The first live action Transformers movie came out when I was ten years old, and the biggest thing that I got out of it was that the yellow Camaro with black racing stripes was one of the most beautiful things that I had ever seen. I also remember it being packed with action, and everything you would want from a movie that is about fighting robots. At this time, CGI was not an acronym that I would have understood, and plot mechanics and story themes are also things that would have meant little to nothing to me. I just knew that there were a lot of nice cars, big explosions, and some comedic elements, so that makes an awesome movie. Sometimes I miss those days when every movie I watched seemed amazing.
Transformers Rise of the Beasts starts out on another planet where the Maximals, robots that look like animals, are fighting against the Terrorcons. The Terrorcons are trying to get a key, this will help their godlike leader to go around and destroy more planets, but the Maximals make an escape just in time. Then on Earth, a human, Noah, is trying to take care of his brother in any way he can, but his family is struggling for money. Noah tries to steal a beautiful Porshe, but it turns out that this is Mirage, and it just so happens Optimus was calling out for all Autobots to meet up at this moment, so Noah gets drawn into their scheme to try and get the key that will allow them to travel back home.
But it is not that easy. The Terrorcons have also come to Earth in their continual search for the key. While trying to steal the key from a museum, Noah accidentally drags Elena into the mix. So now the two of them join the Autobots in a race to find the other half of the key, which was hidden down in Peru. While down in Peru, the Autobots find out that the Maximals have been hiding out down there protecting the other half of the key, but this led the Terrorcons right to the Maximals and the other half of the key. The Terrorcons were able to steal it, and they started the process of destroying the Earth, so now the Autobots, Maximals, and humans must all join forces to stop the Earth from being destroyed.
Initially, I was very into this movie. It looked great to start. The CGI was unnoticeable, and they started with a fun fight scene. This allowed the audience to see some of the new robots that would be featured in the film, which is what I was really excited for, I mean who does not love robots that are also giant animals, but then it transitions to the human story line, which was fine. Noah needs money because his brother has Sickle Cell, but the family is down on their luck. This takes a decent detour from the transformers for like twenty minutes, but then it comes back with a car chase that worked very well.
The first hour went by quickly, but the second hour, although it had more action, seemed to drag. It also looked way worse. Once they got to Peru, it was like the whole CGI budget was gone. Everything looked like it was clearly on a green screen from the people to the transformers, it was very obvious that they were not in Peru, which seems like a real mistake, who would not want to go to Peru and film. They regained some of their visual quality for the final fight. What really helped in that instance is that the setting shifted to a more otherworldly feel, so there was no glaring discrepancy between the real world and the generated world.
The dialogue during the fight scenes also left something to be desired. It felt like every time a Transformer talked, it was to tell the humans to get out of here, and then another one would say basically the same line like five seconds later, and this happened in multiple fights. I know it is a small knit pick, but it bothered me nonetheless. Also they called this movie Rise of the Beasts, but after the opening five minutes, the beasts were not seen until the second half of the movie. They were totally sidelined for the normal Transformers we already know. I wanted something new, I wanted robot animals, and there simply were not enough of them!
This movie was set in the 90s, and the style was there. It did a good job of setting the tone, and nothing helps set the tone like the music, and they had some solid needle drops throughout the film. They also made so much of the public wear those beautiful wind breaks whenever they were walking around the city. The main car being a 90s Porshe was also amazing. It looked incredible, and I actually really enjoyed Pete Davidson as Mirage. Like I mentioned, when talking about the first one, this is a movie, where the main thing is robots fighting, and this movie does have that. They also do a good job with the final battle.
In this movie, there are multiple battles, where the humans are right in the mix of things. In the first movie, the military is more involved, and they are using machine guns and explosives to try and fight Megatron, but in this movie, Noah and Elena are basically weaponless, except for a handheld blaster that Noah got over halfway through the movie. So there are multiple times when the people are just standing there watching their allies get destroyed, and there is nothing they can do about it. It is a weird place to be in, because at least in superhero movies, a large portion of the time, the villain is just a human that is bad and maybe slightly powered, but even in the instances where the villain is powered, a normal person can feel like they can intervene to some extent, because they are the same size as the villain, but this is not the case when fighting giant robots. It is just so awkward for them to just stand there and feel so helpless.
There was one main theme in this movie that Optimus Prime explicitly states, and that is the importance of working together. In the movie, everyone had their own self-interests, and although they had similar goals in mind, they never fully worked together, and this led to the potential destruction of Earth, but when it was all on the line, Optimus pulled everyone into the huddle, and he told them that now they have to work together otherwise none of their motivations will come to fruition.
I know I spent the majority of this paper trashing on the movie, but it was mainly enjoyable. It was nothing special by any means, and I do not think it is better than the original. It has most of the things you would want from a Transformers movie. It has cool cars. It has giant robots that fight, and it has explosions. It is missing Shia LaBeouf and Megan Fox, but they are replaced by two characters that have some charisma. I enjoyed the Noah character more than Elena. Some of the CGI looked good, but there were also scenes like the giant mechanical gorilla running up the steps in Peru, that just looked like some of the worst CGI I had seen this year. It is an average movie, and as such it receives 3 Stars from me. (Also I am very confused by the G.I Joe reveal at the end.)
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