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Transformers: The Last Knight | 6/21/2017 | Big Budget, Weak OW?

By Neo, in Box Office Discussion

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antovolk Blockbuster

antovolk

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TRANSFORMERS: THE FIFTH ELEMENT

I can't believe I'm saying this but this is pretty much everything I wanted and expected out of this film. I kept waiting for the moment when I'll just go - screw this, this is absolute trash - but it never came. This might honestly be my favourite of the 5 films - quality wise it's between Dark of the Moon and the first film, but I much prefer the Wahlberg and co ensemble compared to Shia and co.

Is this film a mess? Yes, in the classic Michael Bay way.

Starting right from how we literally get static Paramount and Huahua logos and the opening credits all in the space of 5 seconds before starting AGAIN with the Paramount logo leading right into the prologue. It's an absolute madhouse. Tones keep changing every other scene, it's 4 days later and I still have no idea of the military's motives in the first two-thirds, let's not talk about that London chase when the cars go from the Mall/Trafalgar Sq to Bank and Tower Bridge and then back to Buckingham Palace in half a second....



Bay throws so many ideas at the screen, but somehow, SOMEHOW all this *just* manages to click and overall ends up being more coherent and better structured and paced, and yes - tighter (save for the first act before Sir Anthony comes in which can easily be jettisoned) and more restraint than the previous sequels. Hell, I was shocked by how short and tight the finale (usually a completely overblown city-destroying fight) was. But you know what? He's in on the joke as much as any of us, we see this far more in this film. He makes this insane cocktail mix of THE FIFTH ELEMENT, with a dash of FAST & FURIOUS and Dan Brown/THE DA VINCI CODE, obligatory stuff from the previous TF films, and even a 5-minute sequence that's supposed to either homage or take the piss out of SUICIDE SQUAD. The impact of the new writers is definitely felt.

Something that I wish we got more of in DARK OF THE MOON was the alternate history angle, and seeing all the King Arthur stuff in the trailers had me hoping this would go all in...and boy, does it. This stuff is likely what manages to really gel together all the other disparate elements, and it helps that there's a lot of it. For those who were just here for robots fighting and don't want this 'DA VINCI CODE BS' - tough luck I guess (granted, the human/robot focus balance feels quite more even in this).

Cast and characters: like I said at the start, I prefer this Wahlberg and co ensemble, so it was nice to see him and other returning faces like Tucci and Turturro - who are in it far too little, but when they are they are hilarious to watch. Big steps (for Bay obviously - he's got quite some way to go still) with female characters - we don't have that leering eye of the early films, at least not to Megan Fox level, and yes we have a cool female villain in Quintessa who has such insane potential in future entries. There's no 'Romeo and Juliet Law' or 'Sam's Parents/Roommates' side BS, and when it does appear (literally one and a half instance that could qualify) it doesn't take over the film for 20 minutes. And the best part? Hopkins. Surprised how much he was in this, how much fun he seemed to be having in this, how funny he was - him and his psychotic C3PO/Alfred hybrid Cogman (hands down - best parts of this film by far) bring that element of self-awareness that the previous film didn't have as much. Again, from stuff like this and the interviews - Bay's in on the joke.

And of course, you get more than what you pay for with the visuals. Probably the best-looking TF (likely thanks to John Wick's DP shooting this) - less OTT saturated and that teal/orange like the previous films, much smoother and a tad more atmospheric. IMAX stuff is great and seriously deserves the biggest screen - those annoyed by the AR changes in the trailers: like 90% of the film is presented expanded so in context, unnoticeable. Walking out I wondered how they'd handle this stuff in non-IMAX because of how much (like Avatar and Sully) the image was composed for the taller AR and cropping it all to 2.40 would ruin it. Luckily, seems the regular versions of the film will also be presented with the changing AR, which explains the lack of cropping in the marketing. It's a rollercoaster in IMAX though, and like with a lot of Bay, adds to the experience a lot.

So overall verdict? Pure quality - it's a just about *good* film. I wrote in my thoughts on THE FATE OF THE FURIOUS 'eat your heart out Michael Bay' - and I stand by the sentiment behind that because F&F manage to come out with a good/great quality film with a lot of this explosive action. But this film reinforced that there's a different sort of charm to Bay and his Bayhem and all the mess and insanity surrounding it - because what he may lack in terms of good character, it makes up for it with bigger and more insane action, preposterous mythology, surprisingly nice visuals, and unrealistically glorious 'splosions. This film is the cinematic equivalent of throwing everything but the kitchen sink onto the screen, and it somehow ends up gelling. And pretty much the guiltiest pleasure of 2017. I had *way* too much fun with it - so much, in fact, that I had to go see THE MUMMY the next day to make sure my tastebuds aren't off.

Now the big question is about Bay....if Bay's out they might actually become closer to F&F quality wise (and the stuff they've set up in this for the future is very cool and lots of potential), but we won't get any more of this bats--- insanity.

Quality: 6/10

Enjoyment: EPIC AS F/10

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Chewy Global Phenomenon

Chewy

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Transformers: The Last Knight is like staring at a projected kaleidoscope for two and a half hours and then trying to tell someone about the plot.

 

How is this rotten, sounds fresh to me

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Jake Gittes Global Phenomenon

Jake Gittes

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That’s almost regrettable, as Transformers: The Last Knight concocts the most enjoyable trashy plotline yet to grace a series that is already about a millennia-long war between different factions of vehicle-bots. It’s equally indebted to Dan Brown potboilers and Roland Emmerich disaster movies, with a quasi-dystopian setting (which the movie quickly forgets) and a crazy pseudo-historical backstory that recounts, among other things, how King Arthur and The Knights Of The Round Table were real (but Merlin was a drunk), how the Transformers killed Hitler, and how Shakespeare and Frederick Douglass both knew about the cybernetic organisms that turn into cars. Of course, the third film, Transformers: Dark Of The Moon, revealed that the Moon landing was a cover for a secret mission to recover alien artifacts, complete with a cameo from Buzz Aldrin himself. Here, the looniest exposition slips from the mouth of Anthony Hopkins. His eyes twinkle with the glee of a man who can’t believe how much he’s being paid to talk about magical Nazi-fighting robots while standing in front of a bookcase.

 

http://www.avclub.com/review/even-michael-bay-gets-sick-transformers-last-knigh-257038

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