Transformers: Rise of the Beasts Review – Pretty Forgettable!

The Transformers franchise has been on a bit of a hiatus lately when it’s come to theatrical movies, and after the series was brought back to basics with Bumblebee acting as a soft reboot, Rise of the Beasts acts as the return to the mainline entries, opting to adapt the 90s side of Transformers with implementing characters from Beast Wars. However, the movie struggles to find its own identity in the midst of the massive change of direction the franchise has gone through, and it places the movie in a strange position.

The best thing about Rise of the Beasts is that it feels like the Autobots are the actual main characters again and not just supporting the human storyline. Which was a problem that got incredibly awful as the Bayformers movies progressed. Each of them have their own distinct personalities and their designs resemble their G1 counterparts. The biggest surprise was probably mirage, played by Pete Davidson, who got a lot of the standout moments. I really liked his connection with Noah and although he has some cringey lines, he got a lot of the best jokes as well, so I felt like it balanced out.

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The villains for the live-action Transformers are usually the same couple bland or forgettable characters, but I can confidently say that scourge is easily the best out of all of them. I love the opening stinger where he immediately proves how dangerous he is, and I love the little detail of him collecting insignias from the Autobots and Maximals he’s defeated over the years. Scourge also has to serve under Unicron, and after the awful mishandling the planet received in the Last Knight, I’m glad that he’s menacing and intimidating here.

One of my biggest gripes with the movie is for how heavily marketed the Maximals were for being the big new characters, they barely even factor into the movie. Cheetor gets maybe one line, and Rhinox doesn’t even even speak. The Predacons are strangely absent from the entirety of the film despite being so important to beast wars. Airazor has a good deal of screen time, but Optimus Prime is the only one who really gets enough time to shine. They just sort of feel like an afterthought, and for a movie titled around the introduction of the Beasts, I just wish that they were utilized better.

After the incredibly convoluted plots of the last couple Bayverse Transformers movies, the story was always one of the biggest issues with this overarching franchise. With this movie, it’s scaled back immensely and while I can appreciate the simpler story, it’s almost simple to a fault. It follows the same tired formula of the heroes and villains fighting over a Macguffin that will determine the fate of humanity, and it plays out so predictably that at this point, the franchise needs to evolve and find new stories to tell.

Also, for the most part the CGI does look okay and does its job, but there’s a specific moment in the final act involving CG interacting with Anthony Ramos’ character and it looks genuinely awful. It was actively distracting and the concept just felt so goofy in the context of the incredibly dire stakes.

The human characters are still heavily involved with the series, but at least they’re done pretty well here. I appreciated the time we spend with Noah before all the Transformers stuff kicks in, and his motivation revolving around his brother definitely made him more likable. However, I’m not sure why the movie chose to keep Elena around, as she has much less to do in the final act other than sneaking around and hiding, but it wasn’t too distracting.

I’m glad that this movie finally gives Optimus Prime a character arc. As he felt so stagnant over the course of the past six movies, and his growth toward trusting the humans felt believable. I just wish he wasn’t still so obsessed with murder, as he actively threatens scourge throughout the course of the movie, it’s one of the aspects I wish was left behind with Bayverse Prime.

Rise of the Beasts has a lot of the same great aspects as Bumblebee by focusing in on strong characterization and simplicity, but unfortunately, I don’t think it’s strong enough on its own. It doesn’t have the spetacle of the Bayformers or the heart of the 2018 movie, rather it just kinda sits in between the two and it ends up making the film pretty forgettable. It by no means a bad movie, and you could do way worse with the Transformers films, but unless you’re a major fan of the franchise, I don’t know if this movie will do anything special that we haven’t already seen in the past six films.

‘Rise of the Beasts’ Rating – 2.75/5

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