Why So Blu?

Transformers: The Last Knight (4K UHD Blu-ray Review)

Believe me when I say this I never wanted write this 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray review.  In fact I never wanted to even see this flick.  Call me a glutton for punishment, but I know the real truth.  I’m just flat out cheap and don’t want to pay to view it nor do I want to see anyone else on my team remotely speak any praise about it.  You see I loved the first Transformers film.  It was both epic and adventurous, but the second feature was a bloated, flaming turd.  The third outing improved upon things, but everything gained was lost in my opinion in the last entry, Transformers: Age of Extinction.  The title says it all and I wish the franchise would have died there as the stupid title implies.  Nevertheless Michael Bay is back here with another mess to rip apart and ridicule, Transformers: The Last Knight.  Yes ladies and gentlemen this summer blockbuster is just as ludicrous as the name suggests not to mention owning some of the worst trailers of the year too.  Thankfully the people spoke with their wallets and this one did not fair as well as the others did at the box office.  However, before we get into everything that’s wrong with Transformers: The Last Knight let’s get all the proverbial housekeeping out of the way.

Film

Transformers: The Last Knight is now the fifth installment in the live action series and I STILL wish it would DIE here.  I don’t need nor want any stupid Bumblebee standalone period piece.  Once again this Transformers outing is helmed by Director Michael Bay, and once again he swears this is his last one.  God I hope so!  I don’t say that out of animosity towards Bay, but he has much more talent in his little pinky than directing this nonsensical trash.  The interesting thing about this one is the cast.  It sees new cast from the last film along with old ones from the first three.  Sadly Megan Fox is nowhere to be found.  Boo!  Neither is the character of Sam Witwicky for that matter (although there are some references to him).  From a certain point of view his career sucks now anyway so no loss really.  Instead we have main star Mark Wahlberg reprising his role from Age of Extinction alongside Josh Duhamel and John Turturro from the first three movies.  They are joined by new faces Sir Anthony Hopkins, Laura Haddock (a British looking version of Megan Fox), Stanley Tucci in a new role and more.

A quick search online would provide you with the following (yawn) synopsis of it all below:

The Last Knight shatters the core myths of the Transformers franchise, and redefines what it means to be a hero.  Humans and Transformers are at war, 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.  Saving our world falls upon the shoulders of an unlikely alliance: Cade Yeager (Mark Wahlberg), Bumblebee, an English Lord (Sir Anthony Hopkins) and an Oxford Professor (Laura Haddock).  There comes a moment in everyone’s life when we are called upon to make a difference.  In Transformers: The Last Knight, the hunted will become heroes.  Heroes will become villains.  Only one world will survive: theirs, or ours.

So first things first.  Where the hell did Optimus Prime go?  Well I remember in the last turd of a movie we saw him have the magical ability to fly away.  At least there’s some continuity there, eh?  But why is he a villain now?  That’s some Dom Fast & Furious stuff isn’t it?  Of course it is!  What’s even worse is when he becomes a good guy.  You see Optimus Prime is dubbed Nemesis Prime in this outing and his brief appearances throughout actually make the film worse than better.  Even Bumblebee can’t save this film.  Wait?  It just dawned on me.  I never told you what I thought of this one.  Can you read between the lines?  Truth be told you shouldn’t even waste your time reading this review.  I already made the ultimate sacrifice for you.  Save for watching the ending credits (there is a scene during them) I stayed awake and conscious for the whole excruciating two hours and forty-minute bloated runtime.  Let me tell you ladies and gentlemen that isn’t easy.  It was very painful.  I don’t know how many times I checked the time on my watch or hoped/prayed the 4K UHD disc would catch on fire or something to that effect.  LOL.  Where’s a lightning storm when you need it, eh?  Needless to say it was quite the chore and my fiancé walked out after 30 minutes and yelled at me for wasting her evening.  That I did.

Once again here we the movie going audience are insulted with a very dumb script (and you thought the dialogue was bad in past entries).  Does Michael Bay just put his name on anything that says Transformers or does he actually read these screenplays?  Good God how do these get made?  It pisses me off because I know without a doubt the crap I write is better than this just as sure as I am that you’ll get sick from eating rotten eggs.  Speaking of rotten eggs…what about that plot of Transformers: The Last Knight.  Where do I start?  Well for starters it definitely doesn’t get better than the last turd outing.  It actually gets worse.  Hey ho!  Cybertron is coming to planet Earth.  Once again Earth holds a secret and it’s possible to resurrect Prime’s home planet of Cybertron here on Earth.  Golly gee where did I hear that SAME storyline before?  Even worse Megatron is back so now we have bad dialogue exchanges from both Prime and Megatron.  Wait!  It gets worse!  Bumblebee can now split apart into ten pieces, there’s not one but two Autobots with beards, Marky Mark looks ridiculous wielding a sword, Hotrod has a French accent and can stop time and oh yeah there’s even baby Dinobots.  Yes you read that right I said there’s BABY FRICKIN’ DINOBOTS!  Should I even prolong the agony of this film review here?  Please just say the word and I’ll stop typing.

The only saving grace The Last Knight has going for it is its likable cast.  Even Sir Anthony Hopkins is semi a hoot in this.  Laura was basically your beautiful damsel in distress, but there’s a twist with her.  Relax!  It’s not that big of a deal.  Other than that you have the usual Bay bam booms going on with slow motion galore and fireworks/explosions going off just about every five minutes or so.  I will say this that there’s a lot of action, carnage and destruction in this one, but too bad it’s so damn dumb.  Kurt Cobain is a fortune teller as he wrote about this movie in his song “Dumb” way back in 1993.  When he says “I think I’m dumb” it’s a reference for how he feels about this fifth butt numbing installment in the Transformers franchise, which for the record makes Underworld: Blood Wars look like one of the year’s best.  It’s sad but true.  Please I beg of you Hollywood stick King Arthur’s sword into this franchise not figuratively or literally, but physically.  Kill this series before it ruins my fond childhood memories any further of collecting and playing with these cool action figures.  Even the battles I made up as a boy with these toys has more imagination than what I saw within The last Knight.  Heed my warning and stay away!  Hey!  Kurt Cobain wrote a song about that too in 1991!

Just an FYI – THE TAG LINE FOR THE MOVIE POSTER SHOULD REALLY HAVE READ “RETHINK YOUR DECISION TO WANT TO SEE THIS FILM.”  Come on peeps!  Don’t give them anymore of your hard earned money to make this level of crap!  But wait!  How does it look and sound?  That’s what you’re really here for right?

Now before we jump into the UHD disc’s A/V vitals I wanted to call your attention to Martin Liebman’s 4K review here.  In his review he talks about how this disc locked up his Samsung player many times with HDMI handshake issues.  He mentioned one specifically where a no signal handshake issue plagued him upon inserting the 4K disc in his player.  This happened to me too.  However, I did not have any issues whatsoever during playback of the movie.  I say that like it’s a good thing too.  LMAO.  Anyway, the only difference between our setups is the fact that I’m using a Sony 4K player hooked up to the Sony 930D.  I just feel its my duty to let you know about all this in case you experience similar playback problems.  

Video 

The below video score and related critique of things here are based solely upon my viewing of the 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray presentation of Paramount’s Transformers: The Last Knight.  One thing to note here is Transformers: The Last Knight is Paramount Home Media’s first 4K Ultra HD release in Dolby Vision, which enhances the home viewing experience by delivering greater brightness and contrast, as well as a fuller palette of rich colors.   Yeah, yeah.  I could care less about Dolby Vision, but I’m all over this full IMAX framing throughout the majority of the feature.  That made me instantly take notice because I LOVE whenever I can enjoy the maximum benefit of my full screen (with the assumption that is how it’s supposed to be displayed of course).

• Encoding: HEVC / H.265
• Resolution: 4K (2160p)
• Dolby Vision: Yes
• Aspect Ratio: 2.40:1 + select IMAX sequences
• Clarity/Detail: I’m not sure why you would waste your time watching the Blu-ray presentation of this, but if you do you’ll instantly notice the fine detail is a little less.  So yes there’s a nice uptick in detail with this 4K UHD disc.  From moles, pores and freckles to imperfections, beads of sweat and fine hair strands things look exemplary in closeups here on the actors.  For the robots I’m pleased to report every gear and sprocket is clearly visible.  Some of the best moments (yes I can’t believe I am using the word “best” in this review) have to be endless explosions and the details in all the debris flying everywhere.  Of course all textures look grand, sets are intricate and basically there’s not a rock left unturned and unaccounted for here.  This is a reference looking disc despite the 2K DI used here.  My only gripe is some explosions do look fake and take you out of the moment (but you can also say thank you for that too).
• Depth: The depth of field is virtually endless and boundary free here.  The only 4K disc I say that rivals this in the DOF department in my opinion would be Guardians 2.  All onscreen characters are so chiseled and so three-dimensional sometimes it felt like I was watching a 3D presentation.  The battlefields, cities, Cybertron, England landscapes, the castle and more are prime examples of where depth of field is seemingly endless.  I have zero complaints here!
• Black Levels: The black levels are perfect throughout here.  They are deep and natural and absolutely stunning looking.  Nothing at all got lost in the shadows at all on my 4K television’s presentation.
• Color Reproduction: Like the black levels the colors throughout are spot on perfect.  Surprisingly this one is not as hot looking as the usual Bay productions.  It does get hot, but there are some cooler moments too.
• Flesh Tones: The skin tones for the most part are warm, on par for a Michael Bay film, but at times also appear very natural too.
• Noise/Artifacts: I honestly didn’t notice anything negative looking in this presentation other than the dung of a movie this is.

Audio 

Like I mentioned up above in the video section, the below audio score and critical comments of such are based solely upon my viewing of Paramount’s 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray presentation of Transformers: The Last Knight.  Both the 4K Ultra HD and the 1080p Blu-ray presentation shared the same bombastic Dolby Atmos surround track.  Like the video up above this Atmos surround track is reference in every which way.  Just saddens me how so many people are going to buy this one for the reference video and audio without a care to what’s really happening onscreen.

• Audio Format(s): English Dolby Atmos (Dolby TrueHD compatible), English 5.1 Discrete Dolby Digital, English 2.0 Discrete Dolby Digital, French 5.1 Dolby Digital, Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital, Portuguese 5.1 Dolby Digital, English Audio Description
• Subtitles: English, English SDH, French, Spanish, Portuguese
• Dynamics: I guess you can say the dynamics of this surround track is arms wide open with the sky really being the limit.  Of course you have your quieter moments when Bay is trying to interject some mishmash of human emotion into this one, but you can’t make poop gold no matter who you are.  However, throughout most of the movie you have your nonsensical explosions left and right, violence and battle sequences taking the surround track to new “heights.”  I can’t really complain though here as pretty much all the onscreen lunacy is authentically recreated in rendered in this Atmos presentation with the utmost of priority and directionality.  Nothing got lost in my shuffle so there’s always that going for this one.
• Height: Some examples of fine uses of the Atmos height channels include but not limited to the following: fireballs right out of the opening Paramount logo, flaming arrows, explosions, helicopters, drones, glass falling down in the church, jets and so much more.
• Low Frequency Extension: They don’t call him Michael BOOM BOOM Bay for nothing here.  The subwoofer channel here is aggressive, forceful and punishing.  However, this whole movie is like a swift kick to the nuts too.  But serious the sub comes to life in such inconsequential events like non-stop explosions, horse stomping the ground, score, gunfire, engines revving and my favorite use of just demonstrating the heftiness of the robots as they take each step.  I like that dimension of this in all sincerity.
• Surround Sound Presentation: The rear channels are engaged throughout the presentation here with moments such as all the action sequences, missiles fired, voices, cars zooming by, bullets zinging and other miscellaneous gunplay and so much more chaos that I don’t even want to write about it anymore.  You know what you’re getting here.
• Dialogue Reproduction: The dialogue levels are loud, clear. prioritized and intelligible throughout.  There’s not much else I can say about it except this.  The dialogue conversations are so bad I was wishing for some problems with it.  What?  I’m just being honest.  This boys and girls is how NOT to write spoken dialogue.  Even the narration in the film’s beginning and ending is incoherent as to how it really fits into the flick.

Extras 

The Transformers: The Last Knight 4K Ultra HD Combo Pack include a bonus Blu-ray disc with over 80 minutes of behind-the-scenes content and interviews.  Travel to Cybertron to explore the Transformers home world, then visit the UK to delve into the locations used to bring the epic adventure to life.  In addition, go inside the secret mythology of the legendary robots in disguise, check out the incredible vehicles used in the film and much, much more.  The more part also includes a redeemable Digital HD code that allows you to watch the nearly three hour film via either iTunes or your favorite UltraViolet player.  Let’s take a look at the extras in a bit more detail down below.  Thankfully there’s no audio commentary to sit through here.  There is a God!  LOL.

• Merging Mythologies (HD, 19:53) – This one is all about exploring the secret Transformers history because as you know with The Last Knight we’re back in the days of King Arthur and the Wizard Merlin, not to mention World War II.  They actually gathered a bunch of writers here pitch to Spielberg and Bay about the Transformers mythology and how it can be extended to other periods of our Earth’s time.
• Climbing the Ranks (HD, 8:48) – This one is simply about all the military training that went into the making of this film and the logistical challenges with the Navy Seals and how they had to pretend to look scared in this film.  Ha ha.  Josh Duhamel owned his role as a military commander in this one.  The Air Force hooked them up here with the planes too.
• The Royal Treatment: Transformers in the UK (HD, 27:04) – This one is all about the craziness of bringing a Michael Bay film to London including plenty of behind-the-scenes moments there including the cool car chases.
• Motors and Magic (HD, 14:47) – This one is probably the only one I was interested in because I thought it was going to be all about the cars, but instead it focuses more on each of the characters instead.  They do go into the vehicles the Autobots transform into, but this one is more about all the designing that went into the characters themselves.  In other words this is not the proverbial tea I was looking for.
• Alien Landscape: Cybertron (HD, 7:15) – In this movie you will actually set foot on Cybertron.  Yay!  The filmmakers talk how they went bigger here, in other words planetary.  This one explores the Transformers history of the Quintessan race.  Quintessa is the character who has power over everything here.  They also go into how they designed her and what she’s all made up from.
• One More Giant Effin’ Movie (HD, 6:45) – This one is all about the insane madness that happens on the set of a Michael Bay movie.  For the lay person that means everything shown here is truly behind-the-scenes of it all.  Michael Bay is intense, driven and very hard working.  I admire that.  I just wish he would choose his projects more wisely, but I digress.

Summary 

Well this whole review was probably futile.  You don’t need me to tell you this was going to be a bombastic A/V sausage fest, did you?  Most of you were already sold on this 4K Ultra HD disc despite my pleas to send Hollywood a message and stay away from funding hot messes like this.  I guess we live in a day and age where a good story no longer matters that much.  It’s all about the shoot’em up, bang, bang rather than a paralyzed boy with tragically deep flaws meets the girl of his dreams, but first he must confront and overcome the evil stepmother witch.  All right so you tired of me typing or what?  I know you are.  You know what’s next.  Click on that pre-order link down below and bring Transformers: The Last Knight home to you as cheap and quickly as possible.  God speed…you’ll need it to get through this frickin’ slug of a movie.  Even my Stove Top stuffing induced farts don’t smell as bad as this turd stinks.  What?  I’m just saying.

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DISCLAIMER: This 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray review was judged and graded using the following 4K certified Ultra HD Premium television set found here and player here.  Make sure to check out all our 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray reviews archived here.

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Transformers: The Last Knight

Sucks Just As Bad As It Did in Theater on

4K Ultra HD Blu-ray

September 26th

PRE-ORDER NOW!

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