Transformers: The Last Knight

This has all the ingredients of a good film, but it's composition is certainly not as recognisable as most Sci-Fi Action films recently released.

The pacing is oddly fast with some intriguing storylines swiftly being washed to the side for more CGI spectacles.

One thing I will say in this film is that elements of the script are really very good. We enjoyed the 'butler' robot very much with his sarcastic remarks bringing humour to the film and tied nicely with his master's equally dry sense of humour.

I really wish I could rate it higher because we were left saying 'that wasn't bad' when the credits rolled but honestly I can barely remember the storyline it was shifting so rapidly.

Hopefully the next Transformers instalment will carry a little more weight in terms of storyline and pacing to support it's awesome CGI elements and give the film a better shape overall.

Just for the record, before those defending the film jump down my throat and start accusing me of all kinds of unfounded things like they have done with their tiresome, uncalled for and disgustingly condescending critic bashing, this review is not coming from a 'Transformers' detractor. Far from it actually oddly enough.

Most of the animated show are really entertaining and well made, and the animated film likewise in a guilty pleasure sort of way. Of the live-action films, the first was enjoyable, 'Revenge of the Fallen' (often considered the worst) for me wasn't that terrible but had a lot wrong with it while 'Dark of the Moon' and 'Age of Extinction' were mediocre. This is coming from somebody with a diverse taste in film and television (and a huge fan of classical music and opera), loving films of all genres old and new.

Am honestly of the opinion that Michael Bay's 'Transformers' franchise got worse with each instalment, and having seen some describe 'The Last Knight' as the worst of the five having seen for myself with an open mind but with a little knowledge of its reception personally am in agreement. By all means, 'The Last Knight' is not irredeemably bad, none of the 'Transformers' films are. As usual the special effects are mostly of an awesome standard and the Transformers themselves are very well voiced, particularly a note-perfect Peter Cullen and Frank Welker.

Bringing some welcome gravitas and fun to the film is Anthony Hopkins in one of the better performances of all five films put together. The best character is the refreshingly witty Cogman, performed with sleek enthusiasm by Jim Carter.

However, Bay's direction is smug and self-indulgent and while there is some audacious stylishness to some of the cinematography too much of the editing is enough to make one get a headache. The Transformers don't have enough to do and while well voiced their personalities have been better defined before and their scenes lack tension, fun, excitement or any kind of intrigue. While the action sequences worked in the first three films, they didn't here and 'Age of Extinction', especially here, being chaotic and dull in rhythm. Aside from them being so poorly edited that it was confusing making out what was going on and to the point it was seizure-inducing, they got increasingly repetitive and dull. So instead of feeling thrilled the only feeling I got was boredom, and that was true of a lot of the audience in the cinema.

None of the human characters are interesting, some are wasted and some are pointless (such as Izabella and Sqweeks). Others are annoying, of all the characters in the entire film faring worst in this regard is the complete failure of a comic relief character in Jimmy, annoyingly played by Jerrod Carmichael. Once again the script is very poor, which has the subtlety of a sledgehammer (even for a live-action 'Transformers' film where subtlety was never a strong suit and wasn't expected, but this was nauseating overkill too often) and is laden with tiresome clichés and cheap lowbrow humour that is on 'Age of Extinction' level and makes that of 'Revenge of the Fallen' comparatively tame.

'The Last Knight' is again overlong by an hour, with the basic story being very thin on the ground and both rushed and slow moving. To make up for this, or disguise it more like, a lot of subplots are added, far too many and many of them are unsatisfyingly resolved or explored or serve no point at all, all giving an over-stuffed feel. Hopkins aside, the acting for the human characters is really not good, with Mark Whalberg being wooden and unconvincing at being tough and Laura Haddock is completely out of her depth. The two generate zero chemistry throughout. Even John Tuturro, Stanley Tucci and Mitch Pileggi are lacklustre.

In conclusion, weak film and gives the sense that the 'Transformers' franchise has run its course. 3/10 Bethany Cox

Not bad at all.

What is it about the odd numbered ones in this franchise that are my favorite? The first Transformers movie was OK. The Third one was my favorite (Which is not saying much). This fifth and last one is up there with the third one.

Like the third one, it was an excellent use of CGI to do the action scenes. Transformers was one of the first movies that I've seen in which they did CGI scenes in the day time, and it looked really good. You can see that director Michael Bay has hit his peak in really making the CGI action interact well with the live action footage.

Like the original movie, The Last Knight is an ensemble cast that revolves around the main character. It's not the best ensemble cast I've seen. Josh Duhamel, who had been in the series longer than Wahlberg felt like a strange insert done for pure nostalgia, but if you are into the Franchise or Transformers in general the ensemble cast gives you that fandom.

Speaking of Wahlberg, his Cade Yeager is a much better character than Shia LaBeouf's, Sam Witwicky. I like the way Cade gets into the action more than Sam trying to get away from it. It makes for better interaction between the live action and CGI. Bay treats Wahlberg like a walking action figure.

It is weird how little action is actually in this movie. You have a few giant battles leading up to the epic one at the end, and in-between it's Micheal Bay pretending to be the filmmaker he's not with funny scenes that are not really funny and his attempts to poke fun at Romance scenes in films only made his film stupid. Stick to the slick action and crap blowing up Bay.

Overall, I enjoyed the film. Not one of my favorite franchises but I did like this one. It's like watching a live action cartoon, but that's all the Transformers movies isn't it? Thought this one seems to be the best cartoon out of them all.

OK http://cinemagardens.com

The best part of this movie is the action, the story was very lack luster. I think it had potential with a good cast including Anthony Hopkins, but the writting always falls short in these movies. You can watch it over and over for the action, you just might scratch your head at certain spots.

1. Every movie must be 3hrs long, keep adding secondary characters until you get there.

2. Have a pointless love interest with no chemistry.

3. Have fight scenes pop up out of nowhere just to show off special effects.

4. Pay a famous actor to do what amounts to an extended cameo, no matter how forced.

5. Introduce stereotypical, secondary characters that were popular in the 80's, the cute kid and the comedic relief, black guy

6. Have heroic deaths, where each hero gets to give a speech as they die in the arms of their best friend. Play epic music just in case we don't understand the moment.

7. Even after 3hrs, leave the audience confused about the plot and behavior of main characters. What was up w/Optimus Prime was he a redeemed bad guy or a restored good guy, why the mood swings?

8. Have the main villain who was indestructible at the start of the movie, badly lose the last fight of the movie.

I felt bad for Laura Haddock, she could have served a purpose other then 'love interest' had they combined her role with Hopkins, and dropped Hopkins. This would have shortened the movie by 30 minutes (oh yeah, rule #1). But instead they gave her a trite role, 'the scholar who was the ONLY one who could FIND the artifact only to hand it over to Wahlberg the ONLY one who could USE it)