Cogs and Claws Dissecting ‘Transformers: Rise of the Beasts’

Tanner Kenyon Staff Reporter

It’s time to gear up and get ready to roll out once again and witness our childhood action-figure fights come to fruition as “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts” propels the iconic franchise to soaring heights once again.

“Transformers Rise of the Beasts” once again takes us into a world of the Autobots, Decepticons and now Maximals. Steven Caple Jr., who has directed iconic films such as “Creed II,” now tackles another iconic franchise with much care and integrity. This film is a notable improvement over the previous Transformers films, offering a fresh take on the franchise.

This film, although not a direct sequel to 2018’s “Bumblebee,” is sort of a reboot set after the events of the “Bumblebee” film. This film takes place in New York City in the year 1994, seven years after the “Bumblebee,” in which we are introduced to two new human protagonists named Noah Diaz and Elena played by Anthony Ramos and Dominique Fishback, respectively, who are young characters struggling with their own personal issues amidst the battle of mechanical titans.

Longtime fans of this franchise, like myself, will most likely revel in their childhood nostalgia once they see iconic interpretations of characters such as Optimus Prime in his classic G1 design in live-action. This film was very enjoyable to me, however, it was not without its issues. Now saying that, this film was a childhood-Saturday-watchingcartoons come to life; it was a great experience for someone who watched Transformers a lot as a kid.

This film had an excellent voice with the highlight for me being Peter Cullen as Optimus Prime, merely as it is his last time ever voicing the character, from what I have come to understand. He has been the voice of Optimus since I was a child, and he deserves all of the recognition in the world from fans of the franchise.

This film has an excellent voice cast ranging from Ron Perlman, Michelle Yeoh, John DiMaggio and more, but the highlight of the film outside of Peter Cullen was by far Pete Davidson as Mirage. He was extremely charismatic and was the perfect pairing next to Noah’s character. They bounced off of each other very well, and I thought it balanced an outstanding dynamic.

Now I will be honest, I am never a big fan of the human aspect of Transformers films, I personally believe we are all there for the giant robots fighting. However, this was my personal favorite human protagonist story out of all the films. I will not spoil the dynamics of the family in the film but it was emotional and moving at its core, especially every single scene between Noah and his brother Kris, played by Dean Scott Vasquez.

This film also had a very immersive and exciting soundtrack. I was a big fan of some of the chosen songs they went with, especially with the 1994 culture of that time.

This film also had a crazy setup for the potential future of the franchise, one that I would have never in a million years expected.

Now as I previously mentioned, this film is not without its issues by far. I did not walk out of the film without complaints. I did love this human protagonist; however, I feel as if the narrative was very conveniently crafted to fit a human specifically. I understand that in Hollywood it is untraditional to have a non-human led liveaction film, but I feel like there was too much necessity put on the human protagonists. Paramount at CinemaCon recently announced animated Transformers movies strictly focusing on the Autobots and Decepticons, which I am extremely excited for as a longtime fan of the franchise. I loved the Maximals in the film, but they didn’t have enough screen time. I didn’t watch “Beast Wars’, which is the show that inspired the Maximals introduction, but I have a friend who has and he expressed his extreme disappointment to me. Once he told me his complaints, I followed it up on the Internet and saw a lot of disappointment regarding what they did to the characters from “Beast Wars.”

All in all, I would give this film an 8 out of 10. I thoroughly enjoyed aspects of the film but also disliked other aspects of the film. It was fun to once again roll out with the Autobots and be in a world that has more than meets the eye. This film offers a nostalgic experience for longtime fans, all while being more manageable for casual viewers. While it doesn’t reach the heights of the delightful “Bumblebee,” it certainly surpasses the previous Michael Bay-directed installments, offering viewers a visually coherent and narratively focused Transformers experience entertainment.ed@ocolly.com