Discussion YMMV / TransformersTheLastKnight

Would Izabella be The Scrappy? Or maybe it’s just me who thinks that?

• Americans Hate Tingle: The Chinese audience is typically regarded as a solid case of Germans Love David Hasselhoff for this franchise, as the first four films are adored over there, but this movie got incredibly poor reception from the Chinese, with a popular meme-like sentiment describing the movie as "the best three-hour nap you'll ever have". As such, the movie's second Friday dropped an astounding 82% from the first Friday, which is something unheard of even for some of the most front-loaded releases in that region.
• Contested Sequel: Even a lot of long-time fans 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.
• Sequelitis: Even by the standards of the franchise, a number of fans who have defended the series as being a Guilty Pleasure state that this is the worst one. There's also the fact that its predecessors, while similarly panned by critics still managed to turn a huge profit, whereas The Last Knight made significantly less money than the other installments in the series, dropping quickly after opening.
• Win Back the Crowd: Much of what was revealed about the movie during production gave the impression that it was trying to be this, at least for the built-in Transformers fanbase. Some examples include:
  • The formation of an entire writer's room to develop the story for this film and the rest of the franchise, bringing back fan-favorites, and casting high-caliber actors like Anthony Hopkins seems to indicate that this trope is in effect in order to establish some goodwill in the series again. It ended up being subverted as the film was panned more than any previous film.
  • The return of Lennox was very well-received by fans, as he was among the most popular human characters of the first three films (especially in comparison to the more divisive Sam and Mikaela).
  • The formal return of Frank Welker to the role of Megatron, following on his reprisal of Galvatron from the previous film.
  • Bringing back fan-favorite Barricade went over well with fans, especially those disappointed that he appeared to be Back for the Dead in Dark of the Moon and not even given a proper send-off.
  • Since production started, the production crew tossed out juicy tidbits of info on a regular basis - among them confirming the appearance of characters like Hot Rod, Onslaught, and Barricade. Many fans are pleased that the production crew is throwing them bones so often when until now production on the movies has been very secretive, and during Revenge of the Fallen outright nonsensical in its infamous misinformation campaign. Unfortunately, the former two characters turned out to be much less than what the fans were hoping for.

Okay guys, clean this up please. Americans Hate Tingle only aplies to things that are LIKED in it's domestic country. If everyone hates something it doesn't aplly. Contested Sequel, Sequelitis and Win Back the Crowd are mutually exlusive. Contested sequel it's when fand are in disagreement whether the sequel is better or worse, sequelitis is when something is generally agreed to have gone from good or decent to bad of From Bad to Worse, Win Back the Crowd is when something what once was good and went bad is now good again. I haven't seen the movie, nor the opinions, but fram what i see here, Sequelitis is a way to go.

• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
  • We were shown quite bit of characters in the trailers prior to the film's release, and were expecting them to have spectacular roles. Unfortunately, the Transformers themselves lose quite a bit of screentime to the human characters, something that was in previous films.
  • We don't even see much of Nemesis Prime as he is named by Quintessa, and that's due to Optimus having very little screen time in general. It was hinted that Optimus's Face–Heel Turn would be integral to the plot of the movie, but his only role in the movie to be brandwashed by Quintessa, engage Bumblebee in a very short fight, be beaten by the Knights of Iacon, and then become the hero again after Cade gives him a Rousing Speech.
  • Izabella. The trailers made it seem like she would have a vital role in the film and would actually be someone to care about. She appears in the first act, disappears for the second and shows up again in the third act for no real reason and doesn't contribute much to the story. Made worse by the the critics praising Isabela Moner's brief performance as one of the movie's few bright spots.
  • Another of the film's more well-received human characters was Sir Edmund Burton. Due to Anthony Hopkins' incredibly charismatic and funny performance and the character's mysterious knowledge of the Transformers' history on Earth, many fans were certain that he was secretly some sort of well-known character in the franchise's lore. He's not. Instead, he exists solely to provide exposition on the backstory and Cade's mission and dies trying to distract Megatron.
  • In general, the movie completely forgets about Izabella, Jimmy and the junkyard Autobots for the entire second act, and in the third act, only half of them return just to serve as extra firepower in the battle or in Izabella and Jimmy's case, do nothing.
  • Viviane Wembley actually had a lot of potential as a character: decent backstory, actual connection to the films mythos and being played by a pretty good actress. Unfortunately her chemistry with Cade is... not very good to put it lightly, mostly due to Cade acting like a jerk to her for no reason (see Unintentionally Unsympathetic below).