Michael Bay’s Transformers is a franchise that has over the last 7 years struggled to tell a cohesive story while also remaining relevant to fans, and when that got too difficult for Bay, he simply rebooted the series. While I can confidently say if you haven’t been a fan so far this newest entry probably isn’t for you, for me it may be Bay’s best effort yet when compared to the sequels that came before it. Attempting to put the films before it into some context while once again re-writing the history of the Transformers, Bay this time channels Transformers: The Movie (1986) to give us the weirdest and possibly the most enjoyable sequel to date.
Transformers: The Last Knight is another overflowing entry that finally attempts to build on the films before it and develop a real mythology around the franchise. The film picks up a few years after Age of Extinction with new Transformers now flocking to Earth and arriving daily as humanity continues to hunt them down to quell the “threat.” Cade (Mark Wahlberg) has charged himself with rescuing the Autobots that arrive as he awaits the return of Optimus, who left looking for their makers. They were the ones responsible for hiring the bounty hunter Lockdown that triggered the carnage of the previous film. Fortunately we don’t waste any time as we catch up with the fearless leader when he lands on the remnants of his destroyed home world Cybertron, which has been slowly making its way to earth.
Bay adheres to the canon of the cartoon, with the Transformers being the creation and slaves of the Quintessons, as Optimus finds his creator Quintessa. She drops a pretty big bombshell that the reason Earth has been so important to the Transformers is because it is in fact Unicron the chaos bringer. For those not in the know, Unicorn is a giant transforming monster planet, which feeds on other planets. Quintessa hopes to jump start their dead world back to life with the power of the giant slumbering Transformer using Merlin’s staff, that also just so happened to be another ancient Transformers artifact. Now this is where it gets into more familiar territory for the series as Cade is charged with tracking down the staff with Merlin’s last living ancestor Vivian Wembley (Laura Haddock AKA British Megan Fox) with Megatron hot on his trail as usual. To throw another wrench in the mix, Optimus is turned evil by Quintessa as he is forced to announce to everyone he is now evil, which you can tell just by his new name “Nemesis Prime®.”
Transformers: The Last Knight is a really weird mix that has Bay infusing his patented Transformers “hunt for the artifact” plot with this odd Knights of the Round Table vibe as we once again change the role of the Transformers in human history. He does all this while doing double time incorporating previous characters and locations from earlier entries in an attempt to give them some real context to craft this mythology for his scattered franchise going forward. While it feels almost coherent at times, it does require overlooking more than a few details from the previous films that would probably derail these new additions. Like, for example, if the entire last film was all about looking for Transformium and unleashing the Seed and destroying the earth to harvest the metal, how did no one realize we were already living on a giant ball of Transformium in the form of Unicron in the first place?
The film comes with three Blu-ray discs in the 3D edition: Transformers: The Last Knight in 3D, the film in 2D, and a bonus features disc. Both versions of the film come with an enveloping, layered, and equally aggressive Dolby Atmos track this time around, that will definitely give your sound system a hefty workout. Seriously, I watched it on my computer and even in stereo had to turn it down. Like all Bay films, The Last Knight is heavy on the lows and should be played as loud as humanly possibly to get the full effect of the #BAYHEM being unleashed on screen. Like the previous film, the 3D and picture quality of the transfer on this disc are simply stunning. The two kinds of shots that really exemplify how they utilize the 3D stage on screen in the film is when you see a giant object on screen compared to a smaller one, or the close-ups of the Transformers, oddly enough. When you get close-ups, Cogman in particular, you can see all the gears moving and the the intricate moving parts to operate him in exquisite depth and clarity. Also any scenes with Quintessa, with whom they employ an interesting foreground layer while the character itself has a layered shimmering effect to her face. This helps to preserve a smoothness to her face when she talks and makes any movement that really highlight the excruciating detail of the 3D models on display here.
In his tradition of go big or go home, Bay was the first filmmaker to use two of the ALEXA IMAX cameras coupled in to create a 3D rig to shoot The Last Knight in native 3D. Given the quality of 3D post converts, actually shooting in 3D has become the exception and not the rule to 3D films. The first two acts definitely have their highlights as far as 3D action sequences, like the ambush in the deserted town. But it’s the third act’s eventual arrival of Cybertron and the Autobots’ reckoning with Nemesis Prime that really make the package worth the purchase. Some of the 3D here, thanks to the copious amounts of CG, is completely immersive and on the level with Avatar with its use of 3D stage. You have so many things moving and on different planes that it definitely warrants watching it on the biggest screen possible for full effect. The only thing that would occasionally break the spell here was the constant aspect ratio shifts. While Transformers: Age of Extinction employed a similar tactic in changing the aspect ratio depending on action, this film does it so much it detracts a bit from the overall experience at times, because your eyes sometimes have issues readjusting to the space in 3D.
That being said, The Last Knight still feels like Bay’s most honed effort yet, both in terms of story and humor, in that the laughs here didn’t feel completely inappropriate or as racist as previous entries. The bulk of the film’s comedy is thanks to Anthony Hopkins and his psychotic robot butler Cogman. Yup, you read that right. Hopkins appears to be in rare form and having the time of his life in the film as Sir Edmund Burton, the keeper of the secret Transformers history, chewing the scenery every time the camera even remotely points in his general direction. It’s that levity that helps keep things moving as the film churns through its 2.5 hours worth of story while busily laying the groundwork for its next entry. The film also has the director continually trying to up the Bayhem from the previous films in the third act that finally felt like something new happened after leveling city after city.
Transformers: The Last Knight has Bay trying to right the course of one of the biggest franchises out there by addressing some of its fans’ biggest concerns. The only problem is, will anyone be listening? While the film gets more right than wrong this time around, it still suffers from the convoluted story and overwhelming length of previous entries; but to Bay’s defense, he had a lot to get done. With a great ensemble that is game to get really weird, Bay unleashes complete and total Bayhem for two and a half hours of robot fueled madness. It’ll be interesting to see what happens from here, now that Bay has left the series on the brink of something possibly amazing. But instead we sadly might see yet another reboot just when we were finally getting some real progress thanks to Bay finally embracing the weirdness he’s created.