Latest Transformers movie is horrible yet watchable

The last Transformers movie was called “The Age of Extinction.” I reviewed it under the title “The Age of Exhaustion.”

The movie was nearly three hours, and was entirely unwatchable. It was one of the worst movies in recent years. “Transformers: The Last Knight” is an upgrade.

It’s horrible, yet watchable. I give it two out of four stars.

It’s a terrible movie, but it’s not nearly as bad as “The Age of Extinction.” The reason for that is Sir Anthony Hopkins.

Laura Haddock is also a highlight on screen. She plays a professor and a towering intellectual. She’s fun and you would hope she shows up in any future Transformers films.

RELATED: “Jackie” isn’t a date movie — unless you’re dating the wrong person

What this movie really is, is a King Arthur movie, with Stanley Tucci playing a drunk Merlin.

The movie begins, wonderfully, with the King Arthur tale in Camelot and medieval Britain (and we all just never knew that giant robots from space were the Knights of the Round Table). By the way, this is much better than “King Arthur: Legend of the Sword” that came out earlier this year. That takes the title of “worst movie of the year.”

But “Transformers: The Last Knight” is way too much. There’s way too much going on and way too many scenes of giant robots in the sky, dueling each other in front of glorious sunsets. This all from Director Michael Bay – a director with whom excess is part of the point.

Yet Akiva Goldsman, an Oscar winning screen writer who was brought in to reboot the franchise and help write this movie, may be one of the reasons it’s a little bit interesting.

Another reason is a few moments throughout the film, such as scenes with another new transformer who is a sound-alike, lookalike of C-3PO. They even make a joke about the glaring C-3PO act, and everybody laughs because it’s obvious.

That may be why the film is, at times, surprisingly watchable. It clearly does not take itself seriously while providing some surprises.

What’s odd here is the fact that the first Transformers film was mediocre, and they’ve gone downhill since then. The rest of them have been awful. This is the fifth film in the series, yet it stays alive and people keep going to see it.

Follow @https://twitter.com/MedvedSHOW