4.4 | / 10 |
Users | 4.1 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Optimus Prime discovers that his home planet, Cybertron, is now a dead planet, which he comes to find he was responsible for killing. He finds a way to bring the planet back to life, but in order to do so he needs to find an artifact, and that artifact is on Earth.
Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Anthony Hopkins, Josh Duhamel, Laura Haddock, Santiago CabreraAction | 100% |
Adventure | 82% |
Sci-Fi | 65% |
Video codec: HEVC / H.265
Video resolution: 4K (2160p)
Aspect ratio: 2.39:1, 1.90:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1, 1.85:1
English: Dolby Atmos
English: Dolby TrueHD 7.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English: Dolby Digital 5.1
English: Dolby Digital 2.0
French (Canada): Dolby Digital 5.1
Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1
Portuguese: Dolby Digital 5.1
English, English SDH, French, Portuguese, Spanish
Blu-ray Disc
Three-disc set (3 BDs)
UV digital copy
4K Ultra HD
Slipcover in original pressing
Region free
Movie | 1.0 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 5.0 | |
Extras | 2.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
There's a book series by an author named Robert Doherty called Area 51 that this reviewer once enjoyed way back when. The first few in the series are not particularly good books by any stretch of the imagination, but they delivered serviceable entertainment centered around aliens, the shadow government, that sort of thing (it's been a really long time; details are sketchy at best). But over time, the series grew increasingly more absurd, transitioning away from its central focus and folding in a highlight reel of human history and fantasy, making the story of aliens and government cover-ups somehow linked to ancient Egypt, The Holy Grail, Excalibur, and even vampires. The series plummeted from time-killing enjoyable to unreadable. That series parallels Director Michael Bay's Transformers franchise, once fresh and exciting (even if the robots looked nothing like they did in the 80s cartoons) but that has become a bloated, convoluted mess. To make matters worse, more head-scratching, and somehow even more boring, The Last Knight has folded in the legends of King Arthur, Merlin, and Stonehenge to its tale. It's an absurd movie, so absurd it's debatable as to whether it was made so intentionally, as if Michael Bay was asking, "is anyone still paying attention?" "Does story even matter?" "Am I really just making 150-minute CGI highlight reels?" And, in true Bay and Transformers fashion, spectacle still manages to completely drown out the plot, which is borderline indecipherable and nonsensical, anyway.
The included screenshots are sourced from a 1080p Blu-ray disc. Watch for 4K screenshots at a later date.
The digitally photographed Transformers: The Last Knight arrives on 2160p UHD sourced from a 2K digital intermediate. The disc includes both
HDR10 and Dolby
Vision
color formats. Unfortunately, we are currently not able to review Dolby Vision but we are studying equipment options and will be
upgrading in the
near
future. Paramount's upscaled 4K presentation offers a fairly standard uptick in image quality over the Blu-ray, which is itself very strong. There's a tangible
increase in detail. Faces
are
a particular beneficiary, where pores and wrinkles and moles and facial hair appear more precisely defined and sharp.
Environments and digital
Transformer
complexities enjoy a boost as well, but it's in human close-up where the differences are most noticeable. The UHD doesn't have
quite the same
sense
of surface smoothness in some spots as the Blu-ray, though there remains a modest sense of flatness to the picture. HDR color
enhancements give a
little more depth to the already-hot Michael Bay palette. Flesh tones are deeper and, by extension, warmer. Lush English green
grasses enjoy
improved color depth, more nuanced and less showy but still plenty vibrant. Black levels hold impressively deep, perhaps most
obvious during a
flashback nighttime battle outside a Nazi-occupied building. Aspect ratios do shift throughout the film between various sizes,
mostly around the
larger format rather than a more infrequent ~2.35:1 ratio. Blu-ray.com's aspect ratio calculator measures an average of 1.90:1.
It's worth noting that playback proved troublesome beyond the usual "no signal" handshake issues I experience that are
certainly equipment, not
disc, related. The
review Samsung UBD-K8500 player twice displayed an error message that stated "Cannot play this disc. The disc does not meet
the specifications"
when attempting to load from the home screen. Subsequent retires resulted in disc playback. The disc also froze up twice, both
right at film's end,
once
at the 2:24:54 mark and, after restarting and skipping ahead to a few second prior to that timeframe, again at the 2:25:14
mark. So I was not able
to
view the very end of the movie on the UHD format. The disc appeared to have no significant wear or scratches, and was
from a factory
sealed
retail copy provided by Paramount. It was more than likely limited to my disc rather than something that will be a widespread
issue.
Transformers: The Last Knight's Dolby Atmos soundtrack delivers the goods. Fans expect an intense, layered, and clear listening experience from the Transformers series, and that's exactly what they get. The track really needs no review. It hits all the checklist points. Deep, robust, and robotic-pitched bass explodes with regularity, saturating the stage with an intense low end frequency. Surrounds run wild with flying debris, bullets, scuffling humans, lumbering robots, missiles, and all sorts of mayhem rushing through the listening area with precision, detail, and seamless immersion. Music is triumphantly potent, lifelike, and finely detailed throughout. The Atmos component is used with regularity. Merlin's greeting to the hidden Transformers in England, speaking into the empty engine that serves as an entrance to their makeshift hiding place, offers an intense reverberation. Haunting sounds around Cybertron linger about the top (and elsewhere). One of the best moments comes in a sequence midway through the film when the characters gather around the Round Table and Anthony Hopkins' servant robot Cogman sings and plays the organ; the sense of absolute stage saturation is amazing. The final battle delivers an onslaught of sound, most of which in some way engages the top end, often with intensity but usually in a complimentary, not discrete, manner. Dialogue is unsurprisingly clear and refined even through the chaos. If only the movie wasn't such a chore to watch; the track is amazing.
Transformers: The Last Knight contains no extras on the UHD disc; all supplements may instead be found on the
bundled and dedicated
second Blu-ray disc. A UV/iTunes digital copy code is included with purchase.
Transformers: The Last Knight is a big-budget embarrassment. Sure it's slick, yes it's loud, and yes, that was Merlin and King Arthur. In a Transformers movie. Whatever. Paramount's UHD release delivers a high quality image that bests the Blu-ray, and the Atmos soundtrack (and three cheers to Paramount for including it across the board on Blu-ray, UHD, and Blu-ray 3D) is fantastic. All extras are carried over on the dedicated second Blu-ray disc. Fans should consider springing for this release over the Blu-ray.
2017
2017
2017
with Limited Edition Drawstring Bag
2017
2017
2017
2017
with VR viewing goggles
2017
2017
2014
2011
2018
2018
2013
2016
2013
2013
2018
2023
Two-Disc Special Edition | IMAX Edition
2009
2009
2007
2019
2019
2014
2015
2013
Theatrical & Extended Cut
2016
2019