Barely enough heart and humor to scratch through the mess
If only the Transformers film series began in 2018 with Bumblebee, a compelling audience-pleasing character introduction akin to 2008’s Iron Man, and then expanded the Transformers universe from there. Instead, we have five noisy, forgettable, often offensive Transformers films directed by Michael Bay between 2007-2017 in the back of our minds. Bumblebee successfully stripped the franchise back down to its essential parts and concentrated on a Spielbergian 1980s character-driven story with impressive robot action set pieces sprinkled throughout. It functioned as an effective standalone film and baseline for how to tell these stories in a cinematic way. Transformers: Rise of the Beasts functions as a sequel and a new series starting point, continuing a few important elements from its predecessor, like emotionally relatable characters and unique robot personalities, but it runs well off the rails by introducing far too many plot devices and ending with a long, no stakes CGI mess.
Rise of the Beasts takes place in 1994, seven years after the events of Bumblebee. The story mostly parallels that of Bumblebee as well. A prologue introduces us to the Maximals, animal-shaped robots from a distant galaxy, who flee their home planet when a planet-eating robotic entity, Unicron, arrives to destroy it with aid from his main baddy helper, Scourge (voiced by Peter Dinklage). Unicron and Scourge are in search of a glowing object, a “key”, that would enable Unicron to venture beyond his galaxy to destroy all worlds. To what end, who knows. Cutting forward in time to 1994, in Brooklyn, Noah Diaz (Anthony Ramos), an ex-military electronics guru, struggles to gain employment to help his mother afford medical treatment for his sick little brother. Desperate to earn some quick cash, happenstance gets him involved with a hip, rule-breaking Transformer, Mirage (voiced by Pete Davidson). As the good guy Autobots, led by Optimus Prime, learn of the “key” appearing on Earth and the threat of Unicron, they team up with Noah and Elena (Dominique Fishback), an intern at an artifact museum, to save the world. Business as usual for these films. Grasping the overarching existential threat is easy, but the script piles on one plot device after another — ancient symbols, a new helpful robot, a missing object, etc. — requiring expository dialogue throughout the film. Even as the final battle commences, more plot devices are introduced, thus even more expository excuses are made, which proves both baffling and distracting. The filmmakers appear to have received studio notes that they only chose to shoehorn in once the film was mostly completed, or they just didn’t go through enough script revisions (support the WGA!).
Helming this installment is Steven Caple Jr. (Creed II), a sure-handed director who has proven his ability to keep a successful reboot moving forward. The first two-thirds of Rise of the Beasts has more identifiable directorial touches, building out character stories and playfully putting different combinations of robots and characters into the same space. The third act feels more like what’s become the genre’s chore-like signature: a large explosive action set piece to end the film. We’ve seen similar battles in Marvel films, where hordes of minions are suddenly introduced as fodder (from where? and how? who knows!) and the main characters we’ve closely followed until this point get swallowed up badly rendered CGI environments.
Although not everyone goes to see a Transformers movie for the character interplay and human emotions, they are well-developed here. The film takes its time when introducing us to Noah and Elena and to their respective quirks and values. And, while Fishback and all the voice actors are up to the task, Ramos and Davidson command the spotlight. Davidson is very funny as the voice of Mirage. He and Ramos have good rapport and a charming bromance energy from the moment they first interact. The effort pays off. We feel emotionally attached to these characters, even when the finale threatens to destabilize all the emotional heft the film worked so hard to establish. Rise of the Beats also playfully captures ’90s pop culture and social stigmas in a winking manner, in the same vein as Bumblebee did with the ’80s, without shoving the references down our throats (ahem, like in Captain Marvel). The time period works as a welcoming backdrop to the story.
Presumably the biggest draw of a Transformers film is the loud, big, robot mayhem. Rise of the Beasts has that aplenty, whether they be quick skirmishes outside a museum, brightly lit cinematic fights on Peruvian mountain slopes, or large-scale, geographically indiscernible battles. The special effects are mostly impressive when they’re well-lit and used sparingly, which isn’t always the case. The action is most effective when the stakes are clear and meaningful. Rise of the Beasts loses its way greatly in this regard, as if the filmmakers directed themselves into a corner. Head-scratching plot reversals appear out of nowhere in order for the film to reach an ending that, I can only imagine, is primarily intended to support future films. All of which is to say that Rise of the Beasts, though playful and filled with good characters, doesn’t have the confidence to take any chances. The explosions, gunfire, swiping blades, and mid-action banter have no tension, and when the film inches close to a tough storytelling decision, it swerves or reverses, in order to avoid it. If the franchise ever wants to truly separate itself from the Michael Bay decade of Transformers films (though he’s still involved as a producer), it’ll need to make some gutsy choices and stick with them.
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Transformers: Rise of the Beasts opens in Bay Area theaters Friday, June 9th.
