Transformers 4 Is Just Plain Awful

Womp womp. According to critics, the Transformers franchise should have been kept to a trilogy. The fourth installment of this robot-smashing series, Transformers: Age of Extinction, is getting the nod from just 20% of critics on Rotten Tomatoes. The upside? It has a 74% approval rating from audiences. Here's what the critics had to say:

• "Do you ever think to yourself, gee, I wish someone would beat on my skull with a hammer today? If so, you're in luck," writes Tom Long at the Detroit News. Essentially, it's two hours and 45 minutes of "absolute garbage." It's "repetitive beyond belief, soulless, and shamelessly, endlessly chaotic."

• "To give Bay his due, Transformers is a testament to advances in CGI," David Hiltbrand explains at the Philadelphia Inquirer. But the stunning moments are "drowned out in the excessive uproar of this clanking cinematic claptrap," he writes, adding the noise itself "may cause hearing damage. ... Go if you must, but bring earplugs."
• How does Mark Wahlberg do in the starring role? Well, he's "an upgrade on Shia LaBeouf, although it hardly matters," writes James Berardinelli at ReelViews. "People in Bay films are as interesting and important as background decor." However, "Stanley Tucci manages to rise above the material and leave an impression."
• Bay doesn't seem "to understand or care where this noise goes anymore," writes Peter Howell at the Toronto Star. He sums up Transformers: Age of Extinction thusly: "It's long, it's loud, and it's really stupid." He even feels the need to repeat that sentence twice. He then adds it's not even "mildly tolerable as time-wasting trash."

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