2023-06-19 07:41:05
I’ve always had a slightly odd relationship with the Transformers live-action movies. Like the Fast and Furious universe, seeing a new Transformers movie in theaters has become a ritual for me and my friends, as we’ve been growing up with Michael Bay’s increasingly action-packed and goofy universe. You know, while movies aren’t going to be vying for an Academy Award anytime soon, they’re usually pretty entertaining movies. Then Bumblebee came along and messed everything up, as director Travis Knight and star Hailee Steinfeld teamed up for a movie that was fun, action-packed, and most importantly, full of charm and charisma. Needless to say, I now have new expectations for Transformers live-action, or rather, I did. Because Transformers: Rise of the Beasts occupies some weird middle ground between Michael Bay’s overly silly and often slow-motion films and the very promising and funny Bumblebee. It’s neither rooted in a more realistic plot like the 2018 project, nor is it ridiculous enough to be funny. It’s just predictable and lacks identity. It tries to capitalize on the iconic Hasbro original toys and the animated show, but the narrative is poorly explained, lacks depth, feels rushed at times, and crucially for a Transformers movie, It doesn’t even offer a particularly riveting action scene. It’s a movie that doesn’t want to be as goofy and goofy as Bey, but unlike Bumblebee, its (for this era of cinema) short 120-minute runtime doesn’t make up for it in its charm. Here’s an ad: It’s not that Transformers: Rise of the Beasts is a bad movie, because it isn’t. Anthony Ramos is excellent as the lead, the special effects are not overused and don’t feel overwhelming, in fact the visual effects are well done and nothing like what we are used to in Marvel movies Lacks refinement. Peter Cullen is also once once more iconic in Optimus Prime, and the rest of the cast (yes, even Pete Davidson as Mirage) fit their roles well and fit where they played in the film. But unlike Bumblebee, which has a fairly basic premise involving small-scale threats, Rise of the Beasts’ jump has me worried regarding the future of the franchise. Unlike Michael Bay’s movies, which are getting bigger and bigger, the leap from Bumblebee to Rise of the Beasts is like going from Iron Man to Avengers: Infinity War without the 20+ movies in between. We’ve gone from a small-town America story basically featuring three Transformers to a plot where Earth is regarding to be destroyed by the same evil robot god that took five movies to introduce. Yet, somehow, the narrative also tries to weave and introduce not only an entire group of original Transformers (like Optimus Prime, who makes his first appearance in the Transformers universe in this film), but Maximus and the horror faction as well. The scale of the film is too large for its two-hour run time, it knows it, and it simply doesn’t do anything to accommodate that. If you’ve never seen a Transformers movie or show before Rise of the Beasts or even Bumblebee, this movie is going to be very, very hard to appreciate. I don’t want to spoil things here, so suffice it to say that the scene at the end of the film made me pay more and more attention to the series because it sets up something that really has no narrative weight. As a former kid, I’m super excited to see this crossover coming in the future, but it feels like it’s too soon to do so and I simply don’t see it paying off. Not everything needs to be the sprawling cinematic universe of Hollywood execs, despite what you might think. Here’s an ad: If you like robots in disguise, this movie has entertainment elements, as well as a bunch of 90’s video game references (including a pretty significant one, which I think is the Mega Man reference), but if you just want Watching a movie on a lazy evening, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts probably won’t satisfy too many of your cinematic urges. Compared to Bey’s films, this one may be of the same quality, but from Bumblebee onwards, it’s a definite step down from 2018’s fantastic and entertaining flicks.
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