by Tony Rhea, Reporter
Get ready to transform and roll out! 2023 brings us the return of the Transformers in Transformers: Rise of the Beasts! Does this new movie deliver? Is the music any good? How many nineties references can you fit into one movie? Let’s dive in and find out.
Our story brings us to Noah, a guy just trying to help his family. When Noah attempts to take on a new profession, he accidentally finds himself wrapped up into a lot of Autobot business. Elena just wants to do a good job working at the local museum, and to make discoveries herself, but one of her discoveries embroils her into the same Autobot business. These two, as well as their new friends (including a lot of familiar-yet-new faces), must face big challenges, harrowing enemies, and themselves if they want to save the world!
Anthony Ramos and Dominique Fishback play Noah and Elena, respectively. The heroic Autobots are brought to life with Liza Koshy as Arcee, Cristo Fernández as Wheeljack, John DiMaggio as Stratosphere, Pete Davidson as Mirage, Bumblebee (played by a lot of great clips), and of course – Peter Cullen as Optimus Prime. This movie also serves as the introduction for the Maximals with Michelle Yeoh as Airazor, David Sobolov as Rhinox, Tongayi Chirisa as Cheetor, and Ron Perlman as Optimus Primal. Peter Dinklage terrifies as Scourge, assisted by Michaela Jaé Rodriguez as Nightbird and David Sobolov again as Battletrap.
Given that this is the seventh entry in the franchise, I could understand if you felt uneasy about seeing this movie if you skipped any of the more recent entries. Rest assured that you don’t need to have seen any previous entry to enjoy this one! While it picks up after Bumblebee, the story of this movie has almost nothing to do with it (save for a quick acknowledgment of it by Bumblebee and Optimus). You can easily approach this movie as a new beginning, and lose little for it.
I think it is truly safe to say that Davidson steals the show as Mirage. Mirage is likable, funny (Davidson possibly has the best (funny) line in all of the Transformers movies) and brave. For his part, Cullen delivers an Optimus that plays quite differently from the previous iteration we have grown accustomed to, and it was interesting to see how this changed his performance of the character. All of the voice actors really give it their all, giving us characters that feel distinct and better developed than some of the previous movies. I love the more “classic” design of the Autobots this time around, proving that it was entirely possible to have done this with them the entire franchise and they would have looked great! The updated designs for the Maximals give great nods to the designs we love from the series, while also making some very cool changes and updates. My only complaint was that while Primal’s bot mode looks great, he could have done with a splash of color (like the original).
Fans of the original Transformers animated movie will be delighted by a welcome audio nod to the 1986 Unicron story. This choice alone had me excited very early on, and really set the tone and expectation for respect for the source material (and some fun easter eggs) throughout the rest of the movie. Additionally, combat and action sequences felt great. I always found the Bay-formers movies to have very muddied action sequences, where it was very often difficult to be sure of what was going on. Rise of the Beasts does a great job of bringing the action into focus, and delivers some fantastic visuals in the process. While the addition of the Maximals was great (with Yeoh and Perlman both delivering standout performances), excluding Rattrap feels like a missed opportunity. If we get a chance to see the Maximals again, Rattrap would be an ideal candidate to provide some much needed comic relief for the Maximals. Additionally, while the villains felt more threatening, it would be great to see some more development with them. This movie, just like Bumblebee before it, has done a better job of giving us lackeys with personality. They are still a far cry from villains in Beast Wars or the early Transformers television show, where enemies had their own motivations and possible backstabbing waiting in the wings. It would have been nice to see more of the Maximals in their robot forms, as well. While they do “Maximize”, you only really get a closeup view of Primal. This feels like a wasted opportunity, and I hope this is addressed in future installments.
Even with a couple of small criticisms, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts is easily the best of the movies so far, and opens the door for a broad expansion of this franchise. Just like the end of Bumblebee, this movie will have you excited for what comes next.
Rating: 
ComicsOnline gives Transformers: Rise of the Beasts 4.5 out of 5 McGuffins!
