Ten years ago from the release of this entry, Transformers (2007) was never considered a deep film nor did it gain all around glowing reviews. Yet it made an impact on audiences and people loved it. Its visuals were eye popping, the action was gigantic and the music was fun. Sure, characters were a bit exaggerated and seen as annoyances, but there was some likability to them. Five entries later and it looks like mainstream audiences still enjoyed that familiar formula. People still came out to see it, despite this being the lowest earning entry in the series and that should mean something. Perhaps viewers want a little more in their robotic action romps? It's truly unfortunate when the only redeemable aspects to a film are it's visual and audible components.
Picking up some time after the events of Transformers: Age of Extinction (2014), where Optimus Prime (Peter Cullen) left Earth to find the autobots' creator(s), Cade Yeager (Mark Wahlberg) and the rest have been hiding from government authorities. Kind of strange considering like in every film, they've saved the planet from being taken over. Nevertheless, Prime returns to his home planet and is captured by his creator Quintessa (Gemma Chan). Her plan is turning Prime against his allies in search of an old artifact given from the autobots to the humans during medieval times. Surprisingly the one writer not involved with this sequel was Ehren Kruger, who was credited in the last three films and felt more like a burden than contributor.
This time, the script was penned by Ken Nolan (Black Hawk Down (2001)), Art Marcum and Matt Holloway (Iron Man (2008), Punisher: War Zone (2008)). Unfortunately, these changes did not improve on the story. The only thing the story properly gets correct is referencing the events from prior films, while occasionally using characters from those films. This is not enough though to prove itself to be a cohesive narrative. The fact that each entry has had to somehow retroactively fix the history of the autobots and how they played a part in the Earth's history is moronic. This kind of lunacy doesn't permit even continuity and makes characters feel far less unique. While the run time to this feature is much shorter than the last film, the delivery of the story is just a slog. Nobody seems to remember how many times Bumblebee's real voice has been heard.
Anthony Hopkins plays Sir Edmond Burton with Cogman (Jim Carter), a robot (transformer?) butler who does nothing but provide exposition dumps. It is a complete phone-in from Hopkins. Speaking of phone-ins, Peter Cullen does the same for Optimus Prime. Laura Haddock plays Vivian Wembley who also has a past she isn't aware of. Want to guess how she interacts with Cade Yeager? Everything is forced. Even new characters like Izabella (Isabela Merced) and her robot (transformer?) sqweeks (Reno Wilson) get sidelined further in the story. There's just too much to handle for this sequel. Actors like Josh Duhamel, Jerrod Carmichael and John Turturro try, but they're forgettable because of all that's going on. Voice actors Frank Welker, John Goodman, Ken Watanabe, Omar Sy, John DiMaggio and Jess Harnell also deserve better for their characters’ development wise.
From a visual standpoint, this is the one element to this franchise that maintains its consistency. The CGI special effects blend well with the physical backgrounds and the attention to detail on the robotic characters are as good as they've always been. While the cinematography has changed throughout the series, that too has remained competent. This time, the director of photography was Jonathan Sela, who also worked on Max Payne (2008), Law Abiding Citizen (2009) and A Good Day to Die Hard (2013). Lastly, the music composed by Steve Jablonsky who has worked on the franchise since the beginning has remained true to his form. Also with producing the most music for this film, those who enjoy the music will have plenty of tracks to listen to.
The technical fundamentals of this final film in the franchise have been as solid as they have ever been. The problem is, it does not make a movie by itself. The screenplay, while written by different people, does nothing to close plot holes, maintain continuity or make any of the characters interesting. Most performances are either boring or underutilized. It's sad because so much better could have come from it.
Points Earned --> 5:10
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