I’d like to believe that 2018’s “Bumblee” kind of rubbed off on the studios and it caused them to go in to another direction with their “Transformers” movie series. The “direction” being making their “Transformers” series watchable, entertaining, and coherent. Where as the previous films were all overlong, droning, loud, and obnoxious, “Rise of the Beasts” actually manages to be a very good time. And I say that as someone that’s been completely dismissing anything and everything about “Transformers” since the movies wound up being so god awful. “Bumblebee” being the exception, of course.
“Rise of the Beasts” is set in 1994 where we meet Noah Diaz, a military veteran who is struggling financially, while dealing with his ailing little brother. After agreeing to steal cars to make some money, Noah is captured by Mirage, the shape shifting Transformer, and is thrust in to the middle of the Transformers war. With the massive Unicron intent on consuming worlds, Optimus and co. look for a key that could help them get home. They travel to Peru to find the other half, and come face to face with new foes, as well as new allies: the Maximals. They are animal variants of the Transformers also trying to find the key and return to their home of Cybertron.
“Rise of the Beasts” is a pseudo-adaptation of the excellent “Beast Wars” where Optimus Primal is finally introduced along with all the other Transformers variants. Steven Caple Jr’s entry in to the series thankfully works at a quicker pace and a less incoherent storyline this time around. Where as the previous films were well over two and half hours, “Rise of the Beasts” is a respectable two hours, max. Which should work well for the target audience. Anthony Ramos is a fine as hero Noah, a conflicted inner city man working hard not to head in to a life of crime to help support his family, and the war with the Autobots and Maximals allows him to fulfill a greater sense of purpose. His friendship with Mirage, as voiced by Pete Davidson, is a highlight of the movie, as Davidson’s affable take on the transformer soldier is fun and charming.
Along with Davidson, the cast is stacked with voice performances by Peter Cullen, Michelle Yeoh, Ron Perlman, Peter Dinklage and many more. “Rise of the Beasts” is not entirely the adaptation I wanted for “Beast Wars,” but the cross over works well with some fun action set pieces, great battles, a really cool car chase, and some interesting explorations in to the lore. That said, the writers work hard to reconcile the 1994 time reverse, and still have a tough time making it make sense. Why did it take so long for the Maximals to transform? If transformers could link with humans why couldn’t they do that in the future? If Mirage was in hiding why didn’t he constantly change appearances to keep stealth? What happened with Noah in the military, and why did it make it tough for him to get work?
Why again are the Autobots and Maximals stuck on Earth and what is happening on their home planet that makes them so eager to go back? Why did Prime come back to the Earth in the 2007 movie? If this movie is set before the first “Transformers” what happened to the Maximals? If they arrived before the Autobots, why is Optimus Primal named after Optimus Prime? And what happened to Charlie from “Bumblebee”? Did she abandon him? Did he abandon her? Did she die? In either case, “Rise of the Beasts” is not a movie I’ll likely keep in constant rotation, but it’s a fun Sunday matinee that kept my inner twelve year old happy.
The epilogue was the icing on the cake.