Since hitting the big screen back in 2007 with its first foray into live action, the Transformers franchise has been incredibly successful, grossing over $5 billion at the global box office. It’s what one could consider the definition of a “critic-proof” franchise, as out of the seven films released, only two have landed on the positive side of the review spectrum (2007’s Transformers, and 2018’s Bumblebee), with only Bumblebee receiving actual critical acclaim. That said, as a critic myself, I often don’t agree with how a lot of genres and movies are scored, because sometimes a movie is there for pure entertainment value, and that’s how it should be reviewed.
Do I want a decent story when I go and see a Transformers movie? Of course. But first and foremost, I’m going to a Transformers movie to watch the Autobots battle it out with the Decepticons, or whatever antagonist is threatening them in that particular prequel/sequel. Yes, I’d prefer there to be a solid enough reason for the fight to be taking place that warrants the movie being made, but that doesn’t mean it has to be overly deep. To read negative reviews that called the Michael Bay Transformers films “noisy and silly,” or, “full of mindless explosions,” seemed to miss the point that over-the-top, explosive robot battles is indeed what drew audiences in to begin with.
Now while I’ve enjoyed all but one of the franchise’s installments (I’m looking at you The Last Knight, where things were retconned in a convoluted rewriting of history that, worst of all, saw the robot battles feel like an afterthought with the focus being on the bloated storyline) I can admit that some are stronger than others, with 2018’s Bumblebee universally being viewed as one of the best. What helped that prequel is that it took the most innocent of the Transformers in Bumblebee and put him alongside a protagonist who was also lost in the world, creating a coming-of-age Transformers movie, which was more relatable and welcoming to audiences who may not have been interested in its more explosion-centric predecessors.
Transformers: Rise of the Beasts is a sequel to Bumblebee, as the studio continues to try and keep the original five Bay movies as canon that these movies are building towards. I do think that it’d be okay for them to just start anew, even if the Transformers all look the same as they did in the previous films. I mean, they look spectacular and there isn’t really a great way to improve upon the look, so I don’t think anyone would hold it against them if they just said, “The Bay movies were their own thing, and now we’re starting a fresh timeline that begins with Bumblebee.” That’d not only allow them to get the Decepticons into the mix once again, but it’d also allow us all to forget about The Last Knight and whatever story it was attempting to tell.
I’ll delve more into Rise of the Beasts as a movie, but first let me touch on the awesome Steelbook case that fans can add to their collection if they so choose! The film takes place in New York, 1994, so graffiti was a big part of the set design early on in the movie. That translates into both sides of the cover art, which was such a fun, vibrant decision. On the front of the Steelbook we’ve got Optimus Prime’s face spray painted onto the side of a building, with paint dripping down, and the tagline, “’Till All Are One,” also sprayed on the wall. I love everything about it. It’s a unique look, there are cool and warm colours just popping all over, it fits the style of the first half of the film, and above all else it’s just an eye-catching, fantastic piece of cover art.
On the back we’ve got the same look and idea as the front, though instead of Optimus Prime, we’ve got Optimus Primal, the leader of the Maximals. He’s spray painted with similar colours, so the two compliment one another beautifully, and he’s also got the tagline, “’Till All Are One,” written here as well, this time in green instead of the more noticeable yellow on the cover. Just top tier work on both the front and back here, and just a gorgeous case all around.
On the inside of the case we’ve got both the Autobots and the Maximals, with the Maximals taking up the left slip, and the Autobots from this film taking up the right. In the center, landing partially on both sides, is Optimus Prime. I don’t mind the simplicity of the inner slip here, as it wonderfully showcases the heroes from the film and benefits from simplicity on this front. If there’s one thing I could change to make both sides stand out even more, it’d be that I’d lift up the cityscape of New York that’s all but hidden behind the Autobots, or even changed it to an alleyway or graffiti covered wall, as it seems a bit unbalanced and odd to have the Maximals posed with their mountainous home in Peru as the backdrop, and then the Autobots posed in front of a fairly light blue night sky.
It’s an incredibly small nitpick, and in no way really takes away from what’s a stunning exterior Steelbook for fans to add to their collections.
Now let’s talk about the movie itself, which lands safely in the middle of the pack in terms of entertainment value. Transformers: Rise of the Beasts is fun, it’s full of action, it’s got a solid antagonist in Scourge (voiced by Peter Dinklage), who is the leader of the Terrorcons. The Terrorcons are the heralds of Unicron (voiced by Colman Domingo), who is one of the big bads in the Transformers universe. This planet-sized Transformer gains power by consuming planets, and he begins the film by arriving at the Maximals homeworld in search of the Transwarp Key. This key will allow Unicron and the Terrorcons to travel through space and time, which will allow for Unicron to basically become all-powerful. A group of Maximals, led by Optimus Primal (voiced by Ron Perlman) escape with the Transwarp Key and trap Unicron in that galaxy. They lose their homeworld, but save everyone else – or do they?
Unicron is none too pleased with the Scourge for letting the Maximals escape with the key, so he tasks Scourge with hunting them down and stealing the key back so that Unicron can be summoned to this other galaxy and continue gaining strength. Now, I’m forgiving about a lot of things, especially in popcorn flicks, but I did instantly wonder how Scourge was going to begin hunting down a ship that blasted off into an unknown distant galaxy. Wouldn’t he be trapped in this galaxy with Unicron? None of those questions are answered, and I did feel like they were legitimate ones to ask.
I believe the Transwarp Key was introduced in the animated series Beast Wars, but in the film it’s not really given any true context outside of if Unicron gets hold of it then that’s the end of everything. Even if they’d just said that it leaves a trail and can be located that way, that’d be something. The fact that when it does accidentally get activated on Earth that Scourge and the other Terrorcons are already on the planet is awfully convenient. I did say when I began this review that I believe at least a decent story was needed, and what we’re given here is just about as simplistically decent as you can get, which is definitely the opposite of convoluted – but also not overly enticing. It’s great when these big-budget blockbusters find that sweet spot of delivering something exciting and engrossing, even if the stakes are as basic as “stop the bad guys from doing something,” like they are here. There’s still fun to be had with Rise of the Beasts that we’ll touch on, it’s just that there was a chance to deliver a stronger experience like its predecessor did and it was missed.
Let’s talk about the characters now. The line that has to be walked with human characters in these films is a fine one, as if you spend too much time on them and not enough time on the characters people paid to see, then that’ll hurt the overall enjoyment of the movie. That said, we’ve long since learned that intertwining human stories in these sorts of films is just a given, so we hope for the best. In Rise of the Beasts we get Noah Diaz (Anthony Ramos) as the main protagonist for the humans, and he’s trying to help his mom and brother make ends meet. He’s an ex-military electronics expert, and even though he has the smarts, he simply isn’t given the chances to prove himself in the working world.
His brother Kris (Dean Scott Vazquez) is sick, and they’re behind on medical bills so he’s no longer able to get the treatment he needs. This forces Noah to have to ask one of his less law-abiding neighbours for a job to make a quick buck. That job is to steal a Porche that’s been parked in a lot for a while, so it should be an easy in-and-out job. The problem? Turns out that Porche is an Autobot in disguise named Mirage (voiced by Pete Davidson), and Noah just happens to be in the midst of stealing him when Optimus Prime puts out an alert for the Autobots to assemble.
This is how Noah gets mixed into things – even though Optimus Prime doesn’t trust humans and only wants to look out for his own. Our other main protagonist is Elena Wallace (Dominique Fishback), who is an artifact researcher at a museum, and she’s the one who discovers the Transwarp Key in an ancient piece that was brought in that day. She doesn’t know what it is, but she accidentally activates it, which lets Scourge know where it is, and that brings her into the mix alongside Noah, and now they and the Autobots have to stop Scourge from getting the key back to Unicron.
You may be asking, “Wait, this movie is called Rise of the Beasts…where are the Maximals?” They do arrive in the second half of the film, but outside of Optimus Primal and Airazor (Michelle Yeoh), there are only two others, and I’d honestly have to look up their names to find out who they are. One can transform into a cheetah, and the other a rhinoceros. So sadly, in a movie called Rise of the Beasts we don’t get as much Maximal character growth as some may have hoped for.
That’s not to say that they don’t kick all sorts of ass in the fight scenes, because they do, we just don’t really learn anything about them outside of the fact that Optimus Primal was named after Optimus Prime, and he believes that humans and Autobots/Maximals should work together as one in order to become stronger as a unit. That’s pretty much the extent of it on their front – but again, they do look bad ass when fighting, especially Primal.
So there’s been some negativity so far, or at least a lack of positivity, but I do think the movie lands more on the entertaining side of the fence despite its shortcomings. The jokes are fast and fun, and Mirage is a solid change of pace from Bumblebee, who usually does the heavy-lifting as the middle-man—er, robot between the Autobots and humans. Davidson has great comedic timing, and he’s able to connect on an emotional level with Noah and Kris, which helps give the audience something to hold onto as we go.
Both Noah and Elena are interesting enough to root for, though we’re really here to watch the Autobots, Maximals and Terrorcons do their thing – and they definitely go at it in explosive fashion multiple times over the films solidly paced two-hour runtime. They’ve definitely got the transforming CGI down pat now, as there’s just some fantastically fun moments where transformations will take place right in the midst of the action, into another transformation, into some big move explosive payoff. It’s something that’s improved every time out, and while this film is more grounded than some of the Bay films, it’s still got some impressive and fun moments that will have you giving a small “hell yeah!” fist-pump in your seat – or maybe I’m alone in doing that.
Nonetheless, Rise of the Beasts is apparently the first of three Transformers films that will continue the story forward. I’m not sure if they plan on jumping forward in time again, as they did here, landing seven years after the events of Bumblebee. Nor am I sure that they’ll continue on with Noah or Elena, as that may depend on the time-jump decisions. What I will say is that even though Rise of the Beasts lands in the middle of the pack when it comes to Transformers movies, it’s still an entertaining enough, action-packed popcorn flick if you want to see giant robots go toe-to-toe (or…gear-to-gear?) and don’t get too caught up in the paint-by-numbers storytelling.
Movie’s Overall Score: 3.5/5
4K Blu-ray Video and Audio Review:
What shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone is how strong the 4K video transfer of Rise of the Beasts is. Yes, Paramount once again knocks it out of the park, and it’s especially fun in a movie like Transformers to get to see those extra details on the robots that the 2160p/Dolby Vision transfer allows for. There are just so many small intricacies that come to life that can be missed on a lower quality transfer. We’ve also reached a point where the Transformers all just feel as though they’re part of the world, interacting with the environment and not feeling like tacked in CGI that isn’t there during filming.
On the audio side of the spectrum we’ve got a really solid Dolby Atmos track that will shake your room if you allow for it, but probably could’ve been pushed even further for a movie with so many levels like this one. It’s still an all-encompassing soundscape, with the score and soundtrack blasting from all sides, and nothing beats hearing that iconic transformation sound starting at one side of the room behind you and working its way to the other side before the transformation is complete. As a whole, it’s a solid delivery that gets the job done and works in unison with the top tier picture quality.
Special Features:
Human Affairs – This featurette comes in at seven-and-a-half minutes and sees the cast and crew all talk about growing up watching Transformers, their love of the IP, and also touched upon some of the lessons learned from Bumblebee. While I do see where some things carried over, the key elements of the heart and story just didn’t make the jump sadly.
Life in the 90s – Here we’ve got a six-minute featurette that again sees the cast and crew talk about life in 1994, New York in 1994 and how that era was brought to life with the set design early on in the film.
Heroes – This is a 10-minute featurette that focuses on the heroes of the film, those behind the voices, and their various transformations.
Villains – This aptly named featurette comes in at just under 9-minutes in length and focuses on the same stuff as above, only with the villains of the film this time.
The Chase – Here we’ve got a five-and-a-half minute feature that focuses on the fun Mirage chase scene when he and Noah are attempting to escape the police when they first meet.
The Battle of Ellis Island – Here’s a 7-minute featurette that focuses on the battle outside of the museum. Again, another fun battle sequence and it’s always interesting to see how they’re put together when so much CGI is needed to put the main characters in for the final product.
Into the Jungle – This featurette hits just over 10-minutes in length and touches on all the shooting locations for the portion of the film taking place in Peru.
The Switchback Attack – This 7-minute featurette is focused on the attack made by Switchback. It’s fun to watch these broken down, and while it’s easy enough to watch them individually, having one big behind-the-scenes feature would’ve been another route to go!
The Final Conflict – This featurette comes in at just under 11-minutes and focuses on, yep, the film’s climactic battle sequence! This is a big battle, and it’s fun to see it broken down here like the others.
Deleted and Extended Scenes – We’ve got 7 deleted and extended scenes for those interested in checking them out!
Paramount Pictures Presents Transformers: Rise of the Beasts. Directed by: Steven Caple Jr. Written by: Joby Harold, Darnell Metayer, Josh Peters. Starring: Anthony Ramos, Dominique Fishback, Peter Cullen, Peter Dinklage, Ron Perlman, Pete Davidson, Michelle Yeoh. Running time: 126 Minutes. Rating: PG. Released on 4K Blu-ray: Oct. 10, 2023.
About Brendan Campbell
