‘Transformers: Rise Of The Beasts’ Review – Call It A Comeback

Transformers: Rise of the Beasts is aiming to be the blockbuster of the summer. Releasing in between equally, if not more massive films like Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse and The Flash, Paramount seems to think they have a hit on their hands. Despite not changing the game, Rise of the Beasts does more than enough to secure a win, and serves as a convincing sell for a potential franchise rebirth.

Director Steven Caple Jr. (of Creed II fame) utilizes the 90’s setting at hand here to craft a unique aura for a Transformers film. Every moment spent in Brooklyn, most of it being in the first act, absolutely oozes love for that time period. This spills over into the soundtrack, which is built around hip-hop hits of the time, with features from Wu-Tang Clan, Nas, The Notorious B.I.G., and plenty more. Easily the best of all these, though, comes in the final act, but to spoil that would be an absolute crime. That moment may be worth the price of admission alone.

Really, the final thirty minutes are a full-on triumph. They’re jam-packed with payoffs, pure creativity, and classic Transformers action. The choreography is good the whole way through, but the big final battle is by far the highlight. The action sequences on the whole are solid, though the energy is uneven throughout. More than a few of the fights lack the pure catharsis that the best moments thrive on. That aspect is a tad disappointing.

But what is constantly present during the brawls is the hilarious hatred that the Transformers have for each other. Every faceoff between Optimus Prime and Scourge, the dastardly terrorcon villain, plays like a Wild ‘N Out roast battle, dripping in cheese and unabashed faithfulness to the source material. This is all pretty hammy, and the film embraces it. There are no jokes made about the wild nature of it all; everyone is taking this seriously, down to the one-liners and heroic last-stands. It’s the antithesis of the Marvel stuff of late, you have to love it.

Though you don’t have to love all of it. Rise of the Beasts is doing a lot more than just having fun. It’s working to not only introduce new human characters, trying to build their backgrounds and story beats, but also to separate itself from Michael Bay’s era of erratic chaos that has, for better or worse (mostly worse) defined the property on the big screen up to this point. Supposedly this film’s universe is still connected to Bay’s, though you could’ve never guessed it if you hadn’t been told.

Firstly, the human stuff works well. Anthony Ramos’ Noah Diaz is the heart and soul of the film, and he forges an interesting tether with the Autobots that keeps him relevant the whole way through. Dominique Fishback does the same, delivering a witty performance as a passionate archaeologist with a penchant for unsolved history. This duo is the exact opposite of Shia LeBouf’s Sam Witwicky in the Bay films, and thank Primus for that.

Bay being a producer here seemingly didn’t matter at all, as it is the absolute farthest from his entries in every regard, not just in that of the human involvement. Where Bay traded logical consistency for volatile inconsistency, Caple tones down and favors tighter environments and more sensible through-lines. It creates a more realistic, if not tame experience.

Because if Bay could be credited with anything regarding his Transformers films, it was the untamed, eruptive energy. All five of them had an undying dedication to visual insanity; forget the humans, let’s have these robots rip each-other limb-by-limb for thirty minutes on end. Set the scene with military-level weaponry firing down from every angle and a few massive explosions of unknown origin for good measure, and there you have it: Bayhem.

Even if those films rarely worked, when they hit, they hit hard. Rise of the Beasts does sacrifice some of that flair in it’s complete departure from Bay’s style, and during the low energy moments, specifically in the second act, it is sorely missed. Not even the fun dialogue can carry the scenes in which it feels like we’re being walked through the mandatory motions. These aren’t the first fight scene, where we’re thrilled to see all these bots in action for the first time, nor the last, where the stakes are sky-high. No, this fight exists to move this beat along, or that fight exists to get this character out of the way. The film telegraphs the unimportance of these moments far in advance, and it brings the pace to a screeching halt.

Even the character stuff slows down in the second act, though it still rounds off nicely in the end. It isn’t like the middle portion is a totally hapless part of the experience though, as the shot-on-location environment in lush Peru and one particularly inventive car chase keep the wheels from falling off before we’re then delivered onto a scorched-earth style battlefield for that incredible final act.

This one is just a really good time. The visuals are impressive, feeding into memorable bits of kinetic action and triumphant storytelling, and all the character work feels like it belongs. In a film about world-eating alien robots fighting over conflicts that could fill a full movie on their own, that is an accomplishment in its own right. Rise of the Beasts is an effectively simple summer blockbuster that does exactly what it sets out to do. Factoring in a genuinely shocking reveal in the final moments, we could be in for a crazy ride if this franchise takes off. You can safely call this a comeback.

Transformers: Rise of the Beasts is currently playing in theaters courtesy of Paramount Pictures. 

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itnqEauWQZM]