Transformers: Rise of the Beasts review: The ‘bots finally get to have some fun

One of the Best Transformers Films Yet

The Transformers film franchise has always been a strange outlier, even in the pop culture landscape. With seven feature films in the past 16 years, this still might be the least beloved major franchise that just keeps on trucking, critics (and fans) be damned. The last few Transformers films have all seemingly been greeted with a collective worldwide sigh, but they continue to do well enough to ensure future sequels for years to come.

That tide of indifference may just be pushed back with Transformers: Rise of the Beasts. While the initial Michael Bay installments of the franchise (starting with 2007’s Transformers through 2017’s The Last Knight) started off well enough, they eventually devolved into barely comprehensible sagas filled with excessive gravitas and migraine-inducing camera work. Thankfully, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts is a fun and often goofy action blockbuster that finally realizes that this franchise is supposed to be fun.

A Much Lighter Tone

Director Steven Caple Jr. (Creed II), working from a story by Joby Harold (Obi-Wan Kenobi) brings a much lighter tone to the proceedings, balancing the human side of the equation with the robotic alien beatdowns. Set in the early ’90s, we meet struggling ex-military electronics expert Noah Diaz (Anthony Ramos, Hamilton), who finds himself embroiled in an expensive car theft ring in order to pay for his younger brother’s medical treatments. Unfortunately for Noah, his prize cash cow is actually the Autobot Mirage (voiced by Pete Davidson) in disguise, which brings him into the orbit of the previously slumbering Transformers crew led by Optimus Prime (voiced by Peter Cullen, who has been voicing the character since 1980).

Meanwhile, museum intern Elena Wallace (Dominique Fishback, Swarm) accidentally uncovers a hidden alien artifact in a new museum acquisition. The re-emergence of the Transwarp Key — which we learn early on in the film was sent to Earth by the beast-machine-looking Maximals for safe-keeping — sends a beacon straight into the sky, alerting not only the other Autobots of its presence but the evil planet-eating being known as Unicron and his deadly disciple Scourge.

The uncovering of the long-lost key then sets off a globe-trotting robot battle as the Autobots attempt to fight Scourge for the future of Earth, with Noah and Elena in tow.

Humans You Actually Care About

What’s most surprising about Transformers: Rise of the Beasts is how much the film works when there’s nary a transforming robotic car in sight. Anthony Ramos and Dominique Fishback have great chemistry and seem entirely comfortable interacting with what presumably was a series of green-screen walls. The script is light and clever, and the ’90s setting allows for copious amounts of era-appropriate hip-hop on the soundtrack, a huge improvement over the nu-metal that soundtracked the earlier films.

As much as the human interactions shine here, this is also the best-looking Transformers movie in years. The fight scenes are comprehensible and the CGI is top-notch, especially in sequences with the gargantuan Omnicron which truly delivers on the oversized sci-fi scope of the ’80s cartoon series.

As an added bonus, like with the recent Scream sequel, eagle-eyed Montrealers will get a kick out of trying to spot locations throughout the city once again posing as the streets of NYC.

Transformers: Rise of the Beasts is by no means a perfect movie, and even at a reasonable 127 minutes still feels needlessly drawn out. That said, this is easily one of the best films of the series and shows there is still some spark in the engine of this rusty franchise.

Transformers: Rise of the Beasts is in theatres now.