When the first edition of the Transformers was made, the whole idea looked fresh and exciting for action film lovers. But over past 10 years, we have seen the franchise grow in terms of production quality and technology on the whole but what remains stale is the story. They have been beating around the bush for way too long.
We are into the fifth installment of Transformers and they call this ‘The Last Knight’. When it comes to fantasy, superhero and sci-fi action franchises, we find the term LAST, only in the titles as the series goes on for eternity. Again, the world is going to end and the key to save it lies in the hands of the antagonist Cade Yeager (Mark Wahlberg). Of course, he doesn’t do it single-handedly. You need to glamour it, right? Extremely gorgeous looking Laura Haddock, an old English landlord and the usual team of Autobots - Bumblebee, Optimus Prime, X, Y, Z color the cast list.
Not sure why directors like Roland Emmerich and Michael Bay are so keen about ending the world? It is seriously not exciting anymore especially when you have nothing new to offer as regards the screenplay. An usual templated story with hardly any fresh scenes to go, distance you from this what is called as a popcorn action flick.
Things that you could certainly find in all Michael Bay films are larger than life action sequence, plenty of destructions and an underlying emotion that travels throughout. You find all of them in abundance here. But seriously, why do you have to bulldoze monumental buildings across the world all the time? The concept of destruction by itself has become outdated and to spend millions to destroy the same monumental Egyptian Pyramids for the nth time doesn’t make sense.
Like all Michael Bay films, Transformers 5 also has some family bonding scenes and a tiny love story that starts with a fight and ends with a kiss. None of them, however, make a significant impact as the core storyline is messed up.
Coming to the positives now - Definitely, the action scenes are brilliantly choreographed. That is one area they keep reinventing themselves. Jonathan Sela has supported the stunt team to a large extent through his cinematography. Some of the visuals from the fights are stunning and major credit for that has to go the angles set by the cinematography team.
These action franchises make easy money for the brand that they have established and they start making more installments even without considering the success or the opinion of the common man. That is probably why they end up making a mediocre product like this. Transformers might entertain you in parts but the real concern is with its storyline which looks flat and uninteresting.