It's really all about the robots, the orgiastic display of CGI destruction, and (of course) the explosions. The story: Good outer space robots are now in hiding and the CIA (why the CIA?) The CIA bad guy has also formed an alliance with billionaire inventor Joshua Joyce (Stanley Tucci), who has figured out how to build Transformers. The basic thrust of Transformers: Age of Extinction follows the misadventures of four surviving Autobots - Bumblebee, Hound (voice of John Goodman), Crosshairs (voice of John DiMaggio), and Drift (voice of Ken Watanabe) - as they seek out Optimus Prime, who has been revived with the help of Texas mechanic Cade Yeager (Mark Wahlberg). The film was shot partly in Detroit, but mainly it's Chicago and Hong Kong that get torn to shreds over the next two hours and 45 minutes.
– 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."