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Posted in: Kaitlyn Booth, Movies, Paramount Pictures, Review, Transformers | Tagged: paramount, Paramount Pictures, transformers, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts
Transformers: Rise of the Beasts Review: About the Robots This Time
Transformers: Rise of the Beasts isn't the worst of this franchise, but that is a bar so low that you could stub your toe on it, and it is also a step back from the potential that we saw with Bumblebee.
Transformers: Rise of the Beasts might be slightly better than the first five films from Michael Bay in that it actually focuses mainly on the robots instead of the human characters, but it is a massive step back from how good [and underrated] Bumblebee is.
Director: Steven Caple Jr.
Summary: During the '90s, a new faction of Transformers – the Maximals – join the Autobots as allies in the battle for Earth.
When Bumblebee came out in 2018, everyone was surprised at just how good it was. Perhaps this had something to do with the fact that the Michael Bay Transformers films, while popular at the box office, never really sparked much reaction. Transformers: The Last Knight was pretty heavily maligned by critics. While it did well at the box office, it only did half of what the previous film had done. So it was surprising to see Bumblebee stick the landing for both critics and audiences for the first time in the series. However, while it was a good film, it was also a film that didn't exactly do well at the box office. These are 2018 numbers, so you have to remember there is a level of brain rot there, but the film grossed $467 million at the worldwide box office, making it the lowest performer of the entire franchise by quite a bit. This has resulted in something of a return to the Bay format for Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, and while it is an improvement from the earlier Bay Transformers films, it is a huge step back from Bumblebee.
Something that the Bay films did that this film thankfully doesn't is get bogged down with too many useless human characters that take the focus away from the robots. When people show up to a Transformers movie, they are there to see Transformers, not human characters running around in action scenes where you might see a robot show up every now and then. This film has two primary human characters with one more notable supporting role, and that's about it. Noah and Elena are significant parts of the story, but they aren't a distraction from it. Much like Bumblebee, these movies work better when we have some human and robot interaction and dynamics, but a Transformers movie is ultimately about the robots.
In Association with HASBRO and NEW REPUBLIC PICTURES. A di BONAVENTURA PICTURES Production A TOM DESANTO / DON MURPHY Production. A BAY FILMS Production "TRANSFORMERS: RISE OF THE BEASTS" ©2023 Paramount Pictures. All Right Reserved.
However, while the first and second acts are ok, the third act goes entirely off the rails. All of the robot interactions in the lead-up to the final act had been pretty fun to watch, but this one takes on all of the bad traits of the Bay films. It becomes impossible to follow where anyone is in terms of the layout and who is where and doing what. All of the big robots and little robots are running around and blending into the dark ground so that you have no idea what is going on. They are also marketing things as prequels still, so all of the world-ending stakes and even moments when you think one of the robots could be in trouble fall flat because we know how this goes. That's the problem with prequels; they have to be good enough to make you forget that you know how all of this ends, and Transformers: Rise of the Beasts is not good enough to do that.
A point in its favor is that Transformers: Rise of the Beasts doesn't have a massively long runtime. Clocking in at 127 minutes, it's the second shortest entry in the entire franchise. So if you were worried that this would be another entry in this franchise pushing three hours, no worries; this one is more or less out the door in enough time. There were probably some places where things could have been cut to get closer to 100 minutes, which would have yielded a tighter film. There was plenty in the insane third act that didn't need to be there, so the film doesn't overstay its welcome, and it also isn't as well-paced as it could be. The ending implies that there is more to come in the form of worldbuilding, but we have seen studios jump the gun on this sort of thing way too many times. At least it is a brief moment that isn't too distracting from the final film.
A BAY FILMS Production "TRANSFORMERS: RISE OF THE BEASTS" © 2023 Paramount Pictures. All Right Reserved.
Transformers: Rise of the Beasts isn't the worst of this franchise, but that is a bar so low that you could stub your toe on it, and it is also a step back from the potential that we saw with Bumblebee. There is potential here; we have seen them do it exactly once, so we know they can do it again. All they need to do is realize that a third-act fireworks show can survive with fewer fireworks and more emotional stakes. There are reportedly two more films on the way, and if they are also "prequels," it'll be interesting to see if any of them are good enough to overcome the usual prequel problems.
Transformers: Rise of the Beasts
4/10
Transformers: Rise of the Beasts might be slightly better than the first five films from Michael Bay in that it actually focuses mainly on the robots instead of the human characters, but it is a massive step back from how good [and underrated] Bumblebee is.
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