Returning to the action and spectacle that have captured moviegoers around the world, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts will take audiences on a ’90s globetrotting adventure and introduce the Maximals, Predacons, and Terrorcons to the existing battle on Earth between Autobots and Decepticons.
I enjoyed “Transformers” when it was first released in 2007, but every film since, except for “Bumblebee,” failed to live up to the fun and excitement of the original, with the later installments becoming overly serious and monotonous. Going into “Rise of the Beasts,” I lowered my expectations way down in the hopes that it might help me have a good time, but there was no need to do so as the movie is right up there with the first film and “Bumblebee,” rejuvenating the lifeless series.
This time, Optimus Prime (Peter Cullen) and his Autobots must battle with the Terrorcons, a Decepticon faction who will stop at nothing to retrieve the Transwarp Key. An artifact that allows anyone to travel through time and space through a portal opened from another planet, the Terrorcons leader, Scourge (Peter Dinklage), wants the Key so that his master, Unicron (Colman Domingo), a world-devouring planet-sized Transformer, can annihilate the Earth and take all of its resources.
Along the way, Optimus Prime and his Autobots enlist the help of two humans, Noah Diaz (Anthony Ramos), an ex-military electronics expert, and Elena Wallace (Dominique Fishback), an artifact researcher who works at a natural history museum and the person responsible for inadvertently discovering the Transwarp Key. After accidentally triggering it, the Key emits a signature only visible to the Autobots and the Terrorcons. Both groups go to the museum where Elena works and engage in battle.
The Terrorcons manage to acquire the Key, but unbeknownst to them, the Key was initially split into two pieces, with the other half located in a temple in Peru. Now the Autobots, Noah, and Elena must travel to South America to retrieve the other half, enlisting the help of long-lost allies, the Maximals, a time-traveling race of Transformers, or risk Scourge summoning Unicron to Earth, where he will obliterate it, and everyone and everything on it.
Director Steven Caple Jr. manages to keep all the action up on the screen so the audience can relate to everything that is transpiring, unlike his predecessor, Michael Bay, known for his signature visual style encompassing fast-paced editing, dynamic camera movements, 360-degree hero shots, and frenzied action, all leading to dizzying effect and visual fatigue. Caple Jr. captures some visually striking action set pieces, but he also infuses the film with much-needed tenderness and sensitivity.
When we first meet the Autobots, particularly Optimus Prime, he is quick to discard help that Noah and Elena offer because he doesn’t trust humans, but throughout the film, he gradually begins to see that while there are bad people in the world, there are also good, akin to the Terrorcons and his Autobots. He sees the love Noah has for his sick younger brother Kris and his mother and realizes that he can trust in humans after all.
“Rise of the Beasts” serves as a sequel and a prequel; it takes place in New York City in 1994, seven years after the events of “Bumblebee” and thirteen years before the events of “Transformers” and this is a great way to set up a new series of films. Anthony Ramos is more of a straightlaced action hero as opposed to Shia LaBeouf’s quirky and awkward Sam Witwicky, while Dominique Fishback is ultrasmart and well-educated, compared with Megan Fox’s Mikaela Banes, who was always seen as just eye candy.
Up until this point, the Transformers franchise looked like it was going to have the final nail placed in its big-screen coffin, but thankfully, “Rise of the Beasts” resurrects everything that made the first film so enjoyable and opens the series in a new direction. I did not expect to enjoy this movie as much as I did, and I can’t wait to see it again. Be sure to catch “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts” on the biggest screen possible; you won’t be disappointed. And don’t forget to stick around for a mid-credit scene.
In Theaters Friday, June 9th
