Transformers: The Last Knight

Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Anthony Hopkins, Josh Duhamel, Laura Haddock, Santiago Cabrera, Isabela Moner, Jerrod Carmichael, Stanley Tucci, Liam Garrigan, John Turturro, Tony Hale, Mitch Pileggi, Peter Cullen (voice), Frank Welker (voice), John Goodman (voice), Ken Watanabe (voice), Omar Sy (voice)
Directed by: Michael Bay
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Action, Adventure, Science Fiction
2017

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: In the battle between the Autobots and the Decepticons, a mystery buried in the past may tilt the balance one way or the other.

Review:

Tim: It's funny that I used to be excited about the Transformers franchise. I saw the first three films in theaters (which I only do when I'm really into a franchise. The last movie was the first one I skipped and for good reason- the franchise had grown stale. Unfortunately, Michael Bay is back yet again (it's crazy that he has directed all five live-action films) and we get the same thing one more time. The problem is that we've seen this all before. This franchise is redundant, way past its prime (ha). Each film in the series has been worse than the one before it, and Transformers: The Last Knight is the worst of all. Part of this is that it feels like everyone involved is going through the motions, and the other part is that any patience we might have had to overlook the film's flaws is way past.

The box office is fairly telling as well. Revenge of the Fallen was the high point, at $402 million. This film did $130 million, a stunning $272 million less. This franchise has been hemorrhaging viewers, yet Bay keeps showing up and doing his thing over and over again. At some point, the definition of insanity has to connect with the studio. This franchise needs to sit on a shelf for a while, before being handed over to someone new.

Until that happens, though, we have The Last Knight (which is a terrible title). This film lost me. It tried to connect the transformers with Earth's history, notably King Arthur. Why this was important to do was lost on me. Maybe it added a little more color and scope to the mythology, but looking into the past was not what we needed with this fifth film. The scenes from the past were mostly worthless and disruptive of the main story's action. The fact that we toggled back-and-forth was one contributing factor to this movie being an asinine 2 hours and 35 minutes. That might be the most telling indicator that Bay has lost his mind. The fifth film of a falling apart franchise is two a half hours. No wonder viewers stayed away.

I feel like I've said this all before, so forgive me if this review isn't overly long. Bay has always been able to put together epic visual effects. Like all the other movies, the scale and visual effects here are quite stunning. There's something really cool about seeing giant robots battle it out on Earth and with massive spaceships. Visually, this movie is a treat- all of the Transformer films have been. That's still the big strength here. The film does offer some cool action sequences, but they have lost since lost their stunning quality. I remember watching Revenge of the Fallen and being blow away by the action scenes. I barely even shrugged my shoulders here- we've seen so many giant robot battles that they have lost their ability to impress. Once again, the humor is juvenile and stupid. It's not as bad as it previously has been, but there's still cringe-worthy moments. The dialogue in this film felt especially forced and weak.

I thought the story with Unicron was kind of cool, connecting back to the animated Transformers movie. Quintessa was a nice change up from having Megatron be the villain, but she doesn't get enough screen time to really emerge as a selling point. Mark Wahlberg was once again fine, but it certainly seemed like his heart wasn't in it. I felt so bad for Anthony Hopkins- this was a miss and he knew it. It was fun seeing Josh Duhamel, although he's not given much to do. Laura Haddock was pretty bad. I hated seeing John Turturro, but his terrible character was minimized, which was good. Really, the cast was large but by no means impressive. They always feel like an afterthought in these movies.

I could go on, but what's the point? This is the low point in the Transformers franchise, as each film continues to decrease in quality. I have no patience for these movies and no desire to see any more. I have to believe at some point, the diminishing box office returns will cause something drastic to happen. I truly pray this is the low point and we don't go any lower (although I have no hope that that'll actually happen).

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 6



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: Transformers, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, Transformers: Dark of the Moon, Transformers: Age of Extinction