YMMV / Transformers: The Last Knight

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• Ass Pull:
  • Bumblebee's new ability to rebuild his entire body after falling apart into pieces. Mind you, this is the same character who got his legs blown off in the first movie and had to be hauled around in a tow truck afterwards. It's never explained, and later serves as a cheap way for him to recover from his fight with Optimus. Several cynical fans have mused that it's Hasbro's way of saying they'll never let Bumblebee, their toy-selling flagship, die. Especially considering several other Cybertronians had been killed in similar ways.
  • The revelation that Transformers have been present at basically every moment in human history is very hard to swallow. Particularly glaring is the appearance of Ironhide in a historical painting despite the fact the 2007 film clearly depicted his arrival to Earth. Bumblebee is also depicted as having been active during World War II, and it's never explained or brought up again.
  • During the climax, Izabella suddenly appears on the aircraft that Cade, Viviane, and Lennox are riding on to the final battle. Izabella, when asked why she's there, can only respond with confusion, as if the movie just chucked her in there for no reason.
  • The baby dinobots, as cute as they are, receive no explanation whatsoever. They are just there.
  • The survival of Barricade, though well-received, was considered basically magic, as his last appearance in Dark of the Moon was at the mercy of the NEST troopers who were gunning him and his brethren down on the spot.
  • The offscreen death of Sam Witwicky, which goes completely unexplained and unaddressed in-universe. It's especially bizarre considering how close he was to Optimus and Bumblebee, yet neither of them even mention him.
• Crazy Is Cool: Cogman became an Ensemble Dark Horse for viewers due to how manic and impulsive he can be, making him an entertaining little psycho that many viewers wished they could see more of. Standout examples being his partaking in a high-speed car chase where he lets road rage overtake him, or firing himself out a torpedo chamber just to get fish to make sushi with for Cade and Viviane's dinner date, even proceeding to beat the fish to death when he comes back with two live ones.
• Designated Hero: The Knights of Iacon are propped up as paragons of justice and virtue, but on-screen they are anything but. In the beginning of the movie, they are willing to let Arthur's forces get slaughtered by the Saxons as long as they are left alone and only intervene when Merlin begs them to. When they awaken from their slumber in the present, they attack Optimus for his supposed betrayal, conveniently ignoring that Optimus was brainwashed at the time and Megatron just flew away with Merlin's staff. It's only when they learn that Cade is the Last Knight that they get their heads out of their asses and actually do something heroic.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Nitro Zeus is the most popular amongst the new Decepticon crew for being a huge braggart voiced by John DiMaggio, reusing a cool design, and actually surviving until the third act.
  • Barricade continues his streak of being a fan-favorite, especially since in this film he receives more screentime and lines and appears to once again survive the film. It's enough that after this film, a version of this character^note Or rather, a wholly new character that supplants the Micromaster that originally held the name "Barricade", since renamed "Runner" appears in the IDW comics, effectively and retroactively putting him as a G1 character.
  • Izabella is far more tangential to the plot than the trailers would have you believe, but the character and her actress' performance were generally well-received despite being acknowledged as irrelevant.
  • Merlin, for being a hilarious drunkard who manages to be one of the most likable members of the human cast in spite of only appearing in one scene.
  • Cogman. Let's face it, between his comedic moments, one-liners, badassery and voice, he's a relatively well-liked - if underused - addition to the cast.
  • Hot Rod managed to be rather popular for those willing to look past his dissimilarities from other Hot Rods, liking how he was a noble yet brash figure and enjoying his Bash Brothers dynamic with Bumblebee, as well as his devotion to Viviane and unique "Time Gun" weapon. Like many other elements, some had wished he had gotten more of a chance to have a presence in the movie than he did.
• Epileptic Trees:
  • With the appearance of Onslaught, some fans wondered if the other Combaticons and Bruticus Maximus would appear. Onslaught instead dies without much fanfare.
  • The large planet mass approaching the Moon is speculated by many to be Unicron. The Transformers Facebook page teased this during their trailer reaction compilation video, including one YouTube fan's excited cry that the thing was Unicron above countless other reactions they could've used for the video. In the actual film, it's revealed to be the remains of Cybertron, actually heading for Earth to drain the power from the actual Unicron, who formed the Earth's core eons ago.
  • Also the possibility of King Arthur's sword Excalibur being the Star Saber had been theorized by some fans. While it's not the Star Saber, it's still a Cybertronian weapon.
  • There's was theory that the female voice in the second trailer belonged to Solus Prime. Bay had said that no female Transformers appear on the film, and the third trailer shows us an unknown female alien, presumably named Quintessa. Fans had a nugget of truth; Quintessa identifies herself as a Prime.
  • Some believe that the trailers show the movie version of Nemesis Prime; and that the writers actually plan to make Nemesis and Optimus Prime a single character. This was proven correct, as Quintessa rechristens Optimus as Nemesis Prime.
  • Many fans predict that the new Decepticons Onslaught, Hooligan, Mohawk, and Nitro, and even Barricade will receive pretty much the same level of characterization and screen-time as previous non-Megatron Decepticons - meaning zilch. This turned out to be more or less true-the only Decepticons who make it to the third act are Megatron, Barricade, and Nitro.
  • Drift's fans are worried about his fate, since out of the returning Autobots, he was not seen in any trailers or TV spots until mere weeks before the film's release. At best, he's been Demoted to Extra, while at worst, he's on the scrapheap. In the film proper, he takes a middle ground as he's Out of Focus.
  • More and more people felt that Edmund Burton is more than meets the eye, but were proven wrong.
  • It's a common theory that Quintessa is actually lying about being the Prime of Life and/or the creator of the Transformer race, as her design doesn't match the primes in ROTF, she isn't organic, her motives don't match the creator's implied plan, and she is called "The great deceiver". The film actually never outright states if she is telling the truth or not.
• Evil Is Cool:
  • Megatron was already this beforehand, but now he resembles his G1 counterpart more than any of his previous appearances in the series. This movie also continues the trend of making him a credible antagonist again.
  • Quintessa looks like a hybrid of a human, a transformer and a squid, convinces Optimus to try and destroy Unicron/Earth and, when this fails, takes the form of a human to try and manipulate humanity into destroying their own planet.
• Fan Nickname: Laura Haddock's character has been called "British Megan Fox" by reviewers for not only the actress bearing a resemblance to Fox but also providing gratuitous Fanservice (as with other female leads in Michael Bay's films). Also, the Honest Trailer for the movie refers to her as "Megan Faux."
• Fanon Discontinuity: Aside from people who want to disregard the film altogether, due to the Bay films unexpectedly ending on this film's cliffhanger, some fans disregard the ending where Cybertron is attached to Earth, preferring a safer ending where Cybertron is revived but separate from it.
• Ham and Cheese: What the hell is celebrated actor Anthony Hopkins, two-time Oscar winner, BAFTA fellow, and widely considered one of the greatest actors of his generation, doing in this? Answer – having an absolute ball, chewing the scenery and stealing every scene he's in.
• Harsher in Hindsight: In-universe example: Just before the first battle between the Autobots and Decepticons, Izabella confronts Megatron for manhandling Sqweeks by telling him to "go to Hell," which Megatron responds by saying: "This planet is Hell." A few scenes later, Quintessa reveals that he is indeed right, as Earth (or rather its core) is actually Unicron himself.
• Heartwarming in Hindsight:
  • Izabella's character seems like a Good Counterpart of last film's Dragon, James Savoy: while both lost loved ones during the battle of Chicago, Izabella does not blame the Autobots, and is actually trying to help them, while Savoy decided to destroy any and all Transformers and any human who joined them.
  • The Bittersweet Ending is not necessary the best situation the films could be in, but now that Bumblebee rebooted the franchise, it works as a somewhat positive ending to the first film franchise.
• He's Just Hiding: Plenty of people take issue with Sam and his father's supposed unexplained Bus Crash and prefer to disregard it or speculate that the claim that Vivian is the last of her family is a goof or a lie.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • The Gentei! Gentei! Stuntron Wildrider is a repainted version of the Classics Rodimus mold in 2008. Guess who had the same-but-similar color scheme in the movie?
  • The appearance of Nazis in the film becomes this when you realize one of the The Ultimate Ed Chronicles crossovers did the exact same thing.
  • Cogman is believed to transform into a head. After 10 years of robots losing their heads, we finally get a transformer who is nothing but a head, though he doesn't actually transform in the film.
    • In a related vein, TRF data suggests that Onslaught was working on a weapon called The Decapitator. He's also the first 'Con to have his head lopped off.
  • This is not the first time Isabela Merced's character has a problem with the authority.
  • Cade becoming a Parental Substitute to Iz to the point that he's all but adopted her by the end of the movie is pretty funny with Mark Wahlberg adopting Isabela Merced in Instant Family, which came out more than a year later.
  • This is not the last time that Earth is actually the shell of a giant alien. Even funnier, Gemma Chan is in both movies.
• Hollywood Homely: Izabella, despite being a homeless girl living rough in a destroyed warzone for a long time before the film, still has perfect teeth and nails; the film crew evidently missed that part of her appearance when trying to make her look haggard.
• Ho Yay: The film spends more time in developing the Cade/Optimus ship than developing Cade/Vivian. Cade spends the entire film trying to rescue Optimus from Quintessa, taking on the role of a knight saving the damsel in distress. He even says a You Are Better Than You Think You Are speech that motivates Prime into getting up after his beatdown from the Knights.
• I Knew It!:
  • The trailer has Optimus going hostile in which many people speculate that he was brainwashed. The speculation was confirmed when Quintessa brainwashed him.
  • With the marketing's emphasis on a connection between Cybertron and Earth, some had correctly guessed that the film would take a page from Transformers Prime and reveal Unicron to be Earth's core.
• It's the Same, Now It Sucks!:
  • Or, as in case with two previous sequels, "It's Still the Same, Now It Still Sucks!". It also seems to be building up to the film where they finally shake up the formula, when they could have just done it with this one.
  • From a franchise fan's viewpoint, the film came under criticism for using old plot elements like Nemesis Prime and ripping the twist that Unicron is the Earth's core from Prime. The film's app was even worse in this regard as it listed pretty much the backstory of the Aligned continuity verbatim, due to the film's story group asking Hasbro for franchise lore and Hasbro responding with trying to force their now-discarded plans for Aligned on the movies.
  • One of this film's most common criticisms is that it tried way too hard at copying whatever franchise was popular in the mid-2010s. Particularly from Star Wars and comic book films. Izabella and Sqweeks are basically Star Wars' Rey and BB-8, even being introduced as orphan junkers like at the beginning of The Force Awakens. There's even TRF drones in the film that straight up look like Tie Bombers. Meanwhile, the Decepticons are given an introduction that's strikingly similar to how the villain introduction was done in Suicide Squad (2016), and Optimus vs. Bumblebee plays with the whole hero vs. hero gimmick that was hype at the time with Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Captain America: Civil War. Outside of those trends, there's also the belief that the reason the film has a medieval fantasy storyline is because of Game of Thrones turning out to be a big hit.
• Just Here for Godzilla:
  • Lennox, Simmons, and Morshower's return triggered a massive amount of interest from fans who were otherwise uninterested in the film.
  • The debut of Anthony Hopkins had many interested, since they know at least he will do a phenomenal job in his role.
  • Barricade was a massive fan favorite, thus his return was highly and warmly anticipated.
  • The return of the Dinobots, with the promise of an expanded role has also tempted back a few fans. Subverted, as the Dinobots ended up receiving even less screen time in the film.
  • And at least a few fans are seeing the movie just to see if that moon-eating planet-sized thing actually is Unicron as some theorize. It ended up being the opposite, as the entity was actually Cybertron's remains coming to Earth, which is revealed to be Unicron itself.
• Magnificent Bastard: Quintessa, "the Prime of Life" and "the Great Deceiver", is the Creator of the Transformers. Growing sick of the civil war and planning to restore Cybertron, she hires the Bounty Hunter Lockdown to hunt down Optimus Prime. When this fails, she lures Optimus to her and gets him to lower his guard enough to brainwash him to her cause, sending him to attack humans and retrieve the staff of Merlin for her. Quintessa's plan is to harness its power to not only drain Earth of its resources and transfer them all to Cybertron, but she intends to restore a peaceful Cybertron and destroy the ancient evil Unicron in one masterstroke too. When this fails, Quintessa turns herself human and conscripts other humans in her quest to help bring Unicron down.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • Given that Westworld just finished its first season the night before the first trailer dropped and that Anthony Hopkins is in both that show and this movie, many jokes were had about the movie being his character's mysterious new narrative or that the Transformers are actually Hosts.
  • Also, jokes about how Edmund is returning to Asgard.^note Anthony Hopkins mentioned just after Thor: The Dark World how he didn't feel like returning to the MCU, and being cast in this movie added credence to that, but the combination of his being announced to join Ragnarok and his character here being Killed Off for Real have ended that.
  • Some forums have noted how Barricade keeps getting beaten up in every trailer he shows up in, and have started comparing him to Waspinator.
  • The TRF employs small Tie Bomber look-alikes. Viewers exploded with jokes about the Empire somehow being connected to the Transformers.
  • Hot Rod's famous quote from one of the trailers:
    Hot Rod: Little lady, no!
  • The Nostalgia Critic was right. ^note It's a spin on "Magneto was right" from X-Men. The Nostalgia Critic didn't even see the movie yet but described the whole plot structure of the movie before its release. Critics and casual viewers note that he was not far from the truth. It's often used to mock Bay due to how repetitive the films are.
  • Nitro Zeus fucks. ^note Nitro's comment to one of the prison guards ("Say hello to your wife for me!") led to jokes about him sleeping with the guy's wife.
  • You need a bigger door! ^note A memorable quote from Onslaught complaining about the size of his prison cell's door.
  • An interaction between Megatron and Lennox has been exploited quite a bit.
    Lennox: What do you really want, Megatron?
    Megatron: What anyone wants, human: [insert something wholesome or relatable here]
• Misaimed Fandom: Pre-release. Due to the success of both Deadpool and Logan, some people suddenly started claiming that the film(s) would be somehow better if they managed to get an R-rating. People were quick to point out that due to the amount of violence the films already have, an R-rating would require either pointless swearing, human bloodshed or sex, and that the films exist to sell toys to children. (Defenders then claimed that Deadpool tried to sell "toys" too, because it had statuettes aimed at collectors.)
• Misaimed Merchandising:
  • Berserker was clearly intended to have a larger role than he had in the film, evidenced by the four toys he got, one of which was a highly accurate new mould that received heavy shipping to stores. Unfortunately, his screen-time was largely cut out, and since he barely appeared in the film, kids didn't buy his toy. In retail, his toys outlasted the toyline they were a part of, being seen clogging shelves as late as the final months of 2018.
  • On a similar note, Grimlock got plenty of toys since he's an Ensemble Dark Horse, being a Dinobot and all. Despite promises of more screen-time, he got far less of it, and his toys also became notorious for clogging shelves.
• Mis-blamed: While some viewers have no problem blaming everything on Bay, others think that the film's problems stem from the entire production instead of just one person. While not mentioned on the article, people also now have strong feelings on the film's producer, who decided to throw 2 planned films into one, since this resulted in the overcrowded plot.
• Most Wonderful Sound: The return of Megatron's signature transformation sound effect was warmly received.
• Narm: See here.
• Older Than They Think:
  • Some fans have reacted negatively to the idea of this movie incorporating the Medieval times and magic into its plot, thinking it's silly to have the Transformers deal with the King Arthur Mythology and blaming Bay for incorporating these elements into the franchise. However, this is not the first time the franchise have dealt with the Medieval times. The G1 episode "A Decepticon Raider in King Arthur's Court" had the Decepticons got stuck in the Medieval times and featured a character that used magic. Some don't mind this, though they point out that Bay himself criticized the more mystical vibes of Revenge of the Fallen and are wondering why he's going back to it. Ultimately, there appears to be no magic in the film itself, it's just Cybertronian technology that appears to be magic to primitive humans. Although Quintessa is more blurry in regards to this as she is described as a sorceress and puts Optimus under her control via a strange marking she materializes on a part of his face and is later described by the Knights of Iacon as having been put under a spell by her. It could have been highly advanced science but that doesn't really explain the All Spark or Sam Witwicky appearing in the afterlife when he met the Dynasty of Primes or his resurrection by them in Revenge of the Fallen.
  • There are some who claim that Bay is attempting to ruin Grimlock by portraying him as a Team Pet Comic Relief. The issue with this claim is that Grimlock has been portrayed as such at least from 1986. In and after the animated movie he has spent more and more time in his dino mode, Took a Level in Dumbass, and is generally used as kid appeal. He's been written as a badass every now and then (particularly when he's being written by Simon Furman), but his characterization as Dumb Muscle has dominated his appearances.
  • Some fans have not taken well the idea of there being a kid character are part of the main cast, thinking it doesn't make sense to have young kids helping the Autobots to fight the Decepticons, despite the fact the Transformers franchise has had kids as part of the main cast, helping to take down the Decepticons, since the very beginning. Transformers: Prime in particular featured a cast of child characters who received strong development and were instrumental to the Autobot war effort.
  • Megatron taking on the identity of Galvatron and then inexplicably reverting back to Megatron between films is actually not something new to the Transformers lore. One point of infamy for the Unicron Trilogy was it putting its incarnation of Megatron through this process thrice in all three shows. In fact, this scenario is treated a bit more realistically in the film: it's implied Quintessa fully restored Megatron's sentience while putting him under her servitude, and thus, he dropped the Galvatron moniker.
  • Fans of the 1986 movie expressed contempt for Unicron being the Earth as opposed to a fully-metal planet unrelated to Earth. Transformers: Prime introduced the idea almost six years prior in its season 1 finale.
  • Some fans think that Hot Rod should at least turn into a hot rod rather than a sports car given his otherwise In Name Only design and personality having little to do with the original. Another Hot Rod that looked nothing like the original and had a different personality was a main character in Micron Densetsu. He was renamed to Hotshot in the English adaptation, Transformers: Armada, though originally intended to be called Hot Rod before a last minute change.
• One-Scene Wonder:
  • Merlin only appears in the opening scene, but his larger than life and hilarious performance from Stanley Tucci leaves quite the impression.
  • Daytrader only appears for a single scene, but is surprisingly well developed and fleshed out for such a minor character. Steve Buscemi's performance also won him some fans, and the character was better written in one scene than others who had been around for several entire films.
• Padding:
  • The drone chase after the Autobots fend off the Decepticons goes on for too long and only contributes Cogman's introduction, which could've easily taken place without the drone chase.
  • Similarly, the submarine chase as the HMS Alliance descends into the ocean also comes off as another pointless action sequence.
• Realism-Induced Horror: Many have cited the scene where Quintessa utilizes emotional manipulation, physical abuse, and gaslighting to brainwash Optimus into Nemesis Prime as the most horrifying moment in the film. It's very eerily similar to that of an abusive parent cruelly manipulating their child into staying with them.
• The Scrappy: The JPL engineer proved to be a painfully unfunny character for many audiences, with a grossly bloated amount of screen-time that he mostly spends condescending other, more competent people. Not helping matters is him being a Straw Scientist, dismissing the entire plot as "mysticism and hobgoblins" while trying to save the day with an actual scientific solution, which is doomed to fail and make things harder for the real protagonists.
• Sequelitis: Even a lot of long-time fans and people who defended the previous movies consider this film to be the weakest entry in the series, for taking too many steps backwards. Fans of Age Of Extinction are especially disappointed, as the Mythology Gags and improved Transformer characterizations and screen time were considered by many to be the best things about the film, and wished the next film would follow suit.
• Shocking Moments:
  • Almost everything in the first trailer. Most notably the moving remains of Cybertron and Optimus assaulting Bumblebee with clear lethal intent while asking him to forgive him.
  • Bumblebee falling apart and rebuilding himself in the international trailer.
  • The WW2 flashback has several trucks arriving at a Nazi stronghold, secretly carrying American troops. Once the entrance guard is gunned down, the two leading trucks transform into Bumblebee and Hot Rod, who then lead the assault on the stronghold.
• Signature Scene:
  • The brutal opening medieval battle.
  • The junkyard/town fight was warmly received for actually having named Autobots and Decepticons brawling it out.
  • Bumblebee vs Nemesis Prime.
  • The final clash between the Autobots and Megatron and Nitro Zeus, in particular, the creative and cool sequence in which Hot Rod saves Hound's life from Megatron.
• Special Effect Failure:
  • Megatron's transformation in the desert parlay scene looks a bit "cheaty", as several parts of his altmode just seem to go into Hammerspace behind his back. Of course, it might be the point, as he was rebuilt from KSI's transformium, which practically allows him to reorganize his molecules. It is also Hilarious in Hindsight, since the film takes a more Truer to the Text approach, apparently down to the size-changing.
  • As usual, the humans and Transformers often very much feel like they're not in the same room, thanks to some rather lackluster interaction between the actors and CGI characters.
  • The editing is quite bad in this film, as several shots were very clearly shot at either different times of day or different locations entirely. Particularly glaring is during the confrontation with Nemesis Prime and the Knights of Iacon, as several reaction shots of Lennox, Viviane, and Cogman don't jive with the rest of the scene.
  • During a scene early in the film, Izabella and Cade fit a new voice-box into Bumblebee that was given to them by Daytrader. In one shot, Bumblebee's head is clearly a prop as the rest of his body has completely disappeared (the background is clearly visible through the holes in Bee's battle mask, which is facing the camera).
  • The film's aspect ratio changes with every cut, which can get jarring during the film's action scenes.
  • In the scene where Sir Edmund is viewing one of Unicron's horns in the Sahara, it's glaringly obvious Anthony Hopkins is acting in front of a green screen and not on location with the other actors in the scene.
• Tainted by the Preview: There are a few things in the pre-release materials that had people worried:
  • Many believed that Mohawk dies in an explosion after the Decepticon's group shot. Mohawk actually dies a few short scenes later.
  • Some are afraid that Barricade dies after being pushed off-road by Bumblebee, although Barricade's popularity will probably save him. He survives the encounter and disappears at Stonehenge.
  • Grimlock rolling on the ground surrounded by hostiles has some people worried, but many also believe he just made a Dynamic Entry from underground. The latter turned out to be correct.
  • Bumblebee building himself back together in the International Trailer makes it pretty clear he will survive against Optimus. Although, it's speculated that this ability only works when nothing internal is destroyed; just like carefully taking apart a toaster allows it to be rebuilt, but blowing it up or tearing it apart by force doesn't.
  • A TV spot released shortly before the film flat-out shows Drift decapitating Onslaught.
• Take That, Scrappy!: Done in a nice way; Tessa and Shane, the two least liked characters of the last film, are nowhere to seen. Tessa is studying somewhere, and is implied to have broken up with Shane (as Cade mentions he would instruct Tessa to stay away from guys in a band). Considering the fandom's reaction to Shane carrying a piece of paper he uses to justify dating a 17-year girl,^note While Shane wouldn't need it anyway since Tessa was older than the age of consent and they started dating when they were both underage, it was still considered to be creepy as hell it's also a Fandom Nod.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: Many fans of Generation One have expressed contempt for Hot Rod's design in this film for not even having a passing resemblance to the character and having a French accent. Even those usually fine with the In Name Only versions of characters post-G1 works tend to pump out tend to agree that Hot Rod should at least transform into a hot rod instead of a sports car.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
  • Grimlock and the Dinobots were confirmed to be in the movie and were outright said to have larger roles than in their debut film. They end up getting even less screen time here, as Grimlock and Slug are the only ones to appear, mainly for comic relief, and aren't even brought in to aid in the final battle.
  • Megatron and his new band of Decepticons got it worse. The Decepticons, who had colorful but less than memorable personality traits, are killed off almost immediately after their debut by the Autobots. Megatron disappears soon after and only reappears for the film's climax. He gets one-shotted by Optimus and then blown out of Quintessa's chamber with a single kick, making it the shortest fight between the two.
  • Lennox's return was hyped up and was a major point of interest for several fans. Unfortunately, in the finished film he does little and doesn't have any sort of character arc despite being on the opposing side of the Autobots.
  • Hot Rod is treated like a new addition to the team, but he is woefully underplayed. He is not given much personality, and although it was said that he and Bumblebee were war-brothers, and they are shown fighting Nazis in WWII, they don't interact much in the present.
  • Nemesis Prime, Optimus Prime's Brainwashed and Crazy version, could have been a true Dragon to Quintessa and the main antagonist for most of the movie. The idea of an "evil Optimus Prime" could have worked well, especially considering the kind of mind games he could have pulled on his former allies while everybody holds back for fear of destroying him. However, it's squandered as Optimus is just brainwashed for a few scenes, sent after the Autobots, and then comes to his senses within minutes.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
  • A concept artwork of Drift and Mohawk fighting is one of the fight scenes that never came to be.
  • Before his optics turn purple, Optimus seems to be rather lucid when he agrees with Quintessa that Earth must be destroyed if he is to atone for his hand in dooming Cybertron. It looked to be a rather dark and interesting subversion of Brainwashed and Crazy, only for Quintessa to properly brainwash him in their next scene, removing any moral ambiguity and questions raised.
  • Some people were hoping to see a fight scene between Bumblebee and Barricade in the film, which the feud was first shown in the Coca-Cola commercial.
  • Cade's talisman, actually the legendary Excalibur, only serves to confirm his status as the Last Knight. He doesn't even use it to aid the Autobots in the final battle.
  • The previous film implied that the creators were planning to wipe out all Transformers (and possibly other races) and start from scratch. The "destroy everything" sounds like Unicron's MO, so it's possible the writers were planning an "Autobots and Decepticons VS the Creators and Unicron" plotline. Even if she is lying about creating the Transformers, Quintessa's plan throws this potential plot out the window.
  • Megatron remarks that he vaguely recognizes Lennox when they meet in the desert. However, some laughably poor editing means that the conversation immediately cuts to Megatron demanding his crew be released. Despite their history together, in particular the fact that Lennox directly helped foil Megatron's plans three times, nothing more is made of it.
• Took the Bad Film Seriously:
  • Once again, Peter Cullen gives a very strong performance as Optimus Prime.
  • The same could be said for Frank Welker as Megatron, as his performance was just as equally stellar. Many fans have commented positively on Welker's evolution of his modern Megatron voice (which he began using in Prime) for this film.
  • Anthony Hopkins notably shows much more effort here than he usually does in other bad movies.
  • Critics have stated that, as brief as it was, Isabela Merced's performance is one of the movie's few highlights.
  • Laura Haddock puts way more effort into Viviane Wembley than the movie deserves.
  • Another voice acting example is Jim Carter as Cogman. There's the reason he's the Ensemble Dark Horse.
• Unintentional Uncanny Valley:
  • Quintessa's face. It's a creepy mix of humanoid and transformer face shapes, which just makes it look off.
  • Megatron's face looks pretty normal, until you notice that he still has sharp teeth. His cheeks also have a tendency to open up along with his mouth (similarly to Mileena in Mortal Kombat X), which makes him unsettling to look at.
• Unexpected Character: Lennox, Simmons, and Morshower, as many expected them to continue to suffer from Chuck Cunningham Syndrome. The return of Barricade and Wheelie was also a surprise since many assumed they had been killed during Dark of the Moon. Many fans also assumed that Top Spin and Roadbuster had been killed by Cemetery Wind. Finally, Unicron himself appears, and is revealed to actually be the Earth.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic:
  • Cade is as Hot-Blooded as ever, and is very quick to grow hostile with whoever is speaking to him, making him rather unlikable. Such as when Viviane arrives for the meeting with Burton, Cade immediately goes out of his way to insult and belittle her that is too mean-spirited to even qualify as Belligerent Sexual Tension.
  • When they awaken in the present day, the Knights of Iacon beat down Optimus and prepare to execute him. They don't seem to care that he was brainwashed at the time or that there might be still a chance to stop the Decepticons. Granted, they were last active in the Middle Ages so Deliberate Values Dissonance might be in play here, but this behavior seems out of the left field for characters that supposedly rival Optimus himself in terms of nobility and benevolence.
  • Santos seems intended as a sympathetic Anti-Villain who views the Autobots as threats to the planet, but the fact that he's willing to work with the Decepticons, who explicitly tried to conquer Earth and wipe out humanity, makes it hard to see him as anything other than a hypocrite.
• Unintentional Period Piece: Of the "dated immediately upon release" type. The Last Knight features a downright dizzying collection of trends and ideas that were at their peak in the mid-late 2010s, including the hero-versus-hero plotline, the elements that seem designed specifically to appeal to Chinese audiences, and the clear attempts to set up a massive cinematic universe, not to mention scenes that seem to have been lifted directly from recent blockbusters like The Force Awakens and Suicide Squad (2016). The Chinese-audience-appeal became particularly dated a few years later, when China's homegrown film industry improved and its government started cracking down on foreign media, which caused Hollywood's box office results in the nation to collapse.

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