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"Oh sweet Primus... and here I thought we were in the clear after Bumblebee."

Excuse title for the sake of testing out XNALara aside, this has been something I've gone back and forth on for awhile. Now I'm not much of what you'd call a movie reviewer or critic and I really do not plan on getting into that scene considering how cramped it is and how writing long paragraphs about media is kind of tiring for me at points. However, I had to do a review for this because this is special for me. For those of you who may not know, I am a GIGANTIC fan of the Transformers franchise which is right up there alongside Dragon Ball as being a series I will never shut up about if you get me going on it. That being said, growing up, I missed out on the original G1 cartoon and Beast Wars sans maybe a few episodes I might've caught at random so I wasn't around for when the series was in its true prime (HAH!). No, my personal introduction to this series came from the Unicron Trilogy of imported anime series with my love being fully cemented with the arrival of the 2007 Transformers live-action movie by one Michael Bay.

And since then, whenever a new film's coming I keep my finger on the pulse of all major developments and the moment it hits theaters is the moment I usually spring to watch them. A great chunk of my life was spent being dedicated to loving those movies, rewatching them when I could and of course when I got the toys, either reenacting my favorite scenes or imagining new scenarios. For me, I did not weep watching Prime die in the 1986 film but I cried profusely watching him die in ROTF. The confrontation between Optimus and Megatron that stuck out in my head wasn't amongst the wartorn battlefield that became of Autobot City but rather the fight in Mission City in the first film and the forest battle in ROTF. Ironhide was not a van to me with the thickest Southern accent imaginable, he was a big pick-up truck with two massive frag-off cannons on each arm that was voiced by Wakko Warner AKA Jess Harnell and I can go on and on. It is thanks to those old Bayverse films that I became the hardcore TF fan I am today who seeks out the cartoons and comics I missed and actively tries to be a part of the fandom. I'm that TF nerd who commonly will rewatch spoofs like the Panty and Stocking segment "Transhomers" and would be able to name off basically every reference present down to even the most obscure detail. Hell my first fanfiction ever was a Transformers one set in my own universe which was based on my dreams of becoming a toy designer and working on this series. It was not good but still, I think my passion for this is clear and it's with all this in mind that I really understand the wave of nostalgic love that has since come about for those films and as a fan? I've certainly been swept up in that every so often. The fact that the original 2007 film will become 20 years old in just 4 years is bonkers to me.

That being said, let's not kid ourselves here, the Bay films are not what one would call great and most people have that understanding given how most of the nostalgia is not so much for the quality of the films and is instead for the feeling of what it was like to get swept up in the hype and how it was watching the brand rise up the way it did after the release of that first film since they all are... varying levels of quality. In fact, from rewatching them in preparation for this film? It is almost depressing just how many of them don't hold up and wind up straight up awful or boring and even if one could enjoy them? It was clear it was running out of steam by the third outing with plots that were falling into an extremely predictable pattern, character arcs and development being little more than window dressing and occasional lines that get thrown out with no expansion, an emphasis on the military being our ultimate saviors instead of focusing on the characters the movie claims to be about, the rampant pandering to hormone-addled teens and fratbros in ways that range from innocently immature to "Oh my sweet Jesus how in the hell was this allowed in the mid-2000s?" levels of cringe and an increasing feeling of contempt for its existence that translates into the films being cruel to its own cast and characters that are normally known for their hearts like Optimus Prime being turned into bloodthirsty psychopaths for the sake of action scenes that while cool in concept completely reject all the character these guys are supposed to have. Aside from Linkin Park's one song that was made for ROTF, Jablonsky's score and the introduction of what would become franchise staples such as the Allspark, most of what has come out of these movies is utter garbage and considering these films continued well into the age where the Marvel Cinematic Universe was in full swing and when better TF media had chosen to take the concepts brought forth by this movie and put them to greater use? These films became obsolete basically as soon as 2014 hit and it shows with the declining domestic box office which eventually led to AOE which was only saved by China going absolutely ga-ga over its pand-I mean respectful nods towards its culture.

And when TLK hit the scene? We were all checked out upon seeing the dreary, confusing often bafflingly bad mess that was meant to serve as both the fifth movie in this bloated scrap pile and a launchpad for a cinematic universe with us being informed that the first of those kinds of films that would come after TLK would be a standalone prequel centered around Bumblebee. In fact, we were so checked out that this film, in a first for this whole series, didn't just underperform, it bombed at the box office, thus sending all future plans into turmoil as Paramount rushed to figure out what they could do to keep the franchise afloat. So they took what was originally planned as a prequel to the Bayverse and hastily retooled it to remove as many connections to it as humanly possible and thus that Bumblebee film wound up becoming a proper fresh start for this franchise which it absolutely earned because Bumblebee utterly rocks as the first great TF film out of all the ones that have been theatrically released. It was a film I went into with no expectations and the thought that I would likely hate it since TLK burned me so hard it made me second-guess why I even like the Bayverse and came out adoring and when it was announced that the next film would be a sequel to Bumblebee at least in the sense that it was set in the new universe that film had made with the only person to throw a wrench into things being resident Bayverse stan Lorenzo di Bonaventura? I was over the moon and pumped... until I stopped to think. I remembered that out of the six, BB was the first truly great one and how much four of those films made in the box office. I also remembered how clear it was that they basically just let Travis Knight do his thing on Bumblebee and that the only real meddling came when they chose to make it a reboot. But now they tasted success again and saw how people responded to Bumblebee and thus now the question that got on everyone's minds was just what exactly would be the follow-up?

Well later on we would get the reveal that the new film would be titled "Transformers: Rise of the Beasts" and would focus on the Autobots meeting up with the Maximals from Beast Wars as they fight against the new evil faction known as the Terrorcons. This was... interesting to say the least considering this was the second-ever film in this brand new universe and yet it was jumping to something this crazy and even crazier was the fact that when one considers the backstory of the Maximals and Predacons and how they were descendants of the bots of old that wound up due to shenanigans travelling back in time? This was gonna get complicated depending on how they chose to explain it and considering we had so little info at the time? The potential for just how much this could balloon was concerning. That being said, it was calming to know that this movie was not going to be directed by Michael Bay once again, it instead was being directed by Steven Caple Jr. who was an up and coming director who was most known at that point for directing Creed II and the main attached writer was Joby Harold who helped write Army of the Dead and he was the man that wrote Obi-Wan Kenobi back when that series was supposed to be a film with his story being used for the series and that right there got me excited. I didn't see Creed II but I was down for having a fresh face to this series and learned after Travis Knight's live-action debut that I should not doubt creatives, Army of the Dead is one of my absolute favorite new zombie films and Obi-Wan Kenobi is one of my top favorite Star Wars series in the new era so needless to say I felt it was in good hands and when the first trailer dropped, I was excited. Everything about it felt right, the robots were the focus, the action was clearly shot and the Maximals looked friggin' awesome and as more came out? The excitement grew and grew with the idea that we were getting an adventure set in Peru with an Optimus that is a bit more depressed was intriguing and I was down for this... until that second full-length trailer came out where they just chose to spoil one of the biggest aspects of this film, that being that this is involving Unicron and right there my hype was... well not killed necessarily but tempered.

Then we got more info and I was starting to get worried. It was sounding like instead of choosing to continue with a smaller scale film, we were getting one of the most massive TF films in terms of scope and there was this genuine concern that we were going to be returning to depths of the convoluted Bayverse plots or that at the very least they were just throwing everything they had at the wall to see what stuck in the vain attempt to make a TF cinematic universe a thing. Then because I couldn't help myself since the review embargo ended and I was so concerned, when leaks of certain scenes got online I jumped at the chance to watch them and saw things in particular that involved the character of Optimus Prime that pissed me off and got me really worried so when I walked into the theater on June 9th, I had no clue what I was about to see and was just hoping I'd like it, especially considering the positive buzz it was getting.

Then the credits rolled and overall? I did like it... but there was so much that frustrated me that prevented me from saying it was a worthy follow-up to Bumblebee. Then as I sat with the movie, my frustration grew and with that, certain elements that I once liked I soured on and my concern for this series grew more and more and now considering the honeymoon period is over, I feel confident in saying that Rise of the Beasts is honestly one of the most frustrating and disappointing experiences I've ever had as both a film fan and a TF fan. Now let's be clear, this is not a bad movie, I did not come out of it seriously questioning if I even still was a TF fan like TLK did and it didn't leave me depressed like the rewatch of the whole series in preparation for this film did. What this film does well it does incredibly so and if you're just looking for a fun time at the movies it will serve that purpose. It is definitely still better than those old Bay films with some really solid cinematography, the robot designs for the most part are really cool and memorable with them getting a good deal of screentime and some cool personalities at least in terms of the majority of the Autobots and Primal and Airrazor of the Maximals, the acting is solid and the human lead of Noah is still a major step-up from Cade Yeager and Sam Witwicky. The music is also incredibly solid with a nice mix of the orchestral arrangements we've come to expect from this franchise and a healthy selection of 90s rap and hip-hop which for the most part was timed very well with the scenes they were used in. There's so much that makes me really want to love this movie and if I was a viewer that just watched these for the spectacle? I might've been able to.

But sadly, I can't because unlike Bumblebee which was a film I adored from start to finish? We have a movie that when it's not hitting its mark? It's like a flick to nads. For the sake of setting the scene, ROTB is basically what happens when you take a Bayverse film plot and give it a spitshine. It's polished for sure, it's certainly the best version of this story you could have given what ideas they chose to go with but there's still way too much of the old stink that is present throughout this movie with a dash of corporate arrogance. One review said in some regards it felt like The Rise of Skywalker and honestly that is a perfect descriptor since like TROS, I personally feel the only way you're gonna get the max amount of enjoyment is if you simply don't try to mull over everything for more than a few minutes after you see it and it's also a case where the characters take a backseat to the plot which while it has the pieces to be a nice set-up for a film about bonding and learning about protecting what's truly important ends up fairly muddled. You can tell just by looking at this movie and the details of the 2022 screening just what was altered by the filmmaker for the sake of pacing and the story and what was studio-mandated and sadly it's more of the latter than the former. My first major problem with this film is one that I know is a hot debate for people and that is how this movie handles Optimus Prime and for me personally? I cannot get with what they did with him.

Now to be fair, I do get what they're going for here. This is supposed to be a Prime that's much more depressed than we're used to seeing him, it's basically attempting the arc that AOE had for him but is actually playing it like an arc. Plus, I like a handful of the scenes he's in. The little gag of him telling Bumblebee he can't go to the Drive-In like a frustrated dad? That's funny. Him pleading with Noah not to destroy something that will prevent him and his people from heading home? Perfect. Him teaming up with Primal with both shouting "Roll out!" at the same time gave me goosebumps. His horror over Bumblebee's death did actually make me feel something. For the majority of this movie though? Prime is absolutely horrendous. Sadly once more instead of the kind honorable leader robo dad-man that Prime has generally been portrayed as for years and years? We're back to Murder Prime from the Bayverse and in ways that are incredibly frustrating. He continuously states how he's gonna kill Scourge and take his head, complains about Primal stealing a kill and in this film is given not just an apathy towards humans but something that borders on hatred with how he derides them and look I get it, Prime is being portrayed as desperate, they also make it clear Scourge is a nasty guy who you want to see get kicked in the tailpipe but the thing is? That justifies NONE of what Prime does and when it eventually culminates in the climax of his final fight with Scourge having him rip his motherfucking spine out like this is Mortal Kombat? I'm not cheering, I'm annoyed and disappointed and before anyone tries to argue with me on this? Let me be clear that I am no Geewunner and I have no problem with Prime being brutal or killing outright. I mean we're talking a centuries spanning war between two factions of soldiers and it's not the 80s anymore, bots kind of need to be allowed to kill and for creativity's sake, we need to allow for more brutal deaths.

The problems come in when we get excessive violence and brutality for the sake of it and lines that do not reflect the core of the character that are put there by people who often think of action scenes first and slot the character in afterwards. They don't think of the many ways that Prime can be brutal without being extreme and taking away from the character, they just see the robots as props for cool fights. To me, what separates the Autobots from the Decepticons when one writes them well is that the Autobots fight to defend and protect what's precious. They aren't trained to be so vicious that they'll barbarically rip a robot to pieces, they're not all here for the thrill of a fight. They're at war and killing comes with that territory so if they can kill in ways that are quick and won't be so extreme? They'll take it and above them all? Optimus is supposed to be the ultimate example of how an Autobot should behave. It doesn't mean he can't have flaws but you ask me? When you have Optimus doing the crap he does here or in the Bayverse? You don't have Optimus Prime, you have the Punisher as a truck robot. I should not be cheering when Prime rips off a dude's head and considering the point of this was to have Prime go through this arc? I feel ending off on something so extremely brutal actually defeats the purpose of the arc. There are seriously so many points in this movie that could've benefit from just a simple rewrite and just cutting off certain moments. I'm aware they also did this to try and show a similarity between him and Noah and framed it as just him trying to protect his family but I don't think that was the right call. I feel it would've been better to have it CONTRAST instead of echo. Hell, Paramount is likely more than aware by now of how both fans and critics hate this murderous take on Optimus but they insisted upon including him and that just makes me sad since to me? A murderous Prime shouldn't be celebrated or praised and the idea that this is necessary because it makes him supposedly more relatable or realistic is ridiculous and instead comes off as not only lazy but also seems to miss the fact that this is Transformers, a series with talking transforming robots. Though above it all it also actively ignores a great story opportunity which brings me to my next two problems.

While I like Noah? Elena is utterly pointless. She barely does anything and it feels like time spent with her is taking away time that can be spent developing other characters. I mean no disrespect to the actress, she did the role very well but her character didn't do it for me though speaking of taking away from others? This is the first of these movies where legitimately this story might've been better off without any main human character. This film heavily advertises the inclusion of the Maximals from Beast Wars, their escapades are even what opens the movie but then they disappear until part of the way through and it's all so we can spend time with Noah who is a solid character but it comes at the expense of all these others when honestly? I feel like they should've been the main people we follow. Hell, it would've worked wonderfully with Primal noting how Optimus is not the warrior he heard about since it would've meant they could've taken Murder Prime and turned it into an arc and not just a thing we're supposed to accept because the visual of Optimus pulling a Sub-Zero on a mofo was something once was a part of a movie that made bank and thus the Paramount execs refuse to look beyond that.

In fact, the entire last battle of the film felt like it was in a mad dash to include as many Bayverse tropes as humanly possible, right down to the admittedly awesome inclusion of Arrival to Earth and the Optimus Prime speech at the end and on top of that? A thing that gets the humans far more involved than they need to be and in this case, Noah gets an exo-suit made out of Mirage and... it is just the dumbest thing. A nakedly blatant attempt to ape Iron Man and the Marvel movies with the only excuse it has is that this has been a thing before (Though I should note the exo-suit in the 86 film was so that Daniel could live out a dream of kids watching the series and be a Transformer. Everything about this suit's visuals and the way it fights is clearly more Iron Man inspired.) and at many points the CG looks incredibly off with this though apparently it's worth it because at the end? Noah gets a job... with G.I. Joe and apparently this is so that next time we can have a crossover film because Paramount is really that desperate for a massive cinematic universe that they would throw in something this dumb at the end of the movie and not even into a post-credit with our actual post-credit feeling like it should've been the ending scene.

Couple this with another MacGuffin plot that can be only summed up as "Imagine ROTF with dashes of DOTM but actually coherent." and the frustration just keeps building and building until eventually I just have to throw up my hands. It is beyond frustrating that seemingly Paramount just cannot get the simple fact through their heads that the Bayverse for all the good it did in bringing TF back to prominence and bringing in this whole new wave of fans... is just not viable anymore. They seemingly don't understand that a good chunk of TF fans and general audience members really don't like these movies anymore. Every concept the films have done in fact have been done far better in other media and even other TF media. The Bayverse films are obsolete, they have served their purpose. We should've been done with this.

But instead they thought "Wait, people like the more stylized designs that hue closer to G1 and fanservice? Yes, we've found a way to keep up this mess of a continuity." and as a result we get ROTB, a film where you can blatantly tell that it is of two worlds, one of a creator's honestly cool vision for a TF movie that with a few tweaks could wind up great... and another of a studio who genuinely cannot fathom that what was once their big moneymaker is now a relic we'd rather leave in the past and considering their announcements for the sequel where we'll get G.I. Joe and the Transformers together which we can guess is likely to be a clusterfuck considering they'll have to reboot the Joes a second time given how badly Snake Eyes did? It's clear more than ever they have learned nothing and seeing as how the interviews have gone from calling it a reboot with only Lorenzo contesting it with a ton more wishy-washy statements? There's a greater chance that this will just be connected back to the Bayverse in due time and as a result everything becomes confused and I want to scream like Shia did for his last two TF films. It's official now, Bumblebee was a fluke. It got extremely lucky that it set the bar so high thanks to the efforts of Travis Knight and his team who are working under a company that one would be shocked to learn has been in business since 1912.

I'm so sorry to the people who enjoyed it that have managed to read through this whole thing but I just was not that thrilled with this one and believe me, I wanted to be. In fact, let me reiterate that I did not hate this movie. I enjoyed it enough for what it was and really want to like it but as it stands? But I can't ignore the mountains of missed potential, the several moments where it's clear if Caple Jr. was left to do his thing uninhibited we would've gotten a dynamite film. I want the Transformers films to be great, to be something I can point to proudly as a TF fan whenever people want a quick way to get into it, something that I can be proud of as a fan the same way some of the best Marvel movies have been so when I get something like ROTB? It's so irritating. Honestly, I am not surprised this movie is dropping off hard in the box office and if you don't mind me getting a bit harsh? I think that's a good thing. In fact, I kind of hope ROTB does fail or at least underperforms because I think Paramount needs to be humbled on just how dumb of a decision it was to follow up the fresh start of Bumblebee with a dive back into most of the garbage that caused this franchise to stagnate and die in the first place.

They also need to let these filmmakers actually make the movie they want to make like they did with Travis Knight where sans them basically telling him to shoot scenes that would separate it from the Bayverse, it was his movie from start to finish whereas Caple I don't think had that same kind of freedom at least later on since everything about his interviews are like a mixture of cool info and the kind of stuff that basically screams "Look y'all, I'm skirting around an NDA with this one, please just bear with me.". Now we won't know the future necessarily until later because the next film is Transformers: One, an animated prequel set on Cybertron that might be in its own universe but interviews with the actors indicate it might not be with the next live-action film being years off. Hopefully the films will be good, I want to have more good TF films than bad but if ROTB is any indication of what I can potentially expect from this new series? All I can do is what Prime is doing here, put my face in my hands, sigh and say "Oh dear Primus..."

And that's my take on it though I'm wondering what you people think and for the record that's even if you disagree. I mean at the end of the day these are just my thoughts on a film and while it's one I'm not the biggest fan of? It's been nice to see people who have enjoyed it so hey, as long as you're respectful maybe you can present your own takes.

Description
"Oh sweet Primus... and here I thought we were in the clear after Bumblebee."

Excuse title for the sake of testing out XNALara aside, this has been something I've gone back and forth on for awhile. Now I'm not much of what you'd call a movie reviewer or critic and I really do not plan on getting into that scene considering how cramped it is and how writing long paragraphs about media is kind of tiring for me at points. However, I had to do a review for this because this is special for me. For those of you who may not know, I am a GIGANTIC fan of the Transformers franchise which is right up there alongside Dragon Ball as being a series I will never shut up about if you get me going on it. That being said, growing up, I missed out on the original G1 cartoon and Beast Wars sans maybe a few episodes I might've caught at random so I wasn't around for when the series was in its true prime (HAH!). No, my personal introduction to this series came from the Unicron Trilogy of imported anime series with my love being fully cemented with the arrival of the 2007 Transformers live-action movie by one Michael Bay.

And since then, whenever a new film's coming I keep my finger on the pulse of all major developments and the moment it hits theaters is the moment I usually spring to watch them. A great chunk of my life was spent being dedicated to loving those movies, rewatching them when I could and of course when I got the toys, either reenacting my favorite scenes or imagining new scenarios. For me, I did not weep watching Prime die in the 1986 film but I cried profusely watching him die in ROTF. The confrontation between Optimus and Megatron that stuck out in my head wasn't amongst the wartorn battlefield that became of Autobot City but rather the fight in Mission City in the first film and the forest battle in ROTF. Ironhide was not a van to me with the thickest Southern accent imaginable, he was a big pick-up truck with two massive frag-off cannons on each arm that was voiced by Wakko Warner AKA Jess Harnell and I can go on and on. It is thanks to those old Bayverse films that I became the hardcore TF fan I am today who seeks out the cartoons and comics I missed and actively tries to be a part of the fandom. I'm that TF nerd who commonly will rewatch spoofs like the Panty and Stocking segment "Transhomers" and would be able to name off basically every reference present down to even the most obscure detail. Hell my first fanfiction ever was a Transformers one set in my own universe which was based on my dreams of becoming a toy designer and working on this series. It was not good but still, I think my passion for this is clear and it's with all this in mind that I really understand the wave of nostalgic love that has since come about for those films and as a fan? I've certainly been swept up in that every so often. The fact that the original 2007 film will become 20 years old in just 4 years is bonkers to me.

That being said, let's not kid ourselves here, the Bay films are not what one would call great and most people have that understanding given how most of the nostalgia is not so much for the quality of the films and is instead for the feeling of what it was like to get swept up in the hype and how it was watching the brand rise up the way it did after the release of that first film since they all are... varying levels of quality. In fact, from rewatching them in preparation for this film? It is almost depressing just how many of them don't hold up and wind up straight up awful or boring and even if one could enjoy them? It was clear it was running out of steam by the third outing with plots that were falling into an extremely predictable pattern, character arcs and development being little more than window dressing and occasional lines that get thrown out with no expansion, an emphasis on the military being our ultimate saviors instead of focusing on the characters the movie claims to be about, the rampant pandering to hormone-addled teens and fratbros in ways that range from innocently immature to "Oh my sweet Jesus how in the hell was this allowed in the mid-2000s?" levels of cringe and an increasing feeling of contempt for its existence that translates into the films being cruel to its own cast and characters that are normally known for their hearts like Optimus Prime being turned into bloodthirsty psychopaths for the sake of action scenes that while cool in concept completely reject all the character these guys are supposed to have. Aside from Linkin Park's one song that was made for ROTF, Jablonsky's score and the introduction of what would become franchise staples such as the Allspark, most of what has come out of these movies is utter garbage and considering these films continued well into the age where the Marvel Cinematic Universe was in full swing and when better TF media had chosen to take the concepts brought forth by this movie and put them to greater use? These films became obsolete basically as soon as 2014 hit and it shows with the declining domestic box office which eventually led to AOE which was only saved by China going absolutely ga-ga over its pand-I mean respectful nods towards its culture.

And when TLK hit the scene? We were all checked out upon seeing the dreary, confusing often bafflingly bad mess that was meant to serve as both the fifth movie in this bloated scrap pile and a launchpad for a cinematic universe with us being informed that the first of those kinds of films that would come after TLK would be a standalone prequel centered around Bumblebee. In fact, we were so checked out that this film, in a first for this whole series, didn't just underperform, it bombed at the box office, thus sending all future plans into turmoil as Paramount rushed to figure out what they could do to keep the franchise afloat. So they took what was originally planned as a prequel to the Bayverse and hastily retooled it to remove as many connections to it as humanly possible and thus that Bumblebee film wound up becoming a proper fresh start for this franchise which it absolutely earned because Bumblebee utterly rocks as the first great TF film out of all the ones that have been theatrically released. It was a film I went into with no expectations and the thought that I would likely hate it since TLK burned me so hard it made me second-guess why I even like the Bayverse and came out adoring and when it was announced that the next film would be a sequel to Bumblebee at least in the sense that it was set in the new universe that film had made with the only person to throw a wrench into things being resident Bayverse stan Lorenzo di Bonaventura? I was over the moon and pumped... until I stopped to think. I remembered that out of the six, BB was the first truly great one and how much four of those films made in the box office. I also remembered how clear it was that they basically just let Travis Knight do his thing on Bumblebee and that the only real meddling came when they chose to make it a reboot. But now they tasted success again and saw how people responded to Bumblebee and thus now the question that got on everyone's minds was just what exactly would be the follow-up?

Well later on we would get the reveal that the new film would be titled "Transformers: Rise of the Beasts" and would focus on the Autobots meeting up with the Maximals from Beast Wars as they fight against the new evil faction known as the Terrorcons. This was... interesting to say the least considering this was the second-ever film in this brand new universe and yet it was jumping to something this crazy and even crazier was the fact that when one considers the backstory of the Maximals and Predacons and how they were descendants of the bots of old that wound up due to shenanigans travelling back in time? This was gonna get complicated depending on how they chose to explain it and considering we had so little info at the time? The potential for just how much this could balloon was concerning. That being said, it was calming to know that this movie was not going to be directed by Michael Bay once again, it instead was being directed by Steven Caple Jr. who was an up and coming director who was most known at that point for directing Creed II and the main attached writer was Joby Harold who helped write Army of the Dead and he was the man that wrote Obi-Wan Kenobi back when that series was supposed to be a film with his story being used for the series and that right there got me excited. I didn't see Creed II but I was down for having a fresh face to this series and learned after Travis Knight's live-action debut that I should not doubt creatives, Army of the Dead is one of my absolute favorite new zombie films and Obi-Wan Kenobi is one of my top favorite Star Wars series in the new era so needless to say I felt it was in good hands and when the first trailer dropped, I was excited. Everything about it felt right, the robots were the focus, the action was clearly shot and the Maximals looked friggin' awesome and as more came out? The excitement grew and grew with the idea that we were getting an adventure set in Peru with an Optimus that is a bit more depressed was intriguing and I was down for this... until that second full-length trailer came out where they just chose to spoil one of the biggest aspects of this film, that being that this is involving Unicron and right there my hype was... well not killed necessarily but tempered.

Then we got more info and I was starting to get worried. It was sounding like instead of choosing to continue with a smaller scale film, we were getting one of the most massive TF films in terms of scope and there was this genuine concern that we were going to be returning to depths of the convoluted Bayverse plots or that at the very least they were just throwing everything they had at the wall to see what stuck in the vain attempt to make a TF cinematic universe a thing. Then because I couldn't help myself since the review embargo ended and I was so concerned, when leaks of certain scenes got online I jumped at the chance to watch them and saw things in particular that involved the character of Optimus Prime that pissed me off and got me really worried so when I walked into the theater on June 9th, I had no clue what I was about to see and was just hoping I'd like it, especially considering the positive buzz it was getting.

Then the credits rolled and overall? I did like it... but there was so much that frustrated me that prevented me from saying it was a worthy follow-up to Bumblebee. Then as I sat with the movie, my frustration grew and with that, certain elements that I once liked I soured on and my concern for this series grew more and more and now considering the honeymoon period is over, I feel confident in saying that Rise of the Beasts is honestly one of the most frustrating and disappointing experiences I've ever had as both a film fan and a TF fan. Now let's be clear, this is not a bad movie, I did not come out of it seriously questioning if I even still was a TF fan like TLK did and it didn't leave me depressed like the rewatch of the whole series in preparation for this film did. What this film does well it does incredibly so and if you're just looking for a fun time at the movies it will serve that purpose. It is definitely still better than those old Bay films with some really solid cinematography, the robot designs for the most part are really cool and memorable with them getting a good deal of screentime and some cool personalities at least in terms of the majority of the Autobots and Primal and Airrazor of the Maximals, the acting is solid and the human lead of Noah is still a major step-up from Cade Yeager and Sam Witwicky. The music is also incredibly solid with a nice mix of the orchestral arrangements we've come to expect from this franchise and a healthy selection of 90s rap and hip-hop which for the most part was timed very well with the scenes they were used in. There's so much that makes me really want to love this movie and if I was a viewer that just watched these for the spectacle? I might've been able to.

But sadly, I can't because unlike Bumblebee which was a film I adored from start to finish? We have a movie that when it's not hitting its mark? It's like a flick to nads. For the sake of setting the scene, ROTB is basically what happens when you take a Bayverse film plot and give it a spitshine. It's polished for sure, it's certainly the best version of this story you could have given what ideas they chose to go with but there's still way too much of the old stink that is present throughout this movie with a dash of corporate arrogance. One review said in some regards it felt like The Rise of Skywalker and honestly that is a perfect descriptor since like TROS, I personally feel the only way you're gonna get the max amount of enjoyment is if you simply don't try to mull over everything for more than a few minutes after you see it and it's also a case where the characters take a backseat to the plot which while it has the pieces to be a nice set-up for a film about bonding and learning about protecting what's truly important ends up fairly muddled. You can tell just by looking at this movie and the details of the 2022 screening just what was altered by the filmmaker for the sake of pacing and the story and what was studio-mandated and sadly it's more of the latter than the former. My first major problem with this film is one that I know is a hot debate for people and that is how this movie handles Optimus Prime and for me personally? I cannot get with what they did with him.

Now to be fair, I do get what they're going for here. This is supposed to be a Prime that's much more depressed than we're used to seeing him, it's basically attempting the arc that AOE had for him but is actually playing it like an arc. Plus, I like a handful of the scenes he's in. The little gag of him telling Bumblebee he can't go to the Drive-In like a frustrated dad? That's funny. Him pleading with Noah not to destroy something that will prevent him and his people from heading home? Perfect. Him teaming up with Primal with both shouting "Roll out!" at the same time gave me goosebumps. His horror over Bumblebee's death did actually make me feel something. For the majority of this movie though? Prime is absolutely horrendous. Sadly once more instead of the kind honorable leader robo dad-man that Prime has generally been portrayed as for years and years? We're back to Murder Prime from the Bayverse and in ways that are incredibly frustrating. He continuously states how he's gonna kill Scourge and take his head, complains about Primal stealing a kill and in this film is given not just an apathy towards humans but something that borders on hatred with how he derides them and look I get it, Prime is being portrayed as desperate, they also make it clear Scourge is a nasty guy who you want to see get kicked in the tailpipe but the thing is? That justifies NONE of what Prime does and when it eventually culminates in the climax of his final fight with Scourge having him rip his motherfucking spine out like this is Mortal Kombat? I'm not cheering, I'm annoyed and disappointed and before anyone tries to argue with me on this? Let me be clear that I am no Geewunner and I have no problem with Prime being brutal or killing outright. I mean we're talking a centuries spanning war between two factions of soldiers and it's not the 80s anymore, bots kind of need to be allowed to kill and for creativity's sake, we need to allow for more brutal deaths.

The problems come in when we get excessive violence and brutality for the sake of it and lines that do not reflect the core of the character that are put there by people who often think of action scenes first and slot the character in afterwards. They don't think of the many ways that Prime can be brutal without being extreme and taking away from the character, they just see the robots as props for cool fights. To me, what separates the Autobots from the Decepticons when one writes them well is that the Autobots fight to defend and protect what's precious. They aren't trained to be so vicious that they'll barbarically rip a robot to pieces, they're not all here for the thrill of a fight. They're at war and killing comes with that territory so if they can kill in ways that are quick and won't be so extreme? They'll take it and above them all? Optimus is supposed to be the ultimate example of how an Autobot should behave. It doesn't mean he can't have flaws but you ask me? When you have Optimus doing the crap he does here or in the Bayverse? You don't have Optimus Prime, you have the Punisher as a truck robot. I should not be cheering when Prime rips off a dude's head and considering the point of this was to have Prime go through this arc? I feel ending off on something so extremely brutal actually defeats the purpose of the arc. There are seriously so many points in this movie that could've benefit from just a simple rewrite and just cutting off certain moments. I'm aware they also did this to try and show a similarity between him and Noah and framed it as just him trying to protect his family but I don't think that was the right call. I feel it would've been better to have it CONTRAST instead of echo. Hell, Paramount is likely more than aware by now of how both fans and critics hate this murderous take on Optimus but they insisted upon including him and that just makes me sad since to me? A murderous Prime shouldn't be celebrated or praised and the idea that this is necessary because it makes him supposedly more relatable or realistic is ridiculous and instead comes off as not only lazy but also seems to miss the fact that this is Transformers, a series with talking transforming robots. Though above it all it also actively ignores a great story opportunity which brings me to my next two problems.

While I like Noah? Elena is utterly pointless. She barely does anything and it feels like time spent with her is taking away time that can be spent developing other characters. I mean no disrespect to the actress, she did the role very well but her character didn't do it for me though speaking of taking away from others? This is the first of these movies where legitimately this story might've been better off without any main human character. This film heavily advertises the inclusion of the Maximals from Beast Wars, their escapades are even what opens the movie but then they disappear until part of the way through and it's all so we can spend time with Noah who is a solid character but it comes at the expense of all these others when honestly? I feel like they should've been the main people we follow. Hell, it would've worked wonderfully with Primal noting how Optimus is not the warrior he heard about since it would've meant they could've taken Murder Prime and turned it into an arc and not just a thing we're supposed to accept because the visual of Optimus pulling a Sub-Zero on a mofo was something once was a part of a movie that made bank and thus the Paramount execs refuse to look beyond that.

In fact, the entire last battle of the film felt like it was in a mad dash to include as many Bayverse tropes as humanly possible, right down to the admittedly awesome inclusion of Arrival to Earth and the Optimus Prime speech at the end and on top of that? A thing that gets the humans far more involved than they need to be and in this case, Noah gets an exo-suit made out of Mirage and... it is just the dumbest thing. A nakedly blatant attempt to ape Iron Man and the Marvel movies with the only excuse it has is that this has been a thing before (Though I should note the exo-suit in the 86 film was so that Daniel could live out a dream of kids watching the series and be a Transformer. Everything about this suit's visuals and the way it fights is clearly more Iron Man inspired.) and at many points the CG looks incredibly off with this though apparently it's worth it because at the end? Noah gets a job... with G.I. Joe and apparently this is so that next time we can have a crossover film because Paramount is really that desperate for a massive cinematic universe that they would throw in something this dumb at the end of the movie and not even into a post-credit with our actual post-credit feeling like it should've been the ending scene.

Couple this with another MacGuffin plot that can be only summed up as "Imagine ROTF with dashes of DOTM but actually coherent." and the frustration just keeps building and building until eventually I just have to throw up my hands. It is beyond frustrating that seemingly Paramount just cannot get the simple fact through their heads that the Bayverse for all the good it did in bringing TF back to prominence and bringing in this whole new wave of fans... is just not viable anymore. They seemingly don't understand that a good chunk of TF fans and general audience members really don't like these movies anymore. Every concept the films have done in fact have been done far better in other media and even other TF media. The Bayverse films are obsolete, they have served their purpose. We should've been done with this.

But instead they thought "Wait, people like the more stylized designs that hue closer to G1 and fanservice? Yes, we've found a way to keep up this mess of a continuity." and as a result we get ROTB, a film where you can blatantly tell that it is of two worlds, one of a creator's honestly cool vision for a TF movie that with a few tweaks could wind up great... and another of a studio who genuinely cannot fathom that what was once their big moneymaker is now a relic we'd rather leave in the past and considering their announcements for the sequel where we'll get G.I. Joe and the Transformers together which we can guess is likely to be a clusterfuck considering they'll have to reboot the Joes a second time given how badly Snake Eyes did? It's clear more than ever they have learned nothing and seeing as how the interviews have gone from calling it a reboot with only Lorenzo contesting it with a ton more wishy-washy statements? There's a greater chance that this will just be connected back to the Bayverse in due time and as a result everything becomes confused and I want to scream like Shia did for his last two TF films. It's official now, Bumblebee was a fluke. It got extremely lucky that it set the bar so high thanks to the efforts of Travis Knight and his team who are working under a company that one would be shocked to learn has been in business since 1912.

I'm so sorry to the people who enjoyed it that have managed to read through this whole thing but I just was not that thrilled with this one and believe me, I wanted to be. In fact, let me reiterate that I did not hate this movie. I enjoyed it enough for what it was and really want to like it but as it stands? But I can't ignore the mountains of missed potential, the several moments where it's clear if Caple Jr. was left to do his thing uninhibited we would've gotten a dynamite film. I want the Transformers films to be great, to be something I can point to proudly as a TF fan whenever people want a quick way to get into it, something that I can be proud of as a fan the same way some of the best Marvel movies have been so when I get something like ROTB? It's so irritating. Honestly, I am not surprised this movie is dropping off hard in the box office and if you don't mind me getting a bit harsh? I think that's a good thing. In fact, I kind of hope ROTB does fail or at least underperforms because I think Paramount needs to be humbled on just how dumb of a decision it was to follow up the fresh start of Bumblebee with a dive back into most of the garbage that caused this franchise to stagnate and die in the first place.

They also need to let these filmmakers actually make the movie they want to make like they did with Travis Knight where sans them basically telling him to shoot scenes that would separate it from the Bayverse, it was his movie from start to finish whereas Caple I don't think had that same kind of freedom at least later on since everything about his interviews are like a mixture of cool info and the kind of stuff that basically screams "Look y'all, I'm skirting around an NDA with this one, please just bear with me.". Now we won't know the future necessarily until later because the next film is Transformers: One, an animated prequel set on Cybertron that might be in its own universe but interviews with the actors indicate it might not be with the next live-action film being years off. Hopefully the films will be good, I want to have more good TF films than bad but if ROTB is any indication of what I can potentially expect from this new series? All I can do is what Prime is doing here, put my face in my hands, sigh and say "Oh dear Primus..."

And that's my take on it though I'm wondering what you people think and for the record that's even if you disagree. I mean at the end of the day these are just my thoughts on a film and while it's one I'm not the biggest fan of? It's been nice to see people who have enjoyed it so hey, as long as you're respectful maybe you can present your own takes.