Turns out the Transformers Franchise has some kick left in it after all

I’m going to be honest, I thought the Transformers franchise was dead. I liked the direction 2018’s Bumblebee was going. But I didn’t think it was enough to completely revive a franchise that had become synonymous with the phrase “dumb, loud blockbuster”. Thankfully, if I were to use a single phrase to describe Transformers Rise of the beasts it would be that this movie is a breath of fresh air for the  franchise, with it’s action set pieces, the characters and the plot all coming together in a way that truly shows that perhaps there is hope for the Transformers franchise going forward.

Now what you need to understand about Transformers: Rise of The Beasts is that it’s actually a soft reboot for those of you that were not aware or rather it’s the sequel to the reboot that was 2018’s Bumblebee and this means new characters, new timeline, new stories, new villains and that’s actually good news cause in all honesty the “Bayverse” had become a bit too convoluted and packed and this made movies as well as certain plot threads hard to track and rebooting this messy timeline was needed in order to make this movie work and this movie actually works.

To begin with,  the characters , more precisely the Transformers in this movie are just are right at the forefront. Being treated as actual characters with their own story arcs and this was never really a comment that we would give for a Transformers movie in the past (until Bumblebee in 2018). But as mentioned before Rise of the beasts surpasses expectations especially in its how it portrays Optimus Prime who instead of being the perfect hero who he was shown as in the Michael Bay Movies, he’s now depicted as a war hardened leader who’s just trying his best to make sure none of his soldiers die. This performance is hammered home by Peter Cullen who may have just done his best Optimus yet and this helps make Prime a far more relatable and realistic character. To add on to that, Pete Davidsons Mirage is the one who actually drives all the comedy in this movie making Pete Davidson the perfect voice for a really funny character who lands some pretty decent jokes throughout the movie which actually stick to the audience.

Moving on to one of our human protagonists Noah Diaz who is played by Anthony Ramos in a pretty adequate performance which actually shows some believable chemistry between him and the Transformers, something we haven’t seen in a while. His overall character actually brings some relevance to the plot as a whole and he’s not just some side character who’s tossed to the side as the plot moves forward rather he’s made to be a character with a background which actually makes it easier to empathize with him. The same can be said for the other Human protagonist Elena who has a relatable background and doesn’t even drag the plot down the plot in the slightest and the same can be said for the Maximal and Autobot character which are actually a welcome addition to the movie this time around with most notably the Maximals’ leader Optimus Primal actually being an interesting character and seeing him interact with Optimus Prime is actually a pretty fun experience.

The biggest addition to this Transformers movie however is the Maximals. Now Transformers die-hards may remember these characters from Beast Wars, a cult-classic Transformers show that many forget is part of the franchise, but thankfully they make a pretty respectable debut here. Especially Ron Perlman as Optimus Primal, a descendant of sorts to Prime himself from the future who has the very interesting interaction with him of actually being more attuned and accustomed to Earth, seeing the true value of humanity compared to his predecessor who is unfortunately at a much more conflicted part of his life and his journey as a leader. Another great addition is Michelle Yeoh’s Airazor , who essentially acts as the wise sage who guides the struggling group of Autobots against their new, time traveling dual threat of the Terrorcons and their master Unicron who we’ll get to soon. Unfortunately the same can’t be said for the rest of the Maximals Cheetor and Rhinox, with Cheetor actually played by Zimbabwe’s own Tongayi Chirisa. This film is a little more Autobot focused as their unit gets more fleshed out through Mirage, Bumblebee and even Liza Coshy’s Arcee. It also works to the detriment of the villains the Terrorcons with even Peter Dinklage being generic as Scourge, beyond his grudge with Optimus Prime. 

Unicron however, manages to fair comparably better. Mostly by being set up as the big bad coming in later movies, but he still does a good job for his brief appearance. Especially since while Scourge and his Terrorcons don’t get much in terms of character, they do make for intimidating opponents who wipe the floor with the Autobots and make for gut-wrenching action and even emotional scenes, a testament to how thins movie manages the trademark Transformers epic scale with more character driven development.

All in all, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts is a visually stunning action packed movie with a simple plot that’s easy to follow and easy to digest and understand without trying to become too complex for no reason and this makes it a 10/10 Transformers movie which further proves the fact that movies can be incredibly good for their respective franchises without needing to be Oscar Winning Films so please go watch the movie and just enjoy it for the awesome funny time it is.

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