Another Tedious Entry in the Hugely Successful Franchise

Rating: 3/10 (17 October 2019)

Michael Bay's third entry in the Transformers franchise gets off to a promising start, with an exciting, history rewriting pre-credit sequence which involves the Apollo 11 Moon Landings. Unfortunately, the film quickly goes downhill. While Bay seems to have attempted to take on board some of the criticisms of the previous instalment, Revenge of the Fallen, many of the same problems are present here.
Sam's parents have much less screen time here, and problematic robots Mudflap and Skids are absent. Despite this, the movie introduces several new irritating characters played by John Malkovich, Ken Jeong and Alan Tudyk, while Mudflap and Skids have been replaced by a drunken Irish robot and an angry Scottish robot.
Megan Fox does not return for this instalment and is replaced by Rosie Huntington-Whitely, who is fine but unremarkable in the role. Her chemistry with Shia LaBeouf is marginally better than Fox, and her character is slightly more likeable. Frances McDormand also joins the cast and is the best aspect of the movie. She at least makes her scenes somewhat interesting and watchable.
The main issues with this movie are almost identical to its predecessor. The movie is filled with dull, unlikeable character that you have no investment in, even after three lengthy films. While Shia LaBeouf gives a better performance here than in previous films, his character isn't interesting enough to lead this franchise.
The same crass, awful humour is present here, although it is mainly absent in the final hour, in which it is nonstop action. While the action here is more coherent than in Revenge of the Fallen, it can't hold the audience's attention due to its overload of CGI and explosions and its characters with who you have no emotional connection. The fact that the primary objective for a majority of the action sequence is to rescue Sam's girlfriend while the fate of the entire human race is at stake felt ridiculous. The film then ends very abruptly without any real resolution for the characters.
As expected, the visual effects are great. The addition of a robot that seemed to be inspired by Mad Max was a nice touch along with a vulture-like robot. Unfortunately, they are given no characterisation.
Overall, I found this movie to be another disappointment. While it does improve ever so slightly over Revenge of the Fallen, it is never engaging, emotional, funny or exciting, beyond the well-executed opening sequence.