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Movie Review: “Transformers: The Last Knight” Needs To End The Series

[yasr_overall_rating]
 

Humans and Transformers are at war, Optimus Prime is gone. The key to saving our future lies buried in the secrets of the past, in the hidden history of Transformers on Earth.

“Transformers: The Last Knight” really needs to be the final film in the Transformers series. It was loud, fun, chaotic, everything that encompasses a Michael Bay movie but it was also spreading what little piece of charm the series has left, to the max. Recently, it was announced that both Michael Bay and Mark Wahlberg said they were finished with the franchise but you know how those things go, when Paramount dangles a nice big, fat paycheck in front of them, they’ll probably return for the next outing but here’s hoping they won’t. There is only so much you can do with giant walking, talking machines and “Transformers: The Last Knight” should conclude a series that has had as many ups as it has downs, yes “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen,” I am looking specifically at you.

This time around, the story introduces us to King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table and discloses that the Transformers have been on Earth for a very long time. After helping Arthur and his men defeat the armies of darkness, the Transformers entrust a sacred staff to Merlin, one they say will help prevent Earth from being annihilated in the future from a formidable foe. When Merlin eventually passes away, the staff is buried along with him and it is all but forgotten throughout history. Cade Yeager (Mark Wahlberg) is on the run from the TRF (Transformers Reaction Force), military police whose sole purpose is to track down and eliminate any remaining Transformers as they are now considered not just an enemy of the state, but also of the world. Cade, on the other hand, is dedicated to saving them and hiding them from the world but he is tracked down and summoned to England by Cogman (Jim Carter), a human-sized robot who works for Sir Edmund Burton (Anthony Hopkins), a historian and astronomer who knows a lot about the history of the Transformers, and of what is about to transpire, namely, the end of the world.

Along with Vivian Wembley (Laura Haddock), the last descendant of Merlin, he informs her that she is the only one who can find the staff and prevent it from falling into the hands of a powerful sorceress named Quintessa, the being responsible for creating the Transformers. As the Transformers’ home planet of Cybertron slowly approaches Earth, with the sole purpose of wiping out the planet so that they can rebuild Cybertron anew, it is up to Cade, Vivian, and the remaining Transformers, to find the staff, and prevent an all-out war between Earth and Cybertron.

I think it’s common knowledge that when you go to see a Michael Bay film, he never paints in small, quaint strokes, instead, he blows the shit out of them as he wants to present the biggest, baddest, and loudest spectacle you will have seen all year, if not ever. While he most certainly achieves that objective, understandably, everything else falls by the wayside. He is known to work with actors who are more than capable of handling themselves, and one might even consider him a modern-day Ridley Scott, if this was the late ’70s or early ’80s, when Scott was renowned for giving his actors very little guidance, focusing instead on the visual aspects of his movies (see “Alien” & “Blade Runner”). “Transformers: The Last Knight” encompasses everything a summer blockbuster demands, explosions, car chases, spectacular visuals and stuntwork, loud music and sound effects, but even most films of this stature put aside some time for even the smallest amount of character development so that the audience can connect with them but here, Bay unapologetically gives the Transformers more screen time than their human counterparts, so in a way, he tries to develop machines over humans, something that, inevitably, doesn’t amount to much of anything. A machine can’t be bargained with. It can’t be reasoned with. It doesn’t feel pity, or remorse, or fear! And it absolutely will not stop, ever, until you are dea…oh sorry, wrong movie.

If Michael Bay is your thing, then you’ll have a blast with “Transformers: The Last Knight.” If not, I would recommend going to see “Wonder Woman” again, or for the first time, either way, that is the film to beat this summer. This year!

Now playing in theaters everywhere

 

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James McDonald

Originally from Dublin, Ireland, James is a Movie Critic with 40 years of experience in the film industry as an Award-Winning Filmmaker. He is also a member of the Critics Choice Association and the Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association.