Greetings and salutations, my friends.

This is your top-of-the-line film, TV show, and episode reporter here with another review.

Today, following my previous analysis, I'm gonna give you guys my take of the fifth and final Transformers movie to be directed by Michael Bay: "Transformers: The Last Knight".

Here's the rundown of this sequel:

After the Hong Kong incident, Megatron mysteriously disappears and Optimus Prime heads out into space to find and confront "The Creators". Following these developments, a new paramilitary task force called the Transformers Reaction Force (TRF) forms to continually search and destroy Cybertronians. With Transformers constantly coming to Earth for refuge, Cade Yaeger makes it his mission to help as many of these otherworldly visitors as possible. Even if it means completely cutting off contact with his daughter, who went off to college.

Five years later, Cade encounters a dying Transformer named Steelbane, a Cybertronian knight who gives Cade a metallic talisman. One that won't leave Cade's side until whatever new task he has to take on is done.

In the midst of it all, a new villainous force known as Quintessa makes herself known, teaming up with Megatron and manipulating Optimus Prime into joining her. Along with being the creator of Cybertron and the Transformers, Quintessa intends on destroying Earth, promising that doing so will restore Cybertron. All she needs to accomplish this goal is her long-lost staff, which was stolen from her by the Knights of Iacon. To keep it safe from her, they bestowed it to Merlin the Magician.

The only ones who can stand in Quintessa's way...are Cade Yaeger, Optimus Prime (should he snap out of her control over him), the Autobots, and a professor of English Literature named Viviane Wembley.

Before I reveal my thoughts on this movie, I'd like to say that I'm very aware of the negative reputation this sequel has. From its poor box office performance, to the widely-panned reception it received from critics, moviegoers, and Transformers fans. After I reviewed Age of Extinction, though, I knew that doing an analysis of The Last Knight was inevitable.

It took me quite a while to actually get this review off the ground, really. Not only did I watch this sequel twice in preparation for reviewing it, but it was a challenge figuring out exactly the right words to say about the film and being certain over what I thought of it. It was definitely a workout in itself, just like Age of Extinction. It took me nearly a week or two to complete writing it down, and three days to type it up on my computer.

Coming from a guy who saw this sequel two times not too long ago...well, I can definitely see why not very many people like it. To put it bluntly, The Last Knight is another one of the most underwhelming films and sequels I've ever watched, as well as a real low blow for the Transformers franchise.

The biggest reasons for why come from the direction by Michael Bay (again), the story by Akiva Goldman, Art Macum, Matt Halloway, and Ken Nolan, and the screenplay by Macum, Halloway, and Nolan.

Similar to Age of Extinction, The Last Knight featured a prologue that takes place centuries before the present and sets the stage for Cybertronian world building, Megatron as the primary antagonist, a huge number of explosions at every battle, and a Cybertronian relic that the heroes and villains search for and fight over. And just like Age of Extinction, the entirety of how this pattern was executed overall was uninspired, less than well-worked, and bland. There is a notable difference that the sequel has from its predecessors, but I'll talk about what it is later.

Anyway...

How this formula was being done in this sequel wasn't the worst part of it all.

When the prologue taking place in the medieval times was playing out, I noted that it was lengthier than the ones featured in the previous Transformers films Michael Bay directed. It went on for so long that it almost felt like the film was telling a completely different story, and that's even regardless of the Knights of Iacon making their first appearance in that scene. Plus, the longer the prologue went on, the more tedious it got.

Once the film eventually switches to the present time, the entire story provided world building and history-delving that was more ridiculous than intriguing, and everything got taken in a direction that was incredibly preposterous. The very idea that Cybertronians were secretly involved in human history was an openly unnecessary thing to incorporate, and so was the concept of Unicron the Destroyer turning out to be the Earth. Especially to where the connections between Earth and Cybertron were stretched far enough as they were.

We were already given plenty of exploration on Earth and Cybertron's connection in the previous films, so why keep bringing up the matter again? And why incorporate elements of a medieval fairytale into the mix?

Also like Age of Extinction, The Last Knight features elements that notably contradict the events depicted in Dark of the Moon, openly being nothing more than needless and unnatural retcons. Examples include the following:

1. Similar to Brain in Age of Extinction, Wheelie the mini-Transformers and Barricade the Decepticon are somehow alive despite their confirmed deaths in the Battle of Chicago. And with no explanation for how they survived or where they've been beforehand either!

2. Dark of the Moon confirmed that Cybertron was destroyed from the inside-out after its transporting through the Space Bridge failed, with not even a single part of it left. In The Last Knight, though, Cybertron is scattered in gigantic pieces.

3. Starscream died in Chicago, but Daytrader the Autobot scavenger mentions that he found Starscream's head in Buffalo, New York.

Everything about these inconsistencies, like the ones I mentioned, pretty much gave the impression that Bay was no longer caring about maintaining continuity with his own films, which is another sign that he was clearly worn out from helming the Transformers franchise. With the film's writing staff also being newcomers to the series, this sequel showcased an instance of new people not doing their homework in ensuring what they write was 100% faithful to its predecessors.

The continuity errors and uninspired plot line weren't the only problems I noted either.

From the beginning, I noted that The Last Knight had an incredibly uneven balance. It was taken in too many directions, and it carried an overabundance in subplots. Normally, I wouldn't have too much of a problem with this kind of thing, but this movie gave the impression that it was telling four or five stories at once. The results in question caused me to have a hard time keeping up with the story, as well as wrap my head around exactly what its plot was. Many of the subplots also either became forgettable as the story progressed, felt forced in at the last minute, or played no significant part whatsoever.

One of the biggest examples of this comes from the subplot revolving around Optimus Prime getting corrupted by Quintessa. In spite of the numerous promotions and extensive marketing featuring Optimus in his "Nemesis Prime" state, the entirety of that subplot is completely discarded until nearly the very end, and it had little relevance or impact with the story at all.

Aside from this, many of the jokes this movie had were terribly flat and irritable, leaving me stone-faced throughout the whole film; and no matter how much this sequel tried to be emotional, dramatic, and heartfelt, I was not won over by its attempts. Not to mention there were many instances of the camera slowly zooming in on a character for some reason, and the rapid scene-switching & editing made this motion picture overstimulating.

On the subject of the characters, voice acting, and onscreen performances...unfortunately, the vast majority of them left me unimpressed.

Along with the subplot of Optimus Prime becoming Nemesis Prime being utterly pointless, Optimus himself was cast off to the sidelines throughout this sequel. He was hardly given much to do, and he only seemed to be featured in the film for the mere sake of it; instead of also taking advantage of Optimus in his corrupted state, Bay and the writers had the gall to discard him in favor of the opposers always being either the Decepticons or the TRF. This sentiment is one that I similarly felt with Megatron, because despite working for Quintessa, he hardly contributes to the story and doesn't have any reason for being part of it. Peter Cullen and Frank Welker do commendably try to make the best of the material made for their respective characters, but even their efforts weren't enough to save the day.

As if that's not enough, most of the other Cybertronian characters were either uninteresting, useless, annoying, unlikable, or unmemorable. The vocal performers do try their best with making something out of their material, but just like Cullen and Welker, their efforts were ultimately for nothing.

Heck, the character of Quintessa is by far one of my least favorite villains. Her intentions were mind bogglingly idiotic, and rather than a fully-realized supervillain, she came across as more like a psychotic and one-dimensional terrorist. Gemma Chan is a wonderful actress, but her overall performance as Quintessa was bland and irritating. What really doesn't help the matter is that a weird sound was mixed in with Quintessa's voice, prohibiting Chan from making much of a great impression.

On top of this, nearly every human character in this sequel was neither memorable or likable.

Compared to their previous appearances, Cade Yaeger, William Lennox, and General Morshower were far from engaging, and Mark Wahlberg, Josh Duhamel, and Glenn Morshower looked like they'd rather be somewhere else more than anything. The majority of the new human characters weren't compelling either, and the cast members portraying them looked like they had no idea what they were doing there in the first place. Viviane Wembly, despite her crucial part in acquiring Merlin's staff, mainly seemed like she was there for the sake of giving Cade a love interest; and despite Izabella being a notable standout, she hardly plays much of a large part and only appears to be there for Cade to take on a fatherly role again.

In spite of these overwhelming negatives, I'd like to note that the film wasn't without its highlights.

Throughout my time talking about the performances and characters, I said words like 'nearly' and 'most'. Well, that's mainly because there were three characters that I actually enjoyed in this sequel, and three performances that I found to be entertaining:

Of all the human characters in this movie, Sir Edmund Burton was the one whom I believed to be the best of them. He had great personality, a fun sense of humor, and he was also the most well-developed out of everyone; especially on the grounds that the other humans were one-dimensional at the most. Anthony Hopkins stole the show every step of the way, and the fact that he was clearly having fun throughout this motion picture made his performance and presence all-the-more enjoyable. Also, despite Seymour Simmons not having much screen time compared to other characters, John Turturro was excellent in his reprisal as the character, and it made me wish we got to see more of him.

In addition to this, Cogman the human-sized Autobot was quite honestly the best Cybertronian character in this entire sequel. He had the most development and personality out of all the Transformers, his witty remarks were splendid, the comedic-bits revolving around him were the only parts that made me laugh or chuckle, and I actually found myself caring about him. Jim Carter was an instant scene-stealer in his performance as Cogman, not only due to having the best lines out of everyone, but because he successfully gave his character life and sounded like he was having a great time doing so.

Just like with Knockdown in Age of Extinction, I enjoyed Cogman so much that I became interested in seeing him appear in more Transformers media outside of this film. I also wouldn't mind a future movie or TV show featuring a different version of the character, that's for sure.

Also, despite my overall criticism of the story and direction, I enjoyed the film's climactic battle sequence. Everything about it was the most original part in the entire plot! It was a welcoming change of pace too, because the final battles in the previous Transformers films directed by Michael Bay always took place in a human-populated big city. Plus, I actually felt how high the stakes were, and it played out in ways that I hardly anticipated.

And as with the previous Transformers movies, the special effects in this sequel were spectacular.

The Cybertronian characters were brilliantly created, of course. But, the outer space and ocean sequences were an astonishing sight to behold, and so were the various Cybertron spaceships and settings taking place on the broken up Cybertron.

In conclusion, though...despite the positives I mentioned, "Transformers: The Last Knight" was nothing more than a waste of time. It suffers from so many problems that one could easily make a list out of, and by this point, it's pretty clear that Bay has had enough with helming the Transformers film series.

So, I rate "Transformers: The Last Knight" 2½ out of 5 stars.