By Charly SHELTON

Forgive the awful, hackneyed title to this article that every critic has used since 2007 when the first film was released. But it really is the best way to describe the latest iteration of the Transformers saga, subtitled “The Last Knight.” Sure, they’re robots in disguise, but there is more to this film than that. Sure, it’s a painfully bad Michael Bay film, but there’s a heart to the story that cannot be denied. I’m not saying it’s a great movie, but it has its roots in something that speaks to its audience – something that, like many great movies before, transcends just a film.

After four movies, only two of which were decent, the bar isn’t set very high for Michael Bay’s explosionfest about alien robots who turn into cars. Nobody goes to see a Transformers film for the character development. I mean Shia LaBeouf was the lead in the first three. ’Nuff said. But having the alien robot car riding on the back of an alien robot dinosaur wielding a giant super powerful broadsword to cut the heads off robot bad guys is really awesome, and nobody can deny that, which is why the last film grossed over $1 billion worldwide.

So with that track record, the formula is simple and one would expect that creators would stick to it – cool robot battles, superfluous human characters, gratuitous cleavage shots of the starlet du jour, and not much else. But after the last three films, written by Ehren Kruger, the powers that be made a change and brought in the writing team of Art Marcum and Matt Holloway, who wrote “Iron Man,” as well as Ken Nolan, who wrote “Black Hawk Down.” They wrote the screenplay and developed the story alongside Akiva Goldsman, writer of “A Beautuful Mind,” “I, Robot,” and “Fringe.” This is a team of writers that has done some amazing work. After seeing “Transformers: The Last Knight” and knowing that it came from these minds makes one conflicted.

The script is bad. Plain and simple. Much of what made it to the screen is unnecessary and detracts from the film. For example, the first third of the movie sets up a subplot with a kid who joins Wahlberg’s freedom fighter team of Transformers, introduces her backstory and brings her to Wahlberg’s team. But when the actual story gets started, these characters are dropped by the wayside as if they don’t matter anymore. Even the dialogue, which is almost entirely awful, is over-the-top and superfluous, throwing in lines which are meant to be funny and personal but come off as nervous and flippant. Overall, the script is bad. I should just dislike it overall and be done with it. But, as stated previously, it’s more than meets the eye.

The structure is solid. The base level moments that will stay with the audience long after the terrible lines and flippant jokes are forgotten are gold. One moment in particular really hit home for me, and the rest of the audience as well. Optimus Prime is out of the picture on a mission for a good part of the film, and I won’t give it away but it gets a little hairy. When he returns, after not having much to do or say with the story so far, Optimus opens up with one good speech to his troops to rally them for the fight. It’s a Lincoln-esque call to arms for honor and to defend the right to life of these people of Earth who have welcomed him to call their planet his home. In one short soliloquy, he said more than the rest of the characters combined said throughout the film. This adds to the legend of Optimus Prime as he exists in the hearts and minds of the fans and speaks to us on a foundational level. The audience burst into applause at his speech. I wept a little bit with Optimus’ big moment when he reappeared earlier in the film. As bad as the script is, it can’t all be bad if it has moments like these.

Walking out of the theater, I really disliked the script and was unsurprised at how bad it was. But the more I thought about it and broke it apart, the more I really liked certain aspects. And those aspects are the pieces I will remember when I think of this movie.

Rated PG-13, I give this film 3 out of 5 stars.

  Charly Shelton