YMMV / Transformers: Rise of the Beasts

• Alternative Character Interpretation: Mr. Bishop, Noah's would-be boss at the beginning of the movie, turns him down without an interview, citing claims of unreliability from Noah's former C.O.. However, Bishop (who is white) follows that up by saying he can't have "someone like [Noah]" ruin what he's built; was Bishop honest about why he dismissed Noah, or is he just using Noah's military record as an excuse to dismiss him out of racism and avoid a potential lawsuit?
• Anti-Climax Boss: After absolutely thrashing the Autobots in the first act and holding their own against the combined Autobot-Maximal alliance in the second, Battletrap and Nightbird go down rather easily in the final act. Battletrap demands someone give him a "real fight" before being quickly killed by both Optimuses with little effort, and Nightbird is torn to shreds by Scourge's shots after Bumblebee uses her as a shield.
• Complete Monster:
  • Scourge is the sadistic servant of Unicron who sold out his planet to the dark god to be devoured in exchange for power. Leading Unicron's Terrorcons, Scourge leads a brutal campaign across countless worlds, wearing trophies from his murders and leaving the planets to be consumed by Unicron. Seeking to acquire the Transwarp Key to allow his gluttonous master to freely travel through creation, Scourge assaults the Maximals' home world, killing their leader in the process. Arriving on Earth, Scourge corrupts the Maximal Airazor with sadistic glee, forcing her own comrades to kill her. Reassembling the Transwarp Key, Scrouge attempts to use it to summon Unicron to Earth to consume it. With a body count of billions, Scourge compliments his master's omnicidal gluttony with unbridled sadism and malice.
  • Unicron himself, the great destroyer, is a sadistic entity the size of a planet who subsists on entire worlds. Opening the film consuming the world of the Maximals as he has countless other planets, Unicron often dispatches the mighty Terrorcons to kill at will and prepare worlds for his coming. Seeking to devour Earth, Unicron also tortures his chief minion Scourge as a reminder to never fail him again.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Arcee has a supporting role here, but many people find her design very appealing. Some people have even found Arcee pretty attractive for a large robot.
  • Despite being completely cut from the film and who’s presence is only found the deleted scenes in The DVD and a piece of promo art, Transit has grown a fairly big cult following. Possibly due to his unique insectoid appearance that harkens back to the look of the Decepticon of the previous films and the fact that he transforms into a bus, which is a rarity among Transformers.
• Evil Is Cool: Unicron and his Terrorcons have this written all over them thanks to their darkly awe-inspiring appearances and charisma.
• Fan Nickname: Due to his nerdy appearance and markings on his van mode, fans have jokingly referred to Wheeljack as Pablo.
• Fan-Preferred Cut Content: Some fans have expressed disappointment at the original opening of Optimus Prime fighting Decepticon Transit being cut for the final film, finding the fight choreography to be great and liking Transit's design.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: The movie is the highest grossing film of all time in Peru, which is chalked up to a large chunk of the movie being set there and a production incident where a child snuck on set to show his Transformers drawing to director Steven Caple Jr and he agreed to pay for the repairs of his school's roof. Its popularity is such Paramount cut a "Special Edition" showing for the country in time for the week of Peruvian Independance.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Noah gets to be a Latino hero in a shape-changing exosuit of alien origin two months before Blue Beetle is even released. Fittingly enough, the exosuit also sports some blue coloring, courtesy of Mirage.
  • He also gets to engage in some "Indiana Jones-type shit", as he puts it, just three weeks before Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.
• He Really Can Act:
  • Despite a mostly comical performance intended to evoke Jim Carrey, Pete Davidson manages to put in some genuinely touching moments when interacting with Noah and Kris.
  • While Peter Cullen is a well-respected veteran voice actor, the movie version of Optimus has been often criticised as one-note and overly violent. Rise of the Beasts allows Cullen to explore the character and why he's so aggressive in the movies, resulting in a take on Optimus that feels very fresh. In addition, the film allows Optimus to be more sarcastic ("Way to be incognito") and talk smack with opponents, similar to his portrayal in the first two seasons of the Generation One cartoon.
• Ho Yay: Mirage is clearly displeased when Noah claims the two of them are "only" work-friends, and just after Noah says it he shouts: "Work friends? You’ve been inside me!" TMI, Mirage, TMI...
• Improved Second Attempt:
  • Prime's arc in this movie isn't too different than the one he had in Age of Extinction. Both have Prime being cynical and distrustful towards humanity with him learning to fulfill to his ideals later on. However, AOE was largely criticized for how it depicted Prime acting out far more violently towards humans, to the point even Peter Cullen found Optimus’ behavior uncomfortable. Here, while not exactly perfect in execution, it does a better job since this Prime has been on Earth for merely a few years and doesn't really understand humanity enough to judge them properly nor really cares to learn about them, only concentrated in his mission to get back home. It's a much more believable arc and it shows him easily transitioning to the ideal hero he's known to be.
  • Last time he voiced the character for Power of the Primes, Ron Perlman's performance as Optimus Primal was met with a mixed reaction— some considered it to be just ok, others not so much. For this new take on the Big Bot, Perlman's performance was met with greater acclaim for being able to play the character more to his own.
• Inferred Holocaust: The movie completely glosses over the fact that two police officers are involved in horrible — and likely fatal — car crashes while chasing Noah and Mirage throughout New York City. Noah doesn't seem to be fazed in the slightest by it despite being already scared out of his mind and asking the police for help, though his case might be justified by his prior military training.
• Jerkass Woobie:
  • Optimus Prime himself. He's much grumpier and violent in this incarnation, and he has far less tolerance for the human race than normal, but he's in such bad spirits over having left Cybertron under Decepticon control, is very weary of fighting a never-ending war, and humanity hasn't exactly endeared themselves to him through their actions. Fortunately, Prime is able to see the best in people, and grows to become the hero the world knows and loves.
  • Noah's far more abrasive than he has any right to be and his lowest point is when he plots to destroy the Transwarp key (and nearly does so), thus removing any chance at the Autobots coming back home, but it's motivated by him wanting to save humanity, his family included. Not to mention the lack of respect he gets from his country despite being a veteran and his desperate attempts to save his dying brother. His Character Development is realizing how selfish he was acting.
• Just Here for Godzilla:
  • Some Beast Wars fans are interested mostly - if not only - in a live-action take on Maximals and Predacons.
  • Fans of Ron Perlman are most excited for this movie to see him as Optimus Primal.
  • Quite a few fans who had not previously been interested suddenly started paying a lot more attention once the second trailer revealed that Unicron would be playing a significant role in the film, marking his first live-action appearance (not counting his dormant and mostly-unseen role in The Last Knight).
• Like You Would Really Do It:
  • It would be hard to believe that Bumblebee would really be killed off. And indeed, he comes back to life in the climax for a Big Damn Heroes moment.
  • Same goes for a Heroic Sacrifice by Optimus, though in fairness, it wouldn't have been too surprising if he did pull one off.
• Magnificent Bastard: Noah Diaz is a former solider who turned to crime to support his family, willing taking up a carjacking job for his friend Reek. Being roped into helping the Autobots by a disguised Mirage, he sneaks into a facility to get the Transwarp Key, saving the researcher Elana Wallace when the Terrorcons attack. Willingly joining the Autobots after learning of Unicron's potential arrival, he secretly plans on destroying the Transwarp Key to prevent Unicron from being summoned, risking the Autobots being stranded on Earth without their consent. Once talked down by Optimus Prime from destroying it at the last second, Noah's contributions to the battle ultimately result in the earth being saved from Unicron while also staying behind to save Optimus, afterwards being offered a job by G.I. Joe while getting the pay for his brother's medical bills in the process.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • Similar to what happened with the Giganotosaurus, Kaiju fans quickly began to make edits of Optimus Primal showing the Maximal as the "leaked" images of Mechani-Kong in a future Monsterverse installment.
  • Optimus Primal, being a gorilla, has led to plenty of associations with primate-related memes, such as "return to monke" or "le monke".
    • Due to the proximity to the release of The Super Mario Bros. Movie^note which had Donkey Kong as a major character and the teaser of Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, this has led to jokes about the recent abundance of gorilla-related movies. The former becomes Hilarious in Hindsight with the release of a preview clip that has Mirage explicitly referring to Optimus Primal as Donkey Kong. Bowser is also referenced early on in the movie.
  • Optimus's reaction of "You brought a human here?!" upon seeing Noah has led to some memetic Flanderization of him as a racist parent or grandparent to Mirage, or to a disapproving dad after their child brings home a new pet.
  • The presence of the Twin Towers in the 1994 NYC skyline predictably led to many Black Comedy jokes, with people joking if they'll be destroyed in the movie and leading to memes like "Unicron did 9/11" or "Energon can't melt steel beams". Some joked that Stratosphere, who transforms into a jet plane, would be responsible. Others joking about a possible involvement with the World Trade Center bombing a year earlier.
  • Scourge being voiced by Peter Dinklage led to many jokes from Game of Thrones fans comparing him to Dinklage's previous role, Tyrion Lannister. His imposing size also was viewed as being ironic given Dinklage's dwarfism.
  • A Twitter user posted a video where, during a screening of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, an error caused the trailers to this movie and The Little Mermaid (2023) to play at the same time, leading to jokes about how the Autobots would get involved with the events of that movie as well.
• Robo Ship: Much like Charlie and Bumblebee prior, a part of the fandom have shipped Noah and Mirage together, backed up with their interactions and Mirage's remark of how Noah has been "inside" the Autobot when he referred to them both as "work friends".
• Special Effect Failure: Thanks to the switch in VFX studios to a couple less experienced with the characters, the CGI has become a sore point for those excited about the movie:
  • Even within the confines of it being a teaser trailer, the CGI has come under fire for looking far inferior to even the weaker entries of the franchise like Age of Extinction or Revenge of the Fallen. Sticking points include Arcee during the chase with Battletrap looking more plastic-y than metal and the apparent Final Battle having TV show quality effects that look more like something from Transformers: Prime. Thankfully, some of these sequences were shown to have been improved upon for the Super Bowl spot.
  • Optimus Prime's shoulder visibly clips through his chest during the scene where he confronts Primal and lowers his Arm Cannon. This would be rectified by the final release.
  • That said, the second trailer is up on a higher standard of quality than the initial teaser, such as Arcee's face being more animated and textured better in said chase scene, implying that certain VFX shots were not completed in time for the prior preview. This is more evident in non-YouTube uploads of the trailer as a result of the site's compression methods.
  • Post-release, while fans have generally agreed the CGI is markedly improved over the trailers, they are still a step down from Industrial Light & Magic's work from the earlier films. Some of the transformations are comparable to Transformers: War for Cybertron in that while they are well animated, it's pretty obvious when the swap between the robot mode and vehicle mode CGI models takes place.
• Salvaged Story: Peter Cullen's performance as Prime in Bumblebee came under fire when the actor revealed the studio had brought him in to dub over a scratch track, and he was not pleased that he wasn't able to deliver his usual performance as Prime. The movie gives Prime a much bigger role, allowing Cullen to really delve into the character and bring about a transition from a war-weary fighter into an idealistic hero.
• So Okay, It's Average: Coming off the mostly positive reception to Bumblebee, Rise of the Beasts ended up getting mostly mixed reviews from critics. Among them, the general consensus is that while not all the characters get equal attention and it rushed into a bigger scope way too quickly by throwing Unicron into the mix, it's still a fun movie that gives good focus to both the humans and the robots.
• Tainted by the Preview:
  • Some fans were not pleased when it was revealed that Ron Perlman would reprise his role as Optimus Primal, having found his performance as the character in The Transformers: Power of the Primes to be passable at best and lackluster at worst. The first trailer, however, was overwhelmingly praised by fans, igniting hope for the film which had sunk during the feature's development. That said, a number of fans were far from impressed with the CGI quality. Fortunately, Moving Picture Company later polished the CG footage for both the Super Bowl LVII and official trailers. Complete with some redesigns.
  • Wheeljack's design, revealed via his toy, has come under fire for having zero resemblance to his well-liked G1-faithful depiction in Bumblebee and having giant goggles that resemble Nerd Glasses. His later speaking appearance in a sneak preview clip did little to help matters, and it was only made worse when the director revealed the studio forced him to make these changes.
  • Some fans of Bumblebee were also put off by this film being a stand-alone, larger scale story featuring new human characters, rather than a direct sequel that included Charlie and Agent Burns. Due to the fan adoration both characters had (Charlie especially), many were hoping to see them take the role as the human support characters for this iteration of the Transformers going forward. It wasn't helped by the film not being directed by Travis Knight, who achieved Creator Worship due to his Promoted Fanboy nature and championing the show-accurate designs.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!:
  • Some fans who were pleased by Bumblebee seemingly returning to having Optimus Prime's mouthplate be a permanent fixture were disappointed that he gained the ability to retract it and reveal a mouth again. Some of them lightened up when it was revealed his unmasked face is meant to resemble Peter Cullen.
  • Wheeljack's new design has gotten some complaints. If it wasn't people disliking how he doesn't resemble any prior version of the character (especially after Bumblebee depicted him resembling his G1 design), then it was how he was given caricatured Nerd Glasses.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: The movie runs for a little over two hours and in all that time, very little to no focus was given to Cheetor and Rhinox, despite them being important characters to the Beast Wars mythos. Cheetor gets a few short lines and Rhinox only gets one, made all the more glaring when you consider he's voiced by David Sobolov, an original VA from Beast Wars. It's also difficult to even get a good glimpse of them in robot mode once they Maximize since they're moving so fast and don't stand still for a clear shot.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
  • Despite being the second most focused on among the Maximals, Airazor never transforms once during her time onscreen, remaining entirely in her Beast Mode. While this works for when she's been corrupted by Scourge since it makes her look more akin to a feral beast, it means we never get to actually see her Robot Mode, and likely never will in future sequels outside of possible flashbacks thanks to her being mercy killed by Primal.
  • Optimus Primal doesn't get to fight Scourge, despite having more personal stakes against him, including the loss of Apelinq, his home planet, and even Airazor. In comparison, Prime only lost Bumblebee and Mirage, both who come Back from the Dead (in the former's case, Bee even returns before Prime's final showdown against Scourge). While it's justified by Scourge being Prime's Evil Counterpart in previous works, considering Scourge's immense strength, it would be reasonable for Prime to team up with Primal against him.
  • The threat level progression between Bumblebee and this movie feels extremely fast, to this movie's detriment. Previously, the only threats were a few individual Decepticons, and the United States military, which were more grounded and expected considering it was a Continuity Reboot. Then suddenly, Rise has no Decepticons at all, instead having three Terrorcons and an army of Sweeps, alongside Unicron being the Greater-Scope Villain. It almost feels like there were supposed to be one or two more movies in between that never got made, because it ends up making this movie feel rushed.
  • The Predacons are not included in the movie save for Scorponok (and even he's reduced to his usual role as the mindless drone from the Bay films). Given that they're just as iconic a part of the franchise as the Maximals, many fans were disappointed that they didn't appear, least of all the iconic Beast Wars: Megatron, leaving out his rivalry with Primal in the process.
• Too Cool to Live: Airazor. A humongous eagle Maximal, Big Damn Heroes for the Autobots against the Terrorcons, peaceful liaison between Autobots and Maximals, and voiced by Michelle Yeoh to boot. Too bad she got corrupted by Scourge, and has to be put down by Optimus Primal before she had a chance to maximize/transform. Worse, unlike Bumblebee and Mirage, she doesn't come back.
• Unexpected Character:
  • In terms of factions, the Terrorcons being the antagonistic force instead of the Decepticons or the Predacons was a surprise, as traditionally the Terrorcons were limited to either a combiner team in the Decepticons, drone-like Transformers serving Alpha Q or Megatron, or an army of the dead created from Dark Energon. The latter point becomes more relevant since another name for Dark Energon was the "Blood of Unicron", and Unicron is the master of the Terrorcons here.
  • When casting sheets were released alongside the trailer, all of the robot characters featured were the ones fans were expecting... Except for one: Stratosphere, a name which made its debut for the toyline for Revenge of the Fallen, and had not been used since the video game tie-in prequel for Dark of the Moon.
  • Another curveball in the casting sheets is Transit, a Decepticon (or Terrorcon, as later promos would clarify) who transforms into a bus. The last two versions of the character were both comic-only Decepticons from the 2015 Robots in Disguise and 2005 IDW comics, respectively transforming into a modern city bus and a London double-decker. This version is notable for not only being the first carrier of the name to appear on screen, but the first major Transformer with a bus as an alternate mode. Or rather would as all Transit’s scenes were cut from the film, reportedly due to the scene being “too violent”.
  • On the Maximal side, while people had expected Optimus Primal, Cheetor, and Rhinox thanks to the three being iconic members in Beast Wars, very few people expected Airazor to be confirmed before other mainstays like Rattrap, Dinobot, or Silverbolt, largely due to her being Demoted to Extra in the middle of Season 2 of the original series alongside Tigatron and being less iconic as a result.
  • Terrorcon Freezer first appeared in the Studio Series toyline as part of the new film. He just dropped out of nowhere, as nothing in the casting sheets made any explicit mention of him.
  • The appearance of Unicron in the second trailer. While there are those who did suspect his appearance, few suspected that he would have a more overreaching involvement in the movie.
  • A recent TV spot confirms that Apelinq, a character who appeared after Beast Wars had ended as a convention-exclusive redeco of Optimus Primal, would be making an appearance in the film.
  • Nightbird as part of the Terrorcons was also a major surprise, given that she was a Japanese human-created robot stolen and controlled by the Decepticons rather than being a full-on Cybertronian, and only had one major appearance in a 1985 G1 episode — albeit a memorable one — besides very obscure bit parts in the comics.
  • The end of the film shows Noah being offered a job with G.I. Joe. While the two franchises have a history of crossing over with each other, most famously in the Hasbro Comic Universe, this is the first time G.I. Joe has been brought up in a Transformers film. This is especially since Sector 7 was already shown in Bumblebee.
  • While one might not be too shocked to see Scourge show up at some point, given his connection to the iconic villain Unicron as a herald, seeing him have Composite Character traits of his Transformers: Robots in Disguise counterpart as an evil, black colored Big Badass Rig can be a little more surprising, especially considering how Robots in Disguise, while not critically panned and can be viewed as a mildly pleasant diversion, didn't quite get all that popular as a TF series either.
• Unintentional Uncanny Valley: Optimus Prime is shown with his mouth plate retracted, combining the complex nose and mouth structure he had in the original live-action trilogy with the simplified G1 eyes and helmet from Bumblebee. The big eyes, in particular, make Prime's face look rather creepy.
• Visual Effects of Awesome: While live-action films have always had eye candy aplenty, Rise of the Beasts is a very special case due to having different visual effect studios — Moving Picture Company and WetaFX — instead of ILM. Quite notably, the animation wouldn't seem out of place in either the Marvel Cinematic Universe or the Monsterverse.
• The Woobie: Optimus Primal, full stop. The poor bot lost his near-entire race to Unicron and his minions, and was thrust into a position of leadership saving what remained of the Maximals from extinction. After spending many years on Earth, hiding in plain sight, Primal finds himself face-to-face with the legendary Optimus Prime...and sees that he's not the bot he was expecting. To make matters worse, he loses Airazor to Scourge and is forced to perform a Mercy Kill on her. The Big Bot could use a hug.
• Win Back the Crowd: Peter Cullen's performance in Bumblebee became less well-regarded by the fandom after he revealed that he wasn't allowed to perform as the character to his preferred standard, while Ron Perlman's stint as Optimus Primal in Power of the Primes was considered average at best. Rise of the Beasts not only brought both characters back to prominence but both Cullen and Perlman's reprisals as both Prime and Primal were considered far superior to their 2018 performances.

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