Aficionados of testosterone, cars, sexy girls and explosions are waiting for this film as the holy grail of summer 2017! And yes ladies and gentlemen, this Wednesday, June 28, Transformers – The Last Knight arrives in French cinemas. This fifth opus of the emblematic saga carried by Michael Bay had already been presented to us in part a few weeks ago, in 24 minutes of unpublished extracts. However, we were not really convinced. But we are reassured. While Bay's new film is far from perfect, it is more conclusive than we saw last April.
Michael Bay: the undisputed master of action
If there's one thing you can't fault Bay, it's his ability to create action scenes that are as titanic as they are inventive. With this new Transformers, we see that it has absolutely not lost its hand. In addition, the pyromaniac Michael decided to shoot the entire film in IMAX 3D, which he likes to talk about in interviews, not without the slightest pride by the way. As a result, we not only benefit from a dynamic staging as this director knows how to offer us, but we also discover a quality of image of breathtaking fluidity. For the rest, there is not much to say. Explosions worthy of Michael Bay, an excess specific to current blockbusters, in short, action-entertainment worthy of a Transformers. An honorable mention is to be made regarding the design of the spacecraft and the battle that takes place in the air. Michael Bay has much to be proud of his IMAX 3D shooting, because this cinematic method blends perfectly with the grandiose of the invading ships and his perfectly filmed aerial shots.
A glaring problem of rhythm
This may seem paradoxical in such a testosteroneous film, but part of the film's problems stem from this. The film never stops. Of course, Transformers never had the ambition to be an intellectual or even particularly credible film. Its only ambition is to disconnect brains with explosions and robot fights. However, even in a film whose primary ambition is action, it would sometimes be good to take a slight break.
Explanations: even if we do not ask Transformers for any philosophical transcendence, it might be nice if the scenes thought to be posed are really so. Because if the epileptic action scenes are not unpleasant and offer a good moment of relaxation, the scenes supposed to be explanatory are just as epileptic. Each scene supposed to expose the context or simply calm the game after a lot of action remains filmed too dynamically, without the slightest lull. Thus, what is supposed to be a pause in the narrative becomes just a sloppy explanatory scene, which we try to get rid of as quickly as possible to return to the fighting. However, when there is no longer any pause in the action, the action ends up losing its flavor. Fortunately, the action scene at the end of the film is so grandiose that it catches up with the problems mentioned above.
Very conspicuous scripting inconsistencies
It must be repeated to avoid amalgams: under no circumstances do we expect Transformers to have a strong or philosophical scenario. However, even forgiving the saga for its scripted facilities, we must highlight the inconsistencies. Two main ones are worth noting.
The first is the purge of the Transformers. The film opens with a purge targeting both the Autobots and the Decepticons. Humans indiscriminately kill the metal race in order to preserve humanity, worried by the many alien invasions. However, we soon discover that the main lieutenants of the villain Megatron are… in prison. Why? they don't really have any information to extract from them, Megatron is clearly unwilling to collaborate with humans and to top it off, his lieutenants are dangerous psychopaths who kill just for fun. What's the point of presenting us with a world in which all the Transformers are hunted down and killed (good guys and bad guys), if it's to then show us a nice robot prison where the worst are held? This has no coherence with the world that we were tried to present at the beginning of the film. Obviously, every war involves hostages and capturing the enemy's top lieutenants is always interesting for the other side. But in this specific context, it does not work because, as mentioned before, there is no information to extract from them and Megatron is willing to do anything except collaborate (which any character understands at the slightest glance). Yet part of the film is dedicated to a so-called collaboration with the master of villains, while even the characters in the film know that it is useless. In short, an inconsistency that we could clearly have done without by letting Megatron hatch his plans on his side.
The second inconsistency concerns the key element of this fifth episode, namely the great Optimus Prime. We won't say too much here to avoid spoilers, but one thing is worth remembering: he changes sides like shirt. If his psychological development had a remarkable scriptwriting potential, we must not forget that we are in a Transformers movie. As a result, the development of Optimus is totally avoided and so are its mood swings. Everything is brushed aside, again back to action. As a result, this incredible potential was wasted when it was probably the most important aspect to develop. This is really disappointing when we know that a good part of the promotion was done on this aspect of the story. Too bad.
Transformers – The Last Knight is an enjoyable action-entertainment movie like its predecessors. Efficient and well done, it once again succeeds in its mission to unplug the brains for a few hours. However, rhythm problems and script inconsistencies tarnish the fun because these are far too blatant to ignore. In short, good and bad but one thing is certain: many things are to be said. The film is undeniably worth a look on the big screen just for its IMAX 3D format so dear to Michael Bay and so well mastered by him.
Trailer: Transformers – The Last Knight
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=am-0-ZNA2aQ
