REVIEW #290 Transformers: Rise of the Beasts (2023)

Set in the early 90’s Optimus Prime and the Autobots must team up with a group of transformers known as Maximals in order to stop their biggest threat yet.

Rise of The Beasts has done well to stamp its own mark on the Transformers franchise, providing a unique take on the group of characters that we have all come to love over the years. It’s a version of Optimus Prime that we haven’t seen before, a leader hesitant and almost resentful of human kind, desperate to leave Earth and return home. This provides an interesting character arc that develops nicely along side the lead protagonist Noah, played by Anthony Ramos. The characters were definitely one of the strongest aspects of the movie, they had a little more depth and that not only relates to the human characters but the transformers too. Unfortunately despite that, I don’t think any of them can quite live up to the legacy of Sam Witwicky from the original movies. 

Now I have to mention my favourite aspect of the film, it’s soundtrack! Set in the early 90’s the movie includes a lot of hip hop from the time period that fits incredibly well with the sequences that unfold throughout. It provides one hell of an entrance for Bumblebee too, which I thoroughly enjoyed. However it’s a real shame about the CGI, I’m not sure how 15 years on, the CGI can be worse than the first instalment from 2007! How they created Noah in his suit was nothing short of horrendous, it looked like someone had made it on their iPhone. The concept was good, I’m surprised we haven’t seen something like that before but it was just executed very poorly. 

This part of the review I will be discussing the credit scene and the crossover reveal, so if you don’t want to know about this, stop here! 

It’s fair to say that the final scene of the movie shows the ambition of the studio, crossing over the Transformers franchise with the GI Joe franchise… I can’t say I’m excited about it, it just seems like a money grabbing scheme and in my opinion it’ll likely negatively impact the core storyline of future movies. But I am hoping I will be proved wrong. We are also shown via a mid credit scene that Transformers can now be fixed by human mechanical parts, which is an interesting direction to say the least. I guess I’m kind of impartial about this right now, could it potentially negate the impact of any future death of an Autobot? Quite possibly, but let’s see where they go with that one.

In conclusion, Rise of the Beasts is a lot of fun and I appreciated their attempts at making it feel unique within a franchise that can often feel very similar. Personally I prefer the other instalments but there is still a lot to like and I will definitely be front and centre for the next film, so it’s done something right! 

Overall (6.8/10)

Thanks for reading

Callan