Transformers: Rise of the Beasts - Movie Review

Introduction to Transformers: Rise of the Beast

The Transformers movies, live-action Transformers movies, anyway, well, they're Transformers movies. And there was a contrast there. But now, the Maximals have entered the fight. And in the words of the great Count Dooku, 'I've been looking forward to this.'

New Director and Fresh Ideas

So, Transformers: Rise of the Beast is directed by Stephen Cable Jr. That's right, no longer directed by Michael Bay. Well, Bumblebee wasn't either, but the point is new directors, fresh new ideas. It's not Optimus Prime and the Autobots. It's Optimus Primal and the Maximals. They have to team up and try to stop bad things from happening. Basically, trying to get the thing before the big bads get the thing. And trying to keep it vague because the big bad was alluded to in the trailer but not really set. It's not like they're saying, 'Hey, the Unicorn is coming.' Oh, I guess I did say it in the trailer. Okey-doke. Well, Transformers: The Last Knight has been retconned. And now, you know, a moment of silence for lost garbage.

Optimus Primal and the Maximals

This movie starts out pretty great, awesome setup with Optimus Prime. I was ready, I was in. And then, human characters, still not directed by Michael Bay. We'll see where it goes. But this movie does have the human element, concentrating on human beings so the audience can have that human element to latch onto. Which we never really needed in the animations, both Transformers and Beast Wars alike. Granted, the original Transformers series, as well as the animated movie, had humans in it, but it never revolved around them in the way that the live-action Transformers movies have. But I will say, Rise of the Beast, as well as Bumblebee, have done that human element a lot better than the Transformers movies that came before it. Live-action, that is. Keep saying that because the animated movie is absolutely amazing. Any movie that has an action sequence to "Weird Al" Yankovic's "Dare to be Stupid," it's amazing in my book.

Balancing Human Characters and the Transformers

But it's Noah Diaz and Dominique Fishback this time around, mainly concentrating on Noah Diaz. I thought he did a great job. He was a relatable dude who's just thrown into the mix of this situation. He actually has solid comedic timing, bouncing off of Pete Davidson, who plays Mirage, who plays the voice of Mirage in here. However, I will say, either the script is self-aware or Pete Davidson was ad-libbing when the script gets a little too cheesy. There's one line in particular where he just kind of makes a joke about it sounding cheesy when it left his mouth. That's either in the script or Pete Davidson was like, 'I'm making a joke about this because the only way it works.'

Soundtrack

Speaking of great energy, that's also the soundtrack. This movie takes place canonically a few years after the Bumblebee movie, so now we're in the early '90s. And the soundtrack, they have something about a soundtrack. It's how you know where you are in history. The entire movie of Forrest Gump, you knew which decade we were in because of the music that played, right? So, you have yourself some nice early '90s soundtrack going on in here. I thought it was great. Not a playlist, no, a mixtape. Called that a mixtape.

Robot Fights

The robot fights, I thought were fun. You know, the robot versus robot fights. They should be entertaining. They should be a spectacle. I felt they did a good job with that. However, I felt they did a good job with that when they were fighting near a museum or recognizable terrain. Because the last act of this movie, when you had all the robots fighting, this was some plain gray molten thing. Like a less interesting version of Mordor, complete with a whole tower that looks like Barad-dûr. It's weird.

Issues with the Last Act

And now that we're talking about the last act, I gotta say, there were so many conveniences and MacGuffins in this script for the last act. It was just ridiculous. I mean, granted, the whole movie revolves around everyone looking for a thing, which is always a thing Transformers movies have. Just gotta have a thing. At that point, it's the Amazing Race to find the thing first, right? Absolutely. But in the last act, when it was like, 'Oh, this is a problem. Okay, well, we'll do this, this, and this, and then you can get into the thing and do this thing that requires a very conveniently human-sized problem so we can have the humans do something while we're all fighting so they don't feel useless.' You know, for the sake of the movie. The audience was laughing.

Convenient Plot Elements and Audience Reception

Granted, there were jokes in the movie in which the audience was laughing with the movie. But in the last act, when they were spelling out all of these conveniences, I felt like the audience was turning on the movie and they were laughing at the movie. It felt like someone wrote the script and fell asleep on the keyboard, and someone's kid just came in and was like, 'And I want to put these in here. I think that really polishes it up.' Well, okay, I'm late for kindergarten. Hope it works out. Then that script was just turned in without any proofreading. No one questioned it at all.

Memorable Moments and Disappointment with the Maximals

Luckily for this movie, it's like it was recognized. It was like, 'Okay, among all these conveniences and this boring landscape, or having this last final throwdown happen at, we need a couple of badass moments to really stick the landing here. If the audience is going nuts, none of the rest of it matters. Not in the moment, anyway.' Undeniably, there were a couple of badass moments. You couldn't help but smile.

The biggest disappointment is with the Maximals entirely. It's called Rise of the Beasts, not really. It's not really them rising at all. You get the biggest arc with Optimus Primal. I was glad to see that. But really, generally, the rest of his troops, you don't really know much about them. Michelle Yeoh is Airazor. She has the most dialogue. But Cheetor has less. Rhinox, does he even talk? Like, he was there to be a big brute, smashing baddies for the final acts. They didn't really feel like characters at all. Granted, it's a very packed film. You have the baddies causing problems, you have the humans the movie revolves around, then you have the Autobots, the Maximals, right? So, there's going to be some folks who are going to get left on the sidelines. I thought concentrating on Optimus Primal for the Maximals, that was a smart move. But as a Beast Wars fan, I wanted to see more. Hell, I want to see just a Beast Wars standalone film. I feel like that could still happen.

Optimus Prime's Arc and the Main Villain

One of the more interesting arcs in the movie is Optimus Prime. Times are... Because Optimus Prime, I've always seen him as, you know, he's... He's Robot Jesus, right? He always dies. He dies in every continuity. But he comes back and sacrifices himself. He does what he can for the greater good. In this movie, he's... He's that as well, but he has a little bit of existential dread. Granted, at first, it felt like a bit of a midlife crisis, but it was kind of just... He's just kind of been through something . He's lived a long time, and now he's wondering, you know, is it all worth it? Like, how many times do I have to do this? How many friends do I have to see die? And he has a bit of a Darth Vader moment with it. Granted, he doesn't go full Darth Vader, but he definitely was like, "All right, well, we're doing this, and we're doing this my way, because we need results." And I liked that angle. I liked that angle for Optimus Prime.

And then you have the main bad guy. He's a big name in Transformers lore. Like, the hardcore Transformers fans are gonna be happy to see this guy on screen. The problem is, the way they did him in this movie, there's definitely a feeling that the movie was like, "We need a big bad. Who can we use? Let's use this guy. What's his personality? What's his motivation? Who cares? He's got a big name. People will know who he is, so it's fine." As a fan of this character, I was disappointed. But I'm still glad he made it into a movie.

Conclusion

Overall, Transformers: Rise of the Beast is a mixed bag. I think it's a step in the right direction for the live-action Transformers movies. It's definitely better than a lot of them, but it still has some issues. I'm hopeful that they continue to improve and deliver even better Transformers movies in the future.