Transformers: Rise of the Beasts

I did want to see Charlie and Bumblebee reunite.

Reviews are exactly what I was expecting. A slightly better version of the Bayformers movies. TBH the trailers never had me hyped. Optimus Primal just giving the generic "Oh the vagueness is coming" "Everything you know is about to change" gave strong Excuse Plot vibes.

Where as Bumblebee at least felt like it was going for something.

I'm still expecting them to kill Mirage. So it's got that going for it.

I feel like we're getting a cast bloat. Gonna see it this weekend, hopefully at least as good as the first bayformers.

Well, I've seen the movie.

Not as good as the first Bayformers or Bumblebee, but better than all the rest, I like how it's sort of high stakes but also small scale, giving you just enough without overwhelming you.

For those wondering if there's a lot more of Unicron, there isn't. He doesn't even fully attack Earth or transforms into his alt mode, it's a bit like how the Technodrome never fully assembled itself in TMNT: Out of the Shadows. He comes close to entering our galaxy and then Optimus destroys the transwarp key

There's some weird dialogue exchange once it's all over Primal says evil can never be fully extinguished, and Prime then says "we will destroy Unicron once and for all" right after that

With Mirage, they tease A death later in the film, but he ends up mass shifting and merging with Noah

That wasn't the only tease as Bumblebee is 'killed off' for the majority of the run time, before being revived by Energon Jesus Juice. The only major casualty that stays dead in the film is Airrazor, who gets corrupted by Scourge and Primal has to euthanize her. Pretty grizzly

Edited by Zarius on Jun 8th 2023 at 9:21:49 AM

Considering how low those bars are that's Damning With Faint Praise.

Haven't seen the film yet, but apparently there's a tease for a GI Joe crossover at the end of the film, because Hasbro's a bit late to the party when it comes to cinematic universes I guess.

Can verify that is True. Noah is recruited after he helps save the world and he has an existing military background. There's no cameos from any familiar Joe characters though

Yeah I think I'll pass on this until it goes on streaming.

Saw the film. I think a good comparison would be to Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows, there is a scattering of good moments but they are breathless when it comes to exposition and building character relationships. It may not be quite as chaotic as the Bay movies but it lacks the more grounded aesthetic and carefully planned set pieces. In many ways it is more faithful to the original 80's cartoon and movie in that way, but the result is something with too many characters to keep track of, more cartoony and a more obvious toy commercial. The CGI is generally good, though it gets dodgy at times with a lot of single medium shots on the robots with static backgrounds.

Thing is I do feel the script had some potential, but something was lost in the editing and the direction. There is no real subtlety in any of the plot or the character dynamics. Things just sort of happen and it wears the emotions on its sleeve. Optimus in particular comes across as a Sergeant Rock separated from upper command rather than someone holding the weight of all Autobots and the fate of Cybertron on his shoulders (somewhere between most depictions and Animated). For all the exposition, the implications given that the Maximals are from the future and have been on Earth for thousands of years is criminally brushed over. In addition, other than roughly matching the real life Time Skip from the Bumblebee movie there is zero reason for the 90's setting, we get a classic Power Rangers t-shirt, reference to the OJ Simpson trial and that's about it. The human characters are more or less fine, they don't carry the story but are serviceable and prove to be of some value (sometimes too much, the narrative really reaches to make it clear the Autobots are too big and conspicuous to get a particular job done).

As for spoilers: among the tonal issues is the exposition steps on the toes of what could have been fairly atmospheric storytelling. Unicron is introduced in the first 30 seconds but immediately after Primals' voice over names him and explains him, the 80's movie did a similar scene with only one "It's Unicron!" line that set a more ominous and mysterious tone. Bumblebee is also killed but they reiterate at several points they just need an energon infusion and he will be fine, ruining both the impact of his death and his resurrection.

Saw it. Great movie. More of a "Quippy action movie" than a "Plot and character development movie" but hell we all knew Bumblebee was an outlier. I thought they bit off more than they can chew in early previews what with introducing Unicron and the Maximals right off the cuff of a reboot but I get it now.

Mirage is a treat. Hilariously while it's eventually reciprocated there's a bit of Role Reversal in the usual Autobot/Human dynamic, it's Mirage that gets attached to Noah first and looks for excuses to drag him along.

I cringed early in the film when Noah was set for a job interview when I flashed back to Sam Witwicky in the same situation but it wound up being way more poignant and relevant to the plot. Good stuff.

There's one moment near the end that will probably cause another Narm vs Narm Charm debate in the YMMV section for sure.

EDIT:Also how much of this movie was cut out jesus christ. The stunt filming with Optimus ramming Scourge through a wall in Peru, the trailer scene where Elena is freaked out by Arcee and apparently a whole fight against a Decepticon aren't in the film!

Edited by ShirowShirow on Jun 13th 2023 at 6:37:19 PM

It just occurred to me that Noah Diaz has a lot of similarities with Larry Cullen, older brother of Peter Cullen. Older brother to Chris Diaz, ex-military serviceman, understanding what it means to be a real hero, etc.

No wonder he's compared to Optimus Prime himself.

Watched it on Saturday. The writing's cheesy and a bit meh, but at least it's a step above the first two Transformers films. Way too predictable though, I even managed to guess that the transwarp key was going to be destroyed about halfway through. Sucks that they killed off Air Razor permanently, yet brought back Bumblebee... again. Also a bit weird that GI Joe has a top secret base located in the middle of New York city complete with a hangar that's possibly even examining Transformer tech, you'd think they'd want to hide that someplace better.

And I guess I'm the only one who liked the mid-90s setting, because there were sooo many little references I got from my childhood.

I'd also love to see Charlie as an adult reunite with Bumblebee. Stinks it won't be Hailee Steinfeld, but it's still gotta happen at some point or another. That said, the Bumblebee using the radio to talk while still funny from time to time is kind of played out now and needs to be retired at this point.

Be interesting to see how it ties into G.I. Joe now too. This is especially true with this clearly making sense as being connected to the approach that Snake Eyes as a reboot took as well.

Pete Davidson as Mirage made me think of Robin Williams as Genie in the speed of his deliveries. That's definitely a compliment.

Edited by futuremoviewriter on Jul 26th 2023 at 1:38:05 AM

Why do they always have to give Optimus such an ugly-ass face? If they're going to keep doing that then they should just have him with the faceplate on all the time, it's more iconic anyway.

Plus, he's a robot so he doesn't even need a mouth, as Shockwave will tell you.

> Plus, he's a robot so he doesn't even need a mouth, as Shockwave will tell you.

well that voice has to look like its coming from somewhere..

Likely to give Prime more visible human emotions that would otherwise be covered by the faceplate is what I guess.

And Shockwave isn't really a good counter-example since he's supposed to be emotionless logic-driven robot.

But as The Mandalorian, countless tokusatsu shows, and even occasionally Transformers itself have taught us, you don't really even need much in the way of recognizable facial features to convey emotion. Giving Optimus a mouth is just a shortcut, and a bit of a lazy one.

Yeah the fact that Op needs a mouth to convey emotion feels like creator Common Knowledge. I was always against it because I was a purist that was raised on the 80's show though, so I am 100% biased.

Likely to give Prime more visible human emotions that would otherwise be covered by the faceplate is what I guess.

Doesn't explain the ugliness when other transformers aren't. I guess it's a relic of the bayformer films.

As for emoting, I think he did it just fine in the bumblebee opening. And as others have said you don't need facial expressions to do so.

Edited by DoorTrust on Jul 30th 2023 at 2:52:42 AM

So, I finally watched this movie and I thought that it was fun, but the film felt too rushed and the characters weren't fully developed. Like, it felt like the Maximals were very underdeveloped as characters, which is a bit disappointing since this marks the first movie where the Maximals were introduced.

I think they were afraid of throwing too much at the audience and found the best course of actions was to keep things more simple than that I feel.

If that's the case they shouldn't have included the Maximals at all.

I think it was a selling point to have them in there because Beast Wars was so fondly remembered today by those who watched it then.

Too bad they didn't develop the Maximals very well to make them memorable for the audience.