Transformers: the Last Knight
You just can’t get the staff
released OUT NOW! 2017 | 12 | Blu-ray (4K/3K/standard)/ dvd/ vod Director Michael Bay Cast Mark Wahlberg, laura Haddock, Josh duhamel, stanley Tucci
Much was made of Michael Bay’s decision to bring in a team of scribes to oversee Transformers 5’s new mythology – Bay couldn’t go two interviews without mentioning his writers’ room, a franchise first. Sadly, their main contribution to the series is to prove the ancient adage “Too many cooks spoil the CGI boom-fest”.
We think it’s about a magic staff gifted to humanity in the fifth century, which is still causing trouble in the 21st, but the script’s so overcomplicated by 20 writers having their own plots (evil Optimus, Megatron’s Suicide Squad, Cuba, the return of Cybertron, Transformers throughout history, whatever Mark Wahlberg is doing, a post-apocalyptic kid, Dinobot babies, Star Wars references, bringing more women into the franchise without really giving them anything to do) that it’s hard to tell.
It’s not just the script that’s problematic – this is the most incoherently shot Transformers movie yet, with truly bizarre aspect ratio juggling, shifting between three widths, frequently in the same scene. It’s so nonsensical it feels like sabotage.
Extras The extras attempt to explain what’s going on, with a 20-minute look at the historical mythology (which completely breaks the previous canon of the other films in the series, but whatever) as well as briefer glimpses at Cybertron and individual characters/sets. Add what appears to be a military recruitment ad, a lengthy look at filming in the UK, and a funny montage of Bay in action on set, and it’s a decent disc.
Shame all we really wanted was an apology, and a promise to never do it again.
Steve Buscemi joins John Goodman and John Turturro in the franchise, essentially making it a Big Lebowski reunion.