By Renee’ Collins
Rating: 2.5 (Out of 5 Reels)
Humans and Transformers are at war and Optimus Prime is gone. The key to saving our future lies buried in the secrets of the past, in the hidden history of Transformers on Earth (IMDB).
Mark Wahlberg is back as Cade Yeager helping the few remaining good transformers left along with some other new to the scene humans to try to save the world yet again. The twist here is apparently the Transformers were around in the Middle Ages because one of them gave Merlin an all-powerful weapon to defeat his then enemies. Now everyone is racing to find the weapon because it may help defeat the newest Transformer villain and save Cybertron, the Transformer home world.
For some reason I was hoping this latest installment in the Transformer film series might be worth a look. This film is markedly better than the last film, Transformers: Age of Extinction, because here the writing and acting is better but two and a half hours is ridiculous. Teenagers are the target here, which is fine, but most adults will find it a bit boring and low brow. Sure, there are a few scenes of great transforming visuals as in the past but it has become too commonplace. I was surprised at how much cussing and quips there from all of the characters. Anthony Hopkins has no doubt reached the Kevin Bacon status of being in so many films only a few degrees of separation is involved with most.
On a basic level, this film is entertaining but the length as well as director Michael Bay’s over the top approach is becoming routine and I for one would hope this franchise would quietly go away, but alas, that probably will not happen. The kids will definitely love this one but I would go to a matinee to save some money.