Transformers: The Last Knight

The prologue for this fifth installment of the multi-billion dollar sci-fi franchise, is set in the Middle Ages, where King Arthur waits for Merlin (Stanley Tucci) to help him win a battle against the Saxons. But it turns out that Arthur's power did not come from Merlin's magic, but rather the—uh—intergalactic Transformers. Apparently, the latter have been hanging around Earth for eons—going back to Stonehenge—and they even battled Nazis during WWII. But, as astronomer Sir Edmund Burton (Anthony Hopkins) explains, Merlin was given a sacred “magical” staff that can only be controlled by his only living descendant, Viviane Wembley (Laura Haddock), a skeptical English Lit professor at Oxford University. The scene then switches to wisecracking mechanic/inventor Cade Yaeger (Mark Wahlberg), who has been hiding in a forsaken junkyard with Jimmy (Jerrod Carmichael), along with some heroic Autobots. It's up to Cade, Viviane, and 14-year-old orphan Izabella (Isabela Moner) to find the artifact and thwart evil Decepticon Megatron (voiced by Frank Welker)--with help from their Autobot friends (voiced by Erik Aadahl, John Goodman, Omar Sy, Ken Watanabe, and Steve Buscemi). Clumsily patched together by three writers, six editors, and director Michael Bay, this is a tedious jumble of characters and explosive battles—a $250 million Hasbro toy promotion. Optional, at best. [Note: Blu-ray extras include the behind-the-scenes featurettes “The Royal Treatment: Transformers in the UK” (27 min.), “Merging Mythologies” (20 min.), “Motors and Magic” (15 min.), “Climbing the Ranks” (10 min.), “Alien Landscape: Cybertron” (7 min.), and “One More Giant Effin' Movie” (7 min.), as well as bonus DVD, digital, and UltraViolet copies of the film. Bottom line: a solid extras package for a series plagued by the law of diminishing returns.] (S. Granger)