Transformers: Rise of the Beast Review

With the release of the seventh installment of the franchise, Transformers:Rise of the Beast, moviegoers naturally were not quite sure what they might get with this latest showing.  But the good money was likely placed somewhere in between “Bumblebee” and “Age of Extinction”.  

Now that the movie has been released, the consensus seems to be that the movie treads on familiar ground and doesn’t provide anything particularly new to the franchise, but it does create relatable and grounded human characters that you felt engaged with and could care about.  Which was one of the bigger complaints from the last few releases and has been sorely lacking from the franchise.  

Interestingly enough, one of the only Transformers movies to find the proper fit with its human characters was Bumblebee, for which this movie acts as a sequel to, and seems to have been used as a model for its storytelling (and an attempt at a soft-reboot of the franchise).  The plot of Rise of Beasts is fairly straight-forward and coherent, and along with the main human characters being relatable, they also had agency and were given actions that had a measurable impact on the story itself.

With that being said, it is still a movie based on a line of children toys from the 1990s that is based on alien robots that constantly change into different vehicles while trying to smash each other into little pieces.  Nine out of ten times with movies in such a genre, you are going to get what you signed up for and you hope that it is entertaining.  On that note, Rise of the Beast delivers as a kid-friendly summer action flick that is an entertaining spectacle and even provides some engaging human characters to boot. 

Rotten Tomatoes:  Transformers: Rise of the Beasts – Rotten Tomatoes

Critics Consensus: Thanks to some genuine human drama between the set pieces and palpable affection for the title characters, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts is one of the franchise’s more enjoyable outings.

Steven Caple, Jr. handles the movie’s soft-reboot deftly and much like its spiritual predecessor Bumblebee is paying tribute to the older, classic pieces of Transformer storytelling from the 80s and 90s.  It’s one meant to capture in a young, new generation of fans as well as lean on nostalgia to bring back aging fans still reminiscing the time when it was their favorite after school cartoon.

The plot is inspired by the Beast Wars storyline from the comics, TV shows, and video games, (which won’t mean much to non-fans) and centers on a magical “Key” that possesses’ the power for instant cosmic travel and is protected by the Maximals, who are Transformers that can change into the shape of animals.  A number of groups in the movie are looking to gain possession of the key and use its power, some for good and some for not so good reasons.

The movie introduces Unicron to the franchise, after only being teased in an after-credit scene in The Last Knight, the evil planet-eating super-entity that seeks the key so he can easily jump from planet to planet to satiate his massive appetite.   The Terrorcons are also introduced and serve as Unicron’s henchmen throughout the movie.

There can’t be a Transformer movie without Optimus Prime (still voiced by Peter Cullen).  He returns alongside Bumblebee and a few other new Autobots and together they begin a quest to find the magical key as a way to return to Cybertron.  But once the Autobots discover the  Maximals, they both end up aligning themselves with one another to stop Unicron and his Terrorcons from obtaining the key.

The overall story, with all parties vying for the same magical artifact, is fairly straight-forward and and that allows for more time to be spent with the characters and their development and less time is needed for convoluted exposition.  Being able to spend the early part of the movie with our two leads, Noah and Elena, before diving into the standard CGI action sequences is crucial to the bond you build with them. This character development time paid off and helps the audience engage with them, like them and ultimately find a deeper connection with them.  This is one of the most appealing features of this movie.

As a Transformer movie, soft reboot or not, this is created to be a classic big-budget action film and this movie does not give us any reason to doubt its value for pure entertainment.  All the Transformers in this movie look great and it delivers on its promise of providing a high-budget, frenetic, CGI-reliant, action spectacle.   

And while the climax of the movie will seem somewhat familiar, the payoff is satisfying enough, with the arcs of our main characters coming together decently during the climax.  In the end, it is an above-average action flick with an easy-to-follow story, very likable leads, plenty of explosions, and most importantly a metric ton of robot-on-robot smackdowns.