Transformers: The Last Knight

Almost 6 years back when I saw the third transformers movie in the big screen back in 2011, the sheer scale and some stunning visual effects aided stunt choreography made me like that film. On a creative level the franchise was never a big talking point and director Michael Bay was only interested in giving that over the top visual entertainment to the audience. In the first 2-3 movies the plot was relatively simple. But in Age of Extinction and in the new one Transformers: The Last Knight, Michael Bay and his pool of writers are stretching it too much.

So right now earth is this chaotic place where a newly formed force TRF is hunting down Transformers as Optimus Prime has left earth in search of his creator. Optimus has gone to Cybertron and he has been asked to go back to earth so that a dismantled Cybertron can be restored using earth’s features. This act of the Transformers and the counter reaction of the humans along with autobots who were willing to help them are what Transformers: The Last Knight all about.

Recently in an interview Mark Wahlberg was asked what fascinated him in working in this franchise and the answer was that he loved this concept of cars transforming into bigger robots. Yes! That’s the main attraction and it is a simple entertaining thought. The problem is when Michael Bay tries to push it too much. Last time we saw Dinosaurs and stuff in this franchise. Come on man! These are machines at the end. This time the story goes to the times of King Arthur, and Bay is trying to include his Toys in to those stories. Pushing the envelope is definitely a good thing. But adding sense to it is also one thing.  The central conflict here is something we have seen in Man of Steel. And Michael Manages to squeeze in all his elements like slow motion, women objectification (minimal this time), patriotism etc.

Well it’s a franchise that offers very little to the actors as the majority of time is spent on action. Mark Wahlberg has the attitude to be that character and Michael Bay has paired him up with Laura Haddock this time. Anthony Hopkins’ narration in the trailer made me feel that the movie would be a different one all together and he would have a stellar role, well I expected too much. Stanley Tucci plays the role of Merlin in this movie and Josh Duhamel reprises his character in the franchise.

Michael Bay repeats his formula and has no plans add any layers to his way of storytelling. It is loud and full of explosions.   He loves blowing up things and the canvas goes bigger only in that scale. In the earlier films there used to be some crazy choreography of action sequences that looked stunning on screen. But Bay fails to create such scenes and what we see on screen is just the same thing we have seen in many other films. The plot this time is very fragile and as I said early, the concept of Transformers drifting away from the transforming of machines makes it less fun. Cinematography doesn’t give a damn about framing conventions and even the necessity of slow motion shots. Optimus Prime talks as if he was in a stage drama uttering “I am Optimus Prime” too many times. Visual Effects team as always helps Bay in creating these massive destruction sequences.

The film ends with the plot point that leads to the next Transformers film and looking at the kind of money they are earning through these films, I just hope the next one would have something better. Transformers : The Last Night is just like Arnab Goswamy’s debate ; loud and pointless.

Rating: 1.5/5