Movie: Transformers Rise of the Beasts
Production Companies: Skydance Media, Hasbro, New Republic Pictures, Di Bonaventura Pictures, Bay Films
Director: Steven Caple Jr
Producers: Don Murphy, Tom DeSanto, Lorenzo di Bonaventura, Michael Bay, Mark Vahradian, Duncan Henderson
Scriptwriters: Joby Harold, Darnell Metayer, Josh Peters, Erich Hoeber, Jon Hoeber
Main Cast: Anthony Ramos, Dominique Fishback
Release Date: June 9th 2023 (US)
Running Time: 127 minutes
Certificate: 12A
Introduction
Well, I guess that was an improvement. Look firstly, a message to the people proclaiming this to be the second best film in the franchise, it’s alright I guess? Anyway, despite a stellar voice cast (and Pete Davidson) and decent enough action, Transformers Rise of the Beasts will ultimately be remembered as an alright film and an improvement on the previous films in the same way two slices of bread is better than no bread at all. I mean technically it’s an improvement but not by much given how low the bar was before. Now, let’s get into my review of the film.
Synopsis
Transformers Rise of the Beasts follows two humans, Noah (Ramos) and Elena (Fishbeck), as they discover and are pulled into the war between the Autobots and Unicron. And yes, Unicron is essentially a Transformers equivalent of Galactus who goes around eating planets. Anyway, when the Maximals, a race of Transformers who can transform into beasts, bring the vague macguffin, sorry Transwarp Key, to Earth after escaping Unicron and his henchman, Scourge, the Autobots and humans are drawn into the war. And sidenote, what real use are humans against a giant planet destroying transformer? Anyway, without further ado let’s get into some analysis of the film.
Analysis
Anthony Ramos’s Performance in Transformers: Rise of the Beasts
Now a quick sidenote, when is the studio going to learn nobody really goes to a Transformers film for the human characters who all fall under the same categories. Anyway, that point aside, Anthony Ramos is pretty decent as Noah. While that may sound like damning with fake praise, it really isn’t. And the perfect example of his good performance is in his chemistry with Dominique Fishback’s Elena. Unlike other series leads like Shia Labeouf and Megan Fox or Mark Wahlberg and whoever he was with, Ramos and Fishbeck have pretty good chemistry.
Naturally, this means they’re a lot more tolerable to be around. Not that it’s difficult when compared to the one dimensional Cade or whatever Sam Witwicky was. Anyway, this chemistry is also seen with the Autobots as Ramos also has good chemistry with some of them. Well except for the final CGI nonsense but don’t worry I’ll get to that.
CGI in Transformers Rise of the Beasts
So, firstly when compared to the Bay Transformers films, Rise of the Beasts does have some decent effects. Not that this should be a marker for success but I digress. Anyway, in a perfect example of one step forward two steps back the film once again opts for a big CGI battle at the end. Now I don’t have a problem with that necessarily but when it harks back to Bay’s robotic Kamasutra fight scenes that’s never good.
Mostly, it’s impossible to tell which robot is attacking who and where anyone is in relation to each other so naturally you’re just sitting there watching a scene full of sound and fury signifying nothing. However, not all of the CGI in the film is terrible as the actual autobot design is pretty solid, obviously harkening back to Transformers the Movie. Also, known as a time where Michael Bay wasn’t trying to destroy childhoods….
Summary
To summarise Transformers Rise of the Beasts, this is a decent film which just about continues the upward trend of recent Transformers films. While it’s never going to be peak cinema, it’s just about serviceable enough to kill a few hours. But I guess the real takeaway is the crossover in the end credits which only has some average Joe in it….
Overall Rating: 5/10 – Average
Target Audience: 12+
Content Warning: Moderate Violence and Gore, Mild Profanity, Mild Frightening and Intense Scenes.Recommendation: No
