Review of Transformers: The Last Knight (2017) by Kyle M — 19 Jul 2017

Three signifies a trilogy. Then there's an addition of a fourth to start anew, refresh; and leads into a fifth to stretch it to the point it starts getting thinner and about to break/snap. It only occurs when it's the same director continuing on through multiple films in a row within a single franchise. I can't think of any other director who went through such task within a span of years, and (the frequently-bullied) Michael Bay broke that in the "Transformers" franchise he'd started ten years ago in the latest installment, that's been confirmed to be his actual last, "The Last Knight".

With the ever-explosive live-action spectacle franchise being based on a toy line of robots in disguise, the fifth installment attempts to expand the mythology further back as the hidden history of the Transformers' connections to Planet Earth. The secretive past gets connected to the current war between the humans and the Transformers, who are being hunted, as the war worsens in Optimus Prime's absence when the interest of an artifact from the past resurfaces. When it comes to the world being threatened towards an end, it takes an unlikely alliance to drive a hopeful solution forward: a struggling inventor, an (acting captain-like) Autobot, an English lord and an Oxford professor as they will demonstrate the redefined heroism.

Pretty much at this point as the fifth installment in a row with the same direction, the flaws are now more realized while the direction as a whole gets predicted as tiresome creativity, even though the premise and Optimus Prime's brainwashed turn to the dark side is intriguing with redeeming potential. At the end, "Transformers: The Last Knight" proved to be a slight improvement over those flaws seen in the previous four films as well becoming thrilling and nostalgic when reconnecting back to the other films, including the original trilogy. However, even with the previous flaws being realized and they were slightly improved, the film is still flawed in just some aspects.

The frequent flaws that were noticed throughout the films are nonsense explosions and the lack of focus for the titular characters that didn't take the majority of the running time, then turned worse with flawed characterization. After reviewing a couple points, it's agreeable on how they're actual traits. Thankfully, Bay minimalized the explosions to a logical sense in this film, but the other is still apparent. Although, the characterization probably require a bit of analysis that would manifest the characters' nuances with understanding. For example, Cade Yeager (Mark Wahlberg) from the previous film was given a far-fetched, narratively-illogical role that can be considered understanding. So as a result regarding to the flaws that flowed through the majority of the franchise, it is indeed a slight improvement. However, a few new flaws appeared in this latest ride.

As part of the predicted tiresome creativity that got turned down into something more satisfying for entertainment when the chance of improvement got taken, it's still imperfect, obviously. Thinking back to the rushed writing in "Revenge of the Fallen" that became the least of the franchise, it's almost similar in "The Last Knight", specifically mostly around the same time frame in the climax. The narration and turn of events are elliptical and shortcoming in a matter of seconds when the pacing should've been longer for reasons of making sense in terms of storytelling without taking short cuts. But those moments later got redeemed, even if few are still questionable. Speaking of which, what's also questionable is the framework switching from full to wide for no reason while also switching in different positions. Bay enjoys directing the Transformers films like anyone enjoying doing a project of their own interest, but he could've gone with a simple filmmaking technique of remaining in one place as well being utterly coherent.

With the elemental flaws discussed, the enjoyable qualities are the same. The spectacle that the visual effects have built still dazzles to amazement on the coordination, namely the action sequences and human interactions. (It also includes Bay's tackle on the medieval genre that opened the film). Accompanying the sequences is the general standout quality of the score, composed by the franchise's same composer Steve Jablonsky, to heighten those sequences with impacts, particularly how the climax was given a thrilling grip. The continuous collaboration between Bay and Jablonsky for the franchise is one of few examples that Bay's direction doesn't show his creativity being mostly tiresome.

In another source of the film's power aside from the filmmaking devices under direction is the performances from the cast. To praise specifically, the standout acting is Anthony Hopkins as his character Sir Edmund Burton who guides us through the aforementioned hidden history and supports behind the action-packed curtains. Behind him is the young breakout star Isabela Moner as the rebellious orphaned tomboy Izabella, then the charismatic formal introduction of Laura Haddock as Oxford professor Viviane Wembly. Finally, the casting also consists pleasant returns of a few actors from the trilogy, being alongside with few from the predecessor: Josh Duhamel and John Turturro. The casting aspect of the recent films outside the first three continues to be more favorable over the last.

So in conclusion with a question to start off, what makes "The Last Knight" tied between the original starter and "Age of Extinction" as the franchise's tops? This is Michael Bay's last hurrah, reconnecting and touching back to the previous films he'd directed, as well reuniting with a few characters that were absent. It's typically imperfect as it's generally flawed from the realized and noticed aspects but it's not as bad, or worst, as people are being influenced into thinking by not giving it a chance. With the veins of the flow continue to be twisted in nature at a heavier weight, it's probably the most intriguing and unique with the same sense of exhilaration and experience as an action-packed thrill ride, even if it's little from the mentioned flaw of human characters hogging the spotlight. Converts and fans would enjoy it the most, while the rest of the human race, if decided to give this a chance, would find this being acceptably watchable entertainment. (B+).