‘Transformers: Rise of the Beasts’ Review: When Humans Became More Interesting Than Fighting Robots
You’ll never have a second chance to make a first impression, and in today’s world where time is spent scrolling through TikTok videos that must justify a runtime longer than 10 seconds, first impressions are more important than ever. This is also very true in filmmaking, where opening scenes have always been one of the most difficult parts of a movie. A good opening scene must pull the audience into the world that is recreated by the camera, but also give them a reason to watch what comes after. Unfortunately, this is something that Steven Caple Jr.’s Transformers: Rise of the Beasts didn’t really care for, because two minutes into a poorly-directed, oddly-edited, and vastly-underwritten opener, I was ready to tap out. Thankfully, though, I didn’t leave the theater.
To say that Rise of the Beasts is the best Transformers live-action movie to date isn’t exactly a high bar, especially when all I can remember from five of them are a bunch of explosions and an awkward array of characters that nobody really cared for. This time, the cast is led by Anthony Ramos and Dominique Fishback, and as we get into the second act, they are pretty much the only human faces we see. That was a smart decision that allowed the audience to get attached to their characters and the script (by five different writers led by Joby Harold) takes good advantage of it; in fact, for the first time in the franchise (aside, perhaps, from Travis Knight’s full-of-potential Bumblebee), whenever the movie lets the humans do their thing, it works quite nicely. Of course, that only works for two acts of the story, as there is no Transformers movie without an explosive third act that could, on its own, qualify for Best Animated Short Film at the Oscars.
(L-R) Dean Scott Vázquez as Kris and Anthony Ramos as Noah in Paramount Pictures’ Transformers: Rise of the Beasts.
But what was I expecting from a story about robots fighting evil robots and a Galactus-like villain looming over all of it, ready to devour the planet? Well, a good movie, perhaps? There is a lot to enjoy from Rise of the Beasts, and by far the least interesting storyline is the one about the Autobots and the Maximals trying to return to their planet and fighting for their own survival, respectively. Once we are past that breaker of an opener, we cut to Earth to meet Anthony Ramos’ Noah, a former soldier who is trying to find a job so that his family can pay the medical bills of his little brother. That’s an immediate point of attachment for the audience and a sign that maybe Caple Jr. had something to say with this movie.
For a few minutes, I genuinely forgot we were in a Transformers movie and was actually invested in Noah and his problems, all of it thanks to Ramos’ magnetic presence. That subplot obviously gets relegated to third or fourth place in the narrative once Ramos meets the Autobots, which was too bad, and his acting also deteriorated quite a bit while interacting with CG creatures, for obvious reasons. But he never really lost me, and I was genuinely rooting for him all the way into the third act, to my surprise.
(L-R) Anthony Ramos as Noah and Dominique Fishback as Elena in Paramount Pictures’ Transformers: Rise of the Beasts.
Meanwhile, Fishback plays a know-it-all intern at a museum working under an overpaid and criminally-incompetent boss, who couldn’t spell the word archaeology but is ready to take credit for anything her underlings find out. It’s unclear to me what Caple Jr.’s point was here, whether it was racial discrimination about white people taking credit for a Black person’s work, or about incompetent bosses undercutting their more-than-capable employees, or possibly a combination of both, but as someone who has seen first-hand this very situation in the research world, I immediately latched onto this character. Fishback’s Elena, along with her knowledge about ancient civilizations, plays a pivotal role in the plot, once that one kicks in.
Ultimately, there are two films inside Rise of the Beasts. The first is driven by story, with two characters surviving through life any way they can, and another one, which is entirely driven by plot, where a few Transformers are after the McGuffin of the Week. It is almost distracting how much that second film almost unconsciously becomes a parody of itself at some point. I usually roll my eyes whenever a movie depicts the making of the typical Hollywood blockbuster, with a bunch of generic slurs about saving the planet and a lot of CGI fights and explosions with no real stakes, and I usually get pretty defensive as I think they are targeting Marvel movies from a snobby point of view. As it turns out, they are actually talking about Rise of the Beasts. In fact, after seeing that third act, even the Kalispitron franchise from Succession sounds completely realistic.
Autobots and Maximals in Paramount Pictures’ Transformers: Rise of the Beasts.
One of my biggest complaints about Hollywood blockbusters as of late has been the editing, and despite reports about Paramount handing over the film to a dozen editing teams, Rise of the Beasts was actually quite watchable in that regard, and to my surprise, I had no major editing issues once we are past that opening sequence. The rhythm does have some problems, though, as the film slows down once the Autobots and Maximals come into play, and could have felt much tighter ten minutes shorter. However, that is also a sign of the lack of investment I had in that storyline as a whole, so I’ll cut the editing some slack, particularly as this is an area where many blockbusters over the past year or so have had a hard time finding its foot.
Transformers: Rise of the Beasts is currently playing in theaters worldwide.
Miguel Fernández is a Spanish student that has movies as his second passion in life. His favorite movie of all time is The Lord of the Rings, but he is also a huge Star Wars fan. However, fantasy movies are not his only cup of tea, as authors like Scorsese, Fincher, Kubrick or Hitchcock have been an obsession for him since he started to understand the language of filmmaking. He is that guy who will watch a black and white movie, just because it is in black and white.
