Transformers: The Last Knight 2017

               

Thank You Michael Bay, No sincerely, Thank You.  I think this makes up for yelling at me to “Go” and almost drive (plow) through the pedestrians (other Extras) on the last movie.  This right here was a solid 9 out of 10 in my book.  No, I’m not gonna be all Bandwagon Bay Bashing, because I enjoyed this as much as I did “Dark of the Moon.”  Also, I am slightly more biased, because I am a HUGE Transformer fan on so many different levels… still I am fair, and I tell it like it is. Just because it is a Bay film, doesn’t mean it doesn’t invoke what it’s meant to invoke upon the audience.  Go into it with an open mind, and aware that you are about to watch another one of his movies… and you will be fine.

               

Going into this, I knew that Bay had went out of his way to make this film as Epic as it possibly could be, he even got writers and people directly from Hasbro to have a massive voice/input in this one.  I can tell… because they managed to deliver the excitement and charisma that Age of Extinction failed to do on several levels (in my opinion.)  Now this doesn’t mean that I haven’t enjoyed EVERY Transformer movie to date, I’ve just enjoyed them on different levels.  With this being a 9 in my book, part one being a solid “Groundbreaking 10,” Revenge of the Fallen falls in between an 8, or even a 7 in hindsight. Dark of the Moon gets between a 9 & a 10, as the essence for a Darker storyline was more welcomed at this point, and then Age of Extinction gets about an 8 or even a 7, because they sort of regurgitated action scenes, and it felt way too long; as they could have had Several climatic Endings before the actual ending.

 

Every Transformers movie made, Bay has had extravagant set pieces as his playground, from city to city, country to country; the scale of this thing is as huge as it can be expected… maybe even more than usual!  As with every installment, (outside of some repetitive action sequences), the story seems to continue to move forward… but this one will be setting up Bumblebee’s Movie in 2018, and we get a chance to see a quick sequence of past events… it seems as if Bumble Bee was super busy in the last 100 yrs or so, before he ended up in park on Bernie Mac’s Car Lot.  I mean, he is an original Captain America here!

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Now the Juicy Stuff… *****Some Spoilers Ahead*****

 

Bravo!!!!!! Bravooooo!  We did not have to say farewell to any Autobots of significance! Yes, this was a true Saturday Morning Episode!  We Battled, we Laughed, We kicked Butt, We WON!!!  Except One human casualty of importance, but you know someone has to go.  So for the first time in the last Decade of Transformers… Jazz, Jetfire, Ironhide, and Ratchet… Walking out of this one was the easiest, and most satisfying.  I know, its war… but man let us breathe for at least one go round, and enjoy the posse at full strength, together as one unit! 

               

Let me round up these robots…

 

Grimlock and the Dinobots… They did their thing! Don’t expect to see much of them though… or the little mini dinobots.  Hound, still my favorite since Ironhide’s departure, he is a beast as usual behind his artillery.  Crosshairs and Drift, seem to be paired up often… they provide spontaneous comic relief when least expected, as does Hound.  Hot Rod had his moments, as he introduces an amazing new weapon with the ability to slow down time; yes this weapon comes in handy, and becomes a pivotal part of the climax!  Cogman is basically a knock off C-3PO, and a Headmaster (that doesn’t get Headmaster Action) but adds a few Micheal Bay-ish funny moments since he is a sociopath that doesn’t hold his tongue for no one.  Sqweeks is like the the R2-D2 of the group… I spend most of the film feeling sorry for him, but don’t let his looks fool you!

 

Wheelie!!!!! Wheelie is back and brand new!  So now it is confirmed that neither him nor Brains met their Fates back in the big battle of Chicago!  So now when watching Dark of the moon, rest easy knowing that that little son of a gun pulled through with his buddy! There are several others to mention, but I won’t.  Who I will mention is Daytrader… he literally had Starscream’s head for sell or trade.

 

Optimus, Well Prime is always gratifying to see on the screen!  Expect him to be more of a cameo in this movie than anything.  It May be a smaller role than he played in Revenge of the Fallen?  Yet, the film’s pace proved to be so one point for me, I tended to forget that Optimus Prime was even in the movie at all!  Don’t get me wrong though, he still is a BEAST!  When he shows up, we are quickly reminded why he is the Leader of the Autobots! He will throw the name Nemesis Prime out there too, brief fan service… should’ve had a different paint job though.

 

On the Decepticon’s side of things, they had a squad of crazies basically.  Nitro Zeus, Onslaught, Mohawk, Dreadbot, Berserker, and an old favorite… Barricade!?  Yea, that guy just doesn’t die!  He has been alive since the first installment, and I can already tell you right now… we’ll be seeing him again!  Quintessa’s Guardians formed a real cool combiner called Infernocus, basically it would have been nice to see Devastator combine in their traditional way, instead of combining into a dog-like combiner… even though it was different and kind of cool… just not for someone like Devastator.

 

What I liked most about this installment though, were the nods to the rest of the films and past characters.  Outside of bringing back Barricade, Wheelie, and Starscream (head); we can also enjoy a nod to Ironhide’s picture, and most notably Sam Witwickey’s funny looking wild-haired headshot!  It was refreshing and respectable to see them pay homage to Shia LaBeouf, because without him, the brand wouldn’t be as it is today.  Also they managed to bring back at least two familiar faces from the past military squads, Josh Duhamel and Glenn Morshower.  Sadly no Tyrese Gibson due to film schedule conflicts with “The Fate of the Furious.” John Turturro  and Stanley Tucci does make a return, except Tucci plays Merlin this time around, and not his character from Age of Extinction.  Also, if you blink you may miss these other Easter Egg-like nods to the previous films…

 

When Cybertron is skating across the Earth’s Surface, it takes out the Egyptian Pyramid that Devastator and The Fallen did battle on in the 2nd movie; but that’s after they paid another nod to the 3rd movie by literally taking out the moon, and showing the shuttle getting demolished where Sentinel Prime was recovered.  

 

One thing Transformers has gained from me is some respect, because they (unlike many other Film Universes) managed to keep a certain continuity, that makes even the previous films more enjoyable, as most of the stories of the heroes and villains continues onward. Even Megatron says goodbye to Star Scream in his own way, “Starscream my Treacherous Friend, too bad you couldn’t be here to see this.” At least something along those lines, even while holding his head and saying goodbye, he remembered how much Starscream was always a backstabber.

 

Oh and I need to deliver a comedic genius award to Jerrod Carmichael as Jimmy!  That guy was the stereotypical black guy that this movie needed!  He didn’t overstay his humor, and he didn’t underperform it either, like literally taking an urban smart guy from the hood and putting him in this movie!  It’s like he was just right, in my book he was the funniest thing about the film because it felt the most natural, alongside of Mark Wahlberg’s one liner deliveries, they just had me rollin!

 

Oh, and pointy things sticking out the Earth, a true fan will know Unicron’s Horns at first site! ;-) Unicron is basically Earth now, and they definitely took a page out of my last favorite Transformer series “Transformers Prime” with that one. No complaints about that choice, I’m just happy to have him as a factor now! I really thought they would have brought him in by the 2nd or 3rd installment, so yea… FINALLY!

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The only things I had an issue with, is the lack of variety in the cast of Transformers.  It’s like the last G.I. Joe movie “Retaliation.”  Just not enough recognizable faces from the brand, but this does not hinder the movie severely, I’m just looking for more fan service.  I am assuming by now that the characters from the first trilogy: Jolt, Sideswipe (which was awesome skating around), Dino/Mirage (Awesome with his hooks n chains), The Twins: Mudflap and Skids, and the Wreckers are all dead at this point.  We did see one Wrecker meet his demise on Extinction, so I can only assume everyone not seen since then has perished as well… although the Twins were gone before Transformers 3, making me think they went off to be away from the war completely; similar to Brains on Age of Extinction.  The other issue I didn’t appreciate much, was the use of a lot of unnecessary adult language, swearing when there really wasn’t context for it, and sexual themes that were fleshed a little too much.  Now I know, its Bay’s style… I’m use to it.  I just hate that it’s still geared and marketed to mainly kids over teens, so lets be honest here… theres a thin line, and he has been walking it every movie.  Yea I am aware of the PG-13 rating, and I’m not anal about it, it just sucks when you want your smaller kids to enjoy a movie of that nature (and they will nonetheless), and you have to second guess yourself, and your choice for bringing them to it.

 

Outside of those minor gripes, I have no other issues from this film.  So yea, I really enjoyed this movie… this is a must see in my book, especially on the big screen.  I think what does it for me, it’s like an All Star celebration of All films rolled into one package!  Honestly, the downtime in this movie was at a minimal, and the action kept coming, and Robot on Robot brawls almost never stopped!

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Saturday Morning Special at its best people!

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                (After Writing this… I researched a little more, Mudflap and Skids were intended to be in Dark of the Moon, but was cut from the film.  Besides one scene that shows them rolling in with everyone else. They were gonna both be killed by Sentinel Prime. Dino/Mirage was never really confirmed dead on any platform.  Jolt  had close calls, but never met his demise.  Sadly Sideswipe was killed by the same people who later killed Ratchet, “Cemetery Wind.” Wreckers… well, still assumed dead more or less. :\