Normally when I review a franchise, I try to watch all the movies leading up to the newest release. Technically speaking, the only movie that comes before Transformers: Rise of the Beasts is Bumblebee, which I liked a good amount. I have not watched any of the older Transformers movies yet because, while I did grow up with an Optimus Prime action figure, I never was that big into the franchise. But at the ripe old age of 24, I’m giving them a shot.
Transformers: Rise of the Beasts follows the Autobots as they join forces with the Maximals to take on Unicron, a being that devours planets. Humans Noah (Anthony Ramos) and Elena (Dominque Fishback) help as the fate of Earth is in their hands.
Before going into this movie, I had seen a couple of reviews calling this film a middle-of-the-road Transformers movie. I obviously can’t speak to the rest of the movies, but Rise of the Beasts was quite enjoyable. There was a lot of action, some great voice acting, and some decently emotional moments. The story is not new, and I thought everyone’s motivations were super one-dimensional, but I still had fun watching this.
This movie’s calling card are the fight scenes in my opinion. While they weren’t as grandiose as in the Michael Bay films, there was still a lot of destruction. The battles were very entertaining to watch and were shot pretty fluidly. Introducing these animal transformers was a good call in my opinion. Their appearances included the fur or feathers of the animal they were based on which was a good touch. They brought an animalistic approach to their fights and were pretty well written. The humans were able to get involved in ways that didn’t feel forced and it was fun.
I think the human side of the story was pretty weak. It was very shallow: Noah wants to help his younger brother and Elena wants to make an impact and be recognized. There’s not much more to them. It’s not that I think Ramos or Fishback did a bad job, they just weren’t meant to be in the spotlight. The fighting robots are. They attempt to make the “humans and Autobots are not so different after all” point, and I just wasn’t there for it.
Final Thoughts
Transformers: Rise of the Beasts is a solid, yet not spectacular entry into the franchise. There is a lot to enjoy with the fights and designs of the Transformers we meet in this story. There’s also a bland story and weak characters that had me wanting more. I had fun watching it and I am going to give the rest of the franchise a watch after this.
