Movie Review - Transformers Rise of the Beasts [SPOILERS]

[GoktimusPrime]

SPOILER WARNING: This thread contains movie spoilers

Photos from the Sydney premiere



































Overall: Really enjoyable movie. You can tell that, much like Travis Knight, Steve Caple Jr. cares about the Transformers and wanted to make a good film. In terms of film literature, I would still rate Bumblebee above Rise of the Beasts, but as a Transformers movie, I would agree that Rise of the Beasts is the best yet.

Quick random thoughts before I head off the bed...

• When Bumblebee says that he considers humans to be friends, Optimus Prime tells him to stop hanging out at the drive-in cinema. This is a nod to #1 of the Transformers Marvel Comics, 1984, where Bumblebee meets Buster Witwicky (Jesse and O) at a drive-in theatre.

• When Noah stabs Scourge in the back of the knee; this is a nod to Beast Wars, where Cheetor taught the proto-human children how to fight Predacons by attacking their joints.

• It is suggested that the Maximals are the Autobots' future descendants who've travelled back in time, with Optimus Primal outright saying that he was named after Optimus Prime and how the Maximals saw him as a great historic figure.

• Useful humans whose screen time contribute to the story! And they are the most actively constructive human allies too; not just MacGuffin bearers. No gratuitious fan-service shots, no romance story.

• While none of the Terrorcons really had any character development, it was neat that they explained that they were slaves of Unicron. Unicron torturing Scourge when he was displeased was a nice callback to G1 Unicron.

• I want a Noah action figure, damnit.

• Wheeljack, being stationed in Peru, speaks with a Peruvian accent. Sure beats TLK Hot Rod's random stereotyped cartoony French accent.

• Some neat moments of comic relief. The audience that I watched it with laughed the hardest at Mirage's line of, "You were inside me." I personally liked, "I'm not following you, I'm escaping in the same direction as you."

• When Elena was looking at archaeological images on her Windows 3.0 computer, one web site/article was called "Asahi Takara" ('morning treasure' in Japanese)

• I liked Optimus Prime and Noah's parallel character journeys.

• I really liked how the central theme to the story, and the key to its resolution, was "Till All Are One."

• Really love how Mirage's ability is fairly accurate his original G1 bio. Not becoming invisible, but being able to project illusions; and they can only last for a short time.

• Optimus Primal being forced to euthanise Airazor, and Airazor consenting to her euthanasia was really freaking heavy. It also felt very Beast Wars-esque, as the BW cartoon never shyed away from difficult topics. It reminded me of the episode Transmutate.

Minor nitpicky gripes:

• Airazor never transforms. I can understand Apelinq and Unicron not transforming, but I would've loved to see Airazor transforming; even if it was at the end when she was fighting Primal or something.

• So... if G.I. Joe exists in this universe... where the bloody hell were they when the excrement was hitting the fan?

• I know why Bumblebee and Mirage came back to life, but from a storytelling POV, I kinda wish that they didn't. It makes the war seem inconsequential and cheapens their sacrifice if death for these characters just means an extended nap.

[Tha_Phantom]

• When Elena was looking at archaeological images on her Windows 3.0 computer, one web site/article was called "Asahi Takara" ('morning treasure' in Japanese)

I'm glad I wasn't the only one who noticed this!

Overall, a really good movie. I enjoyed it as much as I hoped I would and my expectations were high.
I'm still deciding where to rank it but it's either as good as or better than Bumblebee.
I really loved the robot cast and the BW nods. It seems they've borrowed heavily from the original BW lore with things like Primal being named after Prime, the beasts being from the future and rarely transforming on screen (although a reason for this was not given I'd like to think it's to avoid an energon overload).
I liked that the humans mostly took a back seat, but the ones that were there were well written and contributed in a meaningful way to the story.
As a hip hop fan, the soundtrack utterly rocked! I also noticed little elements of the 1986 Unicron theme when he was on screen.

[KELPIE]

Nice pictures mate, looks like a fun night.

I've skipped the review to avoid spoilers.. however I won't be going to the cinemas to see it. These movies have burnt me and I doubt there's any turn around that'll get me into theatres short of a full comprehensive, shouted from the rooftops, reboot.

[SharkyMcShark]

I won't be going to the cinemas to see it. These movies have burnt me and I doubt there's any turn around that'll get me into theatres short of a full comprehensive, shouted from the rooftops, reboot.

I'm genuinely getting more joy from teasing my fiance and friends by threatening to drag them to see it, than the actual idea of seeing the film.

[Golden Phoenix]

I had forgotten how much movie Optimus Prime loves ripping peoples heads off.

[GoktimusPrime]

I had forgotten how much movie Optimus Prime loves ripping peoples heads off.

I can accept Optimus Prime killing enemies in the midst of combat. That's the grim reality of war. What I find more objectionable is when he kills defeated and helpless opponents... which is a freaking war crime. There are times when Moofieverse OP has killed active combatants (e.g. Bonecrusher, The Fallen, Megatron, Harold Attinger, Lockdown etc.); but there were a few times when he executed defenceless enemies, such as Demolishor (ROTF) and Sentinel Prime (DOTM). Scourge was an active opponent whom Optimus Prime killed in the middle of combat. I can accept this.

[GoktimusPrime]

More random thoughts:

• Much like Bumblebee, the prologue in RotB is 100% Transformers. The prologue also allows the movie to instantly dive into the Transformers lore instead of beginning on Earth with humans. We also see Unicron in the prologue.

• Are the Maximals also Cybertronians and was their homeworld a colony planet? There is a hint that the Maximals are from the future, as Optimus Primal saw Optimus Prime as a legendary hero whom he was named after. So I think it's implied that they are future Cybertronians, if not explicitly stated.

• The Terrorcons also have no defined origin story. All we know is that they can transform, they have knowledge of Cybertronian history and culture (Scourge mentions Primus), and they are slaves to Unicron. They remind me of the Wraiths in The Lord of the Rings. Again, I think there is an implication here that the Terrorcons are Cybertronians.

• Much like the Bumblebee movie where Bumblebee and Charlie shared a character journey together, Optimus Prime and Noah also have a parallel path of personal growth. They both want to defend their families, but start off doing so in more self-serving ways; but both learn to take risks to save the greater good. And both of their goals were on the opposite sides of the coin; Noah initially wanted to destroy the key, but for the sake of others he chose not to. Optimus Prime initially wanted to preserve the key, but for the sake of others he chose to destroy it. But both made that decision based on the motif of "Till All Are One."

• Noah and Mirage's relationship reminds me of Raoul and Tracks from the G1 cartoon. Both humans met their Autobot buddies while trying to steal them as cars. Both RotB Mirage and G1 Tracks are cocky and arrogant (I love how Mirage yelled at Kris for scratching his paint ). And both pairs end up risking their lives to save each other. Noah introduces Mirage to his mate, Reek, similar to how Raoul introduced Tracks (and Blaster) to his human buddies, Poplock and Rocksteady.

• I want a garbage truck Mirage toy, damnit! I love mundane alt modes because that's how being a robot in disguise works. Mirage knew that being a Porsche would draw too much attention, so he disguised himself as a garbage truck. I want that toy! Although this does dismantle the idea that Transformers can only scan and transform into objects of equivalent size. If Mirage can change from a 4.5m sports car to a 7.9m garbage truck, what limitations do they even have? And I assume that garbage truck Mirage's robot mode would be pretty huge; not as big as Stratosphere, but larger than Optimus Prime.

• I don't "want" want an F1 race car RotB Mirage; it only appeared on screen for a second as an Easter Egg. Buuuuut... I would probably buy one if Hasbro made it.

[KELPIE]

I'm genuinely getting more joy from teasing my fiance and friends by threatening to drag them to see it, than the actual idea of seeing the film.

Haha - That's excellent!!

[KingGrimlock]

Just saw the movie and loved it. One thing I noticed that wasn't mentioned here yet was when Unicron was on screen the music had strong hints of his 80's theme into it, something I think was a good nod to how awesome the original theme was.

[Bidoofdude]

Just got back from the movie today as I’d missed the advance screening due to exam season.

It’s a good enough movie but nothing amazing or game-changing, about what I expected. I was actually quite surprised how much they channeled the 2007 Transformers film with this one, albeit in the 90s and with a lot less noisy camera work/sensory overload. Once again it seems like they are being purposefully ambiguous on ties to the original five movie run, enough that it could plausibly be a prequel or sorts while being free to go down the reboot route fully at some point. Probably depends on how this film performs.

I liked the Maximals, but they could have gotten a lot more impact by really playing on the simultaneous past and future stuff, besides a few throwaway lines. Primal’s voice performance was excellent and had tones of the original BW incarnation mixed with something new. The other Maximals and Terrorcons had basically no characterisation, which is a shame. None of the big battles really had compelling stakes, especially the kind of boring museum fight. I’m not a big plot holes obsessor, but they implied that Scourge and the other heralds are nigh invincible as seen in that first fight, but all they had to do overcome them was just fight a little harder? Their weapons did nothing in that first scene, but the Autobots come in with more gumption and win over them?

Probably a hot topic issue but I didn’t really like Optimus in this film. I get what they were going for with him being conflicted over their duty to Cybertron and to the humans, but they didn’t really stick the landing well. He was rageful and fighting purely out of vengeance, which seems to work out for him in the end, with the lessons from Primal not really actually changing anything. There are other movies to develop the character into the thoughtful Dad character we know still, but it was a bit irritating. Some of the lines were very cringe and had give-me-your-face vibes. That said, at least he had a characterisation. You can hear Peter getting old now, he’s given so much to the character and always does a great job. Interesting that he always refers to Bumblebee as Bee, it really stuck out to me.

Unicron was cool, he’s not really in the film much besides being the drawticket for fans. Scourge is fine but they could have probably as easily done some wibbly wobbly timey wimey stuff and just straight up do Galvatron in a similar vein to the (terrible) WFC Kingdom show. Stuff with fate and the future and all that are powerful parts of Beast Wars and the better parts of WFCK, it would have added a bit of stakes that the movie was lacking.

Noah is a fun character with a decent story, even if it’s a bit generic. Charlie’s story was better emotionally and felt fresh for film and for the franchise. Performance and lines were good for Noah too but it can’t help but feel like the misunderstood guy who’s lost his way with a struggling family story thrown into something bigger than himself trope didn’t benefit the already quite generic film. Still, his line chemistry with Mirage was excellent, who was maybe the standout character of the film. The Autobots were mostly characters this time around.

I liked it. It’s not a great film. Plenty to build on and it’s a cut above the plot and character messes we hit with the Bayverse, great camera work and dialogue. It’s hard to know what to expect as fans, we’ve had a few mediocre things for a while now but perspective is hard to keep. 6/10