MOVIE REVIEWS: TRANSFORMERS: AGE OF EXTINCTION

Transformers: Age of Extinction has received not a single positive review from any of the country’s leading newspaper film critics, many of which came away saying that they felt as if they had been bludgeoned for three hours. Few critics simply dismiss the movie, however. A. O. Scott in the New York Times comments: "You can admire what [director Michael Bay] does without really enjoying it, and two hours and 46 minutes of pulverized architecture is a lot to endure. But in every Michael Bay movie there are at least a few moments of inspired, kinetic absurdity." Kyle Smith in the New York Post describes one of scene of "ironic wit, as when Cade, having survived two hours of battles with intergalactic super-alien robots, is nearly killed by a falling air conditioner." However, Smith concludes, "This series was never good, but it was once fun, or at least flashy. Now that its gears have gone rusty, it’s time for an Alien vs. Predator-style rethink." But Age of Extinction receives little in the way of admiration from most other critics. Joe Neumaier in the New York Daily News writes that the movie produces the kind of "brain strain that, if one isn’t already a kid or a fan, puts the stink in Extinction." Nearly every critic remarks about the nearly three-hour length of the movie. Peter Hartlaub in the San Francisco Chronicle comments that "The new "Transformers" is a completely unnecessary and soul-crushing 165 minutes long, bloated by exposition and plot turns that sound as if they were being made up as the movie was shot. You could cut 45 minutes out of Transformers: Age of Extinction in completely random places; it would be a much better movie (and only slightly less coherent)." And Peter Howell in the Toronto Star sums up: "It’s long, it’s loud, and it’s really stupid."