Let’s be honest, over its 15-year run, the Transformers film series didn’t really set the bar very high in terms of quality content or endearing characters. The exception to this was 2018’s surprisingly tempered standalone prequel Bumblebee and though it would be easy to write that film off as being the beneficiary of a new post-Michael Bay era, it’s with a combination of both relief but also some regret that its spiritual sequel, Rise of the Beasts, feels built from the same parts but also strays dangerously close to the inferior elements that made the original films become less and less watchable with each release.
If there’s one thing astute observers have learned over decades of cinematic franchise building and eventual ruining, it’s that studios put an immense amount of energy and focus on sustainably creating these worlds to support a financial vision that they think can be realized or achieved over a particular timeframe. However, given the long timelines needed to pursue this – both the audience that made the film a franchise and the characters that made them appealing are forgotten (or sacrificed) for hastily put-together revivals and rehashes that continue to keep the till machine counting.
It’s easy to forget how odd it is to sit in a movie theatre where audiences applaud in gusto at a film that commences with the logo of the toy maker Hasbro. But if Marvel can do it, with its treasure chest of pop culture characters that have mass appeal and a storyline of infinite possibilities, then the limitless supply of figures and playthings from a toy world is the next best thing. The comparison between the two suppliers of adolescent wonder end there though. Without a vision behind the world-building and a real care for storylines that offer meaningful progression, all we’re left with is empty translations of things from one medium to another.
Rise of the Beasts is a Transformers film in spirit and tone but a Bumblebee sequel in effort and result. It tries, perhaps a bit too hard, to create a world that’s gender and race-blind but doesn’t really know where to go with two leads who lack individual charisma and team chemistry. The plot, heavy on the search for objects that are keys to unlocking decades old mysteries but also opening up portals to dimensions full of evil beings, can be found under the dictionary definition of a MacGuffin. The film starts off well and sort of works, till the machines start talking. I was reminded why Bumblebee worked better – because it was a solo adventure about a near-mute character. It had focus and no big stars. The problems here become more apparent as Beasts progresses – it has almost no focus and not enough big stars.
It’s easy to be cynical about the film, its origins, and its maligned past, but even when I try to ignore it my mind starts overthinking – the transformers successfully live amongst humans because they turn into everyday objects like vehicles, but the Maximals (who are essentially robots that turn into animals) living here in hiding makes no sense. It’s at this point that I look across at my son sitting next to me and realise he’s still enjoying it. I stop thinking and just accept the film as a franchise in recovery mode.
Rating: 
