Cert – 12, Run-time – 2 hours 7 minutes, Director – Steven Caple Jr
To stop planet-eating Unicron (Colman Domingo) from destroying Earth the Autobots must team up with humans and Maximals to stop his servants from obtaining an ancient artefact which can open portals through space and time.
There’s a point midway through Transformers: Rise Of The Beasts where a giant robot falcon from space called Airazor details with great seriousness, in the voice of Michelle Yeoh, the feud between the Autobots, Maximals and Teracons in relation to the transwarp key. It’s a moment which almost leads to a humoured response simply due to how seriously it seems to be taken. Certainly in comparison to the lighter tones of what has come beforehand, particularly in regards to the Transformers franchise as a whole. In general this is a film that understands that these a giant transforming robots and, particularly in the first half, runs with it – largely by focusing more on the human characters.
Noah (Anthony Ramos) and Elena (Dominique Fishback) are the core engagement of the film and make for the most interesting perspectives, even during the big action sequences, although eventually melding with the Autobots and co in the end. They meet when Noah breaks into the museum Elena interns at when looking for an artefact to help his recently-discovered aliens stop planet-eater Unicron (Colman Domingo) from destroying the Earth, and opening portals through space and time to do the same to other planets, including the Autobots home world Cybertron. Yet, fuelled by the dark energy of their master Unicron’s towering servants – led by Peter Dinklage’s Scourge – seem like an unstoppable force, no matter how much planning and knowledge is on the protagonists side.
While as the film goes on the human and robot perspectives combine somewhat more, especially during the action sequences which get better as things progress, it remains the case that the most believable elements lie with Elena and Noah. Even as things explode and clang in front or behind them they prove to best get what’s going on across – best shown in a brief shot of them ducking for cover compared to the blasters and fire of the rest of the scene. While not entirely bland or confusing – Steven Caple Jr is in the director’s chair for this particular entry instead of Michael Bay – you occasionally wish the film would call back to that feeling of remembering the base of these characters. They started from toys after all. Certainly a globetrotting element and sense of narrative through-line helps with this, particularly when in a race to reach the hidden transwarp key before the Teracons.
Things are direct and easy enough to follow and overall there’s a likable piece of work here. With plenty of focus on the human figures who make for the stronger segments of the film, and strengthening action along the way it works best with lighter moments which feel more of a family-friendly feature. Elements of a more fantastical PG, although the film is a mild 12, certainly without the grit and grimness (of various kinds) of the other main features in this franchise, it’s definitely more towards Bumblebee territory; even with its 90s setting (let’s not worry about the timeline now). Certainly not perfect, but for the time its on there’s plenty to be caught up in and amused by, largely thanks to the adventure elements within the narrative. Following the characters in search of that key item. It works rather well and while there might be some bumps along the way there’s an overall decent arc here.
Transformers: Rise Of The Beasts is best when focusing on its human characters rather than the titular robots, luckily it uses them quite often. There’s an enjoyable nature to the lighter adventure and fantasy-like elements which helps move on from the occasionally bumpy action. Overall it’s rather likable.
Just A Little Bit Random 