Movie Review - TF5 The Last Knight

[GoktimusPrime]

+ Megatron: Ok, I know Megatron hardly did anything and got his butt handed to him with ease by Optimus, but I feel like his character and personality was closer to the G1 iteration than Hugo Weaving's Meatron. Aside from the fact that he's voiced by Frank Welker, he feels closer to G1 in certain scenes.

Uh... there are so many different versions of G1 Megatron. If you mean the G1 cartoon, then that's really not the greatest version as G1 cartoon Megs was fairly ineffective. His most recurring piece of dialogue was, "Decepticons, retreat!"

For example, the scene where Megatron is holding Starscream's head, talking about how he should've been alive to witness Earth's destruction. One of my favourite scenes in th movie.

That's actually more of a reference to G2 than G1, as there was a moment where G2 Megatron looked at Bludgeon's head Hamlet style and lamented killing him for a brief moment.

+ More transformation sequences: There were a lot of transformation sequences in this movie, probably the most I've seen in all of the movies. This is more related to the CGI, in which the textures, lighting etc. make it more enjoyable to watch. As a bonus, the deceptions don't transform by dissolving into these tiny fragments like in AOE.

Yeah, but the transformations are really more morphing than proper transforming. Watch this video showing AoE Optimus Prime transforming in slow motion, and you can see the entire back half of the truck mode being swallowed up into his back! That's stupid! Compare this with this video showing Optimus Prime's wonderfully detailed transformation from the first movie. Everything goes somewhere. Okay, quasi-morphing transforming is a LOT better than "Flying Tetris" transforming, sure... but still not as good as full proper parts-shifting transformations like we saw in the first three films.

The shift towards morphing transformations was a real bone of contention for Beast Machines. Odd how there's a lot less controversy over it now.

+ Transformers as refugees: I'm kinda intrigued with this plot point. To me, it kinda has a District 9 feel to it. Nevertheless, it appeals to me how the Transformers have become apart of human society, even if they are being discriminated.

I disagree.

Firstly, the whole refugee thing was already established from ROTF, so it's not a new thing to this movie. All the new arrivals are arriving asylum seekers, and Galloway's character mentions that the Autobots are living under granted asylum and asked Optimus Prime if the Autobots would leave peacefully if this asylum were to be withdrawn.

District 9 is really more of a direct parallel with human racism, with many things mirroring how humans have treated (and continue to treat) each other IRL. In TLK all Cybertronians have been declared public enemies and are being indiscriminately hunted. Also, the Transformers are combatants. The D9 aliens were sick and starving when they arrived on Earth. Yes, both the Transformers and D9 aliens are refugees with no home to return to - but that's about where the similarity ends. Everything else about them, including the way that they are viewed and treated by humans, is completely different.

+ Slightly developed Autobots: The junkyard scenes gave us some insight on the relationship between each of the Autobots as a means of getting to know them more. Even if they tell us a little.

What insight? That the Autobots are a bunch of surly and immature children? More importantly, that scene did nothing to advance the plot. The story stalled during that scene, and any character or moment that stalls the story isn't a good thing. This is why so many Star Wars fans hate Jar Jar Binks (and also why many G1 fans hate Wheelie and Daniel).

- Forced humour: Does a Transformers need to be comedy only to be considered good? I swear, there is not one scene where the writers and Michael Bay didn't place in a cringe-worthy joke. 98% of those jokes made were a complete miss. The only funny part was when no one in the theatre laughed at those jokes at all.

I found Merlin's comedic moment to be funny.
"I'll give up booze and gambling and wom--- I'll give up booze and gambling!" (or something like that)

- Under-developed human characters (+Quintessa): To make way for all of the exposition, the movie didn't give enough time to explain who they are and how their personalities change within the events that transpired. So they all felt like lifeless action figures who I had little to no care about.

The Transformers were never developed as characters either, and this movie is CALLED "Transformers."

- Decepticons: What did they ever do to be treated the way there were? They posed no imminent threat to the humans and the Autobots, but became simple pawns to Quintessa's plans. Even Megatron did nothing. What's worse is that these guys have a life span of a mayfly. Onslaught legit had 5 seconds of screen time only to be killed immediately after. RIP Bayformer Combaticons At least they didn't kill off Megatron again.

Disagree. The Decepticons were already imprisoned, stating that they were already dangerous dudes who'd done other stuff before. You even see some flashback scenes of some of the bad things they've done. And "Megatron did nothing"??? Seriously? What about the body count from the previous films, or the fact that Megatron brought this war to Earth. He's a war criminal!

- If Vivian Wembley were said to be the last remaining decendant of Merlin and the Witwikkans, does that mean Sam and ron Witwiky died?

Witwiccan is an order, the Order of Witwiccans. Not a family name. Sam appears to have been retroactive inducted into the Order because of his contribution to the relations between Autobots and humans. Witwicky is a Polish/Ukrainian surname whereas "Witwicca" is English, meaning, "knowledge of sorcery." So the names aren't even from the same language source despite coincidental similarity in spelling and pronunciation (we call these "false cognates" in languages).

- How does Merlin's staff have so much power? Where does it come from?

The Knights gave it to him. It's an ancient Cybertronian artifact.

- How did Cybertron get to the size of the Moon? I though it was twice the size of Earth from DOTM. Did it cyberform or something?

Bigger than Earth. But remember that Cybertron was very badly damaged when the Space Bridge closed and snapped a good chunk of the planet off. Perhaps this is all that remains - giving greater motivation to rebuild it.

But yeah, I otherwise agree with your other comments.