It's no secret of my love for Transformers. I have followed the robots in disguise from the 80's cartoon to comic books to the Michael Bay movies. Tuesday night, June 20, I attended Optimus Prime Time at AMC Theater in Tyler to watch the latest in the movie franchise, Transformers: The Last Knight. Here is my review.

WARNING: SPOILERS WILL FOLLOW. If you are one that wants to check it out for yourself, then read no further.

Are you sure?

You have been warned.

Transformers: The Last Knight via Youtube
Transformers: The Last Knight via Youtube
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Ok, time for my spoiler filled review.

I will start with the positives. This movie was shot entirely in IMAX and looks phenomenal. Which means it will look great even you don't choose IMAX.

There are few plot points from the past movies that get tied up nicely in this one. For one, you learn that Shia LeBeouf's Sam Witwicky character from the first three movies is part of a family that has thousands of years of history with Transformers. Which explains how he always ended up in sticky situations with them.

Starting with the second movie, Revenge of the Fallen, Transformers have had some kind of effect on world events. From caveman times, to the moon landing, to the extinction of the dinosaurs. This one is no different as it goes back to the King Arthur / Merlin times (fictional characters, yes, but medieval times none the less) but also shows how Transformers were part of pretty much everything else in history from the French Revolution to WWII.

Seeing Bumblebee as a WWII Jeep fighting Nazis was awesome.

KinoCheck International Via Youtube
KinoCheck International Via Youtube
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However, this one just didn't feel right overall compared to the last four. I'll start with story first.

A couple of years ago, a group of some of the best writers in Hollywood came together to write stories for what could be four to five new movies. I'm sure by themselves, those stories were excellent. But it just seems that Michael Bay and company took multiple scripts and combined into one movie.

You have Optimus Prime searching for Quintessa, the creator of Transformers. You have the return of Megatron. He was killed in the third film, Dark of the Moon, then his remains were used to create Galvatron in the fourth movie, Age of Extinction. What's frustrating about this is that in no way, shape or form is it told how he came back. He's just back.

Transformers: The Last Knight via Youtube
Transformers: The Last Knight via Youtube
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They borrowed a story line from the animated Transformers: Prime series where Unicron is the center of the Earth and his horns are rising from the ground to draw Cybertron, Transformers home planet, to Earth. Which, by the way, was destroyed in Dark of the Moon when Megatron tried to bring his dead planet to Earth using the space bridge.

There is just too much here. This seems like a sequel and a reboot all in one. Why Michael Bay chose this route, I do not know. It seems like he wanted to make this movie but at the same time was tired of making this movie.

I was excited to learn the Sir Anthony Hopkins was going to be in this movie. He is one of the greatest actors...Ever. While, for the most part I enjoyed his character, he had some very goofy and campy moments that just didn't jive.

Transformers: The Last Knight via Youtube
Transformers: The Last Knight via Youtube
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The human cast could have been reduced to just Mark Wahlberg, Laura Haddock and Hopkins characters. Everyone else, including Josh Duhamel returning as Colonel Lennox, and Isabella Moner, who Was great, but they could have been left out completely and were really useless toward the end of the movie.

Transformers: The Last Knight via Youtube
Transformers: The Last Knight via Youtube
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This movie moves extremely fast so there easily could have been a bunch of stuff I missed. As I walked out of the theater, I did overhear a couple of guys say "That was the best movie ever". So, anyone who is not the fan boy that I am will probably enjoy this movie. And I'm not saying I didn't enjoy it. I did. It just could have been scaled way back and still told a great story.

Overall, I will give it 5 out of 10 stars. But I did have fun and got a cool t-shirt out it, too.

Michael Gibson / Townsquare Media
Michael Gibson / Townsquare Media
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