Transformers: The Last Knight Review

Transformers: The Last Knight
Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Josh Duhamel, Stanley Tucci, Anthony Hopkins, Isabela Moner, Laura Haddock, John Turturro, Santiago Cabrera
Director: Michael Bay 
Run time: 149 minutes

Transformers: The Last Knight is the 5th installment Paramount Pictures’ live-action Transformers films. The film brings back Mark Wahlberg, Stanley Tucci & Josh Duhamel, while shining the light on new entries like Sir Anthony Hopkins, Isabela Moner, Michael Carmichael, & Laura Haddock.

The film takes place sometime after Transformers: Age of Extinction & follows Cade Yeager (Mark Wahlberg), some new faces & the Autobots on a new quest to protect the world from another wave of destruction. The core of the story has Cade, who is now the destined last knight & Viviane (Laura Haddock), the descendant of Merlin, who must prevent Quintessa, the creator of the Autobots & Decepticons, from getting her hands on the legendary staff that was stolen the from her by the Knights of Cybertron.

It shouldn’t surprise anyone that Transformers: The Last Knight suffers from the lack of a solid story. The idea of the 12 Knights of Cybertron touching base on down on Earth during the Dark Ages was an interesting point of the story, but the fact that their haste departure from Cybertron & their conflict with Quintessa was not further explored was a missed opportunity. The film was centered around Quintessa & The Knights of Cybertron/Dragonstorm, but you’ll leave not knowing much about these characters.

During the climax of Transformers: Age of Extinction, Optimus made a big deal about finding his creators, which hint to their being more than one creator of the Autobots & Decepticons, which this film strips down to one being, Quintessa. Optimus was also carrying the Seed in the last film, while flying through space looking for his creators, but the Seed was also erased from this story.

The film finally introduces Unicron into the story but only by name. I mean, according to the huge revelation in the film,  we’ve seen Unicron since the first film because he is the earth. Yes, Unicron is the planet earth — think about that the next time you see Akira Goldman’s name attached to a script. To rob fans of Unicron in this film & then to say that he is the earth was an incredibly hard slap in the face. Hey, at least we got to see his seven horns protrude through the ground. Terrible. & for those of you hoping the Dinobots will join the big battle to protect the world, you will be highly disappointed. The Dinobots have less screen time than they had in the previous film.

The fighting between Bumblebee & Optimus was promoted so much that you’d think you were in for a jaw-dropping match, but the fight was stripped from its subtle pull of excitement by jump cuts to other characters, Wahlberg tumbling all over the place, & the annoying slow-motion yelling. The film slightly touched on Bumble Bee’s past & how much of a tough soldier he was, but it barely contributed to the story & will most likely be fleshed out in his upcoming solo film.

Mark Wahlberg brought nothing new to the last film & brings nothing new to this film. His character is extremely two-dimensional & void of personality. The same could be said about the rest of the cast, excluding Sir Anthony Hopkins, who actually injected some humor & personality into this film. As for new faces Isabela Moner (Izabella) & Laura Haddock, Haddock’s acting was dry & Moner felt unnecessarily forced into this story. Moner’s character shines when she is first introduced, but becomes pushed to the side for throughout the remainder of the film. Jarrod Carmichael suffers from being another token black character in the film. Do you guys remember Anthony Anderson in the 2007 Transformers film? Well, Carmichael’s character took over that spot & received just as much screen time.

Michael Bay is known for explosions & some solid chase scenes in his films, so to say that he did a good job with that is like telling the late Michael Jackson he did a good with that moonwalk. Hearing that this film brings an end to Bay & Wahlberg’s run in the film should make many fans & casual moviegoers looking for something new happy.

Transformers: The Last Knight is just another terrible script that has sucked our beloved childhood heroes into oblivion. If you’re a fan of Transformers, you’ll be better off skipping this, playing with your action figures at home & creating an original story that makes sense. If you actually enjoyed the previous 4 films, you should go check this out.

• Editor-in-Chief

Editor-in-Chief

Sean Marshall

Sean is known as one of the toughest film critics from New York City. If you ever wanted to know what a time capsule stuffed with pop culture looked like, Sean is it. Anime, movies, television shows, cartoon theme songs from the 80s to the early 2000s, video games & comics this man knows is all. Sean created 4 Geeks Like You back in 2012 as a platform where every form of pop culture could be discussed. Sean has his Bachelor of Science in Nursing & is a film enthusiast.

seannmarshall@gmail.com

Transformers: The Last Knight Review

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Pros

• Bumblebee continues to shine in preparation for his solo film

Cons

• Lacked a grounded story
• New characters were not fleshed out
• Transparent villains
• Big Unicron reveal was poorly introduced
• Horrible ending