely epic, original and complex action sequences of the first 3 films?!

But the action being terrible was even more felt because I honestly didn’t care about anything that was happening. I still don’t care about Mark Walberg’s character, and I couldn’t care less about any of the new characters. Laura Haddock it’s a great actress, and she does the best she can with the terrible material they gave her. Anthony Hopkins is having a lot of fun, but that didn’t mean anything to me. And don’t come expecting to see a lot of those kids you saw in every trailer because 3 of them appear for 2 minutes and another one for 30 minutes.

Transformers, well this film to me wasn’t about them… at all. It just seemed like another random action film. But Bumblebee was the best one by far, the worst, was the Butler, a C3PO rip off that was terrible. As for Optimus Prime he was in the film for like 15 minutes and was okay.

When you just can’t care for anything or anyone in a film, it’s impossible for you to enjoy it. And in fact, and I should say, I never thought I was ever going to write this… I fell asleep in this film, just to show you how much bored I was. No matter how disappointed I was with age of extinction I still had some fun with it, but this film was painfully boring. Even the humour it’s terrible and most of the time just completely out of place (Even though there was a woman at the theatre that laughed out loud the entire film)

The visuals and sound design was okay, with a few great shots, but nothing that even compares to the first 3 films. The score was awful. Where’s the great score with incredible themes of the first 3 films?!

To summarize: So I will forever defend the first 3 films, but unfortunately ever since they decided to reboot the franchise it’s getting worse and worse, transpiring nothing but laziness and lack of interest. This film was by far the worst of the franchise, being painfully boring and having a mesmerizing lack of action, with the one that exists being terrible. So unfortunately, and again, I never thought I was ever going to write this, but I hope this is in fact Michael Bays last transformers film. Let’s bring someone who actually cares about the films.

My advice: Just stay at home, watch the first tree films and save your money.

Score: 40/100

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