After Travis Knight’s 80’s set prequel Bumblebee, which gave the tired Transformers franchise a shot in the arm in 2018, Paramount studios have returned to the prequel well for this 90’s set follow up.
This time Creed 2 director Steven Caple Jr. takes the helm and is joined by Anthony Ramos and Dominique Fishback as the human leads.
Stranded on earth and facing the all consuming threat of Unicron a planet eating Megabot, the well meaning Autobots must team up with the Maximals (the beasts of the title) a new faction of Transformers who disguise themselves as animals rather than vehicles.
Fishback is museum intern Elena Wallace, who whilst studying and ancient statuette, accidentally breaks it open to uncover an alien artefact which emits a bright blue energy pulse. Unbeknown to Elena this artefact is actually the much sought after Transwarp key, and its activation has alerted both good and evil Transformers to its whereabouts.
Ramos meanwhile plays Noah Diaz, an ex-military electronics expert who, struggling to find a job to support his family, turns to car theft. However, when the Porsche 911 he steals turns out to be the autobot Mirage (Voiced by Peter Davidson) he is pulled into their urgent search for the transwarp key.
As well as the aforementioned Davidson, the film also includes heavyweight voice acting from the likes of recent Oscar winner Michelle Yeoh, Peter Dinklage and Ron Pearlman who lend their vocal talents to Transformers Airazor, Scourge and the amusingly named Optimus Primal, leader of the Maximals.
Plus, as is tradition, Peter Cullen once again voices Optimus Prime, but the mighty autobot leader seems perpetually grumpy throughout this outing, making his character far less charming.
As much as this film is a step up from the leery explode-athons that Michael Bay delivered (See Transformers 1 – 5 ) it doesn’t have the heart it’s predecessor Bumblebee had. Ramos and Fishback do their best with the material they’re given, but their characters are far too bland to have any real impact.
A thrilling opening car chase aside, the action is all rather generic.
The Maximals themselves are given a brief prologue to explain their presence, but they have no real bearing on the story apart from being named in the title and looking pretty cool. Why they change into robot animals instead of vehicles is never clearly explained, and with a team of five writers on the film, that’s something that really should’ve been addressed.
With such a poorly thought out script, and largely forgettable action, this is a dull & rather soulless entry into the Transformers canon.
Even a last ditch attempt to generate crossover excitement with another franchise, fails to set the pulses racing.
Not completely terrible, but not memorable in any way. After the faint hope generated by Bumblebee, Rise of the Beasts is a bit of a disappointment.
⭐️⭐️
Paul Steward
@grittster
18/06/23