Second Look - Transformers: The Last Knight

Note: This review contains spoilers for Transformers: The Last Knight.

When I first watched Transformers: The Last Knight (TLK), I was able to view it in a theater one day early as part of AMC’s Optimus Prime Time event, which included a special lanyard and a T-shirt, both of which I still own even after having since downsized my Transformers collection. My original review of the film, which I wrote that night and posted the following day, was a lot more positive, likely influenced by having seen it in a theater that appeared to be filled with other Transformers fans. After having rewatched Age of Extinction (AOE), I decided to give The Last Knight another shot to round out my reevaluation of the live-action films prior to Bumblebee. This time, however, my view on it is a lot more negative.

1600 years ago, the Knights of the Round Table send Merlin (Stanley Tucci) to seek help from an attack, with Merlin calling upon the Knights of Cybertron, whose existence he’s kept secret. Back in the present, following the events of the previous movie, Optimus Prime (Peter Cullen) continues to float through space until he lands on the planet Cybertron and runs into his creator, Quintessa (Gemma Chan), who brainwashes him into her servant named Nemesis Prime. Meanwhile, Transformers are being hunted down by a group called the TRF (Transformers Reaction Force), with Cade Yaeger (Mark Wahlberg) doing his best to protect innocent Autobots. When an Autobot vessel is found in a restricted area, Cade investigates and, with the passenger’s dying breath, is given a special talisman connected to the Knights of Cybertron.

If research is correct, the movie was originally going to be two separate ones before they were later smashed together, and the final result definitely shows. While the movie does initially set up an interesting King Arthur-inspired premise, it ultimately feels a little unfocused when compared with AOE, introducing several plot threads on top of the main one that don’t seem to go anywhere, such as the idea that Bumblebee was involved with WWII even though the 2007 film and later Bumblebee suggest otherwise. Aside from the WWII bit, other points of continuity confusion include Galvatron suddenly reverting to being Megatron again, sans Transformium abilities, and Barricade appearing in a new body despite being killed off in Dark of the Moon. There’s also the subplot of Bumblebee trying to get his voice back, which wouldn’t have been an issue if they had simply stuck with his ability to speak as seen at the end of the 2007 film. Other things seem to come out of nowhere, the biggest one being Bumblebee’s sudden ability to Iron Giant himself back together whenever he suffers too much damage, which was nowhere to be seen in any of the previous four installments and comes off as lazy writing.

Not helping is that, unlike AOE, TLK simply has far too many characters to keep track of, both human and Autobot alike, to the point where even I couldn’t keep track of everyone’s names. A number of these are characters who appear once or sparingly and don’t contribute too much of anything to the plot and a number of Decepticon characters who are introduced in a sequence reminiscent of the 2016 Suicide Squad movie and then most of those are killed off just as quickly. Then there’s the sudden appearance of Baby Dinobots, as well as Grimlock appearing once and then not actually contributing much to the story. Additionally, while the previous film improved on its predecessors by moving away from the sexual humor, said humor comes back with a vengeance here, ending up more groan-inducing than anything.

Izabella (Isabella Moner) is an ultimately superfluous character despite
prominent advertising.

That said, there are some interesting ideas present that even borrow from other Transformers concepts. Chief among these is the Knights of Cybertron, which were a prominent concept in the IDW comics and are depicted here as having some connection to the Knights of the Round Table. There are also a few ideas borrowed from the then-concurrent Aligned continuity, with the concept of Unicron being the Earth itself stemming from the Prime cartoon and the junkyard setup of the Autobot base being somewhat similar to the 2015 Robots in Disguise series. The Arthurian setup alone is an interesting premise to where the opening five minutes could have made for a movie in its own right, even with the storytelling distractions. One small detail I noticed this time was an Arthurian connection in the character Viviane Wembly (Laura Haddock) sharing a name with the Lady of the Lake, which I thought was a nice touch.

I should also mention that, among other things, the movie introduces the idea of the Order of Witwiccans, a human group connected with the Knights of Cybertron and the King Arthur myth. It is further casually established that Sir Edmund Burton (Sir Anthony Hopkins) is the last member of the Order. As he explains this, a picture of Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) is briefly shown, retroactively tying the Witwicky family into it, which seems to imply that Sam and his other surviving family somehow died sometime after the events of Dark of the Moon. Make of that what you will.

As with the other movies, one highlight is the visual effects, with many of the robot characters having distinct appearances and continuing the previous film’s approach of bright colors and streamlined bot modes for easier identification. Some of these designs unfortunately get a little muddy towards the end, with the Knights of Cybertron and the components of the seldom-seen combiner Infernocus looking a bit too similar to each other; I even own one of the Knights’ toys and owned the Infernocus toy and I still can’t remember what their individual names were. There are also some designs that look too similar to previous ones, not helped by their small amount of screentime. The aesthetic used for the King Arthur material was thankfully consistent though, giving the movie a nice visual flair whenever it was shown on camera.

While the story is a mess, the acting is not, with both on-screen and voice actors generally giving good performances for what they did. Mark Wahlberg still delivers for the most part as Cade Yaeger, while Laura Haddock does a good job in the role of Viviane Wembly, being one of the better-written female characters of the pre-Bumblebee films. The biggest highlight of the human cast, however, has to be Sir Anthony Hopkins as Sir Edmund Burton, who makes the characters mixture of “proper” speech with street slang work in a way that shows he was clearly having fun with it. Another highlight is Stanley Tucci as Merlin in the opening flashback, managing to be highly memorable and funny despite having very little screentime.

Sir Edmund Burton (Sir Anthony Hopkins) is one of the best characters in the movie.

On the voice acting side, Peter Cullen is great is what little screentime he has as Optimus Prime, while Frank Welker returns as the voice of Megatron in a performance similar to the one he gave in Prime. One highlight is Steve Buscemi in the minor role of Daytrader, an Autobot with little screentime who leaves something of an impression thanks to Buscemi’s delivery.

As with the other live-action films, TLK has received some representation in the currently ongoing Studio Series toyline, though not as much as some of the other films. Considering the line has dipped into representing more minor characters, such as those in the opening five minutes of Bumblebee, I would say the toy designers definitely have their work cut out for them with this one should they ever come back to it. Notably, one of the line’s offerings was a straight reissue of a toy based on Cogman, which was good for collectors who were unable to get their hands on the original release due to poor distribution. The original TLK toyline had what could be considered a protoype of Studio Series in the form of Premier Edition, which sought to be more screen accurate representations, though I wouldn’t mind them revisiting some characters in Studio Series such as Barricade. Said original toyline also featured Nitro Zeus (branded as Decepticon Nitro), which had some compatibility with Cogman in that you could use Cogman’s Headmaster gimmick to replace Nitro Zeus’ head. Apparently, this is based on a scene that was cut from the movie, though Cogman being casually referred to as a Headmaster in the movie lends credence to this.

Despite some good ideas and some standout performances, Transformers: The Last Knight is a total mess of a film, though still not as bad as Revenge of the Fallen. Regardless, this movie isn’t really worth the time investment unless you’re a diehard Transformers fan or you want to see Anthony Hopkins play one of the best characters in it. Otherwise, considering it ends on a massive cliffhanger that teases a sequel that will never happen, this movie can safely be skipped.