Transformers - Rise Of The Beasts

I remember the first time we got more TV channels back in the 80´s at my mother´s home. It was especially an English channel called Super Channel and on Saturday morning they would play a lot cartoon shows. You had cartoon shows such as Thundercats, Dungeons & Dragons, He-Man And The Masters Of The Universe, G.I. Joe,  Bravestarr and of course The Real Ghostbusters ( yes the cartoon version of Ghostbusters ). I used to love having cheese sandwiches with hot chocolate while watching these cartoon shows. But Super Channel wasnt the only place i watched violent cartoons, we also rented VHS cartoon films and i remember especially renting Transformers. Seeing robots known as Autobots fighting against Decepticons was a lot of fun in Transformers, who had a very futuristic approach where different robots fight against each other on planet Earth. I remember my neighbor Claes Oswald ( who must have been 7 years old at that time ) had not only a lot of He-Man figures but he also had Transformers toys as well, and i remember how happy he was seeing we have rented the latest Transformers VHS tape. In some ways you could say that Transformers was a perfect example during that time a cartoon show that tried break free from the stereo typical action cartoon show by letting each robot turn into different cars or other veichles. It was a cool concept for the 80´s and of course it was different watching robots from another planet fighting each other on the cartoon series at that time. Transformers became a massive toy brand in the 80´s and i remember how Claes had different Transformers figures in his room while i visited. When the 90´s kicked in we were too big to play with the toys of course and it seemed like Transformers might not be as popular anymore. Not until the year of 2007 when director Michael Bay decided to make a film based on the popular robots simply called Transformers. The film did really well at the box office and director Michael Bay continued to make several films in the franchise right up to the year of 2016 with his final film Transformers - The Dark Knight. That could have been the end for the franchise but luckily director Travis Knight decided to give this franchise a try with his film Bumblebee, based on the specific robot character of the Transformers franchise. This film is actually fun and managed to capture the feeling of Transformers better than Michael Bay in his films. So, after a couple of years i heard rumors that a sequel to Bumblebee was coming. I wasnt sure if i would look forward to this film considering that it´s not easy making a good Transformers film. So here we are in 2023 with the latest Transformers film and the question is, does this film bring something good to the table or should you skip this one and watch Bumblebee instead?

The planet-eating Unicron attacks the homeworld of the Maximals, an advanced race of Transformers with aletrnative beast modes. The Terracons, Unicron´s herald led by Scourge, seek to obtain the Transwerp Key which can open portals through space and time intending to use it to help Unicron consume planets faster. The Maximals under the lead of Optimus Prime manage to keep the Transwerp Key in safety and flee to Earth with it. In 1994, an ex-military electronics  expert named Noah Diaz ( Anthony Ramos ) struggles to find a job to support his ill brother Kris Diaz ( Dean Scott Vazquez ) and is convinced by his friend Reek ( Tobe Nwigwe ) to steal a Porsche 911. As he tries to do that he finds out that this Porsche is actually an Autobot called Mirage. Noah meets the other Autobots as well inside an abandoned industrial building where Mirage suggest they use Noah to get the Transwerp Key, where it is located at a local museum where Optimus Prime detected that the key have been found by a human named Elena Wallace ( Dominique Fishback ), an artifact researcher. Unless the Autobots secure that the Transwerp Key is not taken by the Decepticons, the world that we once knew may be lost forever.

Honestly i felt that director Michael Bay put too much action and CGI effects in his Tranformers films and forgot comletely about the characters of the robots. Thankfully in Transformers - Rise Of The Robots they seem to have listened to the fans and actually tried to bring out different personalities in some of these robots. And this is exactly what we needed to have a in a film like this if you are going to make it work with CGI action scenes. That doesn´t mean there are no problems with this film, but i will say that this sequel is actually better than the previous films i have seen. So why do i think this film is better? Let us begin with the story itself talking place in 1994 and they manage to capture the time period with hair styles, you have the right soundtrack as well and i actually enjoy the two main characters. I like the comedy tone that especially the robot known as Mirage uses throughout this film. One big difference compared to some of the other films in this franchise is that there is an actual story in Transformers - Rise Of The Beasts that Michael Bay never cared about in his films. I mentioned how i especially enjoy the two main characters earlier, so let´s get into that for a moment. Lead actor Anthony Ramos as the character Noah Diaz is clearly a young man struggling taking care of his little brother Kris who is ill. To see a brother fight for his brother like Noah does makes his character stand out in an action film like this and give the story a deeper depth. Anthony may not go as deep as i hoped into his struggling character but i do feel that the performance works. Actress Dominique Fischback as the character Elena Wallace is kind of the nerd museum girl that is actually the right character for a film like this. Not only is she very good at historical objects but she clearly have a lot of knowledge on other details just like some of the Transformers have. I think this approach on this film does help the Transformers concept more fun as we travel across the world to Peru of all places, and the plot matches well with the historcial connections. What doesn´t work with Transformers - Rise Of The Beasts? Knowing this is a film with battles between robots and humans you can´t expect to hear any powerful dialogue. The conversations between humans or between some of the robots are not that interesting. So if you were hoping for anything interesting conversations you might as well foregt about that. With that said i do feel this is definetely the best Transformers films i have seen so far and i actually had fun with this film. Director Steven Caple Jr. ( director of Creed II ) does not only capture the right atmosphere of the franchise but he clearly understood what was missing in the Michael Bay films. If you just want to have some fun and enjoy yourself this autumn with some entertaning action scenes, you might actually enjoy Transformers - Rise Of The Beasts. What are you waiting for? Order your copy online of the latest Transformers film on phyiscal media today.

Rating: DDD