Transformers: Rise of the Beasts

Picking up seven years after Bumblebee, this second prequel in the Transformers series is looking to stand on its own while also bridging what is an effective standalone movie and the rest of the series to the Michael Bay era, and it is mostly successful in that endeavor. Some mild spoilers ahead.

Transformers: Rise of the Beasts is a blending of the tones we have gotten previously in this series, between its human character-driven narrative and its bigger-than-life set pieces, giant robot fights, and its very typical Macguffin (or ‘goober’ as Peter B. Parker would call it for you younger viewers). Switching things up by having Ron Perlman’s Optimus Primal give us the opening narration, the movie opens up thousands of years in the past with the Maximals, a faction of Transformers, living out their lives on a distant planet, not much different from Earth. We get the info dump of who they are, who the big bad is, and what they have that he wants. Simply, a giant God-like robotic entity named Unicron that devours planets sends his minion Scourge out to find something called the Transwarp Key, so he can jump through space and time to eat more planets so his tummy doesn’t rumble. The Maximals have the key a small group of them take a starship to Earth, with the key, to protect it, hiding it from Unicron and Scourge. For you Marvel Comics heads out there Unicron = Galactus and Scourge = Evil Silver Surfer.

Jumping ahead in time to 1994 from the 1987 of the previous film, we are introduced to our human protagonist. Noah Diaz (Anthony Ramos) is a veteran who is working various side hustles to help support his mom and his young brother Kris, who has outstanding medical bills from some unknown illness that varies in severity and importance as the movie goes on. Having a hard time locking down a job interview, let alone a steady job, Noah takes up a friend’s offer of stealing a car; a silver Porsche 911 Carrera RS, to be exact. The car, of course, turns out to be an Autobot in hiding, and thus Noah gets pulled into the insane plot and battle for Cybertron still raging on. For taking on a doomsday plot like this, this movie still does its best to keep things small.

There is a limited cast of robots, and most notably a much smaller group of villains than we typically see in these movies. We get the big bad Unicron in only a few scenes, and as a massive CGI planet-eating monster, it makes sense, I’m sure he was mighty expensive to create. Scourge (Peter Dinklage) is the leader of Unicron’s minions, rounded out with Battletrap (David Sobolov) and Nightbird (MJ Rodriguez). These three are known as Terrorcons as they stand apart from any of Cybertron’s usual factions. They are loyal only to Unicron and little more than your typical hench-baddies that don’t have much to do outside of the action sequences. Dinklage does a good job with Scourge, who is probably the most threatening baddie of this entire series, outdoing even Megatron’s strength and menace. I didn’t even know who was supplying the voice until after the movie, so kudos to Dinklage for getting fully into character.

Anthony Ramos does an wonderful job with what he’s given to do. As the main character, he is given the most to do with a decent backstory and motivations. It is likely due to Ramos being a charming actor who has rarely been given a shot at a lead role. Noah is likable and most importantly relatable. Things don’t come easy for him, even with being a veteran and tech savvy. He is smart, but down on his luck. He makes mistakes and bad decisions, but they all come from a place of wanting to do good and to help those he loves and cares about. He is definitely the most flawed human hero from these movies, and as easy as it was to love Hailee Steinfeld’s Charlie in Bumblebee, Noah feels all the more real, even in a movie such as this. As the movie progresses Noah is also made to do and say things we have never seen from a main character in these movies. His goal doesn’t quite align with that of the Autobots, which makes his plans clash with those of Optimus’s. It’s one of the more intriguing plot developments.

Our other human lead is Elena, played with equal charm by Dominique Fishback. Elena works as a surface level buddy with all positive characteristics. She’s incredibly intelligent, equal parts art historian and scientist, and is the one who initially comes across the Key. Unfortunately there isn’t much to her character than that, and when the script attempts to add more to her with a dead father and other setbacks like a boss who takes all the credit for her work, it either falls flat or simply doesn’t have enough meat on the bone to make it feel like it matters. I did love the use of her brain early on, and she works quite well as a “My First Role Model” for many young people out there today, it just would have been nice for Elena to have little more *umph* to her character, but there is a lot to get to and you can tell something was cut from her story. Any weak links with the character comes simply from the writing and pacing as Fishback does the best she can with the role, and stops Elena from being little more than a slightly pro-active wallflower.

Peter Cullen has been voicing Optimus Prime for nearly forty years and while he’s been able to do some variations on the character, he has pretty much been doing the same thing with him this entire time. As someone who has seen a lot of Transformers stuff, but not all, I was pleasantly surprised by how he played him this time around. This is an angry, burdened Prime, who’s still beating himself up for fleeing Cybertron and getting the surviving Autobots stranded on Earth. He is untrusting of any outsider and even retracts some of his faith in his fellow Autobots, especially a particular Porsche. He has some lessons to learn in this movie.

Speaking of that Porsche, once Noah is made privy to the car being a giant robot alien named Mirage, he and Mirage have instant buddy chemistry, and their scenes together truly come across as very funny and, at times, heartfelt. Mirage is voiced with true gusto by Pete Davidson and I think Davidson may have found his next calling. It took me a few scenes to place the voice as he isn’t just using his own voice in this. Lending his voice to essentially a big cartoon character that walks the line between annoying and sweet is exactly the kind of role that lets Davidson excel. As someone who enjoyed the early days of his SNL stint and saw him do stand-up live back then, I have, mostly, rooted for him all this time, but still find his rocket to this bizarre version of stardom to be nothing short of weird and unfortunate. He’s more famous now than ever, but for a lot of the wrong reasons, and his role as Mirage truly feels like part of the path he should be on, but I digress.

The rest of the cast do their jobs well. It is probably a mix of their talent, and the fact that a lot of the side characters simply don’t have a lot to do outside of clashing metal on metal, but even big stars don’t make too much of an impression throughout. Ron Perlman gets the most to do as Optimus Primal and is more or less doing a Cullen impression as the Maximal’s gorilla-shaped leader. Michelle Yeoh as Airazor, Liza Koshy as Arcee, Cristo Fernandez as Wheeljack, among others are all good in their roles, but there simply isn’t much to say about their work or the characters. They fill out the screen and are cool to look at in the moment. Colman Domingo lends his booming and terrifying voice to Unicron. At times he sounds suspiciously like Thanos, but that’s neither here nor there. Paired with the impressive creature design, I am a fan of Unicron. Dean Scott Vazquez as Kris is sweet and his part of the story is a bit saccharine, but the bond between he and Noah is something that is nice to see on screen. Rapper/actor Tobe Nwigwe rounds out the human characters that have the influence on the plot as Noah’s friend. He’s funny in the role, with some fun character details and quirks paired with a few funny lines and moments to help get the ball rolling in Noah’s journey to Mirage.

As for the overall plot, things play out as you probably expect. Robot fights, destroyed buildings, racing vehicles, quips, world travel, and a big CGI fight finale. They throw in a few tried and true villain tropes with Scourge and Unicron. It’s all been done before, but for younger viewers there is plenty to shock and awe them. We get an army of little evil robots from Unicron’s mouth that serve a similar purpose to the countless faceless creatures/drones that have been used in so many movies prior to this. When there is one or two on screen they are used to pretty good effect in a horror movie way as they creep, crawl, and jump out of shadows at Noah and Elena. These moments are scary enough to be fun for all ages without overdoing it.

The entire thing is the right kind of four quadrant summer movie. It could have been better, but it could have been way worse, and the fact that it wasn’t terrible gives it a boost, while proving that Bumblebee wasn’t a total fluke and that good Transformers movies can be made. It is fun from top to bottom. It drops the weird Michael Bay cringe of the first five movies and occasionally swaps it out with delightfully silly moments and is never ashamed of it. As for the 1994 setting, the movie mostly comes off as timeless, which is also nice, but some of the cars, fashion, and the awesome (if sometimes on the nose) ’90s hip hop soundtrack rips and helps keep the ’90s on your mind throughout. Enough time has also passed that seeing the twin towers back in the NYC skyline in a new movie isn’t as jarring as it has been over the years.

If you are burnt out on superhero movies or big summer movies like this, this entry probably won’t be enough to fully pull you back into the groove of things, but as far as popcorn flicks go, you could do a lot worse than this sequel/prequel. I saw it with a solid crowd of people of all ages and it seemed to be a crowd pleaser. The jokes got pops, the heroism got claps, and I heard a few kids around me gasp, tear up, and cheer when characters are triumphant or return from being terribly wounded. And that’s really what it’s all about. Those kids’s cheers really zapped a bit more joy into the whole experience. There is a final scene that made most of the audience groan as it felt more like a Hasbro commercial than something that fits within these movies, and stick around for an early mid-credits scene that mostly wraps up a dangling story thread. It isn’t changing cinema in any regard, but it is, without a doubt, one of the best movies in the franchise. I know that isn’t a high bar. It is still behind Bumblebee, because that movie is endlessly fun and endearing thanks to its Spielbergian glow and Hailee Steinfeld. It is at about the same level as the original 2007 film. Anthony Ramos does a lot for this, and if it were more original in its storytelling and action this could have surpassed every other entry.