Directed by Steven Caple Jr, Transformers Rise of the Beasts follows Optimus Prime (Peter Cullen) and the Autobots who take on their biggest challenge yet when they detect the signal of an ancient Cybertronian artifact with the ability to return them to their homeworld of Cybertron. They find out they aren’t the only ones searching for it as an evil faction called the Terrorcons seeks to use the artifact to summon a new threat capable of destroying entire planets. The Autobots must team up with two humans and a powerful faction of Transformers known as the Maximals to prevent the destruction of Earth and track down the ancient artifact before it falls into the wrong hands.
I have had a significant but complicated attachment to the Transformers franchise over the years, having watched most of the adaptations. Some of them I loved, some of them I didn’t, and some of them I absolutely hated. When it comes to the live-action adaptations I have honestly loathed most of them, specifically the ones directed by Michael Bay. While they may hold up in terms of effects and grand action pieces they are repulsive in terms of storytelling and treatment of iconic characters. Once Bay was finally removed from the equation we ended up getting a wonderful and much-needed reboot with the Bumblebee film that showed what a real Transformers film should be like.
And here we are five years later with the newest installment of the franchise that continues the story of this new timeline, bringing in more iconic characters from the Transformers line up including familiar faces, rebooted faces, and new faces making their big screen debuts. The question is does this film follow in the footsteps of its 2018 predecessor or does it falter back in the disastrous ways of the Michael Bay movies?
After watching it I can thankfully say that it is the former. Transformers: Rise of the Beasts is an absolute blast and a strong return to the big screen for the robots in disguise. Like Bumblebee, it’s a much more focused, grounded, and simplistic story that delivers a ton of fun and surprising amounts of heart, but it does go a bit bigger in terms of stakes, adventure, and action, especially with the inclusion of the very beloved Maximals, the vicious Terrorcons, and the planet devouring Unicron as the looming villain of this story.
This film has world-ending stakes that we are more than familiar with when it comes to these films, but similar to Bumblebee there are way fewer characters to follow, no overly complicated plots, and there is a proper balance of story and action that makes audiences feel engaged with the film from start to end.
The human characters are compelling and are utilized in very surprising ways that go back to what human characters were like in the G1 series when they actually felt useful to the plot and worked alongside the Transformers in the fight against evil. Anthony Ramos and Dominique Fishback solidly deliver heart, humor, spirit, and emotional stakes as their respective characters shine together and are developed enough for the audiences to connect with, similar to the character Charlie from Bumblebee.
The true stars of this film though are the Transformers themselves, with solid voice performances across the board with some noticeable standouts, and are actually treated as real characters. We get a good amount of time with the Transformers themselves, seeing their personalities and connecting with them in different ways, which is a massive step up compared to how they were done in Bay’s installments.
Peter Cullen once again delivers as Optimus Prime, showing that even at the age of 81 he can still voice the character perfectly. He has an interesting arc of his own where in this timeline he doesn’t start with trusting humans and is far more concerned with keeping his Autobot family safe after losing so much. How he ends up evolving is done really well and it’s the first time I felt the character of Optimus Prime was actually done right in live-action after a string of disappointing takes. Although the one thing that did stay with him throughout all the films is that he’s still a badass when it comes to combat.
Bumblebee is also great once again but due to certain story events he takes a bit of a backseat in this film, which is somewhat understandable given he had a whole film to himself before. He does end up having a really epic needle drop scene that had my audience in applause and had me grinning like crazy.
The other Autobots are fun too but the true standout among them that completely stole the spotlight was Mirage voiced by Pete Davidson. I fucking loved Mirage! He’s witty, hilarious, and unfiltered and Pete Davidson absolutely owns this character delivering, quite possibly his best performance to date. I didn’t think I was going to love the character as much as I did but the very second his dialogue kicked in I was all in from start to finish. He’s the ultimate RoBro!
When it comes to the villains we don’t get Megatron or his Decepticons this time and instead we have the Terrorcons led by Scourge, voiced by Peter Dinklage. I didn’t think we could have a villain quite as cold and intimidating as Megatron but I was proven wrong by Scourge who right off the bat is shown to be a powerful and sadistic foe for our heroes to fight.
Dinklage goes all in with the voice of this character, delivering a vicious villain that is relentless in his pursuit of the artifact and one that audiences will love to hate due to the actions he commits.
Unicron acts as an extremely intimidating presence throughout the film and is voiced brilliantly by Colman Domingo, delivering the character’s first proper live-action depiction rather than the pathetic depiction of him that was in The Last Knight. This is the true eater of worlds on the big screen.
But of course, for me, the most anticipated set of characters for this film was the Maximals, who I adored in Beast Wars as well as their previous appearance in Transformers WFC Kingdom. They were absolutely awesome in live-action but among the four members it was Optimus Primal and Airazor who stood out the most.
Ron Perlman delivers a strong voice performance as the leader of the Maximals, showcasing primal rage but also compelling emotion and wisdom. Much like how Peter Cullen is perfect for Prime, it feels like Ron Perlman was meant to be the voice of Primal with the amount of gravitas and power he gives to the character.
Michelle Yeoh continues her hot streak of spectacular performances with her voice role as Airazor, bringing a calming yet authoritative presence every time she is on screen. It seems no matter what film Yeoh ends up in she fully commits to the part and is able to fit into any work perfectly, showing how truly talented of an actress she is. She’s an absolutely bright star that I can only just keep on praising no matter where she goes.
The film’s action rocks with adrenaline-pumping clashing of metal, intense chases, and vicious brawls that are shown in full glory and aren’t covered by insane over-the-top explosions. With some really solid effects, stellar cinematography, practical sets, and a fantastic score the action looks fantastic and feels phenomenal as it brings the epicness of the Transformers characters and world to life in massive ways.
And some of the action scenes feel emotionally driven as well, which I wasn’t expecting at all but I really cared about everyone on screen thanks to having time to connect with each of them between the action set pieces, making the whole film feel more engaging even for how simple it may be.
The soundtrack was fun with some great 90s tracks that fit the time period, but really it’s the score by composer Jongnic Bontemps that adds so much weight to many scenes in the film. I was even surprised to hear a small but fitting reprisal of Steve Jablonsky’s iconic Transformers theme come in and I’ll admit it gave me chills hearing it again on the big screen.
Now there is a mid-credit scene for this film so be sure to stick around for that, but I will say the mid-credit scene had nothing on the absolute bombshell of a reveal at the end of this film that is going to catch people completely off guard. It’s a truly unexpected direction for where the series will go next and I can guarantee it’s going to make certain people I know really excited.
Now just to be clear this film isn’t trying to be some masterpiece of cinema nor is it meant to be. It’s not entirely perfect as there were some things I wish they could have improved upon that I can’t fully discuss due to spoilers, but it never ruined the fun experience I had. It’s an entertaining summer blockbuster that succeeds in delivering the promised entertainment while also delivering a great adaptation of the Transformers source material that doesn’t rely on high-octane explosions, obsession with American flags, or racist stereotypes. It could have easily fallen back on the nonsense Michael Bay gave us for several years but instead it chose not to and went its own way, breathing new life into the series that is likely to win over audiences of all kinds including Transformers fans who have been wanting a proper adaptation of their favorite characters. I’m going to give Transformers Rise of the Beasts an A- = 93.
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