Film Review: Transformers: Rise Of The Beasts

This is definitely one of the more annoying kind of movies reviews to write. Transformers: Rise Of The Beasts is about as middle of the road as a blockbuster can be. It’s not a bad movie, but it’s also not particularly great one either. It’s competently made. There’s no glaring flaws that really stand out, either on the technical side, or even within the writing. I didn’t really have a bad time with it at all, but I’m also starting to lose memory of everything that happened. And I just got out of the damn thing just a few hours ago.

It’s strange how up until this and the previous entry in the franchise, Bumblebee (which I did very much enjoy), this series hasn’t had a proper good movie. At least, not since the animated film from back in the 80s, and even that one does require quite a bit of familiarity with the material. I think Bumblebee really hit the sweet spot by basically just taking the E.T. framework and running with it. And yet, despite some quality control, I don’t find much particularly memorable about these movies, even with a movie I enjoyed like Bumblebee. I can’t recall any big sequence or character beat.

Meanwhile, I have numerous moments from throughout the Michael Bay directed Transformer movies burned into my brain, even though I maybe only ever saw them once all the way through each. They’re not good movies, but by golly, do they leave one hell of an impression, good or bad, doesn’t really matter when you’re dealing with the maestro of mayhem himself. Granted, the last thing I’d want is for these newer film to emulate Bay’s sensibilities because that never works out. For better and for worse, the guy truly is one of a kind.

But I suppose I should get into the film at hand. Loosely inspired by the Beast Wars storyline in the franchise, Rise Of The Beasts takes us back to Brooklyn in the 90s where we meet Noah Diaz (Anthony Ramos), a young man struggling to find a job to support his working mom and younger brother, who has sickle cell anemia. As a last ditch effort to make some quick cash, he accepts a job to steak a Porsche, but it turns out to be an autobot names Mirage (Pete Davidson). He soon crosses paths with Elena Wallace (Dominique Fishback), a museum intern who discovers a Transwarp Key in an old artifact.

The Transwarp Key is a tool that is able to open up portals through space and time, and it is one of two parts on Earth left by maximals, they’re like autobots but…like animals. Unfortunately, her discovering the key makes it known not only to the autobots on Earth that their key home is just within reach, it also signals Scourge (Peter Dinklage), the leader of the terrorcons, who works under the orders of the planet eating Unicron (Colman Domingo). Noah and Elena get swept up into a last ditch effort to save the planet from total annihilation as they try to keep the key away from Scourge.

Thankfully, the plot is fairly straightforward enough (surprising given there’s a whopping five credited writers – Joby Harold, Darnell Metayer, Josh Peters, Erich Hoeber, Jon Hoeber), even if there is quite a bit of technical jargon and lore mumbo-jumbo that goes in one ear and out the other if you aren’t familiar or invested in this property already. There’s some fight scenes, chase scenes, sequences of peril. They also travel to Peru for the second half of the film, where the autobots catch up with the maximals. Hell, we even get ourselves a skybeam finale. Between this and the Dungeons And Dragons movie, I guess we’re just at that phase where we’re starting to get nostalgic for it.

Now, as much as I dismissed the film for being very middle of the road earlier, there is stuff to like. I think director Steven Caple Jr. – of Creed II fame – does a decent job at trying to emotionally ground the film, especially in the relationship between both Noah and his little brother Kris (Dean Scott Vazquez) and Noah and Mirage. There’s a a very naturalistic approach to the more drama-driven scenes that show a deft hand the helm, and the actors all put in solid work.

The action is serviceable, but not very memorable. It works only because of the work put in by everyone to make you at least somewhat emotionally invested in the situation at hand. Some small beats within the action setpieces do work, especially when they allow certain characters to really show off their abilities, or the occasional viciousness from Optimus Prime (Peter Cullen). But otherwise, there’s not a whole lot of momentum or that visceral quality that keeps you on edge until the very end.

That’s about all I can muster for Transformers: Rise Of The Beasts. Like I said, there are plenty of admirable elements about it, but they are ultimately just elements. Little pieces and moments that work, but don’t necessarily make for a thoroughly compelling whole. A lot of my experience with the film was fairly passive. Not unpleasant by any means, but I never felt actively engaged by the material. It just lacked that certain je ne sais quoi that’s hard to pinpoint. I definitely enjoyed Bumblebee more, but if you are a more of a fan of this property, I think there’s a lot here that will appeal to you. At least, I would imagine it would. But for the casual viewer, I don’t see much here that is fresh or interesting. The Ron Pearlman voiced robot gorilla was pretty cool, I guess.

 

Transformers: Rise Of The Beasts is now out in theaters.