Posted by I grew up with the Michael Bay Transformers movies. I remember collecting countless action figures as a kid and bringing them to school to show my friends. As a result, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts intrigued me. Truth be told, I was a tad skeptical. I was never particularly invested in Beast Wars, so having a movie utilizing Beast Wars characters didn’t grab my attention that much. Boy was I wrong. Transformers: Rise of the Beasts is the best Transformers movie released, and I’m going to break down everything that makes it so great.
First and foremost, the character designs remain faithful to the originals. A quick google search will attest that Optimus Primal in the movie looks just like the classic design, and this tends to hold true for the rest of the characters. While Scourge’s design, for example, differs from the original and is more updated in the film, I think the new design works well. Overall, while I enjoyed the more modernized designs of the original Bay movies, I also like the decision to stay true to the original. I really like how the movie treated the source material.
SPOILERS FOLLOWS
Before I break down the story and what I did and didn’t like, I first want to briefly talk about Scourge. Scourge is the main antagonist and leader of the Terrorcons who serve Unicron. Peter Dinklage does a great job with the character and makes him easy to hate. What interests me most about Scourge is that he’s not Megatron. Instead of relying on Optimus Prime’s typical nemesis, the heroes face a different foe this time and I find it incredibly refreshing. The movie also does a great job of building up Scourge as an antagonist. The very beginning of the movie introduces Scourge and his mission, and it emphasizes just how strong he is both directly in the plot and action, as well as in the cinematography. Throughout the rest of the movie, Scourge is interesting because he poses a serious threat to both the Autobots and Maximals. Optimus Prime outright loses his first fight with Scourge, which has genuine consequences for the movie. Scourge’s strength, which the movie does explain, just makes his ultimate defeat that much more satisfying.
Turning to the story, my favorite feature is that everything is set up and feels earned. The very beginning sets up the MacGuffin transwarp key and does a good job of explaining why the audience should care about it. I also applaud the movie for using Unicron as its overarching antagonist. I think that Unicron is a really cool villain, so it’s satisfying seeing him done right in live action (The Last Knight really fumbled the bag with its Earth=Unicron twist). The movie also isn’t afraid to take risks. I was not expecting Bumblebee to get killed off early into Act One. Even though he gets revived midway through Act Three, I think it works because the revival is set up and foreshadowed. I applaud the movie for this, I really do. The narrative is tight and well done. Characters remain consistent throughout, or if they change then they change meaningfully. When I say this, I have Optimus Prime in mind. This Prime is different from previous iterations because he doesn’t like or trust humans, at least at first. By the end, Prime has changed because both the human characters in the film and Maximal leader Optimus Primal’s relationship with humans show Prime that he should view humans as allies. It honestly works well and is just good story-telling. Turning to the human characters, Noah Diaz is trying to find work to help pay for his brother Kris’ medical bills. Elena Wallace is an intern at a museum who’s interested in archaeology, but her superiors don’t take her seriously. Both characters are compelling and useful to the story. When I look at the Bay movies, humans tended to just be there. Sure the American military helped out from time to time, but by and large the main human characters were just there to have their own drama. Noah and Elena have drama, but it doesn’t consume the movie like Sam Witwicky’s jealousy over his girlfriend’s boss consumes large segments of Dark of the Moon. Rise of the Beasts is a movie about giant robots from space that can turn into cars and robot animals. At its core, that is what the story IS. Rise of the Beasts scraps the winding melodrama of past Transformers movies and I couldn’t be happier. There’s still human melodrama, but it’s introduced at the very beginning and wrapped up at the very end; it doesn’t consume the movie, which then allows the movie to tell a genuinely entertaining story about giant robots fighting. Noah and Elena are also useful and progress the plot. Elena is the reason the Autobots, and Maximal Airazor, go to South America and find the other half of the transwap key that the Autobots want to use to return to Cybertron. Noah is incredibly useful and important, especially during the final battle when the wounded Mirage becomes a suit of armor that Noah can use to fight Scourge. Was this a little silly? Yeah I thought so. But I also know that ten years ago I would have thought it was the coolest thing ever. Plus it actually conforms to internal Transformers logic considering Transformers would change size, like when Megatron would turn himself into a gun that other Decepticons would use.
Despite the simplicity of the story, I like it a lot and think that it works because simplicity allows the narrative to be tight and set everything up. I also think that the action is pretty good. While I do think that the Bay movies had a bit better action, Rise of the Beasts is still good. I just think that Bay did a better job of conveying the damage that the Transformers would inflict on each other. While there are plenty of moments where you see damage, sometimes I just wish that there was a bit more. Nevertheless, the action is still satisfying to watch.
Overall, there were only two things that I disliked about the movie, and I hesitate to even say that I disliked it. First, the score wasn’t great. As this website illustrates, I like rock and metal music. The soundtrack for Rise of the Beasts tended to use hip-hop. It worked, even if I personally wasn’t crazy about the movie. It’s just difficult for me because I look back to the Bay movies and how they used Linkin Park, and I can’t deny that the Linkin Park just sticks with me a lot more. Nevertheless, this is more of a personal complaint than anything else. Second, I would have liked to see more Terrorcons. The main antagonistic teams centers around Scourge, Nightbird, and Battletrap. Three Transformer villains is a little low, especially because they supplement their numbers with the smaller Freezers. I was expecting Scourge’s forces to be a bit bigger and consist of more named members, but honestly, I think the smaller number works. Having more villains would make it harder to characterize them, and the movie does a fantastic job of making you hate the Terrorcons. As for the Autobots and Maximals, I think that they’re represented fairly well. I really like the portrayals of the various Autobots with Pete Davidson doing a fantastic job as the comedic Mirage. I suppose my only complaint is that aside from Airazor and Optimus Primal, the Maximals are just kind of there. Cheetor and Rhinox are just two more good guys. It would have been nice to see them get a bit more screen time, but their smaller roles don’t subtract too much from the movie.
SPOILERS END
Overall, I would highly recommend Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, especially if you’re a fan of the Transformers franchise. I think that the movie is the best depiction in live action thus far, though I concede that I have neglected to watch Bumblebee. On that note, while Rise of the Beasts is technically a sequel to Bumblebee, you don’t need to watch it to understand Rise of the Beasts. I appreciate Rise of the Beasts because it delivers on exactly what it promised: a fun movie for the whole family about giant transforming robots fighting each other.
Broad Scope Entertainment 