Samuel Parker, Isabela Moner, Benjamin Flores Jr., Juliocesar Chavez and Daniel Iturriaga star in a scene from the movie "Transformers: The Last Knight." The Catholic News Service classification is A-III -- adults. (CNS/Paramount)

By Catholic News Service

Ponderous sci-fi action flick in which a small-time inventor (Mark Wahlberg) tries to save Earth from being destroyed in a collision with the home planet of a race of shape-shifting robots.

Director Michael Bay’s film finds the evil sorceress (Gemma Chan) who created the automatons scheming to revive their dying orb by desolating ours. The sinkhole of a plot drags in King Arthur (Liam Garrigan), the biblical apocalypse, an English professor (Laura Haddock) in present-day Oxford and a loopy historian (Anthony Hopkins) who explains all the connections in detail but unconvincingly.

A steady stream of swearing makes this long, loud and dumb production, the fifth franchise entry for a series based on a line of Hasbro toys, inappropriate for those undemanding youngsters who might somehow enjoy it.

Occult themes, much harsh but mostly bloodless combat violence, at least one use of profanity, a few milder oaths, much crude and crass language. The Catholic News Service classification is A-III — adults. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is PG-13 — parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.

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