(Cert 12A; 165 mins)

Are you ready for three hours of overkill? Transformers: Age Of Extinction is an orgy of destruction in which barely a moment passes without a lofty building being reduced to rubble, violence on a massive scale or vehicles doing slow-motion pirouettes during helter skelter chases.

The latest bombastic blockbuster from the notorious Michael Bay is an exhausting affair in which you are repeatedly coshed over the head by some of the most expensive and impressive effects that money can buy.

The plot finds Texas widow and aspiring inventor Cade Yeager (Mark Wahlberg) stumbling upon a rusty old truck that happens to be the mighty Autobot Optimus Prime (voiced by Peter Cullen).

Soon, Yeager, his teenage daughter Tessa (Nicola Peltz) and her boyfriend Shane (Jack Reynor) are on the run, caught in the crossfire of a loopy conspiracy that involves misguided patriot Harold Attinger (Kelsey Grammer), corporate bigwig Joshua Joyce (hilarious Stanley Tucci) and a cunning plan to eradicate the Autobots and introduce a generation of Transformers created by meddling humans.

The unrelenting carnage is so mind-numbing that all you can do is raise a white flag of surrender and beg for mercy.