Transformers: Rise of the Beasts Review
Rise of the Beasts is the latest attempt at Transformers in a cinematic experience, and it’s one that very lightly in a throwaway line builds upon Bumblebee. A movie that was much, much better than this one. Not the greatest way to kick off on this review, but honestly at most this is just a really middle of the line movie. It’s far better than the last two Bay films in the series, but yeah it doesn’t come close to Bumblebee.
It’s the most middling sort of, just a movie I’ve watched film I think I’ve seen. That’s not necessarily a terrible thing, but just don’t expect anything wild with this one. Here we have the Transformers once again teaming up with humans as they fight an end of the world scenario. If it sounds predictable, it is. I literally knew what was going to happen from the first few minutes of the film.
Whatever the case, I will say that it’s ending note genuinely surprised me but didn’t necessarily excite me. Anyways, it’s the Autobots teaming up with some of the Maximals. You don’t get to really know any of the Maximals or a lot of the characters because there are just too many. They’re going up against a mysterious force known as the Terrorcons led by a monstrous planet eating force.
If you’re into the lore of Transformers, it’s pretty obvious what that force is. When it comes to humans there’s Noah (Anthony Ramos) who’s one of those down on his luck, ex marines who has a sick brother. He gets paired with Mirage who sort of carries this film. Another human is Elena (Dominique Fishback), she’s quite brilliant but fairly sidelined honestly and it would have been neat to have her share more of the screen.
When it comes to performances they were generally fine, very much your typical humans with giant machines scenario. I wish that someday Paramount will learn that it’s okay not to have humans in a Transformers movie.
The various Autobots have personalities, but I wish they spent more time with them. There’s also a strangely adult focused element on this one from the jokes to the tone. Even Optimus Prime is quite against humans, part of his overall character development I suppose.
The CGI quality in this was actually fairly great for the most part. There was weight to the machines and the explosions were great. I did however find a whole floating head human part to be a tad silly and really unsettling as it stood out against what was actually fairly solid CGI throughout.
The Conclusion
Transformers: Rise of the Beasts is a fine watch if you want to see massive machines smashing each other with large explosions in the backdrop, if you want something more this just isn’t that film. This is an improvement over the last couple Bay films in the series, but really doesn’t build upon the great foundation that Bumblebee set.
They really moved away from the heart and fun that was in that film, for something that feels too eerily similar to what came prior. It is slightly easier to make out the various robots fighting, but when you don’t get to know them they seem like empty scrap parts smashing each other. It was super weird to get a Beast Wars film and you barely get to know the actual crew that makes up that populous.
As I said, it’s a movie where you know what you’re getting. There’s action, explosions and some humans throw in to run around. It feels like; if you’ve seen one Transformers movie, you’ve seen them all. I suppose this could be a good direction for things to head but it seems weird to start with the mega enemy in the first battle as it’ll seem random where they go from here.
Cinematic wise the Transformers lore is a mess anyways, so none of it matters when it eventually gets another reboot down the road I guess. So yeah, probably fine for those not expecting much but not meaty for those wanting this series to become something more. It’s just, alright.
Transformers: Rise of the Beasts Review at Theater with Standard Viewing
Screening Provided by Taro PR
Rating Overall: 5.0
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