(film review) - Transformers: Rise of the Beasts

You know what is really wild to me? This movie coming to an end and I was smiling from ear to ear gassed about what I had just watched (for context, to be gassed, is to be excited). I mean, I had watched the trailer and given the trailer high praise. As I said in my trailer review "...Michael Bay took my childhood cartoons and ruined them..." (I guess I was also referring to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles films too, as he was a producer on them). Although Michael Bay was also a producer of the 2018's Bumblebee movie (It should have been called 'Transformers: Bumblebee'), I am guessing he did not meddle with that one because that movie was far better than the previous Transformers movies and it is quite possible, he learned from possibly poking his nose in where it did not belong for TMNT. The Bumblebee movie was really good and I was hoping for more...and it looks like we have got it, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, and for me, it did not disappoint!

Noah, an ex-military electronics expert is trying to get by and support his family, but when he decides to take on a risky job for his friend Reek, Noah is catapulted into a world of robots in disguise who have learned of a planet-eating alien seeking to devour Earth. Noah must join the Autobots to help save the planet, even if it means joining up with the Maximals.

I will start with the negatives first. The Music. Do not get me wrong, the music was fantastic and there was a moment towards the end of the movie where a certain song came on and the scene was simply perfect. I was smiling so hard, enjoying the moment way too much for a Transformers movie. The special effects, in places; not great. This might be due to the budget Steven was given but in a couple of places, it seemed very 'green screen'. The nostalgia factor. Where this movie is set in the 90s I am not sure, if the movie came out in the 90s the film would have simply felt like it fit in with the times we are "currently in", but as I grew up through that time and we are currently out of that time, some 30 years ago, I felt that the 90s influence was somewhat heavy-handed. Not as heavy-handed as Captain Marvel, but I just felt like it was just a tad too much nostalgia for me. The Humans. Nobody cares about them. Nobody wants them in a Transformers movie. They get in the way, they do dumb things and for the most part, they are simply there to also help hold the audience's hand for exposition. On top of that, they are also there to help keep what would be a special effects-heavy movie, costs down, but for the most part, the humans were not terrible, they help bring a little humour and help ground the movie.

The positives, loads! The story was a simple one; bad guy coming to do bad things, so the relatable [human] good guy teams up with unknown [robotic] good guys to help stop the [robotic] bad guy from succeeding, nothing new right? But I will say, Steven handled the franchise with care. I never watched Beast Wars nor did I care for it, but seeing these animals looked absolutely great. The size of the Autobots and the size of the Maximals compared to humans is staggering. They all just looked great and very well realised. The Music, although sounding like a 90s best hip-hop hits album, was really good. The irony of going to the cinema to watch this movie on this occasion for me was, whilst a song from a band is currently playing in the movie, the very same band is currently at the same complex I am in and likely performing, had performed or due to perform the very same song I am currently listening to. Trippy. All the music pieces were a great fit, but I do think it was a little heavy-handed as a lot of the music was back-to-back-to-back. The fighting scenes. Whilst I ultimately did not get what I wanted (and I will not mention or allude to it due to spoilers), the fighting scenes were really good. The action was really good and the 3rd act was surprisingly good, especially when that particular song I mentioned earlier dropped. I think I was in the cinema by myself and I really should have cheered as loud as I could because the moment was simply great and I wouldn't have been disturbing anyone, but it was soo good. The humour' decent. While I will say, having Pete Davidson as Mirage was funny, I felt that maybe they could have made some of the lines uttered in the movie less cheesy, but I guess we need a little bit of cheese now and then. The voice acting. Pete Davidson; great. I was not aware he could do some brilliant voice acting and having Peter Cullen is always a bonus, but I had no idea, Ron Pearlman, Colman Domingo and Peter Dinklage were in this lending their talents.

In regards to the rest of the movie, there was a Lord of the Rings moment, visually anyway, when you see it, you will know and the acting was not superb, especially as it is a Transformers movie so I could not have expected anything less (how the movie and the characters were written), but Dominque Fishback is the anchor to this movie while Anthony Ramos was just ok to me. I felt Anthony's quieter scenes with Dean Scott Vazquez were better and written very well, whereas his other moments could have been fleshed out more. There is also a moment with Dominique which was really good too, but ultimately, I feel his character could have been written and acted out better. But other than that and some other moments that do not escape any Transformers movie, on the whole, a very good watch, especially if you leave any opinions of previous movies and the bad taste in your mouth from them, at the door before you sit and watch. Lastly, the mid-credits scene; interesting, very interesting. I wonder what Hasbro has in store, hopefully, something great than trying to build a universe and simply messing it up just because they are trying to build a universe as capable, vast and great as the MCU, like how DC and Universal have previously tried and failed trying to do so, although DC might actually be able to salvage what is left of that mess. If you can, go out and see this movie as it IS a lot better than the previous movies we have had before.