Despite the time that has passed since its release, it’s going to be hard to top the damage Michael Bay’s horrible movies did to this franchise. Bumblebee—whose review you can read here— was a step in the right direction and we liked it a lot, but it didn’t make us forget its lousy predecessors. Transformers: Rise of the beasts has a huge responsibility and in this review we will discover if it is what the universe of Hasbro’s robots needs.
What most caught our attention in this film is the introduction of the characters from Beast Wars. This mid-’90s series is one of our favorite parts of Transformers and we couldn’t wait to see our favorite Maximals and Predacons on the big screen. We were also very excited by the presence of the villain from the legendary 1986 animated film. In that sense, we cannot deny that we were a little disappointed. The Predacons don’t even show up.
This story takes place in 1994. The Autobots led by Optimus Prime are still trapped and hiding on Earth when a transwarp key, capable of returning them to Cybertron, is discovered by humans. But they are not the only ones who love her. Unicron’s servants, a powerful planet-eating entity, seek her out to lure her master and offer her the planet as dinner.
Let’s get things straight once and for all. Transformers: Rise of the Beasts is much better than the terrible movies directed by Michael Bay, but it does not measure up to Bumblebee. The film starring Hailee Steinfeld benefited from being a “smaller” story that placed more emphasis on drama than action, but this installment wants to return to the great epic battles that decide the fate of the world. The special effects are up to the task and the combat and chase sequences aren’t bad at all. But a mediocre plot and a sudden development do not let it be better.
The fight for the transwarp key is a generic excuse for the story, but it could work well. The problem is that it gets lost in boring explanations about the mythology and the past of the Transformers while neglecting elements that are more important. The cohesion of the plot from scene to scene is too weak, the relationships between characters evolve so quickly that they feel forced, and the events feel strangely divorced from the world and places in which they occur. It goes far beyond the traditional suspension of common sense that this kind of film usually asks of us.
At the center of everything is the inevitable human protagonist. Noah Diaz —played by Anthony Ramos (Hamilton, En el barrio)— is a young Afro-Latino who recently left the military and whose family is in financial trouble. An incident leads him to meet the Autobot Mirage, who, eager to befriend a human, involves him in the events that will end in a fight for the fate of the planet. We also have Elena (Dominique Fishback, from Project Power), an archeology practitioner who accidentally discovers the transwarp key and also becomes entangled in the adventure.
Noah is a good character. His military background makes him well-suited to take on the trouble he’s getting himself into. His mistrust of the Transformers is an interesting source of drama, as is the evolution of his friendship with the enthusiastic Mirage. There is an interesting parallel between him and Optimus in their dislike for each other and their inability to work with those who are “different.” It would have been interesting if it weren’t for the fact that the movie insists on describing over and over again how alike they are. Why do they mistrust the audience? Don’t you think we are capable of understanding the simplest subtext?
Optimus is also striking because at this point in the story he is not the admirable leader we know. He refuses to work with humans, and his eagerness to fix things puts his desperation on display. His arc and Noah’s arc are interesting, but as we said they develop very abruptly and without subtlety.
The other characters are a bit disappointing. Elena is nothing more than the traditional “smart girl” who is there to give information. Arcee and Wheeljack barely have any personality and Bumblebee disappears for most of the movie. He fares worse for the Maximals. As important as they are to the story’s background, only Optimus Primal and Airazor have any relevance. Cheetor and Rhinox barely appear onscreen and don’t have defined personalities. As if that were not enough, they only transform once and it is in such a chaotic scene that we cannot even appreciate the details of their designs.
Speaking of designs, we weren’t fans of what most robots look like. Some of them are “overdesigned”, with too many moving parts and unnecessary details that make them visually confusing. Mirage loses personality because of this and the villains are barely distinguishable. The Maximals look absurd. Was it really necessary for the parts of Airazor’s beak to move like that when speaking? Before you ask, we don’t even see Unicron transform.
We have been very negative in this review, but despite its flaws we have to accept that Transformers: Rise of the Beasts is an entertaining movie. The big final action scene is genuinely exciting and even made us worry about the fate of a couple of characters. The relationship between Noah and Mirage is fun and it’s nice to see the interactions between Transformers on screen. The nineties hip-hop soundtrack is also a hit.
This movie really had potential. The talent and the materials are there, but it’s as if they were assembled in the wrong order. His ridiculous final reveal, just before the credits, is cringe-worthy. If the relations had developed more calmly and it had not focused so much on irrelevant elements of mythology, the story would have “breathed” better and would have been at the level of Bumblebee.
Transformers: The Rise of the Beasts will have to settle for being the second best live-action Transformers movie. That’s not saying much, but anything that takes us away from Michael Bay’s movies is a positive.
Transformers: Rise of the Beasts
