TRANSFORMERS: THE LAST KNIGHT (2017) – My rating: 8/10

Transformers: The last Knight is why I bother to critique movies.  From all that I read from the critics, I almost didn’t go to see this sequel.  While it wasn’t the greatest sequel, it was far from the worse.  Of course this is my opinion, which is all relative.  I enjoyed it enough to recommend it and give it a decent rating.  I really don’t know what the critics are looking for.  I was entertained and the acting was good.  The story was good as well as the special effects and action.  As a matter of fact, I was happy to not see endless destruction of cities and buildings where they normally take place.  I’m not sure what prompted the low scores or bad write ups for this movie.

The last Knight starts in the year 484 AD, with a battle being fought between the Saxons and King Arthur (Liam Garrigan) and his army, who are reluctantly relying on wizard Merlin (Stanley Tucci) to win the war.  However, Merlin, who previously forged an alliance with the Knights of Iacon, a group of twelve Transformers hidden on Earth, is off begging the knights to help him in this time of need.  Unable to help, a transformer presented Merlin with an alien staff to help King Arthur triumph over the Saxons instead.

Moving to modern day; most governments on Earth have declared Transformers illegal, and have created a multinational Transformer Reaction Force (TRF) to eliminate alien robots. Despite the absence of Optimus Prime (who left the planet in search of his creator), new Transformers are continually arriving on Earth.  The latest ship to arrive crash-lands in Chicago and is found by a group of children. When a TRF mecha confronts the kids, they are saved by Izabella, (Isabela Moner) a survivor of the Battle of Chicago, and her Transformer companions, Sqweeks and Canopy, but Canopy is killed by the TRF in the process. Bumblebee and Cade Yeager (Mark Wahlberg) arrive to help the children to escape.

In the meanwhile, on the far reaches of the Solar System, Optimus Prime discovers that Cybertron, the Transformers’ home world, which is now disassembled into pieces, is heading directly for Earth. Optimus finds the being in control of Cybertron’s movement is a sorceress named Quintessa, (Gemma Chan) who professes to be the maker he is searching for. According to Quintessa’s story, the staff that the knights gave to Merlin was stolen from her.  Using her powers, she places Optimus Prime under her control, dubs him “Nemesis Prime,” and charges him with the task of recovering the staff. She also alleges, Earth is actually Cybertron’s “ancient enemy” Unicron, and she intends to drain his life force so that Cybertron can be restored.

Eventually, Yeager is tracked to the junkyard hideout where several old Transformers, Autobots, Dinobots, Decepticons, Jimmy, (Jerrod Carmichael) a close friend and employee of Yeager’s and Izabella live, as well as manage repairs of the surviving incoming Transformers and all that comes with them.  Yeager is approached by Cogman, (Jim Carter) the Transformer envoy and loyal butler of British Lord, Sir Edmund Burton, (Anthony Hopkins) who takes him and Bumblebee to England to meet his master. There, Yeager also meets Viviane Wembly, (Laura Haddock) an Oxford professor and last descendant of Merlin. Burton explains that he is the last living member of the “Witwiccan” order, an ancient brotherhood dedicated to guarding the secret history of Transformers on Earth.

From this point, you have a pretty good plot.  Transformers are now banned from Earth, there’s a newly formed group who are responsible for keeping the Transformers from entering called TRF, a British Lord is trying to get the last descendant of Merlin along with Yeager to retrieve the staff (that was given to Quintessa) and also use the emblem fused onto his arm by a Transformer against Quintessa to stop her from destroying Earth and Optimus Prime.  Of course there’s endless twist and turns I can’t tell you about at this point, as not to spoil the movie. The special effects are awesome, the acting is great and the action is plentiful.  This is not a bad sequel — I was entertained and not bored or disappointed.  However, I don’t think you need to spend the extra money for 3D.  If you like the Transformer series, you should check this one out!

 

 

TRANSFORMERS: AGE OF EXTINCTION (2014) – My rating: 8.5/10

The only reason I gave Transformers an 8.5 is because of it’s non-stop action and story telling.  I didn’t really care for the endless plots within plots but I realize it’s getting harder and harder to make these sequels interesting and meaningful.  How many times can we humans be rescued by these unwanted machines (Autobots) and how many villains are out there trying to get a piece of the autobot action?  Cade Yeager (Mark Walhberg) a struggling inventor, and his 17-year old daughter Tessa Yeager (Nicola Peltz) along with Shane Dyson (Jack Reynor) who plays Tessa’s not so secret boyfriend, battle the bad guys together.

Transformers: Age of Extinction begins millions of years ago, during the Cretaceous period which include dinosaurs. According to the story, Beings or Creators detonate many seeds causing the dinosaur’s extinction on Earth.  The story then picks up 4 years after the battle in Chicago, we’re now focused on Cade Yeager and his business partner, Lucas Flannery (T. J. Miller).  Down and out, Cade purchases an old truck he is planning to strip down and sell for parts.  The truck turns out to be Optimus Prime who is in dire need of repair.

In the meanwhile, Harold Attinger (Kelsey Grammer), a CIA agent is assigned to hunt down the remaining Decepticons but is secretly hunting down Autobots as well.  Harold gets help from a Transformer named Lockdown, who is a bounty hunter and along with Harold, kills Rachet.  Cade tries to repair Optimus, after his identity is discovered and Optimus activates the remaining Autobots: Bumblebee, Hound, Drift and Crosshairs.

Joshua Joyce (Stanley Tucci is head of the KSI Corporation and has perfected Transformin, which is the metal the Transformers are made of.  Joshua has also imprisoned Brains, the Autobot’s Drone sidekick to decode dead Transformers’ brains, Megatron being one of them, for use in human made Transformer brains.  As a result, KSI’s ultimate Transformer, Galvaton is created.  To complicate matters a little more, James Sovoy (Titus Welliver) is a field leader of Cemetery Wind, an elite CIA unit tracking Decepticons and Transformers along with Harold. James makes up the third bad guy and greedy human to round out this band of bandits.  There are so many players, one can get pretty confused.  You have the original Transformers (Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, Ratchet, Leadfoot, and Brains), The bounty hunter (Lockdown), the man made Transformer (Galvaton) and a new species called Dinobots.  You also have the bad guys versus the good guys and all that’s in between.

As usual, the original Transformers prevail and gives a speech about morals, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.  Transformers: Age of Extinction is 2 hours and 47 minutes long but keeps moving so that you don’t really notice the time.  It started in Chicago and ended up in China.  The destruction was enough to declare the world a dismal, hopeless, disaster.  In case you didn’t get it, this movie was all about getting the Seed, the only one left that could annihilate the Earth.  Overall, lots and lots of action — worthy of the big screen.   In order to put closure to this story so that it makes perfect since, take a leap of faith and buy a ticket, you probably will like it.