Transformers: The Last Leg for Bay

 Transformers: The Last Leg for Bay

What's worse than a franchise being utterly milked? Michael Bay being hired as director. Although making good work out of films such as Bad Boys and Bad Boys II Bay decided to drive a train-crash even further with Transformers: The Last Knight, an advertisement disguised as a sci-fi family film. Mark Wahlburg appears again as Cade Yeager, a character with literally no purpose, in hiding with Bumblebee (voiced by Erik Aadahl) and Izabella (played by Isabela Moner) another character with literally no purpose. 

The film begins with an almost meaningless way for Michael Bay to show us his newly polished IMAX 3D Cameras and some dialogue between Merlin (played by Stanley Tucci) and a giant red robot with no purpose - I'm seeing a theme here - about a staff that can only be wielded by someone  from the same bloodline. Laura Haddock is shown as Vivian Wembley describing the scene as if it was simply a legend. Little did she know she was actually Merlin's descendant. Sir Anthony Hopkins has a role to play too, an old guy that owns a castle. More than that. He's known about Transformers since he was a boy. He guides the cast to the staff which is then miraculously stolen by none other than the heartthrob turned evil Optimus Prime (voiced by Peter Cullen.) Whom had previously been tortured into getting the staff by his alien dominatrix Quintessa (voiced by Gemma Chan.) 

Not many words can be used to describe the quickly falling Transformers franchise. Even the musician Steve Jablonsky had a downfall with music that just wasn't thrilling in any way shape or form. Jablonsky usually knows how to make cool memorable music but this time it just didn't fit. At all. 

Batman Vs Superman showed us how to split up a fight between two beloved characters. Bay decided that this was a fantastic idea. All Bumblebee had to say was "Martha" and Optimus Prime went back to his normal sadistic self. As a whole the film isn't all bad. There are beautiful sequences filled with realistic CGI and landscapes that grip your attention so that you don't question the plot at all, Michael Bay knows how to make good films except he never does it. If he'd have ignored his impulses to add product placement and the odd explosion then there's a chance that the film could've replicated the 80s television hit and actually been memorable. 

The table of writers brought together to create the forthcoming Transformers expanded universe have found a way to set up the franchise for a few more years. 

If you're looking for a fun-filled movie with not too much thinking behind and a set up for a universe that will melt our brains for another 20 films then Transformers: The Last Knight is perfect for you. If you're more sophisticated then go watch something else instead of investing in Hasbro's aim to sell children's toys. It's not at all more than meets the eye, just an action figure advert in disguise. Roll out those bank cards as you pay for the full IMAX experience as that's literally the only thing benefiting the movie. Let's just hope Kubo And The Two Strings director Travis Knight can revive the series with the Bumblebee solo film coming to screens in 2018.