Reviewed by Victor Rebikoff.
Director: Michael Bay, Paramount Pictures, M 149 Minutes.
There’s no surprise that filmmaker Michael Bay has returned to direct his fifth sequel in the franchise in which the historical background to the Transformers is revealed.
Mark Wahlberg reprises his Cade Yeager character from the previous movie.
Bay’s story begins with the advent of the Transformers in the days of King Arthur (Liam Garrigan – ‘The Legend of Hercules’), his knights and supreme sorcerer Merlin (Stanley Tucci – ‘The Hunger Games’).
With Arthur about to engage in an epic battle Merlin gets hold of a potent artifact (known as a staff) from a Cybertronian Knight (a Transformer) which helps Arthur and his outnumbered knights overcome their enemy.
Fast forward to the present day where teenagers are playing amongst the towns ruins particularly teenage rebel Izabella (Isabela Moner – ‘Middle School’) who discovers the pod of a Cybertronian Knight before she is hunted down by a mechanical sentinel.
Having been despatched by Santos (Santiago Cabrera – ‘The Musketeers’) from the Transformers Reaction Force, to destroy Transformers, the sentinel is subsequently demolished by Izabella’s robot then saved by Bumblebee and Cade after the dying Knight gives Cade a powerful talisman.
At about the same time, the Transformer Optimus Prime (voiced by Peter Cullen) has returned to Cybertron and is convinced by creator Quintessa (voiced by Gemma Chan) that Earth must be destroyed in order to save his own planet.
Their presence on Earth compells Sir Edmund Burton (Anthony Hopkins – ‘Thor’) in persuading Oxford professor Vivienne Wembley (Laura Haddock – ‘Da Vinci’s Demons’) to come to his estate together with Cade to explain the historical appearance of the Transformers.
Besides disclosing the existence of the Transformers in Arthur’s time and helping American soldiers in World War II, Burton is especially interested in Cade’s talisman indicating his possible designation as the last knight and that Vivienne is Merlin’s relative.
With time fast running out, Burton, Vivienne and Izabella join forces with Cade and Colonel Lennox (Josh Duhamel) to prevent Optimus Prime and the planet Cybertron from destroying Earth in a Battle Royale staged at the Stonehenge site.
In many respects Bay has left his best sequel to last signalling that this will be his finale as far as the franchise is concerned, though not so for Transformers’ fans as shown in the closing credits.
Despite the movie’s duration there are some exciting action sequences and spectacular special effects not to mention the enjoyable performances of Hopkins, Moner and Wahlberg.
Transformers-The Last Knight is to be televised on 9GO at 8.50pm on Friday 18 December.
Vic’s Verdict: 4 Stars
