Returning to the action and spectacle that have captured moviegoers around the world, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts will take audiences on a ‘90s globetrotting adventure with the Autobots and introduce a whole new faction of Transformers – the Maximals – to join them as allies in the existing battle for earth.
What We Thought:
When I reviewed Bumblebee in 2018 I said it was the first live-action Transformers movie I didn’t regret seeing. After seeing Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, Bumblebee remains the only live-action Transformers movie I don’t regret seeing. Transformers: Rise of the Beasts is a return to the style of the first 5 movies despite taking place in the 1990s and being a sequel to Bumblebee. As a product of the 80s who grew up on the original cartoon, these movies just don’t work for me.
My biggest complaint is that they spend too much time focusing on the humans. It’s called Transformers, I don’t care about the humans. The lead in this one is a Spanish guy from Brooklyn and I know this because they made it clear he was from Brooklyn and said Brooklyn over and over again. Being from Brooklyn is his entire personality. Instead of a developed character, we get a stereotype. He’s a veteran trying to take care of his sick brother and mother, but all that is second to being from Brooklyn. Anthony Ramos is a talented guy, but he’s ultimately wasted in a one-dimensional character.
I really didn’t care about his character or the museum intern character because they should be plot points not characters. It’s the same for all these movies. I want Transformers. I want Autobots vs. Decepticons. Heck the Decepticons aren’t even in this film. I didn’t really care about Shia LaBeouf in the first three films. I didn’t really care about Mark Wahlberg in his films. This has a big metal monkey in it, I want to see nothing, but the big metal monkey fighting. That’s it.
The film also feels trapped in the 1990s. Don’t get me wrong, I love the 90s, it is the last great decade, but the movie is pigeonholed in 1994. All the clothing, the music, the cars, it’s early to mid 90s which should be a good thing, but I sat there wondering if every song had been released by then, if the clothing was right for 1994 or if they just threw things in that were 1990s and not year appropriate. Wu-Tang’s C.R.E.A.M. came out in January 1994 so it fits, but was every song out by the time this movie takes place?
The Transformers franchise has made billions of dollars worldwide and this probably will do well too. They’ve never worked for me and I’m disappointed in that. There is one great scene at the end that was a nice surprise that 7 year old Ken would have lost his mind at. Other than that, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts never gets beyond stereotypical characters, Pete Davidson sounding like Pete Davidson, limited robot on robot action that’s hard to follow and me walking out of the theater saying “meh”. As a kid who grew up with the toys and loving the cartoon I should want to “Roll Out” to see every one of these films, but I think I give up at at this point.
The Nerds Templar 