Review: Transformers: Rise of the Beasts

Since the franchise’s live-action relaunch with the Michael Bay quintology in 2007, Transformers has struggled to find a cinematic identity separate from that of its most renowned director. Most known for high-octane action, constant explosions, and morally dubious exploitation of both racial stereotypes and the female leads alike, these films were a marked departure from the franchise’s roots as a glorified toy commercial with a strange sense of heart. The latest entry and cementation of a cinematic reboot, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts (2023) is best described as a return to the Saturday morning cartoon feel that the franchise built itself on, both to its benefit and detriment.

Simply put, the film is fun. The constant plot progression, action scenes, and character moments lend themselves well to keeping engagement to what is happening, even if there is little to genuinely reflect on. This gives the film a very similar feel to The Transformers (1986) where the actual plotline, keeping some sacred item away from Unicron, the planet-destroying chaos-god of the Transformers, is a framing device to justify numerous setpieces. While this works well for a franchise like Transformers, there is still a sense of wanting more exploration of the background of many aspects of this world and characters.

The constant plot progression, action scenes, and character moments lend themselves well to keeping engagement to what is happening, even if there is little to genuinely reflect on.

In particular, the film often feels bloated by the number of characters. While the staples of the series, Optimus Prime (Peter Cullen) and Bumblebee (various movie quotes), alongside new lead Mirage (Pete Davidson) have plenty to do most of the cast is left feeling fairly pointless. For a film titled Rise of the Beasts the Beast Wars era characters have criminally little to do. Cheetor (Tongayi Chirisa) has a single line, and Rhinox (David Sobolov) says nothing the entire runtime leaving Optimus Primal (Ron Pearlman) and Airazor (Michelle Yeoh) as the only representation of these characters.

Likewise many of the new Autobots being introduced are merely plot devices, such as Stratosphere (John DiMaggio) being an excuse to move the location to Peru quickly, or stand around waiting to be used in a fight scene akin to the action figures they are based on, like Arcee (Liza Koshy) and Wheeljack (Cristo Fernández). While nothing new for the series, this lack of acknowledgement or development for the sidecast feels especially egregious here in comparison to Generation 1 (1984) or the Michael Bay era (2007). Those versions of the franchise had a cast large enough to the point where it is excusable to not feature every character in a major light. However the cast here is small enough still that there should still be time spent with every character.

As with any character driven film, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts is reliant on a strong emotional core to carry it. While previously mentioned characters fail to meet the mark, Mirage and Noah (Anthony Ramos) manage to be a standout. Their dynamic and the screenplay that accompanies them manages to make their friendship realistic and convincing. Humans have always been a contentious point of any film due to the way they are incorporated, but the way it is presented here is a complete standout from previous films in the series in the best of ways.

While characters are the major focus for the film, as with any Transformers release, there are an endless deluge of action scenes acting as checkpoints in the film’s progression. The set pieces vary in location and time of day, going from a museum at night to Peru in the day, making the individual scenes themselves distinctive. However, most of the action seen is fairly repetitive of not only this film but the ones previous.

…most of the action seen is fairly repetitive of not only this film but the ones previous.

Bumblebee (2018) had its fight sequences stand out through diverse choreography that utilised the different statues of the characters as well as their ability to transform in combat. A lot of this is forgotten within Rise of the Beasts as the Cybertronians rely heavily on blasters and blades which ultimately makes the fights rather uninteresting past the adrenaline of giant CGI robots duking it out.

Verdict:

Overall, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts builds a good foundation for a fun, traditional, take on the Transformers series that pulls together many parts of its long history. The film may be tonally inconsistent and horrible at balancing its characters, but the heart of the characters who are prominent is felt and makes for an enjoyable, if mindless, summer blockbuster.