Transformers: The Last Knight

This review may contain spoilers!

Well I never thought we'd get worse than Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen but here we are. I would give Transformers: The Last Knight a 2/10.

This film is good for a laugh when the comedy is coming a bit more naturally; normally when Wahlberg and Hopkins actually take the time to have fun with the script or go on their own tangents. The cinematography for the film was pretty good; the fast chase sequences are entertaining to watch and the enormous sets that the action takes place in are very well captured. The special effects are well done, the CGI of the various Transformer characters looks great as does the landscape of Cybertron. The score for the film sounds great; not only does it swell and have immense impact for the action sequences but it manages to land some fun comedic timing too.

Mark Wahlberg, who played Cade Yeager, does a reasonable job as the lead for this film; his loose and witty banter makes him likeable and he has some great interactions with the rest of the cast. Isabela Moner, who played Izabella, is a really tough and fierce role with a lot of heart; Moner's character has a very real bond with the Transformers characters which makes her one of the more refreshing faces to watch. Peter Cullen, who voiced Optimus Prime, still manages to capture the heroic leader perfectly and has many rousing monologues near the end of the film; Cullen takes Prime to a darker place for a brief time in this film and it's nice to see the character as an antagonist for a portion of the film. Frank Welker, who voiced Megatron, captures the dark intensity of this role quite well; he feels very violent in the feature just through Welker's voice work alone. Jim Carter, who voiced Cogman, is quite a new comedic presence to the franchise; I greatly enjoyed listening to Carter's random tirades as his character moved from witticisms to outbursts.

However the best performance came from Anthony Hopkins, who played Sir Edmund Burton. I really enjoyed this performance because it could have felt over-encumbered with exposition but Hopkins really manages to place himself as a wise storyteller and have you hooked in his scenes. I also quite enjoyed how erratic Hopkins was in his role, he seemed sharp as a tack in some scenes but a bit mad in others. Hopkins was having enormous amounts of fun throughout the feature, slipping out some good one-liners and cursing his head off which made him feel very much like a character from the Transformers universe. I really enjoyed the manner in which Hopkins' death scene was handled; it was a quick moment but it held a lot of gravitas and the film wasn't really the same without his presence anymore.

The Transformers movies have always varied in terms of how much plot there was and how effectively this plot was portrayed; in this film to describe the feature as having a plot would be a blatant lie on my behalf. When the feature starts you are placed in this world that has been shaken up again and some rushed exposition tries to help you fill in the gaps but it's a very confusing introduction that leaves you uncertain of how exactly this all fits into the films we've seen before. The entire first act is a building conflict between Cade's Autobot teams and Megatron's Decepticons; however quite annoyingly at the end of this big climax Cade inexplicably leaves to start what is presumably the main plot of the film. At this point not only do the eventswithin the film not make a lot of sense but you feel as if you've wasted forty minutes on characters you won't see again for at least another half hour. By this point we meet up with Sir Edmund and have to listen to a LOT of exposition, which is even more on top of the ton we got fed at the start. The entire 'Earth's secret order' storyline has the most potential of the film but it's let down by the amount of information you need to understand plus the fact that it becomes a sort of 'chosen one' story around this Vivian character. All this time the film has tried pushing cameos and subplots to make things more interesting but it only serves to weigh down the run time; characters like Colonel Lennox come back and there's an entire subplot given to Agent Simmons which has very little payoff. Throughout the feature the threat of Quintessa looms but she's quite a generic 'destroy the Earth' villain; her turning Optimus Prime evil could have been good if that subplot had lasted more than ten minutes. The big final confrontation is a messy culimation of all the storylines coming together and it fails to becomes cohesive, most would have checked out at this stage anyway and you're really only there for the nice looking action. The comedy throughout the film has it's moments but the franchise is still let down by the need to insert swearing or 'tongue in cheek' material, the use of this has only ever cheapened these films and held them back from being as entertaining as they could be. The editing for this film is terrible, we cut between shots that are of different aspect ratios during scenes; it looks like the person who pieced this together didn't know how to make a film and it felt like the work of an amateur filmmaker.

Josh Duhamel, who played Colonel William Lennox, is a returning role that really does nothing throughout this entire film; he basically chases Wahlberg around and scowls a whole bunch but has very little other reason to be there. Laura Haddock, who played Vivian Wembley, is pushed into the role of Wahlberg's love interest very early on and it's not executed well at all; furthermore Haddock never makes you care enough about her character that you're interested in her 'chosen one' status. Santiago Cabrera, who played Santos, is another token military role that you're quick to forget about; Cabrera has this real self-righteous attitude throughout the feature which would be great is you knew who his character was or even what his organisation was supposed to be. Jerrod Carmichael, who played Jimmy, is supposedly in this film for comedic relief but he doesn't really draw a laugh from you once; Carmichael screams and gets progressively louder as the film goes on but he just feels like background noise. Stanley Tucci and Liam Garrigan, who played Merlin and Arthur respectively, are these very out of place roles that feel inserted into the film; Tucci being Merlin in the feature is especially baffling considering his portrayal of a corporate CEO in the previous film. Gemma Chan, who played Quintessa, has to be one of the most generic Transformers antagonists to date; her drive to destroy Earth/Unicron is only ever briefly touched on and the background behind her role never explained. John Turturro, who played Agent Simmons, doesn't really feel like he belongs in these movies anymore; he's placed in his own subplot that makes him feel apart from the action and more of an afterthought than an actual role within the film. Tony Hale, who played JPL Engineer, has to be one of the dullest performers to ever handle exposition in the Transformers franchise; the amount of screen time he was given in relation to the final act of the film wasn't really justified considering the significance of his role. Benjamin Flores Jr., Juliocesar Chavez, Samuel Parker and Daniel Iturriaga, who played the Kids, were a really weak manner of introducing Moner to the film; Parker especially came off as creepy while the others were poorly handled attempts at comedic relief. Erik Aadahl, who voiced Bumblebee, was a bit of an anti-climactic reveal of Bumblebee's voice; there wasn't much tone there and might have well just been one of the radio bytes for all the impact it made. John Goodman, who voiced Hound, was a bit too over the top in his performance; this rough and tough autobot was very present in action scenes but had little role to play otherwise. Ken Watanabe, who voiced Drift, still feels like a caricature of a martial arts role which isn't at all surprising considering Bay's tendency towards cheap humour; Watanabe is rarely used in this film and you certainly forget that he's there. Steve Buscemi, who voiced Daytrader, is this snivelling new addition of a character who you just don't really come to know or understand; Buscmei's sudden introduction into these films is a real blink and you'd miss him moment. Omar Sy, who voiced Hot Rod, is purely there for his accent; honestly the amount of French accent jokes that are centred around this character are cringeworthy. Reno Wilson, who voiced Mohawk, is a real throw away minor antagonist; this is a Decepticon we've never seen before and are in no hurry to see again. John DiMaggio, who voiced Nitro Zeus and Crosshairs, makes for a completely forgettable antagonist while he's voicing Zeus; as Crossharis you have to wonder if such an antagonistic Autobot has much place in the film. Tom Kenny, who voiced Wheels, is one of the worst characters in the entire film; Kenny's work on this lewd role really doesn't exten much beyond creating some of the worst comedy imaginable.