Michael Bay is back directing his fifth Transformers movie to do what he does best; a high octane, noisy sci-fi blockbuster.
Transformers: The Last Knight is the direct sequel to 2014’s Transformers: Age of Extinction, and stars Mark Wahlberg, Josh Duhammel and John Turturro reprising their roles from previous films in the franchise. Anthony Hopkins now joins the cast.
And so the story goes for this installment; humans are at war with the Transformers, and Optimus Prime is gone. Mankind’s future lies buried in the secrets of the past and the hidden history of Transformers on Earth. Now, it’s up to the unlikely alliance of inventor Cade Yeager, Bumblebee, an English lord and an Oxford professor to save the day. What could possibly go wrong?
In this movie, a lot goes wrong- in every sense of the word.
First of all, the plot is a lot more complicated than it sounds, and its told to us in as convoluted a manner as possible, at a hundred miles an hour. There is so much explanation here that it breaks the basic rule of film – show don’t tell.
There is very little time to relax or catch your breath because your constantly trying to find out what exactly is going on and why.
The film tries to satisfy its PG-13 rating with a lot of humour and witty one liners thrown in. The problem is the jokes are lame and the transformers themselves tell them. This completely ruins their sense of menace; we are supposed to be scared or fascinated by them not desperate for them to shut up.
It feels like watching WWF wrestling characters from the 1980’s at times. It works if you are 10 years old but that’s about it.
The pacing is awful. Like so many Michael Bay films this is well over two hours; and that’s far too long. Not many action movies can move so fast and still have you engaged beyond two hours. I was confused and getting bored after an hour.
The human characters are well cast but they have a hopeless script to work with.
Mark Wahlberg to his credit is always very believable in everything he does, and he does a decent job as Cade Yeager. Laura haddock is also solid as Professor Viviane Wembley, although her wealthy and educated character is supposedly struggling to find a man. This is as ridiculous as it is implausible since she looks like Angelina Jolie. However, Isabella Moner really impresses as Izabella the streetwise orphan. She brought the right blend of pluckiness and vulnerability to the role.
Josh Duhamel and John Turturro have very minor parts and merely compliment the chaos going on around them.
Then there was poor Anthony Hopkins, who got the raw end of the stick with his part as Sir Edmund burton. His characters lines are so bad and clunky you really wonder why he took this role. He comes across like a misfit character from the Harry Potter franchise.
On a positive note, Transformers: the last Knight looks fantastic, but to be fair all Michael Bay films are visual spectacles. But that’s about all. It’s a total mess from start to finish and I was exhausted and worn out by the closing credits. I genuinely didn’t care who won; I just wanted to escape for some peace and quiet.
But again that’s just me. If you are in the 10-12 years old demographic and enjoy the franchise on a whole, you’ll definitely like this. I only saw the first two Transformers films prior; and I liked the first one for its novelty, and the CGI was and still is outstanding. But the problem is that it’s just too hard to care about these robots in disguise when they are so annoying to listen to, move to fast to admire, and look so colourful and sparkly that they feel cartoonish. Add the script and pacing complications, and that’s why this movie failed on me. Let’s hope Transformers :The Last Knight is the last picture too.
