Shot-by-shot commentary of one scene from Transformers: The Last Knight
A few months ago, I remembered this movie was a thing, and looked up a clip to see if I'd be able to sit though it just for Optimus.
The short answer is no.
The long answer is that this single scene has driven me insane.
Bear in mind, i have very little context for this scene, so i will primarily be riffing on it from a cinematography angle. Buckle up!
Let's start with this...beautiful? aerial shot of gray metal guys running on a gray metal slope, their considerable scale reduced to that of ants on a plate by the speedy camera.
These two climb out of the structure. Their spatial relation to the rest of the scene is never established.
Aaand now the metal guys are running down from the other side of the screen. Did the camera keep spinning between shots?? Anyways, they start pummeling Optimus.
Cut to Optimus being pummeled from the front. With a bit of planning, this could have been continuous with the previous shot, but...oh boy. Oh boy. Let's not start with that just yet.
Don't forget, girl is here! (This is the last time she shows up in this scene.)
Oh right, Cade was in the corner of the last shot.
He gets up, starts running in the opposite screen direction of where Optimus was in relation to him earlier,
...and immediately slips and falls in the next shot. You get to enjoy the moment in lovely slow-motion.
Optimus then explains what is currently happening in the scene for the benefit of anyone staring slack-jawed at the screen by this point.
Then the knights go back to beating Optimus up.
One guy takes an axe to his back edged side down, and it doesn't do jack except knock him flat.
Also, Cade is here.
This guy finally comes to deal the killing blow.
What follows is a series of barely connected slo-mo jump cuts of the device on Cade's arm unfolding,
followed by a fast series of time-breaking cuts to show a single sword strike,
oh my god they keep cutting
wait WHO IS THIS, WHERE WAS HE
...oh my god, i scrubbed backwards, he's supposed to have been near Cade the whole time, what
Then there's a dramatic spinning shot, which would have been a cool moment to show the walking props knights holding their swords up in abrupt reverence, but instead we mostly just watch Cade look around in confusion while Optimus grovels.
We interrupt the spinning to inform you that this scene was filmed during golden hour.
Back to spinning. I guess you don't have to worry about the 180 degree rule if your scene spans the full 360, huh?
Cade looks over at Optimus, and Optimus looks back.
...Followed IMMEDIATELY by a fast pan of planes flying behind some knights; my eyes
Optimus keeps talking. His speech is about as continuous as the shots.
We finally get a quiet moment to hold on that last shot for a while, and listen to Cade give a pep talk to a war general who's seen countless human lifetimes' worth of pain and loss.
And that's all that Optimus needed to pick himself up.
We get a triumphant shot of Optimus straightening up, rallying his brothers in arms to rise up against Quintessa...
And for one moment, perhaps your brain can feel a glimmer of joy within the soup of semi-consciousness it's now sinking into.
...
If I watch the whole movie, I will die.
That's all, folks!
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