Of all the movies seasons of the year, the one that produces the vast majority of franchise films has got to be summer. As this season unfolds, yet another seasoned franchise has hit the multiplex in the form of "Transformers: The Last Knight". Is this the 5th installment? 6th installment? Not sure, but you know the franchise has been around a while when one can't remember the number of sequence.
Optimus Prime (Peter Cullen) finds his dead home planet, Cybertron, in which he comes to realize he was responsible for its destruction. He finds a way to bring Cybertron back to life, but in order to do so, Optimus needs to find an artifact that is on Earth originating 1600 years earlier during the Dark Ages. As he takes steps in his trek of the search for this artifact which is actually a staff, there happens to be a connection with it and a medallion which Cade Yeager (Mark Wahlberg) has in his possession in present day. But first we are put through the riggers of a history lesson of the transformers on Earth so those involved will be able to combat a new threat which threatens to annihilate human life. So between Sir Edmund Burton (Anthony Hopkins), Vivian Wembley (Laura Haddock), Iszabella (Isabela Moner), Transformers- Bumblebee (Erik Aadahl), Hound (John Goodman), Cogman (Jim Carter), it's a race against time to see if these unlikely heroes can cut the mustard and save humanity.
Others to round out the cast are Josh Duhamel as Colonel William Lennox, Santiago Cabrera as Santos, Stanley Tucci as Merlin, Jerrod Carmichael as Jimmy, Liam Garrigan as Arthur, Martin McCreadie as Lancelot, Rob Witcomb as Percival, Glenn Morshower as General Morshower, Gemma Chan as Quintessa, John Turturro as Agent Simmons and Tony Hale as JPL Engineer.
This was grittily and intensely directed by film veteran Michael Bay ("Bad Boys" '95, "The Rock" '96, "Pearl Harbor" '01, "Bad Boys II" '03, "Transformers" '07, "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" '09, "Transformers: Dark of the Moon" '11, "Pain & Gain" '13, "Transformers: Age of Distinction" '14) plus others and a ton of video shorts. Although this filmmaker doesn't go out on the proverbial limb to branch out any new potential, he clearly knows what he knows and zeroes in on it. His style is distinctive and works well with the younger, single, male demographic. If you're wondering about any more future Transformer films, wonder no more. There are two more that have already been announced. It was written by Art Marcum, Matt Holloway and Ken Nolan based on a story by Akiva Goldsman, Marcum, Holloway and Nolan all which will be collaborating on the next two Transformer sequels. Whereas other films are able to surmise an ending to a film in a cohesive way, these writers were not able to convey this. Some things were tied up well, whereas other elements of the plot were difficult to decipher by films' end. The script simply meandered and some thoughts were clearly not answered. The humor in this certainly helped in making these people more human than just stick figures, and the visual effects predominantly designed by ILM (Industrial, Light & Magic) and MPC (Moving Picture Company) were seamless, however, it wasn't enough to compensate. Unfortunately, there were so many visuals in this that if they were removed, there wouldn't be a film--this film relied way too much on them. Sure, there has to be visuals, but there were undoubtedly a shot or more visuals in every frame of this. Certainly with so many visuals, it looked killer on the large screen.
This is the quintessential summer flick replete with explosions, high-adrenaline, plenty of action and visuals that leaped off the screen at you. If these types of films get your blood pumping, you will be able to escape into a world of action and fantasy all in an IMAX or 4DX format. And really, isn't this what summer flicks are all about?
Out of 4 Stars: 2 Rated: PG-13 149mins.
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