A huge improvement from the last Michael Bay films (Can we just go ahead and forget those? Maybe all except for the first one). Rise of the Beasts is a direct sequel to ‘Bumblebee’ and is set in 1994. There is no need to re-watch any of the prior films, just know that the Autobots are stuck on Earth and are looking for a way home. It may have the same ‘McGuffin’ plot as the other films, this time, they must recover an inter-dimensional key which can be a way for the Autobots to go home to Cybertron but it is also a way for the planet-eating Unicron to make its way to Earth. This plays on with the characters motivations in the film later on, so stay tuned.
There is an improvement with the human companion in the film. Noah Diaz played by Anthony Ramos, who you may have seen in ‘Hamilton’ and ‘In the Heights’ is a former soldier who is working hard to help with his brother’s illness. And when an autobot offers you money in exchange for a dangerous mission, who are you to say no right? Especially when there are medical bills to pay. I felt that I was able to relate to him more than say Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) in the Bay films, who started to just want a cool car to impress the girl (Megan Fox).
Don’t worry because it’s not all drama as there are enough big robot battles to keep little kids and the big kids at heart happy. We are also first introduced to the Maximals, and seeing giant robots mimic the movements of ferocious predators on the big screen is such a treat! Although they had to balance out the number of autobots and maximals on the screen, you feel as though not all get a decent amount of screentime, which will definitely leave you looking for more, but there are enough cool sequences to keep you satisfied.
The film had a better balance of the big action sequences and the story and characters, we see their motivations and what drives them. Also shout out to the performances of the voice actors, Peter Cullen who of course, is the unmistakable voice of Optimus Prime, Peter Dinklage who played big baddie Scourge, Pete Davidson who did such a good job as new fan favorite Mirage and Michelle Yeoh, who is always regal, even when she is a giant robot bird were so much fun to watch as share their voices to the big robots on the screen.
I also thought that Peru was such a refreshing change of scenery, instead of having the usual big battles in the city. Big surprise in the end that I didn’t see coming at all. Still not sure how they will tie everything together but they are going in the right direction. I’m just happy to be excited and to look forward to Transformers movies again.
Transformers: Rise of the Beasts is now showing in cinemas.