Transformers: The Last Knight

Transformers: The Last Knight

Starring Mark Wahlberg, Anthony Hopkins, Josh Duhamel, Laura Haddock

Directed by Michael Bay

The Story:
Years after Optimus Prime left Earth to find his makers, the people of the planet have turned against the Transformers, outlawing them and sending them into hiding.  Cade Yeager (Mark Wahlberg) is a wanted man, and the Transformers Reaction Force is tasked with tracking him down, along with Colonel William Lennox (Josh Duhamel).

Meanwhile, Prime finds his home planet of Cyberton in ruins, and his maker - Quintessa - brainwashes him into returning to Earth to retrieve a staff that could bring Cybertron back to life - by destroying Earth in the process.  Megatron, still on Earth, also seeks the staff, as does Sir Edmund Burton (Anthony Hopkins), an aristocratic genius who is the last of a line of defenders of the planet.  Only the direct blood heir of Merlin (who was gifted the staff) can access its whole power and either save the world, or destroy it.

The Synopsis:
As a child of the 80s, I owned pretty much each and every Transformer toy known to man.  I knew all their names, what they transformed into, and all their stories.  I've seen every single episode of the classic series (which is why I really never saw the newer ones, because nothing compares to the nostalgia of the original), and one of the first movies I ever went to was the animated Transformers movie (even though I was only six, I still actually remember going to the theater to see it).  When I heard Michael Bay was bringing Transformers to life in 2007, I was very excited to say the least.

The original movie I had no issues with, because it re-ignited my longtime love for the franchise, and with word of a sequel approaching, I was equally as excited to see it.  Unfortunately, it let me down in a big way, and as did the third movie, and by the time the fourth rolled around, I was on the "cautiously optimistic" camp, because the previews showed one of my favorite Transformers ever - Grimlock.  Sadly, it was only a tease, as Grimlock only appeared for the last twenty minutes or so of an almost three-hour product placement borefest that easily was the worst of a fallen franchise.

So with the arrival of "The Last Knight," I no longer had any expectations going into it.  I heard it was featuring Unicron, and I was somewhat excited about it, but I figured Bay would find a way to butcher it.  I was right.  I won't go into detail, but let's just say he neutered Unicron to epic proportions.

Still, oddly enough, despite the many, many, many critics who claim this is the worst of the franchise, I somehow found myself mildly entertained by it.  It's not the worst ("Age of Extinction" holds that unfortunate title), and I was somewhat entertained throughout the film.  After leaving the theater and mulling it over, I realized why I liked it more than I thought it would - because it really wasn't a Transformers movie, but rather a movie about an alien invasion with Transformers on the peripheral.

The main issue I've had with Bay's Transformers (besides the fact that they all seem to transform into the same type of car, no originality) is that he focuses too much on humans and not enough on the Transformers themselves.  With "The Last Knight" he more than tops his human/Transformer ratio by hardly having the Transformers in it at all.  Even Optimus Prime - with his highly hyped transformation into an evil being bent on destroying Earth - only appears in the movie for about half an hour, and needless to say he doesn't stay evil long (with a come-to-Jesus moment almost as hackneyed as "Batman v Superman").  There's a totally random section involving Megatron negotiating the release of several Decepticons that seems to be taken right out of "Ocean's Eleven," a section featuring kids that seem to try to draw in the "Stranger Things" crowd (and a terribly underrused Isabela Moner, who is prominently featured in the promos yet is hardly visible) and a highly convoluted storyline involving King Arthur, Merlin, Excalibur and how the Transformers interacted with human history ever since Arthur reigned, but that's to be expected in a Michael Bay movie - with four writers it's hard to expect a coherent story.

What Bay does excel at - and the reason I was entertained - is his mindless explosions and non-stop action where you really have no idea what's going on since everything is coming at you with lightning pace, but that's the enjoyable aspect of it.  It's definitely not boring.  The effects are dazzling, the CGI is plentiful, and the humor is actually funny.  Plus there's some Transformers here and there.

Mark Wahlberg returns as Cade Yeager, a man you'd think would earn the world's gratitude after saving its behind in "Extinction," but now he's a hunted man because Transformers are once again outlawed (if anything, we learn that society never learns a lesson long enough for it to stick).  Wahlberg serves admirably, giving it his all unlike his zombie-like "Extinction" performance.  Josh Duhamel returns after being absent in "Extinction," which was a nice added touch.  Laura Haddock plays newcomer Vivian Wembley, a woman with a mysterious past and the key to saving the world, and we finally (sort of) learn what happened to Shia LaBeouf's Sam.  As I said earlier, Isabela Moner is criminally underuused as the tough-as-nails girl Izabella, and Jerrod Carmichael's Jimmy is thankfully barely present as Yeager's "comedic relief" sidekick.

Much like Russell Crowe's performance in "The Mummy," it's Anthony Hopkins who's the scene stealer in "The Last Knight."  Hopkins seems to know how extremely outlandish and irrational the script was, so he hams it up to epic proportions in a way that's endearing and downright belly-laugh inducing.  His interactions with his Autobot butler Cogman (Jim Carter, summoning his "Downton Abby" days) proves the two should have their own spin-off, and it seems that the seasoned, Oscar-winning actor deliciously relishes in his role.  He makes it fun, and it's fun for the audience to witness.  As far as the Transformers are concerned, the scene stealer is John Goodman-voiced Hound, who supplies the hilarious one-liners in rapid-fire succession, and the remaining Transformers are as nondescript as they could be, so much you pretty much can't differentiate between them.

As far as the story is concerned, I'm reminded of "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales," in that the movie doesn't seem to have been something planned from the beginning, but thrown in for an easy cash grab (the film tanked in America, but is doing gangbusters overseas).  The staff of power everyone is looking for has been on Earth the entire time, and the Transformers have been on the Earth for well over a decade by now, so you'd think this artifact would've been something they would've been seeking for for awhile now.  Yet it seems they just learned about this now, which doesn't make a lot of sense.  Then again, nothing about the script did.  Especially the core concept which - while not giving anything away - seems to throw logical science out the window and just accepts that which is physically impossible.

The Summary:
Despite negative reviews and a totally nonsensical story, "Transformers: The Last Knight" achieved in its most simplistic goal of being a popcorn-movie action-adventure summer tentpole sure to draw in crowds - overseas.

The Score: C