TRANSFORMERS: THE LAST KNIGHT

Director / Michael Bay (Every TRANSFORMERS feature film on the planet and THE ISLAND)
Stars/ Mark Wahlberg, Laura Haddock, Anthony Hopkins, Josh Duhamel, Isabela Moner and the voices of Peter Cullen, Gemma Chan, Erik Aadahl and Frank Welker

As TRANSFORMERS: THE LAST KNIGHT begins, you can be forgiven for thinking that you’ve entered the wrong cinema. Set thousands of years ago and featuring mythical characters who usually reside in completely separate movies, it becomes evident from early that we are being treated (or burdened, pending your feelings) to a double feature for the price of one, over the next two and a half hours.

This fifth film in the franchise is set to be the final TRANSFORMERS film for series director Michael Bay. But it is far from being the final TRANSFORMERS film! In fact, rumour has it that this franchise will be getting inducted into its own cinematic universe! So while there is clearly an endless supply of CGI and budget ($260 million alone for this instalment, making it the most expensive film of the series so far!) allocated to TRANSFORMERS, it looks set to stomp into a new direction, as indicated by THE LAST KNIGHT. To back that statement up, there are no writers from previous TRANSFORMERS films contributing to the screenplay or the story conjured up in this fifth chapter.

Finally, to the plot. And yes, there indeed is one! In fact, there are many! It goes something like this – Transformers are no longer living among us. Optimus Prime (still voiced by Peter Cullen) has returned home to Cybertron, which has been destroyed and is in need of repair. If he can obtain a certain artefact from Earth (also known as Unicron) and bring it to Cybertron, then he will save his planet and further empower its leader, Quintessa (voiced by Gemma Chan). If successful, humans and Earth will be destroyed. To save our world will require the combined efforts of a few familiar faces including Cade Yeager (Wahlberg), an inventor, and William Lennox (Duhamel), who now works for the newly assembled TRF (Transformers Reaction Force). They will eventually meet and partner with new additions to the franchise, which include astronomer and historian Sir Edmund Burton (Hopkins), a 14 year-old orphaned girl, Izabella (Moner) and an English professor, Viviane Wembly (Laura Haddock who you know as Meredith Quill from the GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY films).

A decade has already elapsed since TRANSFORMERS first premiered on the big screen. Since then, the next three films in the franchise – REVENGE OF THE FALLEN, DARK OF THE MOON and AGE OF EX-STINKS-ION (see what I did there!) – have been just okay, at best. For its truest fans, TRANSFORMERS: THE LAST KNIGHT could very well be the most divisive movie of the lot. It is also marginally better than the three films before it!

But first, in order to grasp such feelings towards THE LAST KNIGHT, audiences must surrender to the unapologetic ridiculousness of it all. Should you understandably choose to be resistant to its ridiculousness, you will struggle to enjoy a single minute of the next 149 ahead of you. One counteractive mechanism employed by the script in order to quash any upheld resistance are its regular humourous interjections. Though less of a majority of them will actually strike a chuckle, they do continually remind us that above all else, THE LAST KNIGHT is never trying to be anything beyond purely lame fun. If the going is better than expected for you, there’s a strong chance that the utterly incredulous plotting has something to do with that. Unlike the very recent release THE MUMMY, TRANSFORMERS: THE LAST KNIGHT doesn’t take itself seriously at all, nor does it over-complicate its several plot strands. Furthermore, considering its lengthiness, which doesn’t really hit until the two hour mark has arrived, the individual plot trajectories keep the film moving at a reasonable pace. Even the action sequences feel a little less repetitive than what we’ve seen previously from this franchise and contribute slightly towards the mediocre entertainment on offer.

Admittedly, some things never change. TRANSFORMERS is still overlong and self-indulgent. Probably more so in THE LAST KNIGHT than ever before – The hyper-extended last half hour being the epitome of just that and having you wish that Michael Bay would get it over with already. But much to my surprise, there is more amusement and mild entertainment made available than expected.

2 ½ stars