Time: 127 Minutes
Age Rating: M – Violence
Cast:
Anthony Ramos as Noah Diaz
Dominique Fishback as Elena Wallace
Director: Steven Caple Jr.

Rise of the Beasts is the latest instalment of the Transformers movie franchise, and having only seen the first 3 Michael Bay films and Bumblebee some years ago, I was intending to watch and re-watch the prior 6 movies before checking it out. However, I ended up just watching the 7th instalment anyway. I wasn’t especially excited for the movie, it really didn’t look that impressive from the trailers, especially with its visuals. It seemed like it would be just fine, and that’s what it was.

While the plots of the Transformers movies are essentially the same (most of the time having everyone chase after some powerful MacGuffin), Rise of the Beasts is very formulaic and safe. It almost feels on autopilot, and it lacks the energy and style present in Bay’s movies. Even the storylines with the human characters feel very stock standard and almost obligatory. That said, I still enjoyed the movie fine enough, it is definitely watchable. It does also have a very odd and ill advised end scene that I’m not sure they should’ve gone with.

Anthony Ramos and Dominique Fishback are likable enough as the leads, but they are also among the more forgettable protagonists in this franchise, they certainly stand out less compared to Shia LaBeouf and Hailee Steinfeld’s characters in the previous movies at least. The voice actors for the Transformers are good though.

Steven Caple Jr. is a decent enough director (previously having directed Creed 2) and he has done some okay work here, but it really has no style or energy. Admittedly, it’s been a while since I watched the Michael Bay movies. However, this looks worse in every way compared to even the first movie, and that was 16 years ago. The visual effects are very disappointing, especially considering that it’s a Transformers movie.  While the visuals on the whole are pretty underwhelming, the look of the Transformers themselves are especially lacklustre. They look so lifeless and fake, especially compared to the other movies where they seemed to have some weight behind them and looked somewhat plausible. Even the action sequences aren’t that spectacular, even though they were entertaining. The third act looks like a video game cutscene and has an ugly gray colour palette, but it’s where the Transformers actually looked the best, and the action in the section felt more dynamic compared to what came before. The score from Jongnic Bontemps was solid, very reminiscent of the original scores from Steve Jablonsky.

Transformers: Rise of the Beasts is visually boring and generic, but entertaining enough and competently made. If you enjoyed the Bay movies, you might be a little let down since it feels comparatively muted in its style and visuals. However, you might still find some enjoyment from it.