THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
Growing up in the 21st century, every moviegoer knows the Transformers movies can vary from hit to miss when Michael Bay was in the directors chair. By the time the spin-off Bumblebee did well, without him, it felt like Paramount was finally on the right path it and I like to believe the ball kept on rolling after that.
PLOT
The 2023 follow up Rise of the Beasts takes place in 1994, seven years after the Autobots fled to Earth due to a losing battle for Cybertron against the Decepticons. Within the past said years, they intend to return and reclaim their home but need the ancient Transwarp Key to get there, an object capable of opening portals through space and time. In New York lives Ex-military electronics expert Noah Diaz who hopes to provide for his ill brother Kris (Dean Scott Vasquez). Unable to score an honest living immediately, he takes the offer from his friend Reek (Tobe Nwigwe) to commit grand theft auto. He is tasked to steal a Porsche 911, but little do they know it is an Autobot named Mirage. As this is happening, museum intern Elena Wallace studies a Falcon statue that bears the symbol of other Transformers that can transform into animals, dubbed ‘Maximals’ who hid the key centuries prior to prevent it being in the wrong hands. When she accidentally breaks the statue, she finds the first half of the key inside. Once the key is free from the statue, it summons an energy pulse only visible to transformers. By the time Autobot leader Optimus Prime sees the pulse, he calls for the Autobots to regroup. When Mirage gets contacted, he brings Noah with him which helps him escape from the police. Noah ends up meeting the other Autobots. Apart from Prime, the other Autobots include Arcee who can transform into a Ducati 916 motorcycle and the mute Bumblebee. Prime and Arcee are skeptical on trusting humans, but Bee insists on trusting him due to his past relationship with Charlie Watson. So they choose to use him to take the key from the museum. Upon infiltrating, he meets Elena but both get attacked by Terrorcons, loyal servants to the planet devourer Unicron. The three villains are: Nightbird (Michaela Jaé Rodriguez) who transforms into a Nissan Skyline GT-R R33, Battletrap who transforms into a GMC TopKick tow truck, and the trophy hunting leader Scourge who transforms into a Peterbilt 359 logging semi truck. Despite the Autobots defending their new human allies, the attack from the Terrocons is overwhelming to the point Scourge is able to kill Bee and take the key. The protagonists are able to retreat thanks to the assists of the Maximal Airazor who can transform into a giant falcon. Upon regrouping, the maximal explains they’ve been hiding on Earth ever since Unicron destroyed their original homeworld and split the key in two pieces to ensure safekeeping. Scourge doesn’t realize he has half until Unicron points it out first. Despite the risks of alerting a grand enemy, Prime still intends to return to his home and hopes to at least get the second half. Based on Elena’s studies, she deduces that it can be in a hidden temple in Peru. All travel with the aid of Autobot Stratosphere (John DiMaggio) who can transform into a cargo plane and carry them all. In Peru, they meet up with Autobot Wheeljack who can transform into a Volkswagen Type 2 panel bus. Despite Elena and Noah finding the temple, they don’t find the other half of the key which implies it was moved. They do retreat from another Terrorcon attack, but it doesn’t go unscathed as Scourge is able to poison Airazor with dark energy, slowly consuming her. After this, the autobots would meet the remaining Maximals: Rhinox who can transform into a rhinoceros, Cheetor who can transform into a cheetah, and the leader Optimus Primal who can transform into a gorilla. The latter admits to have moved the other half and entrusting it to a human tribe they’ve been protecting for millennia. When Primal shows the tribe, he also shows dormant raw Energon surrounding the area which can resurrect Bumblebee once activated with a large surge of energy. By the next day, Airazor’s dark energy corruption takes full control of her, which gives the heroes’ location to Scourge. Noah is given the other half of the key and is told by Primal to hide. He almost destroys it with the intent to protect Earth, but is convinced by Prime not to. Just as he changes his mind, the corrupted Airazor takes it and Elena. Primal is able to save the human by sacrificing his friend, but it gives Scourge the chance to take the other half within the commotion. Now with both halves, he will reassemble them atop a volcano which’ll erect a tower; With the tower, it’ll open a portal for Unicron to come through. Not wanting the planet to be destroyed, the Autobots and the Maximals team up to take on the Terrorcons and horde of Scorponoks while Noah & Elena are escorted by Mirage to deactivate the key. However when getting severely wounded by Scourge, Mirage surrenders his body to Noah to be used as an exo-suit for self defense. Once the key gets activated, it summons an energy pulse throughout the valley, awakening the Energon to resurrect Bumblebee. With the Autobot joining the action, the likes of Nightbird and Battletrap get defeated. Prime is also able to dismember Scourge but with the key being deemed unable to be deactivated, the leader makes the sacrifice of not going home by destroying the key itself. It causes a vortex that prevents Unicron from coming and destroys the remaining Scorponoks. Prime is then saved by Primal and Noah from being pulled into it as well. With no other way to return to Cybertron, the Autobots claim Earth as their new home and vow to protect it with the Maximals. When Elena returns to NY, she gets her recognition for her discovery of the temple in Peru. As for Noah, he gets interviewed for a security job, only to be actually recruited into the secret military organization GI Joe, who will promise to cover his brother’s healthcare. The film would end in a mid credit scene in which Noah repairs Mirage with various junk Porsche parts from Reek.
THOUGHTS
It definitely was a gamble for a new arc for Transformers to continue after Bumblebee because the last thing you want to do is damage what’s good. Having said that, I chose to give it a chance due to enjoying the 2018 predecessor and after going in with a positive mindset, this one wasn’t that bad. In a general sense, I do believe Director Steven Caple Jr. came through in sharing another sci fi adventure filling us with excitement throughout. I was impressed with the score by Jongnic Bontemps due to it matching the epic vibe done in Bay’s first entry. Of course, the film’s greatest strength goes to the visual effects as each Transformer remain distinguishable. I dug how Prime, Bee and Arcee resemble the original animated series, whereas the design for Primal meant to be used in The Last Knight came to life here. Even the presence of the villainous underlings such as the Sweeps and Scorponoks were creepy as hell. Having said that, each fight scene was so dope to watch. Going from the museum fight to the highway battle and to the volcanic climax, I was glued. Looking back, I think this film pays off in the long run because it teaches us the value of teamwork and to always give others a chance in order to have a proper opinion. That was cautiously explored thanks to a mix of colorful characters. We'll always love Peter Cullen for voicing Optimus Prime at any given opportunity due to always mastering how strong & honorable of a character he's known for. This time was different because his feeling of homesick puts him in an unclear mindset where he doesn't trust humans. For the past seven years hiding on Earth, he knows how complicated they are and doesn't want to bear the risk of betrayal. But with the time he got the spend around Noah and Elena, he understood not everyone is the same. It was a tough call for him to destroy the key since he did convince Noah not to, but he came around to staying not just off of how there was no choice, but because he finally understood going back wasn't worth the risk. Now that he's made a new home on Earth, it is a given when saying he'll do well in protecting it. It's also a given when Autobots align with humans, so it didn't surprise me we'd get more of that here. Anthony Ramos easily has us respect Noah because he's a family-first kind of guy. Looking after his brother was all that mattered to him, which is the only thing that motivated him to wanna destroy the key. Even he was shown to have a chip on his shoulder because he was deemed unreliable as a team player within the military. Ironically, the time he spent with the Autobots taught him that he isn't the only one with priorities. When he truly became a team player during the final battle, he earned his recognition and I know he ain't gonna waste his opportunities. The love for Bumblebee ain't gonna go away, but it's clear he was overshadowed by Mirage. I don't mind that at all because it ain't just about him this time like before. Having said that, Pete Davidson succeeds in making him stand out for being the most lenient of the group. Like Bee, he doesn't expect the worst out of humans and seeks friendship instead of enemies. He even has a cool set of powers where he can create hologram duplicates of himself, something no other transformer has. The respect would then come a long way since he was willing to sacrifice himself to keep his promise in protecting Noah. And for that, he deserved a second chance just like Bee. Another human character I had a soft spot for was Elena. Dominique Fishback made her interesting because of her inquisitiveness leading to an extraordinary discovery. She values history and knew how special it was to know how transformers have been a big part of it, hence making it an incredible moment in her life to take part of. She may have been scared of the dangers like Noah would, but her efforts paid off for everyone in the long run. The big benefit of seeing another Transformers movie is seeing other characters we'd never thought we'd see. There was a version of Arcee in Revenge of the Fallen, but they didn't do that character justice. This time around, Liza Koshy gets the chance to give an accurate approach of her, portraying her as one who takes note on Optimus' leadership and does well in acting with caution before charging in. What I did like about Wheeljack in his given time was how Cristo Fernández made him the most soft spoken of the group, despite giving his share of kicking ass. Because of never seeing Beast Wars in advance, the introduction of the Maximals was a whole new territory of lore to be explored and it fit well into the mold of the story. Michelle Yeoh quickly got our attention when playing Airazor as the most benevolent of the bunch. She was willing to put her own well being aside for the greater good. She chose to ignore getting cursed because she didn't want to come off as a burden, thus leading to accept her sacrifice. It was tough to watch her get taken down by Primal as she would insist because no friend should have to go through such a situation. I also gotta admit David Sobolov put in work with the three voice roles he got to take part of. From the selfless mentor Apelinq, to the hard hitting Rhinox to the vicious Battletrp. That is range and I respect every bit of it. In a limited amount of time, Cheetor was cool as well as Tongayi Chirisa is able to portray him the most eager of the bunch. He always seemed to want to prove himself and boy did he ever. I know I'm not in the minority when saying the best Maximal we got to see was Optimus Primal because it feels too true. Ron Perlman made such a badass out of him for expressing pure commitment as a loyal protector. He was the first transformer to understand the value of human life. Had he not seen it, Prime wouldn't replicate those feelings by the end. And when he shouted 'Maximize', I knew business was gonna pick up. Having Unicron involved could have backfired like it did for The Last Knight due to that version being far from faithful. Thankfully, this one was done just right. Colman Domingo ain't no Orson Welles, but he had a voice frightening enough to fear the planet devourer. He feasts on life itself and planets make the appetite for him. Seeing him do just that is a lot to process in a newer standpoint was indeed shocking to watch. I do believe the visual effects were at their best when seeing its insights because the details on that were insanely great. Thank god we didn't see him transform because that'd be whole other thing to fearfully process. For now, his feast on Earth is halted but he was pretty close thanks to a consistent henchman. Scourge is far from Megatron, but didn't have to be to pull off being another cunning figure. That trait pays off as well thanks to Peter Dinklage's surreal voice acting. For one who collects emblems of transformers he kills, which included Decpeticons, only shows how formidable he was the whole time. Although Unicron is still alive, it's a relief he lost his top dog to get business done. While I did find the film generally fine, there were a handful of things that passed me off so much. Like I gotta discuss the elephant in the room when I say there is no need to crossover with GI Joe. This doesn’t satisfy anybody apart from myself because that franchise has not had a good live action film up to this point. If we even get a follow up from this, I am not gonna get my hopes high on them making this an essential plot element. I know there have been comic books of both brands crossing over but just because it’s been done before, does not mean history has to repeat itself. It would’ve not been a bad idea to play it safe and have Sector 7 recruit Noah instead. Going into the rest of the story, how did Scourge not know the key was split in half? If he had no idea how it looked in advance, that is embarrassing. I mean even I knew the Airazor statue only had half of it before the characters said so. I don’t care if you call me picky on this, but it’s so cringeworthy for Elena’s boss Jillian (Sarah Stiles) to be so disinterested with her discoveries. I know not everyone is gonna be enthusiastic of history like Indiana Jones, but you should at least respect what you’re part of. And why exactly would Mirage hide in a hotel parking garage? It may sound better than Bee at the drive in, but even that is a risk because eventually someone would notice the car doesn’t belong. Another thing, is it really the police's job to get the authenticity of art pieces? Because it honestly sounds like meant for insurance investigators. I don’t know about you, but ain’t it odd for Stratosphere to not join the fight? Revenge of the Fallen was a whole other movie, yet Jetfire was in an elderly state and still contributed in the conflict. All I’m saying is that the character should’ve been more than transportation. Also, how come we don’t see any other Maximals apart from the main four that were introduced? Had Primal not said there were others that left their homeworld, I would’ve not been bothered about this. And wasn’t it a little too convenient for the autobots to take Bee’s corpse? I know the whole point is to keep their cover, but Bee was very lucky to be taken to a village surrounded with dormant Energon and be brought back when the Autobots weren't planning to. On top of that, how come the Autobots never traced the Sweeps? If they’re undetectable, that’s insane to not be clarified. Was it really a good idea for Noah to leave Chris outside the building for the interview instead of inside? I know the 90s were a different time, but that was risky. And did the cop need the pull a gun out on Noah? I know he was robbing the car, but that doesn't sound like an appropriate first instinct. I then wonder if anyone saw the Terrorcons crashland on Earth? There's got to be a few sightseers besides GI Joe or Sektor 7 that had to have seen it. The same goes when Mirage meets Chris. It even felt weird how no one in Peru said anything when Noah and Elena walked into the parade. I did say I respect Prime for destroying the key, but why didn't the Maximals straight up do it themselves instead of separating it into pieces? If they really wanted to prevent Unicron from coming sooner, that would've done it. Lastly, I don't want to be picky but was it really appropriate for Noah to turn up the tv's volume without the security guard's permission? I know he wants to be supportive towards Elena, but since he doesn't know GI Joe is about to recruit him, that looked rude as hell. Other than that, I still had a good time. To wrap up, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts is another entertaining sci fi gem worth the while for any kind of fan of the Hasbro brand.
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