More and Less
Review by Vives Anunciacion
Published 6.23.2017 Inquirer Libre, PH
The first movie has an excess of everything but a proper storyline, the second movie doesn’t have enough of everything except a profusion of cuteness. Pick your poison.
Transformers: The Last Knight
Directed by Michael Bay
Fifth in the Transformers series
Based on the Hasbro toys
Rated PG
Transformers: The Last Knight trailer
Michael Bay kicks off his fifth Transformers movie with a medieval mix of Arthurian legend and Cybertron, in a circle to defend the good from the evil. Anything can happen in a post-truth world.
The Last Knight happens a year or so after the events in Transformers: Age of Extinction (2014) in which we saw Optimus Prime leave Earth to seek the Creators of Cybertron. Here, Prime reaches Cybertron and meets the goddess Quintessa (Gemma Chan) who corrupts and controls Prime in her bid to re-make Cybertron using a powerful item left on Earth, disguised as Merlin’s staff.
Cade Yeager (Mark Wahlberg) and the remaining Autobots survive an attack by Megatron and his Decepticons, who have allied with the TRF – an intergovernmental military unit tasked to take down all remaining Transformers, regardless of faction.
A robot butler Cogman (Jim Carter) appears, taking Cade and Bumblebee to England to meet Oxford history professor Vivian Wembley (Laura Haddock) and Sir Edmund Burton (the venerable Anthony Hopkins), the last living protector of the Transformers-and-Knights secret. and Sir Edmund explains that Earth and Cybertron are on a collision-course unless they find Merlin’s staff. Naturally they don’t find it on time – otherwise, no action.
To say that it is a bloated extravaganza is a sure understatement. Michael Bay takes the Transformers over land, air, under sea and outer space for a sensory overload of crashing metal, pyrotechnics, Wahlberg biceps and Optimus Prime’s baritone.
I mean, I’ve consciously excluded in my synopsis the whole unnecessary subplot about this Mexican orphan girl Izabella (Isabela Moner) who hitches a ride on Cade’s adventures and even manages to survive the big action scene in the end. There’s an attempt at humor coming from Sir Edmund, a non-functioning comic sidekick, the return of former cast members Lennox (Josh Duhamel) and Agent Simmons (John Turturro), baby Dinobots and everything including the kitchen sink. The effects are visually impressive, and Bay’s staple of luxury sports car chases are in full IMAX force.
But for 300 pesos, too much of everything at two and a half hours sounds like a fair admission price, story be damned.
Everything, Everything
Directed by Stella Meghie
Based on the novel by Nicola Yoon
Rated PG
Based on a novel I haven’t heard of before (sorry, not a Young Adult fan here), this sweet tale of young romance separated by sickness is an exercise in cuteness.
Diagnosed with an immune deficiency that makes her allergic to almost everything, Maddy (Amandla Stenberg) has spent most of her young life behind the sterilized confines of her home, spending her teen days reading and reviewing books. Her only physical interactions are with her doctor mother Pauline (Anika None Rose) and nurse Carla (Ana de la Reguera.) After her 18th birthday, things change when she meets her new neighbor Olly (Nick Robinson.) Cue sweet music soundtrack.
Light and fluffy compared to its more popular (and depressing) cousin The Fault in our Stars (2014), Everything, Everything’s familiar and inert narrative benefits from good chemistry between Stenberg and Robinson, a commendable effort from Rose, as well as a hip and fresh soundtrack.
One can sense a sensibility from the director to draw out Maddy’s struggle to be free from her virtual imprisonment. It’s The Boy in the Plastic Bubble (1976) in reverse, the ordinariness of its cute-boy-inspires-girl-to-break-free story that provokes an eye-roll, and the weird psycho-mother drama twist that throws the narrative into the sea.
acid reflects 
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