Blu-ray Review: Goofy ‘Transformers: The Last Knight’ is Worth a Look

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CHICAGO – Knock me over with a feather kids, but I enjoyed “Transformers: The Last Knight.” Maybe it was in comparison to the others or maybe director Michael Bay has beaten me into submission, but this one had the right story elements and casting to make it work, with exceptions of course. It’s goofiness is its charm, and it was released on Blu-Ray/DVD on September 26th, 2017 (Digital HD already available).

Rating: 3.5/5.0

The two essential things that made the film more tolerable was Anthony Hopkins and Laura Haddock, two Brits who brought some performance parts that made me laugh in their earnestness – Sir Anthony was particularly bizarre. The story is tied into the Arthurian legend, and begins on a knights-of-the-round-table battlefield, and somehow that gave a bit more understanding to what was going on, which was decidedly lacking in previous films. The rest will be pretty familiar to the Transformers’ universe and fan base, which surprisingly I guess I’m in tune with… no thanks to director Michael Bay, who still could have cut a good 45 minutes out of the running time. But this is the very definition of the “summer movie,” no more nutritious than the oil-slathered popcorn and giant Coke, and works also for movie night, with no deep analysis required.

Cade (Mark Wahlberg) in ‘Transformers: The Last Knight’
Photo credit: Paramount Pictures

The films begins with a flashback to King Arthur’s time, and the Autobots origins are connected to a magic staff controlled by Merlin (Stanley Tucci, in ham mode). Flash forward to the present, where the Autobots are banned from earth, but Cade Yeager (Mark Wahlberg) still harbors some Transformers fugitives, and rescues a young girl Izabella (Isabela Moner) because of her sympathies to the crew. During the rescue he is given a talisman that is part of the Merlin staff, and with its power becomes “the last knight.” This brings Cade to England, to team with Sir Edmund (Anthony Hopkins) and Professor Viviane (Laura Haddock), a direct descendant of Merlin. They are the last best hope to sway the earth’s destiny.

These plots are needlessly complex, but AT LEAST the Arthurian angle helped with the movements of the characters. Sir Anthony Hopkins – a knight portraying a knight in a film about cyber-knights – is the glue that makes all the extremely weird action coalesce into some sort of endgame. Marky Mark’s cohort, the lovely Brit Laura Haddock as Viviane, also is serious enough, and a good enough actor, to actually be more than the woman-window-dressing as in the previous Transformers’ films. Her and Sir A’s addition were the key pieces that assured that this one didn’t suck.

But I ain’t done. WHY make these films TWO-AND-A-HALF hours long? It’s like Michael Bay wants to keep adding stuff to beat from us any entertainment value that we might enjoy. I also noted there is a new screenplay team (Art Marcum, Matt Holloway and Ken Nolan), and while they wrote the funny stuff described earlier, they also created a needless complexity. The character of Izabela, except probably for sequel purposes, could have been completely cut. But man, complaining about a Transformers movie is like having the windmill blades hit your chin every time it goes around, a critique just can’t defeat them. Although this sequel wasn’t as popular as previous films, I don’t foresee this being the last of The Transformers.

By PATRICK McDONALD Writer, Editorial Coordinator HollywoodChicago.com pat@hollywoodchicago.com