Transformers: Rise of the Beasts (2023)

Rating: 7.5

TL;DR - Transformers: Rise of the Beasts is surprisingly a decent watch! It’s easily superior to many of the other films, however I really missed some of Bay’s visual style with the action. It’s like if the Bay films were conventional, shorter and straightforward. Still, it was fun, with Saturday morning cartoon vibes. It’s not great, but relative to this franchise, one of the better ones! Plus Anthony Ramos once again proves he’s the real deal!

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Film Info:

Premise: Optimus Prime and the Autobots take on their biggest challenge yet. When a new threat capable of destroying the entire planet emerges, they must team up with a powerful faction of Transformers known as the Maximals to save Earth.

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Paramount

Directed by Steven Caple Jr.

Screenplay by Joby Harold, Darnell Metayer, Josh Peters, Erich Hoeber & Jon Hoeber

Story by Joby Harold

Cast: Anthony Ramos, Dominique Fishback, Ron Perlman, Peter Dinklage, Peter Cullen, Pete Davidson, Michelle Yeoh

Runtime: 2hr 7min

Rating: PG

Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi

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IMDb Rating: 6.6/10

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 52%

RT Audience Score: 91%

RT Critic Average: 5.1/10

RT Audience Average: 4.9/5

Metacritic Score: 42

CinemaScore: A-

Letterboxd: 3.1/5

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Fun Fact: Bumblebee (2018) was released one week after Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018), both of which feature Hailee Steinfeld. This movie was released one week after Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023), both of which feature Luna Lauren Velez.

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Review:

written by Tyler Park

Transformers: Rise of the Beasts is the most entertaining and enjoyable film in the franchise since the 2007 original! I know, I know, that’s not saying much, as pretty much all the sequels are nearly unwatchable. (*not counting Bumblebee, as that was very different and a much better film than all of them*) I’ve never been the biggest fan of the franchise, but as someone who has seen them all, it really feels nice to get an entry that I don’t actively hate!

It’s refreshing to finally get a Transformers film not helmed by Michael Bay, as this film does away with the juvenile humour and excessiveness of those films. Steven Caple Jr. actually did a fine job here, considering the only other major film on his resume is Creed II. Usually, directors who don’t have much experience with CGI struggle with their first primarily CGI-based film, but here Caple Jr. managed to pull off some pretty impressive action sequences. Now, it’s not perfect, as many of the visuals do look quite bland and sterilized. It actually had me longing for Bay’s signature visual style, which at the very least kept everything in the frame looking quite exciting and vivid. I never thought I’d say that, especially after the god-awful The Last Knight, but Bay’s direction is what really made this franchise work so well, it gave them that sleek blockbuster feel even if their stories were crap. Here, we get a decent story that managed to be quite watchable, but the direction of the action scenes made it feel like this was more geared toward family audiences. It felt smaller scale, less “blockbuster-y” than the rest, but I actually didn’t mind that here. The film had a fun, Saturday morning cartoon vibe to it, it’s like when you were a kid and made your action figures fight — which for a Transformers film is not necessarily a bad thing.

The film is indeed fun, amusing, and enjoyable… but that’s about it. It’s largely bland and forgettable and gets bogged down by silly exposition and cheesy dialogue. The movie really plays it safe — it’s shorter, straightforward, and quite conventional. It doesn’t do anything we haven’t seen before so it’s hard to really rave about it. Plus, the plot isn’t the best, and it moves quite slowly at times, taking way too much time to over-explain exposition. But, on a positive note, the movie finally finds the perfect balance between humans and Transformers! And these human characters might be the best the franchise has had outside of Bumblebee (sorry Sam Witwicky). Anthony Ramos was quite good here, really proving that he is the real deal and deserves so many more leading roles after this and In the Heights. I also thought Pete Davidson stole the show as Mirage, one of my new favourite Autobots besides Bumblebee! He had some really funny moments that had my whole audience laughing! I was surprised to see that the audience I saw the film with was really into it, and it helped me to further invest myself in it! But overall… this isn’t a movie you need to rush out to see. It’s good, it’s fine. It has some likable characters and some entertaining action, but it isn’t revolutionary or special. I am happy to finally get a Transformers movie that does something different than the usual Michael Bay madness, and I thought it worked out well. It’s just unfortunate this movie is inherently flawed. Still, compared to every other Transformers sequel from Revenge of the Fallen to The Last Knight, this is leagues better than all of those! While it is overall “just fine”, it’s a step in the right direction, and it’s one I actually wouldn’t mind rewatching at some point!

But my god… the reveal in the final scene of this movie made me roll my eyes so hard. Please don’t tell me this is the direction they are taking this franchise in…. it would be such an unnecessary and overstuffed crossover.

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Trailer: