Transformers: The Last Knight - The 5th And Not the Best Transformers Movie

Another Transformers movie? Definitely a must-see movie for my wife and I because we love those robots that can transform so much. After seeing the trailer a week ago, I noticed that the movie was promoted as shot in IMAX 3D. So we decided that we should see it in IMAX. I am a bit embarrassed to admit that for so many years I have been watching movies, I had never had the experience of seeing anything in IMAX. As I had something personal that I need to do, I have already applied my leave on 21st of June, which happened to be the premiere day of this movie. Such a nice coincidence, right? Anyway, we went to Mall Kelapa Gading as it was one of the only 2 cinemas having IMAX studio in Jakarta and watched the first show at 12.30 PM. Now let us get on to the movie.

Brief Story Line

The movie was told after the events of Transformers: Age of Extinction, where Cade Yeager (Mark Wahlberg - The Departed, Ted, Deepwater Horizon etc) was helping the Autobots from the chasing of a newly setup troops called TRF (Transformers Reaction Force). TRF was setup with the sole purpose of capturing all aliens whether they were Autobots or Decepticons and led by Santos (Santiago Cabrera - Merlin TV series). Commander Lennox (Josh Duhamel - When In Rome, New Year's Eve etc) who actually still believed in Autobots had no choice but be part of TRF as well. During one incident, Cade met with a young girl named Izabela (Isabela Moner - Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life) who would later on have some part in his future mission.

Meanwhile, Cybertron which was the origin planet of all the transformers was headed to earth where the so-called creator who was also a powerful sorceress named Quintessa had an evil plot for earth, with the help from Megatron of Decepticons. On the other side of the world in England, Sir Edmund Burton (Anthony Hopkins - The Silence of the Lambs, Meet Joe Black and so on) seemed to be having an interest in a professor of English literature named Viviane (Laura Haddock - Da Vinci's Demons TV series). Both later would also have major impact on the events that followed.

As fate would have it, Cade would stumble into a talisman which was significant to the plans of Quintessa. TRF who also found out about the importance of the talisman, went after Cade who had been hiding some of the Autobots in a junkyard and accompanied by Jimmy (Jerrod Carmichael). 

So could Cade escape from TRF's chasing? What plans did Quintessa had? What were the roles of Viviane and also Edmund Burton who had the service of a funny sociopath robot butler named Cogman (voiced by Jim Carter who played Mr. Carson in the highly critical Downton Abbey TV series)? Find them all in this action adventure movie.

End of Brief Story Line

Well as a sequel to Transformers movie, this one was having not so many Transformers. It had the same ingredients of the previous movies where a lead character would have a very important role to save the world and there would be support from the US armies/troops. This one was having a formula that was similar to the 3rd Transformers (Dark of The Moon) with some rather outrageous theory about the history, myth or legends. 

The challenge of telling this kind of story was that it kind of makes the movie to be difficult to digest. It was not helping either when it was having too many side stories. This movie unfortunately was not able to compile the whole side stories (or even the main story) into a cohesive movie. It felt like so many parts being forced to be put into 1 movie. Sorry to say, this time I really could not enjoy the storyline, and it also had too many of unnecessary characters. 

Perhaps if they just stick to fewer characters, the movie would be more enjoyable. My personal views, the children involved in the beginning were a distraction (including Izabella) and some of the Autobots & Decepticons minor roles were really not interesting. Even John Turturro's character of Seymour from all previous Transformers' movies felt forced to be included. The only worthy characters that I felt have significant importance were Edmund Burton and Viviane. The Autobots that were also worthwhile to see were Cogman, Hot Rod, Bumblebee and of course our real favorite, Optimus Prime (voiced by Peter Cullen).

Apart from the lousy story line and too many characters, the movie was certainly excellent in term of its special effects and its 3D effects. As I found out that 98% of the movie was shot in IMAX 3D camera, all those effects felt truly amazing. However, I got to say that the sound effects did not feel too spectacular. I am not sure if the cinema was only focusing on IMAX and hence it did not have the good sound system, but I was not really entertained with it. The movie did have some funny and interesting moments especially during the time when Edmund, Viviane, Cogman and Cade were in the same screen. But other than that, it did not have too much funny moments. My views is that the movie would definitely be trashed by critics though general audience would probably still be interested and attracted to see this in theaters.

So if you are a fan of Transformers movies and have been following the previous 4 movies, you would definitely still be entertained with this one, even though the Transformers were not as many as the earlier ones. My wife and I still believed that the original Transformers was still the best of all 5, and unfortunately this one fell into the least enjoyable of them all. I am actually not really fussy about storyline when I watched a full special effects action movie like this one as I would not expect it as Oscar worthy movie anyway, but if it was up to the point of making it less enjoyable, then it became a downside. However, if you are a hardcore fan who do not care about the story at all, and just want to see those cool special effects and the amazing Optimus Prime in action, then you should definitely see this one. Recommended to see this in IMAX 3D (but you must be prepared to be tired as it has a duration of 2.5 hours). 

Happy watching!

Mike's movie moments rating: 3 out of 5 stars

PS: There was no post credit scene in this movie. There was some interesting and a cliffhanger kind of thing before the end credit scene started which seemed to be random, but perhaps it was a sign of another sequel should they decide to do it.