Transformers: The Last Knight Has Neither the Touch Nor the Power

This weekend at the movies, we’ve got Michael Bay (allegedly) bidding farewell to the blockbuster Transformers saga with its fifth installment (Transformers: The Last Knight, starring Mark Wahlberg and Anthony Hopkins). What are the critics saying?

Transformers: The Last Knight (2017) 16%

The Transformers toy line was all about delivering fun that was “more than meets the eye,” but the live-action films it’s spawned have focused on visual thrills above all else — to their continued critical detriment and vast financial gain. It’s obviously too soon to tell what the box office holds for the fifth installment in the series, but as far as the critics are concerned, this weekend’s Transformers: The Last Knight offers more of the same; instead of serving up relatable characters or a compelling, sensible story, it races from one boffo, CGI-driven set piece to the next, using Anthony Hopkins and Merlin the Wizard to continue building the franchise’s vast alien robot mythology. Judging from the way the past Transformers features have performed, that’s just fine with audiences — and if you’ve enjoyed the Michael Bay-helmed saga thus far, there’s little reason to expect your mileage will vary much this time out. Plan accordingly, but don’t say we didn’t warn you.

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• Nobody Speak: Hulk Hogan, Gawker and Trials of a Free Press (2017) 91% , a documentary look at the dangers facing the Fourth Estate in modern America, is at 94 percent.
• In Pursuit of Silence (2015) 90% , a documentary about noise’s impact on modern life and the potential value of seeking out silence, is at 94 percent.
• The Ornithologist (2016) 87% , about a man who faces death — among other things — during a grueling trek through the wilderness, is at 83 percent.
• The Beguiled (2017) 79% , about the sexually charged chaos that erupts when a Civil War soldier is taken in by the residents of a Southern girls’ school, is at 73 percent.
• The Bad Batch (2016) 45% , about a woman kidnapped by cannibals in a lawless wasteland, is at 45 percent.