The live-action Transformers films by Michael Bay have gone a long way , with a large impact on the community and bringing back the classic war of Autobots vs. Decepticons to a new generation in the forms of comics, animated series (Transformers Prime still being one of the best shows out there), and an even larger mileage of toys. The popularity of our Robots in Disguise has been brought back to a wider audience with greater love for beloved characters of old and new.
But let’s face it, the films have gone further from jumping the shark since it decided to become a film series. The classic Autobot vs. Decepticon war in the city of the first film went alright, but continuing on with awakening the ancient Fallen with racist Spongebob and Devastator’s balls of brass in Revenge of the Fallen, a pointless bodycount and dragging plot by the third, and with Transformer extinction by the government with their own life-size Galvatron action figure and Kelsey Grammer by the fourth, what’s the next logical step for a 5th Trasformers film? Surely our favorite gun-trotting and [GONE SEXUAL] explosions fetishist of a director Michael Bay may have something in mind.
Why, the Autobots coming together and crossing over with the Dark Ages of King Arthur, former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Hitler’s Third Reich, of course. At no point was a turn made to think that instead of great badass planet muncher and god of evil Unicron (who was even voiced by the great Orson Welles in the original animated film), we needed a greater foe against them, like Nazis and controversial propaganda.
British newspaper The Sun uncovered new photos of the film, with scenes showing the Bleinheim Palace, quarters of Winston Churchill, covered with swastika banners. Considering that Winston Churchill’s grave was also in close proximity of filming, it was no surprise several natives took offense to such a serious historical topic being paved into something different in a Transformers film of all things.
Tony Hayes of the Veteran’s Association UK told Variety this:
Blenheim is the ancestral home of our wartime leader. A lot of the older generation find it totally appalling. It’s an insult.”
The Sun also spoke to Col. Richard Kemp:
I know it’s a film, but it’s symbolically disrespectful to Churchill. He will be turning in his grave.”
Michael Bay himself ended up responding to these allegations:
People were not fortunate enough to read the script, and they don’t know Churchill in this movie is a big hero, and Churchill would be smiling about Last Knight. They haven’t seen the movie. They don’t know the ending, and they don’t know how Churchill is a hero in this movie. When you see the movie you’ll understand. I for one, probably more than any other director in the world, have short more veterans and more active military men and women in my movies…I would do nothing to disrespect veterans.”
A bit of faith is all Bay seems to be asking at the moment, and truthfully plot details are very scarce to give a full-on judgement , but with his track record and the fan fiction territory it seems to be going…can we really take that with a grain of salt?
Transformers: The Last Knight opens June 23, 2017.