North Texas Daily

I find it really surprising that the new “Transformers” film has more King Arthur characters than this year’s actual “King Arthur” film.

If you’re going into this movie hoping for any sort of a cohesive plot, more of a focus on the titular transforming alien race just kicking butt for most of the movie, without some cheap or politically incorrect humor, you’ve come to the wrong franchise.

“The Last Knight” is a definite improvement over 2014’s cinematic vomit that was “Age of Extinction,” but there are still shortcomings that have plagued the series from the very first film. The usual Michael Bay flair is there, full of explosions, sweeping camera shots and helicopters in the air while people run in slow motion.

There’s slightly more focus on the Transformers this time at the expense of contradicting itself from what the pervious movies have established. There’s a lot more interactions with the Transformers which I think the writers included after listening to fans throughout the years.

Mark Wahlberg returns as the beefed up Texan inventor with a Boston accent, along with Josh Duhamel as the rough and tough soldier character and John Turturro as the spontaneous comedic relief. The human characters do a fine job with what they’re given, but it’s not much beyond that.

The Transformers this time are running out of notable Autobots and Decepticons to show. There’s still Optimus Prime, who is barely in the movie despite the heavy promotion of him in the marketing; Bumblebee, the crowd-favorite and other nondescript robots. There was a very out-of-place, “Suicide Squad”-esque scene introducing some Deceptions, only for them to have about 10 minutes worth of screen-time.

The film’s plot revolves the Autobots and Decepticons searching for Merlin’s staff, which could be used to bring Cybertron to Earth (again). There’s also the admittedly excellent use of flashbacks showing how the Transformers have been with the humans since Arthurian times and even World War II. Yes, it turns out that a Transformer actually killed Hitler.

This contradicts the first film, when it was said that Megatron was the first one to arrive on earth.

Overall, it’s a fun popcorn watch, but there’s not much substance after that. I enjoyed it for what it was, a bloated action flick marketed for other audiences and not for us. There’s plenty of action for everyone to enjoy, but the script is spread exceedingly thin this time. I don’t know how they’re going to pull off a sixth film in the series, but against my better judgement, I’ll be there to see it.

Featured Image: Mark Wahlberg reprises his role from the fourth “Transformers” film in the latest installment of the lucrative film franchise. Collider.