Just saw this movie again on dvd, such a good movie probably still the second best transformers movie.

 

After buying it and seeing it again, I'm kind of mixed on this film.

On one hand, this film definitely has parts and scenes that I liked. The museum scene and Hot Rod's conversation with Vivian in his alternate mode are fun. I love everything with Izzy and Sqweeks honestly. I love seeing the Pathetic Dirty Foursome and Welkertron on screen, even if the former aren't given as much focus as in the previous film. Even Bee doesn't seem as focused on despite appearing on screen as much if not longer. And the final act is actually better than I remember, although I would have liked to see more of the Autobots and Decepticons as well as Dinobots. The idea of both factions in chaos without leaders is not a bad idea. As always, the visuals, sounds, and scores are done wonderfully, and the action is well choreographed in many instances.

On the other hand, many plot points from AoE are dropped, and some points actually contradict the previous films. The voice acting is a big step down from the last film, minus a few standouts like Welkertron and Cogman, and even then those performances equaled those of the last film. Unlike AoE, characters disappear for long periods of time for no good reason, and the individual robots aren't focused on as much even if there is probably just as much robot screen time. There are way too many characters and CGI models running around, kind of like Revenge of the Fallen, but unlike RotF this feels like many different narratives. And that's this film's problem. There are so many things going on that nothing builds. Few robot action scenes last a minute or more it seems, and the ones that do don't have much of a build-up. Whatever one may think of any of the previous films, I felt like their stories were all part of one narrative, and things actually built up as things went on. Sam's story built up into the Autobots and Decepticons fighting over the Allspark. As nonsensical is it was, Sam's crazy visions built up into a showdown between the Fallen and his Decepticons and the Autobots and NEST. The Space Race actually led to Sentinel betraying the Autobots and the battle in Chicago. The events in Chicago actually led to Cemetery Wind and Prime's loss of faith and Galvatron and the KSI break-in and Prime's capture and escape.

I think Transformers 5 should have focused more on the Creators and Nemesis Prime and the Galvatron/Megatron story, and The Last Knight should have been a full-on Arthurian spin-off that actually took place in the Dark Ages, because as is it feels sort of half-assed. The other films knew what they were and ran with it, and I love them for that reason. This film wants to take place in the same universe, but it doesn't at the same time. Pick what you want to be and stick to your guns, which is why I like the other films better.

The episode that introduced me to G1 is "A Decepticon Raider in King Arthur's Court," so by all means I should be biased toward this movie, but I wasn't. I would love the Cybertronian Knight stuff and if it was 1) consistent with what AoE established and 2) been focused more on. I'm even fine with them being characterized as a collective group more than individual characters. At the very least show some flashback of Lockdown capturing the Knights or something, and then show them escaping the Quintesson prisons, or at least explain that the Creators were only interested in Knights known to be alive for the Creators' sinister purposes, and the whereabouts and survival of the Knights of Iacon was unknown.

They might as well have gone all out and made Optimus Prime's creator be the diminutive, shape-shifting Lord Farquaad, and then Lord Farquaad reveals the Knights were built to rescue alien princesses from alien fortresses and monsters to satisfy Farquaad's lusts, and the Transformers as a race were built to fight the enemies of the Creators: the mean, green ogres. Then, in a last bid effort to save Ogrekind from annihilation, the ogre known as Shrek sneaks the Allspark into the Creators' Transformer factories, thus giving Cybertronians life, which results in Transformers no longer being slaves that fought for the Quints.

I don't hate to say it, but Revenge of the Fallen, which gets much more hate than warranted, was a better movie for sure. Yeah, it also had too many characters and geographic continuity errors, but it was also more fun and funny, well paced, and felt like a single plot.

 

I finally (FINALLY!!) got around to watching The Last Knight over the weekend, and wow...I absolutely loved it! I seem to be one of the few people on the planet that enjoyed Age of Extinction, and I felt TLK was a great follow-up/sequel...

As for my expectations, I was ready to hate this movie after reading all of the negative and mixed reviews while trying to avoid spoilers like the plague, and I was so disappointed that most people considered this the weakest Transformers film in the series. I was so excited when leaks and photos were trickling-out over the past couple of years...I loved that it seemed they were going to expand the whole "Knights of Cybertron" theme alluded to in AOE. I was eager to learn more about that part of the mythos, how Optimus Prime fit into it all, as well as who the "creators" or "creator" actually are...I thought it was just all a great set-up for a sequel, in my opinion.

So I got excited...I loved that Anthony Hopkins was going to be in it. I was intrigued by the notion that Megatron was returning; I wondered if he was going to be a seperate entity from Galvatron somehow...I love when sequels generate so much speculation and questions (even when they're not answered). (lol) There was talk that Optimus was going to return as Nemesis Prime, and *squeal* Hot Rod was finally going to appear in the film series. I also enjoyed Mark Walberg's Cade Yeager character and was looking forward to him appearing once more, as well as some members at least from N.E.S.T. And on top of it all, we were going to see the hidden history of Transformers on Earth that no one knew about until now, complete with ties to King Arthur, Merlin, and the Knights of the Round Table. It was shaping-up to be a fantastic sequel...

Then the reviews came in. It sure didn't look good, and it looked even worse when Paramount started pulling TLK from I-MAX theaters early when it seemed to under-perform. I found myself so extremely disappointed after being so excited for so long. So not only was it the first Transformers film to not do so well at the box-office, it was also the first one I didn't see in a theater. I'll be honest...I was downright depressed when all was said and done, and TLK faded from theaters and our collective consciousness. I wanted to see it regardless of what the reviews were saying, but it seems that things kept coming up, and it didn't linger for weeks like the other installments had in the past, thereby allowing me a chance to catch it a little later down the road...

I'll admit to something else I'm prone to: I like bad movies. (lol) Even if they're unwatchable, I still watch them to see why they're so bad. Chalk it up to morbid curiosity, I guess. So I knew even if TLK was truly a bad movie, it was worth the initial purchase price to me to watch and see why it was such a failure. Besides, I'm also old enough to know that sometimes a few bad reviews can unfairly affect the success of a film, when in actuality it may very well be a movie I personally enjoy. I tend not to jump on bandwagons when it comes to films, good or bad...I like what I like, warts and all, and I always try to reserve final judgement for when I actually see a movie for myself.

So I went into viewing this film knowing most of the reasons why at least most fans and critics didn't like it. I took them all into consideration, not wanting to dismiss or ignore them entirely, yet all the while wanting to keep an open mind and form my own opinion. I was also well-aware of the usual pratfalls and tropes of the typical Michael Bay film that have pretty-much become cliches among movie fans and critics; I knew what I was getting into, in other words. (lol)

I was so pleasantly surprised. Everything was set up in pretty-epic fashion...the Transformers lore that dates back to the Dark/Middle Ages was fascinating to me. And I will say, I was completely prepared to hate Stanley Tucci's Merlin...I was afraid he was going to turn out to be one of the typical over-the-top comedic characters that so often populates these films; I had read snippets about him being a silly version of Merlin, and it turns out he was...but in a good way, to me. He didn't stand-out like the sore thumb like I was expecting. I mean, yes, he was funny, but only because he was the antithesis of what the King Arthur lore has always implied about his power and stature, not because it was Stanley Tucci in a wig and fake beard spouting modern sensibilities in Ancient England. It was only because of his connections to the Transformers that made him a legend, and perhaps it led to him maybe becoming the true legend he might have grown into. I was pleasantly surprised how well I thought that whole part of the story was done, and it went along way in explaining why the King Arthur legend had persisted to this day. It made sense to me viewed through the lens of Transformers and the history of mankind, and I enjoyed it immensely.

Secondly, I was pleased to find that the typical crude humor found in the other films wasn't as bad this time around. I mean, it was present, but only in short or tiny (and therefore tolerable) bursts. It was unexpected from some characters, like Sir Edmond Burton and Cogman, but that's what made it funny to me, I guess. Incidentally, Cogman almost stole the movie. I loved the character, and I loved that he was voiced by Jim Carter, one of my all-time favorite actors. I didn't realize it was him until I heard his voice; I knew it sounded familiar, but I had to look it up online to figure out who it was. He was one of the best parts of the movie.

I was also prepared to hate Hot Rod. I was so excited that one of my all-time favorite Transformers characters was finally going to make an appearance...then disappointed that he was seemingly yet another minimalized and peripheral character, with an inexplicable French accent, no less! He was not going to resemble my beloved Hot Rod very much, if at all. But again, I found the character very likeable, and he had such an awesome ability that actually contributed to the events in the story in such a cool and satisfying way.

I didn't find the human characters as annoying as I was expecting, and to me, the exposition that everyone seems to complain about only promoted and contributed to the development of the Transformer characters off-screen; to me there always needs to be a strong human component to anchor the impact of what our world and reality might look, sound, and feel like were there ever Transformers to inhabit it.

Another thing I'd like to touch on is the perceived uneven nature of the story...yes, it did seem very kinetic and rushed at times, but any film Michael Bay has ever made plays-out as if everyone involved was on speed at the time it was made, including Michael Bay himself. (lol) I didn't feel as if TLK was any more convoluted or disjointed than any other of the films, which might not be saying much, now that I think of it. (lol) My point is, it wasn't too much of a distraction for me, and I kept up with the events pretty well.

I loved the Nemesis Prime component of the story...we're just not used to seeing the full-on dark side of Prime. We came real close in AOE...it was hard to see the disenchanted, angry, p!$$ed-off Prime that had lost faith in the human race and had become jaded to the point that he didn't cherish human life anymore...I think it was a statement about the world we live in today, how it's easy to lose faith in humanity and become cold, unconcerned, and pessimistic even, but also Cade Yeager was there to remind Prime, and inadvertently, we the audience, that there is still good left in humanity, that there are still such things as justice, honor, mercy, and integrity, which is the hidden and underrated message of AOE that people seem to miss...or ignore, perhaps?

But I digress...to get back to Nemesis Prime, first of all...it was so foreboding when he crash-lands on Cybertron, now a dead and forgotten ghost of a planet, when he realizes how little is left of his decimated homeworld, and immediately he confronts the unnerving and aethereal Quintessa, the supposed "Creator" Prime had been searching for. There's was something very Shakespearean about those scenes that was very satisfying to me, and the notion of seeing an evil version of Optimus Prime to me was just too interesting a plot-point to not be explored. My one nit-pick would be that, as others have pointed out, it was an extremely brief condition that was rather easily rectified, although I loved that Bumblebee's voice was the thing that snapped Prime out of Quintessa's control. What he said, and the fact that it brought Prime to his senses, along with Prime's groggy response, was so dramatic and poignant, to the point that I actually teared-up a little, to be painfully honest...

The final battle was epic, and you felt a true sense of danger for everyone involved, including the Autobots, but I will admit to being exhausted after it was all over. However, it was, without trying to sound corny or generic, so very epic. The high stakes that seem to always get higher and higher with each installment seemed logical this time, to my surprise. I thought to myself, "How many times can Earth be invaded and/or in grave danger, with all life as we know it ending, in these films?!" And it does seem at times that the writers and film-makers keep writing themselves into a corner, as it were, and have to keep outdoing themselves each time. I know that's just the nature of the beast, if you will, but the impending doom truly did seem grave and appropriately cataclysmic this time. (Have stranger words ever been put together?) (lol) I was engaged, enthralled, and I wondered how the story would resolve itself, while yet leaving room for an eventual continuation in a sequel that may not come after all...

I loved the Indiana-Jones-esque hints, clues, and artifacts associated with Merlin and the Knights...that part was fun, along with the cool car-chase sequences in London. By the way...I love the scenes in the films where the Transformers only partially transform in the midst of a fight or chase to fight-off a foe. They did it in DOTM and again in TLK. It reminded me of playing with my Transformers as a kid, and it just looks so cool on-screen...

Another thing, I was initially upset to learn that they don't explain Galvatron's metamorphosis/reversal back into the personage of Megatron. As much as I loved the Galvatron character, I was glad that he would be changing back into Megatron, but I didn't like at first that it was one of those off-screen kind of things that the military characters just off-hand allude to. But at the end of the day, I viewed it simply as Megatron shedding his disguise and reverting back to his true form.

One final thing I enjoyed was the whole notion/sequence where the government forms a deal or an uneasy alliance with Megatron and the Decepticons, albeit briefly, in order to avoid the end of the world. It would have been nice to see the juxtaposition of the evil Megatron fighting the slightly more evil Nemesis Prime in an ironic battle over the fate of Cybetron and Earth respectively, but again, I digress. And...that whole sequence where we see the deal being made to have some captured Decepticons released was so "Michael Bay", but equally awesome. It was fun to see the Decepticons have a little more personality this time around...I think that's something lacking in the other films to an extent. It was fun...

I may get some flak for my views, but honestly, I loved TLK. Hands-down, to me it's just as good as the other installments, if not better. Is it a perfect film? Heck no...none of them are. It was simply epic fun, like the others have been, minus plot-holes, annoying dialogue and characters, with the occasional crude humor. Oh, I almost forgot...another tear-jerking scene for me was when the cloud of dust billowed from the destruction of the ignition chamber, and you wondered for a second or two what happened to everybody, when all of a sudden you hear the epic music and see Prime in his truck mode roar out of the clouds of smoke and destruction, out into the clear, our heroes safe and sound inside. It was such a great moment in the film, and a real fist-pumper, if I could geek-out for a bit. (lol)

The one tiny thing I had a real issue with was Prime's "Do-you-know-who-I-am?!" moment at the end...it seemed a little out-of-character for him, almost arrogant. Maybe it was meant to be a "You-forget-who-you're-messing-with!!" line, which to me, would have been way cooler, albeit only slightly less-arrogant a statement. (lol) I'll have to watch it again to remember the exact words...it may not be as arrogant a line as I remember. But yeah, I loved TLK, and I'm dumbfounded as to why it's been seen as a failure in the film series. Perhaps we're experiencing some "Michael Bay Fatigue Syndrome", as it were, since these movies have come-out so successively and with such relative frequency...maybe it's not that bad, we're just all so collectively tired after seeing so many hard-hitting, world-ending battles involving giant alien robots, and each film has barely had time to resonate and be absorbed by everyone before the next one comes along. There was some added time between DOTM and AOE, and, in turn, the same space of time between AOE and TLK, which was a nice change of pace, albeit still relatively sparse in this age of back-to-back-to-back sequels and prequels ad nauseam. Maybe we need a break, but I truly enjoyed TLK, and I'd like to see the storyline at least conclude in the next film; I'd hate to see some of the cool stuff they've touched-upon and set-up be erased in an ill-advised reboot.

 

Great write-up and analysis, and I'm glad you liked it! I love Age of Extinction, although I don't love The Last Knight as much. Nevertheless, it also has its share of good things I think. I also hope we at least get a satisfying Unicron sequel that concludes the Bayverse saga!

 

Just saw it for the first time and it was...fine? I think it was better that what it gets credit for but still pointless in some parts.

I did like that Lennox and Simmons were back in the film, but how great would it have been if Sam or Mikaela had a part to play?

 

At least ROTF had something redeemable in the forest battle, The Last Knight on the other hand, for me anyway, has absolutely no redeeming factors whatsoever. Between the lazy designs, aspect ratio shifts, dialogue changes, this movie truly is the biggest cinematic mess I've ever seen.

 

Oh, I also have to give the movie some credit for the diversity of the cast and the supporting cast. Wasn't perfect, but certainly a step in the right direction.

 

Hey...I forgot to pay attention to that!! (lol) The alternating aspect ratio was one of the gripes I had read about, and I remember trying to make a mental note to pay attention to it when I first started watching. I guess there was so much going on, I didn't notice, and I guess I forgot about it before long. I'd imagine it would be distracting and very noticeable on the big-screen. Was this perhaps addressed or corrected in the home releases, maybe?

I just remembered something else I enjoyed, and you reminded me with your "lazy designs" comment, Barricade...I absolutely loved Infernocus! He was such a cool combiner, and seeing Megatron command the "Infernocons" to transform and carry out his orders was so epic and reminiscent of the tv show...I just love it whenever they inject subtle easter-egg moments like that in each the films. And then, when you see the the silhouette of the Infernocons in the shadows and smoke of battle combining to form Infernocus...so awesome and chilling. He reminds me of a cross between Megatron from the first film and the Lord of Darkness from the movie Legend. He does have somewhat of a simple design, and it's unfortunate that the individual Infernocons were each identical to each other and lacked any sort of real personality (hence your inadvertent reminder, Barricade), but man...I love the character(s) and concept regardless. It makes Prime such a bad-@$$ when he annihilates Infernocus all on his own.

 

I just saw this over the weekend for the first time. In sum, I hope someone at Hasbro takes a look at the lackluster ticket sales and the reviews from fans and critics alike, and makes some real changes to the movie franchise. At this point I'm unsure that the continuity is worth saving. It's been butchered to the point of being unrecognizable.

 

Finally watched the whole movie.
Like some mentioned, the scene cutting is extremely quick, rather chaotic than able to follow properly.
Actors were OK, the ancient transformers look too much humanoid and some too much like metal beasts not robotic enough.
Final battle was more chaotic than any other final battles before.
But still the weakest entry of all 5 transformers movies.

With a proper storytelling, less chaotic action, more characterization of decepticons and more robotic designs of the transformers and I'm good.
But that requires a new director with change of style. Like the difference between Joel Schumachers Batmans compared to Christopher Nolans Batmans.

 

As much as I don't like TLK and will probably never watch the whole movie ever again, I always find myself coming back to the last couples of scenes starting with Optimus coming back and killing Infernocus. And really, it's mostly because of Steve Jablonsky's score. I find it just works for these last scenes and tbh, it's almost too good to be in this movie.

 

I just keep wondering how they went south so badly. After DotM and AoE, it seemed like they were at least somewhat course correcting. But then TLK dropped. All four of the previous movies I've rewatched at least a dozen times but TLK, I haven't watched it fully more than twice and I haven't skipped through a TF movie this badly since RotF. All the others are solid to me.

It holds together decently well...until Cade goes to England. Actually, scratch that, I like Cogman so everything up to the Sub ride holds together. From going underwater until the Key or whatever rises is just dead space for me. From the Bee vs Op fight forward it picks back up and becomes a patchwork of "Like this part/don't like this part." And as a fan of these movies I've been fairly forgiving about them. TLK is the first one that really made me outright criticize it to the point of it's technical merits. The editing and pacing of it is all over the place. Oh, and it's also the first one where I REALLY noticed the changing aspect ratio. All of this stuff is things people for years have griped about the movies but TLK is the only one that really made me go,"Yeah, that's a problem." Or better still, leave the theater unsatisfied. All four of the prior ones I left with a smile on my face.

Well, at least BB is a smaller movie so it should be pretty good. Interviews with the director also seem to indicate the type of movie he was interested in making. If he lives up to those comments then it should be good.

 

This is true, I've never felt this way about a TF film except 1 and before 2 when they were promising it'd be infinitely better than 1. I'm cautiously optimistic.

 

Sigh... Alright. Here's my review. THIS MOVIE WAS BORING.... I enjoy the first three transformers films. Sure, They are awful but it's enjoyable. AOE and TLK are boring pieces of trash. I don't really like the new Optimus design, I like movie 1-3 one better, and hod rod look like a junkyard fire. I wanted to fall asleep in the movie theater. All the scenes were pointless. Also Bumblebee fighting nazis. I'll leave it there.

 

The one thing I'll semi-agree with you on is Optimus changing his look...I mean, I like his look in AOE and TLK well-enough; it's interesting to me, but his original cinematic look, especially in DOTM, was best...there's just a really gritty, imposing, and clunky look and feel to him that combined his animated design perfectly with a more realistic, intricate appearance. Like I said, I like his newer, more streamlined look okay, but sometimes his new feet remind me of giant sneakers, and then he looks goofy to me. (lol)

 

For me, I'd like Dotm's Op's body with AoE head. AoE Op's head looks better because they fixed the bridge of his nose so it's not such a honker like in the first three. There's also a lot of minor changes that really helps make him more expressionate but also more cleaner. But body wise, yeah, DotM I prefer over his AoE/TLK body.

 

Yes! I forget about the subtle improvements they made to the AOE model...you're absolutely right. And...seeing as he opposed Quintessa, perhaps he'll abandon his "Knights of Cybertron" look and revert back to something a little more original. That would be very cool, and it would give Hasbro an excuse to make new toys, of course. (lol)

 

Paramount has gotten so stupid and predictable over the years that everytime they shit out a TF sequel, you don't even HAVE to speculate the story (even if there's none) in it. You can just assume the worst and that's EXACTLY how the film itself is gonna be. With or without bay, they are still just as arrogant as before.

 

Transformers is screwed as long as Lorenzo is at the wheel. Despite all the headscratching choices Bay has made over the live-action movies run, Bonaventura is shown to not really get Transformers either and possibly might be worse. Ultimately, the sooner TFs gets out of the clutches of Paramount the better imo since at this point they're just looking at TFs as a property to save their @$$ since they're bleeding money right now. When corporations, especially movie studios, are in that bind they tend to make a chain reaction of monumentally bad decisions.

That said, I think Travis Knight will come through for the series here based on his prior work. At the very least it should make sense as he's a director that will follow a script so there should be a bit of clarity there.