Transformers: The Last Knight

"It has been said throughout the ages, that there can be no victory, without sacrifice."

Filmology Rating: 1.75 out of 4

Since 1984 the war between the Autobots and the Decepticons has captivated the minds of young children and brought out the inner child in most adults who grew up with the toys or watched the Generation 1 cartoon. The Transformers clearly have a fanbase with countless cartoon series and toys that come out every year; yet some question the critic-proof live action film franchise that Michael Bay has created. They call the films lifeless, full of characters without motivation, and a running time that would make running The Jungle Ultra, a 142.6 mile course through the Amazon, seem like a breeze in the park. However, audiences still flock to the films like sheep being led to the slaughter. I find myself going to the films opening night, always telling myself that the film will be better than the last, this is even after calling Revenge of the Fallen one of the worst films ever made I still walked into Dark of the Moon with hope for an entertaining film. The saying “fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me” for some reason has never applied to this series; after grossing $3.7 billion worldwide this franchise seems that it will forever keep rolling on; but the question is: should it?

Optimus Prime, once again voiced by Peter Cullen, has been searching the cosmos for his Creator only to find his way back home to Cybertron where he meets Quintessa, voiced by Gemma Chan. Quintessa convinces Optimus that it’s time for Cybertron to rise again and that it shall rise over Earth destroying all life on the blue planet.

Honestly I have a hard time remembering what happened in each Transformers film shortly after watching them, I usually remember the “selling” points of the films: the Constructicons from Revenge of the Fallen or the Dinobots from Age of Extinction. Basically I remember what the Paramount marketing team shoved down my throat. I also remember those “selling” points to be only a few moments of the actual film and that is also true with The Last Knight. The marketing for this film is solely focused on Optimus Prime turning against his Autobot family, but anyone who understands how this franchise works knows that Prime won’t be a villain by the end of the film. So the tension is gone immediately upon entering the theatre, and to make matters only worse for this film, that plot of Prime going bad is only ten minutes of a two and a half hour film. The Paramount marketing team either needs a big raise for once again convincing the general public that the best aspect of the film will be featured throughout the running time or they need to be fired for leading many consumers on with false hope.

Some people I talked to tried to convince me that this film would be the best of the series because it brought in Sir Anthony Hopkins. Those people have clearly forgotten that this franchise has already brought in great talent like Stanley Tucci, John Malkovich, Frances McDormand, and John Turturro and gave them nothing to work with. Those actors only seemed to make fools of themselves with trying to turn in a performance when given some of the worst material to work with. As for Hopkins, he clearly can act, but he also clearly likes money after slumming in films like The Wolfman, Red 2, and now Transformers: The Last Knight. Hopkins isn’t even given a character to play in the film, he is given one purpose and that is to dump all the exposition for the plot and after the second monologue I was ready to call for a page one rewrite of this script.

The script for The Last Knight was written by Art Marcum, Matt Holloway, and Ken Nolan. Marcum and Holloway were also on the writing team for Iron Man, but then they also wrote the tonally confused Punisher: War Zone, so I wouldn’t believe they had much to do with the magic behind the first Marvel Studios film. The only other work that Nolan has done is Black Hawk Down which I haven’t seen in over ten years so I cannot comment on the work that Nolan put into that film. However I can comment on the work that all three writers put into this film, and the best way to say my thoughts on this film is: send them all back to school. I have read scripts by freshman in high school that offer more character motivation than this film. I can hardly understand why anyone is doing what they are doing in this film, since no one has dimension they can just do everything and look great doing it. I don’t think the writers or Michael Bay understand how to tell a compelling story and I wish they could be punished for that crime instead of making a billion-dollar hit film.

The Transformers franchise has clearly run out of steam, at least in its current interpretation with Michael Bay at the head. It might be time to head back to the small screen with this franchise and make cartoons for children so I will never have to put myself through the pain of watching another Transformers film again.

Rating: Skip It

-Jonny G