‘Transformers: The Last Knight’ Crumbles With Franchise-Low Opening Day

Good people are finally started to understand Bay sucks and he needs to stop making these now.

 

I really liked it. After all the bad reviews, I kept waiting for the bad bits, and until the third act, there weren't really any. I thought the directing and cinematography was excellent in the first act. Lots of nice references to game of thrones, RoboCop and so on. Loved the ancient Britain, Chicago, junkyard and Lara Croft mansion scenes.
From the London chase onwards it descended somewhat into Bay nonsense. The final battle has been heavily edited and the continuity is bad, especially after Sqweeks does his thing. I think this is deliberate fog of war but it hurts the movie because I was distracted by 'how did he get there' too much.

Best bits: Citroen DS Hot Rod please please Hasbro! Cogman, Baby Dinobots, Daytrader. Some actual character interaction between autobots ( there should be a Bechtel test of this!)
Worst bits: Continuity which invalidates AoE, Bee Vs Prime resolution (Martha! Dreadful), Prime Vs Knights resolution (Prime is a dick, why follow him?), third act generally but especially continuity, Bumblebee killing too many Deceptions too easily, standing next to a nuclear explosion has no consequences.

Overall one of the better films. They are all lovable and flawed in different ways so my ratings are always changing depending whether I think about character, story, directing, etc but for now in the afterglow of the first viewing I am going to rate it equal best film with DoTM.

DoTM=TLK> TF>RoTF>AoE

 

I told my mom about the thoughts on the film and she told me I was being too critical. I explained that Optimus came off as generic and I was upset that they tossed plot lines in AOE out of the window. Her response was "Maybe people complained about Optimus doing too much. As for the storyline being messed up, it could have been because they were trying to tell a good story, it's hard to do one you know."

I think I understand what she's saying, but at the same time I can't understand it. Exactly what possessed Bay and the writer team to think "You know those plotlines we were building up to in AOE, let's toss most of them out of the window except for a select few!" Though she's convinced the movie won't bomb by telling me that everyone said that AOE would bomb, though I told her that China managed to save that film.

 

And who do you think is gonna save this one?  

 

Ignore everything she said. Get her to go watch the movie, then she can have an opinion on it.

 

I saw it yesterday. Gonna keep it as simple as possible.

The Good:

• Lots of fun little nods to the original trilogy. As someone who got into Transformers because of the 1st live action movie, I loved those nods.
• Hound and Crosshairs finally transform!
• Lots of setup for this whole Cinematic Universe that they plan to do.
• Megatron being voiced by Frank Welker was pretty awesome.
• Quintessa was cool, too. And she had a hot- I mean beautiful voice.
• The CG effects and music were as phenomenal as always.
• Bee finally speaks.
• Cogman. That is all.

The Bad:

• Several things do go unexplained, like how Megatron went back to Megatron when he was Galvatron last movie, or where the Mini Dinobots came from, or Bumblebee\'s regeneration ability.
• Disappearing bots (Dinobots, Wheelie, Daytrader the Robo Hobo, Barricade)
• Mohawk and Onslaught were offed too quickly. Nitro lasts a bit longer, but even he gets the axe at the end (I think Bee blasts his head off).
• Berserker appears for a mere 5 seconds, yet he gets 2-3 toys while poor Onslaught has none. He better appear in the future.
• The whole \"Evil Prime\" doesn\'t last as long. they could have done more with it.
• For being a Headmaster, Cogman never got the chance to \"HEAD ON!\". Again, hope to see it in the future.
• The film was a bit similar to the 1st one in that there are a few scenes that were too heavy with the human-focus. In contrast to AOE, which had a lot more scenes with the bots.

Overall, it wasn\'t perfect, but I loved it from beginning to end. I might go see it again. Can\'t wait to see what\'s in store for the series. 

An honest 8/10.

 

I just came back from watching TLK. IT IS THE BEST TRANSFORMERS FILM EVER! I got chills watching this film. I just made this account to just let out all my joy from seeing this film and share it with you all.

They gave all the Transformers - ALL - character, it felt like and was a true Transformers film. Drift was hilarious, Hot Rod was great, Bumblebee was brilliant, Prime was... Prime lol, MEGATRON was amazing! Almost every scene had a transformer in it somewhere, which is something that Age of Extinction got right as well. It made sooo many references to the other films and the cartoons, there was loads of little cool references, like Vivian name-dropping Shockwave and Soundwave in a joke to one of the other Transformers.

Stanley Tucci as Merlin was hilarious, a drunken charlatan who pretended to be a wizard but his "magic" was really just Cybertronian technology given to him by the Knights of Iacon (Also, IACON!! Wow, it actually got named!) The beginning battle with King Arthur was amazing, with Dragonstorm flying in and rolling over the Saxon army hahaha it was so cool!

Megatron... wow. WOW. He was incredible in this film. So much dialogue, so many cool scenes with him in being the total evil badass we all want him to be. He has that brilliant moment where he finds Starscream's head and says something along the lines of "Ahhh, my treacherous friend. It's all coming to an end now, if only you could be here to see it." He just felt like the proper G1 Megatron in movie form, with some elements of Prime Megatron, particularly because Frank Welker voices him. Other great lines from him were Izzy saying "Go to hell!" to him and Megatron responds with "This planet IS hell!", Lennox asks Megs what he wants, Megatron says "I want what everybody wants, to go home."

He was working with Quintessa throughout the film as well, he just didn't let on early in the film I think. The ending was brilliant. Every transformer got some lines, except the submarine. Even Nitro Zeus - a new decepticon - tells Prime "You had your chance!" Then Megatron grabs Prime and says "I knew you didn't have what it takes! You turned your back on Cybertron!" then he takes the staff off Prime and flies to Quintessa and gives it to her. When he gets there he says "I have brought the staff!" Then he proceeds to command the Decepticon army on Cybertron, saying "My army will destroy them!"

The WHOLE ending battle takes place on Cybertron, which partially enters Earth's (Unicron's) atmosphere, between the Decepticons and Quintessa, and the Autobots, the Knights of Iacon, and the humans. It was really funny how all the attempts to stop Quintessa from the humans failed and only the Autobots could actually save the day, along with Vivian and the staff. Anyway, Megatron takes on Bumblebee and Hot Rod but ends up getting kicked off Cybertron 300-style by Prime after he fights him briefly, losing his arm with the cannon on, and Megatron actually tries to reach out and appeal to Prime by reminding him that "we were brothers once!" but Prime has none of it and just kicks him out after saying "Once." haha. The film ends in a really 1986-movie style way, all the Autobots are standing on Cybertron with Prime saying "Now we must rebuild our planets, and work together to survive." Awesome.

Infernocus is... possibly a spawn of Unicron, possibly a Decepticon, I'm not sure... since Quintessa is really shady. She may even be trying to resurrect Unicron? Who knows. The Knights of Iacon call her "The great deceiver". I'm really interested to see what comes next...

UNICRON IS EARTH!!! Brilliant, and CYBERTRON is now orbiting Earth! EVEN BETTER!

I can't wait for the next one!

 

I also loved how when Prime snapped out of the brainwashing placed on him by Quintessa, he gave himself up to the Knights of Iacon, to their judgement. He didn't fight back, he just lay down saying "What have I done?", and only Cade saved him by using the Talisman to make a sword that blocked the executioner's sword. Then Prime swore to never betray the Knights, Earth and the Autobots again, and went into battle against the Decepticons.

Quintessa says she is the Prime of Life but I don't believe her somehow. I have a feeling she's working FOR Unicron, but she's definitely not telling the truth.

People say the Decepticons weren't important to this film, but they are INTEGRAL! They have such awesome scenes, from Barricade's introduction with Megatron, with Megatron sitting on his throne and angrily chastising Barricade who failed to get the talisman from the crashed Knight's vessel. The Suicide Squad-like intro of the Decepticons was amazing too, really laughed a lot during that scene with all the smart remarks the Cons made, it was so fun and I loved it. The first fight between the Autobots and the Decepticons in the town was great too, the Cons showed up, started searching around, fell into an explosive trap, fought the Autobots and lost then ran away with Megatron shouting "DECEPTICONS, RETREAT!" all G1 style hahaha. Mohawk got left behind and got his head cut off by Bee, but I don't think he's offline because his head was talking afterwards. I have a feeling he'll be back.

I love Mohawk, Nitro Zeus is great, Onslaught... well he got offed very quickly by Drift and Crosshairs lol, but he was really the only Decepticon to actually get destroyed in the film, unless you count Infernocus as a Decepticon, in which case that would be two, since he gets owned by Optimus.

The whole final battle is basically between the Decepticons and the Autobots, on Cybertron. It's all come full circle - the war started on Cybertron, came to Earth / Unicron, and now it continues on Cybertron, and on Earth / Unicron, together. I can't emphasize enough just how much I loved and appreciated all the attention to detail in this film, all the references, all the name-dropping, all the setting up of a future story. It felt so rich and full of detail and depth which is actually a stark contrast to previous films, they really weren't joking when they said after AoE it would be a soft reboot. It is truly a great time to be a fan of Transformers.

Cogman is brilliant. Hilarious even. I laughed so many times, especially when he plays the organ and sings while Edmund is talking, to try and make things more epic haha! I also loved the moment where Crosshairs come up behind Cogman and tries to grab him but Cogman twists his finger and pulls him down, it was hilarious. Most of the humour in the film was genuinely funny and well-executed as well. The joke about Hot Rod's voice was great too, since Hot Rod hates his french accent but he can't get rid of it lol. There was only really one joke that fell flat, I think it was the one where they were talking about Cade not having had sex in a while, it felt kind of awkward, but I also got the sense that it was intentional because Cade himself was reacting in a way that was very awkward.

 

Ok, I won't try to repeat stuff but:

Called the whole Nemesis Prime thing. I knew they'd adapt Nemesis's original origins.

Though that being said they ruined three of my favorite characters:
Bumblebee: He no longer has his radio voice, which is what made him one of my all time favorite characters. Also, HOW did he get it back? Try really hard and hope? The whole "I haven't heard your voice since the fall of Cybertron". So Cybertron fell at the end of the first movie?

Starscream: So he died, lost his head, and ends up as both a joke and the Shakespeare skull? Fuck that.

Nemesis Prime: Earth is Unicron. Sideways was killed in RoTF, Galvatron was kinda in AoE, now Nemesis Prime was kind of in TLk which leads me to

Who the hell are going to be the Heralds of Unicron? Was that Quintesa or what ever at the end? Is she really a Herald?

Megatron really being the good guy. Another thing I called. He wanted to save Cybertron, that's all.

I don't know, there's more I feel like I thought of but other than a few parts I feel this movie is worse than RoTF.

 

I felt the characters were too poorly built upon, the Nemesis Prime part was pointless (lasted 15 minutes), new Cons offed way too fast, Hot Rod was a let down, too many new human characters, overall disappointed. Now let the rain of hate come!

 

I felt the characters were too poorly built upon, the Nemesis Prime part was pointless (lasted 15 minutes), new Cons offed way too fast, Hot Rod was a let down, too many new human characters, overall disappointed. Now let the rain of hate come!

 

What you have to understand about what Megatron means by "saving" Cybertron is him destroying Earth, and being the sole ruler of a Decepticon-ruled Cybertronian Empire. I don't really see how that makes him a good guy. Also, the Autobots vow to repair Cybertron at the end of the film, with Prime calling to all the Autobots across the cosmos to return home, to help repair their world.

 

The biggest criticism I have with the movie is thats its boring. Its less offensive then every other movie, but nothing keeps your attention.

Cogman and Nitro are great contributions too TF lore, I cant wait for Cogman too join IDW.

Also, WHERE WAS GRIMLOCK IN THE FINAL FIGHT!?

 

Ok, I retract that. Though being a Decepticon follower, only for the sake of argument

 

Oh my gosh, PLEASE give us a g1 style decepticons suicide squad!!!!! They could run across them in lost light, megs could be like "Uuuugh...I commissioned these guys towards the end of the war, called em task force Y...I also couldn't stand them and sent them as far away as possible..."

 

hopefully the bumblebee movie will be much more scaled down, and add some character building.. My brain is weary from these action scene strobe-effects

 

When I first saw that scene. I thought that what was going too happen.
Originally I thought the movie was gonna have the plot that they hired Megatron too kill Nemesis Prime.

Onto this point now I'm thinking of it, why did the TRF want Merlins Staff?

Also, that whole thing with the aspect ration switching something up too 2 times a second needs too just go. Think that spoiled my mood watching the movie because at one point I felt like throwing up.

 

Something else I remember in the mid-credits scene is that Quintessa (disguised as a blue-cloaked, very ancient-Egyptian looking human) says to the scientists examining one of Unicron's horns:

"Don't touch it. He doesn't like it... I'll tell you how to kill him."

"Kill who?"

"Unicron."

If she was so bent on destroying Unicron, why would she be so concerned as to what he likes or dislikes? It's obvious... she may be in league with Unicron, possibly his herald.

 

Just got back from seeing it and I'm happy that I didn't let all the negativity on this forum stop me. Both my wife and I thoroughly enjoyed it! It had story, interesting characters, genuine humor and hella action. Mark Wahlburg had a genuineness about him that I haven't seen since Shia in the first movie. Not sure what more you 'critics' want in a movie. This may be the first movie since TF1 that I see in the theater more than once. If this is Bay's final entry in the series, he sure went out with a bang!

 

You know, as terrible as this was as an actual film, I love it the more and more I watch it. Its shaping up to be my favorite of the sequels.
I mean, from a critical standpoint its an incoherent mess and probably the worst film of the year, and I still dont take back the review I posted earlier, but its still a lot of fun. This was also the film where I loved the human element so much more.
Its now an official: 8/10 for me in terms of enjoyment. (4/10 from a critical standpoint)