An automobile mechanic and his daughter make a discovery that brings down the Autobots - and a paranoid government official - on them.
Michael Bay's latest film pits Goliaths against uber-Goliaths, has dialogue out of a shampoo commercial, and is curiously boring.
Franchise fans may well continue to lap it up but they really shouldn’t keep encouraging Bay to continue, especially since two further instalments are already being threatened.
After a promising start, thanks to Wahlberg and his funky bunch, Age Of Extinction transforms into a typically bombastic Bay offering. If it’s major-league spectacle you want, though, look no further.
It’s big. It’s bad. It’s insane. It’s different.
Despite the title, there is no sign the Transformers are anywhere near extinction quite yet.
The loyal fans — and they are legion — will trot out clichés like, “Leave your brain at the door,” and defend Age Of Extinction’s right to be nothing but a succession of varoom! and kersmash! sequences. For those who aren’t still blindly faithful to something they liked when they were nine, despite the colossal scale, there’s little to see here.
It's all very wearing and very ridiculous – with the occasional glimmer of humour.
The unrelenting carnage is so mind-numbing that all you can do is raise a white flag of surrender and beg for mercy.
True to its title, then, Transformers: Age of Extinction does reflect something dying out: unfortunately it seems to be the inclination to make good summer blockbusters.
Shameless, soulless and – at 165 minutes – endless: this feels awfully like metal fatigue.
In the time in takes to watch Bay follow the money to Hong Kong you could probably file your own tax returns – more productive, and rather less dull.
General release. Check local listings for show times.
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