'TRANSFORMERS: RISE OF THE BEAST' is Just Another Tired Entry in a Robotic Saga

1994 – a year when hip hop was flourishing, the Internet was a nascent wonder, and the Autobots were still saving the Earth – or something to that effect. Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, the seventh installment in the live-action Transformers series, leaps back to this era for yet another round of robot-on-robot rumblings. However, unlike the cool nostalgia of the 90s, the film is a profoundly uninteresting amalgamation of brain-deadening franchise IP and connective brand synergy.

Directed by Steven Caple Jr., Rise of the Beasts serves as both a standalone sequel to Bumblebee and a prequel to Transformers. Yet, the fleeting scent of novelty and refreshment that Bumblebee introduced to the franchise appears to have faded away in this latest outing. Those who dared hope that Bumblebee might herald a promising future for the series, Rise of the Beasts serves as a grim reality check. It is a painful reminder that some things – unlike the metamorphosing Autobots – never change.

Perhaps in a bid to chase cultural relevance, or even to overshadow the franchise’s previous transgressions (open racism, to name one), Rise of the Beasts under Caple Jr.’s direction embraces a 90s hip hop aesthetic. While the inclusion of rap music needle drops and an inner-city setting momentarily lends the franchise a fresh ambiance, it soon devolves into pastiche, concealed beneath a plot as reductive as it is repetitive. Once the gears get grinding and we go from human-level beats to fighting above the streets, there’s almost no style for Rise of the Beasts to call its own. This is house style through and through, Caple Jr. becoming another replaceable cog in the larger Hasbro machine churning out such capital-C content.

The plot is a slurry of MacGuffin retrieval and exposition dumps, conceived by a veritable conveyor belt of male screenwriters, including Joby Harold, Darnell Metayer, Josh Peters, Erich Hoeber, and Jon Hoeber. Human characters, Noah (Anthony Ramos) and Elena (Dominique Fishback), race across the globe to retrieve keys and codes to foil an ancient evil robotic force from annihilating all of the galaxies. There’s also now a contingent of animal-robot hybrids called the Maximals, who have taken refuge in Peru. Despite these additions, the plot remains frustratingly simplistic, lacking any awe-inspiring set pieces or compelling narrative hooks that you might expect from a top-tier sci-fi action flick – or even from the best of the Transformers series.

In terms of direction, Caple Jr. fails to match the kinetic energy and grand scale of action that distinguished Michael Bay’s entries. Yes, Bay had his own juvenile obsessions – and he churned out some of the worst movies of the century in this very franchise – but he undeniably had a knack for staging impressive action sequences. Those are largely missing here. Rise of the Beasts unfolds with the predictability of a Ford assembly line, converting the potential charm of Bumblebee’s grounded antics into a stale, lifeless spectacle. The result is an easily forgettable action movie that barely stands out from its predecessors, other than its incessant 90s callbacks.

Anthony Ramos attempts to infuse some vitality into the proceedings. However, the script – as robotic as the Transformers themselves – limits his character to basic traits: his Brooklyn roots and his sickly kid brother (Dean Scott Vazquez). The remaining cast, likewise, struggle with a lackluster script, their characters becoming as interchangeable and disposable as any we’ve come to expect from this series. Although, Rise of the Beasts deserves a faint nod for its diverse casting, even if the film does little to capitalize on the talent it has gathered.

Transformers: Rise of the Beasts is a step back into mindless oblivion for a franchise that briefly showed promise of transforming into something better. It’s a disheartening reminder that the future of big budget cinema is bleak if this trend of soulless, franchise-driven blockbusters continues. The film lacks personality, substance, and even the basic elements of fun one might hope for. Even from a Transformer flick. Bumblebee was a faint glimmer of hope for the franchise, but Rise of the Beasts extinguishes that spark, harking back to the Transformers series’ grim past and possibly foretelling its future.

CONCLUSION: While it avoids the blatant sexism and racism that marred the worst entries of the franchise, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts still emerges as an uninspired and dreary chapter in this robotic saga. Despite the presence of a competent cast, they are grossly underserved by a subpar script, making the film feel like yet another soulless churn in the relentless wheel of franchise IP.