During the Dark Ages, twelve robotic knights helped Merlin and king Arthur defeat invading forces in England.   During the following 1600 years, a secret order and transformers have been fighting against the human forces of evil.  Cade Yaeger (Mark Wahlberg) is a wanted man for helping the Autobots.  He is left in command of the Autobots and hides out in South Dakota on an Indian Reservation.  He comes across an ancient device used by the ancient order of Transformer knights.  The TRF nad the Deceptions want that device to track down a powerful staff that is being hidden from Quintessa, the creator of all Transformers.  She wants to destroy Earth and gains control of Optimus Prime to use as her instrument to help use Cybertron and the staff to suck the life energy from Earth.   A battle for the survival of Earth begins as a secret history of Transformers is revealed.

Sometimes, the plot of TRANSFORMERS: THE LAST KNIGHT is just bonkers like they got the Mad Hatter as a script consultant.  I don’t think any viewer actually wants to see a sociopathic robot butler with anger issues (and he is on the good guy’s side).  Then you have baby Dinobots, Grimlock eating cars, a bookish hot looking British college professor whose relatives and mom want to set her up with a man, a rambling Anthony Hopkins, and a sprawling plot that ends actually good script writing.   The action sequences and special effects are great, but I wish they took the time to write a better script since TRANSFORMERS: THE LAST KNIGHT is the worst movie in the series with a story that makes my brain hurts at times.  This latest movie feels like they used the Mad Hatter as script supervisor sometimes and then also it feels like a greatest hits package mixed with the worst bits too.  There are ways the TRANSFORMERS franchise can be fixed and I would like to have Michael Bay directing no more films in the series and no more Akiva Goldsman be involved in writing the story for these films.   The movies should franchise fatigue and are in end of a new direction instead of a series with only two really good films out of five and the other three with a mix of good and bad story elements.   If you’re a fan of the movie series, you will go see this movie regardless.  If you’re disappointed with the direction of the series, you might want to wait to rent this on DVD, blu-ray, or digital.

SPECIAL FEATURES;

MERGING MYTHOLOGIES: THE SECRET TRANSFORMERS HISTORY- the producers and writers discuss merging the Transformer mythos with other mythologies like the King Arthur legend

CREATING DESTRUCTION: INSIDE THE PACKARD PLANT (Target exclusive)-

CLIMBING THE RANKS: MILITARY TRAINING- Josh Duhmael discusses the development of his character along with working with really military people in the movies

UNCOVERING THE JUNKYARD (Target Exclusive)-  a look at the Junkyard location

MOTORS AND MAGIC-  a look at the various Transformers in the movie

THE ROYAL TREATMENTS: TRANSFORMERS IN THE UK- behind-the-scenes of filming in various locations and the logistics of filming a car chase on London streets

ALIEN LANDSCAPE: CYBERTRON- all about Cybertron and filming in Iceland for part of a pivotal Cybertron sceen

ONE MORE GIANT EFFIN’ MOVIE- praise for Michael Bay’s work ethic on the set

TRASFORMERS: THE COMBINER WARS- Complete Animate Series which is also a Target exclusive of the animated series which aired on YouTube

The movie in standard definition on DVD and a code to download and stream a HD copy of the movie.

FINAL ANALYSIS:  If you like the TRANSFORMERS movies, you will enjoy and buy this one on disc.  If you find Michael Bay’s take on the TRANSFORMERS to be increasing frustrating, you might want to just rent the blu-ray.   The extras offer a good behind-the-scenes look at the movie while I wonder if there will ever be a great TRANSFORMERS movie like the first and third ones in the series.

This review is ©9-30-2017 David Blackwell and cannot be reprinted without permission.  Send all comments to feedback@enterline-media.com