MOVIE OF THE WEEK (6/9/23): TRANSFORMERS: RISE OF THE BEASTS

"PETA is gonna have problem with this, right?!" Cheetor (voiced by Tongayi Chirisa) gets up close and personal with Mirage (voiced by Pete Davidson) as Arcee (voiced by Liza Koshy) looks on in a scene from TRANSFORMERS: RISE OF THE BEASTS. Credit: © 2023 Paramount Pictures. All rights reserved. 

WATCH THE TRAILER HERE:

DIRECTOR: Steven Caple, Jr.

KEY CAST MEMBERS: Anthony Ramos, Dominique Fishback, Pete Davidson, Colman Domingo, Luna Lauren Velez, Dean Scott Vazquez and the voices of Peter Cullen, Ron Perlman, Peter Dinklage, Michelle Yeoh, Liza Koshy, John DiMaggio, David Sobolov, Michaela Jaé Rodriguez,  Cristo Fernández, Tobe Nwigwe and Tongayi Chirisa 

WEB SITE: https://www.transformersmovie.com/

THE BACK STORY: Set in 1994 long before Shia LeBeouf's Sam Witwicky would ever enter the picture, TRANSFORMERS: RISE OF THE BEASTS finds former U.S. Army private Noah Diaz (Anthony Ramos) trying his best to do right by his family. His hardworking mother (Luna Lauren Velez) is doing the best she can to provide while his 11 year-old brother (Dean Scott Vazquez), whose sickle cell anemia is causing him all sorts of complications.

Not finding opportunities to make the money – or C.R.E.A.M. in accordance with the film's hip-hop heavy soundtrack – necessary legally, Noah takes a gig to steal a Porsche from a local parking garage. But this is no ordinary Porsche.

That Porsche is Mirage (voiced by Pete Davidson), one of several Autobots living on Earth after the destruction of their home planet Cybertron. Led by Optimus Prime, (voiced by longtime Transformers mainstay Peter Cullen) the Autobots are stuck with no way home since the one thing they need – a key – has been lost forever ... Or so they think.

You see, that key was taken and hidden centuries ago by robot gorilla Optimus Primal (voiced by Ron Perlman), leader of the Maximals, robots who took on animal form instead of cars like the Autobots. But like the Autobots, the Maximals have a natural enemy: The Predacons, a race of robots led by the aptly-named Scourge (voiced by Peter Dinklage) that answer to Omnicron (voiced by Colman Domingo of Fear the Walking Dead fame). Why is that important? Because Omnicron is the Transformers equivalent of the Death Star in Star Wars and Galactus in the Marvel Cinematic Universe: A massive villain who consumes planets – like the Maximals home world – to sustain himself. 

So ... What happens when aspiring museum intern Elena Wallace (Dominique Fishback) inadvertently makes a discovery that threatens life on Earth and every other planet in the galaxy? You'll have to watch the movie to find out.

THE REVIEW: As a kid, I LOVED Transformers as an animated series. I LOVED original animated adventure, The Transformers: The Movie. I had several of the toys – I have never gotten over my Optimus Prime getting broken in elementary school by another kid nor never getting the Dinobots – comic books and more. So, in 2007, when I heard they were making a live action Transformers movie, I was excited.

Then I saw it ... And it absolutely sucked. As did the first sequel, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen with the two hip-hop robots I joked about on my second stand-up album, Remarkable. And if you think I had similar thoughts about the 2011 sequel Transformers: Dark of the Moon, you'd be right. That's when I tapped out. Sure, I caught a few minutes of the latter sequels on cable in recent years, but I couldn't bring myself to watch them. 

Needless to say, I walked into the latest sequel – which is actually a prequel to the first live-action film but a sequel to 2018's prequel Bumblebee (that film was set in 1987, FYI) – with the lowest of low expectations. I came prepared to hate it, to talk about Michael Bay's love of explosions, the corny jokes and dumb human characters that are inconsequential to all the Battlebots-style goofy sequences on the screen in front of me.

Well, I hate to admit this, but here it goes ... I actually liked TRANSFORMERS: RISE OF THE BEASTS ... And many audiences will, too.

It only took them several tries, but Paramount Pictures has finally turned out a Transformers movie where the story mostly makes sense, the jokes aren't cringe-inducing (and dare I say, in a few instances, smart) and the human characters are actually interesting. Even more astounding? The action sequences work and there are is a BIG surprise that could signal the fix of something else much maligned 1980s kids will likely let out an audible gasp in response to it.

I'm not saying RISE is perfect. What I am saying, however, is that this film is enjoyable as everything pretty much works more than it doesn't. Why? The film inserts the things that many of the others were lacking: Some intelligence and genuine emotion combined with visuals that pop and sequences that bring it all home. 

Love him or hate him, Davidson has figured out who he is and is a perfect fit as Mirage and a much-needed balance from the wet blanket of a leader that has defined Optimus Prime throughout the series. Perlman, however, is able to bring some less-depressing leadership qualities to Optimus Primal, teaching the Autobot he was named after a thing or two in the process. 

Likewise, Ramos and Fishback bring some much needed humanity (pun intended) to their roles, a quality that has been so forced throughout the Transformers live action franchise it's not even funny (because it never was). Ramos is infinitely relatable as a character, which makes his journey interesting, a promise he delivers on with a solid performance. Likewise, Fishback's character is smart but not too smart for the room to the point it's annoying or silly, just effective and inspiration since the majority of women in this series well ... Haven't exactly been the given the best roles. 

While one would be tempted to give credit to Michael Bay for stepping out of the director's chair and focusing on actors right for the roles instead of familiar names and/or pretty faces, that would simply be too easy and frankly rude. For in the case of director Steven Caple, Jr., you can tell he was like many youths growing up in the 80s and 90s: An actual Transformers fan who saw great potential for the lack action films but knew how important it was to finally do them justice, striking the right balance between humorous and heartfelt as well as intense and interesting. 

Given the implications of the film, it remains to be seen where exactly the franchise goes from here. But in much the same fashion that Warner Bros./D.C. is hoping James Gunn can get its comic book movie franchise finally headed in the right, consistent direction, if this is any indication of what's next, there might be hope yet this series might finally deliver more than meets the eye since what had been previously seen wasn't worth it.

But for those craving an entertaining Transformers movie, RISE OF THE BEASTS is far more fun than you'd ever expect.

OVERALL RATING (OUT OF FOUR POSSIBLE BUCKETS OF POPCORN):