Originally published to 8newsnow.com on June 6, 2023

“Rise of the Beasts” represents the seventh in the Transformers series of films, which range widely in quality from really good to downright awful. The last film, 2018’s “Bumblebee,” was a massive step in the right direction. A period piece that was more of an 80s coming-of-age film than a sci-fi action “Michael Bay” CG-fest, Bumblebee was a light and enjoyable breath of fresh air. The hope was that 2023’s addition to the franchise would continue in that direction.

Rise of the Beasts is a disappointing step backward. Despite being a sequel to Bumblebee and a prequel to the Bay pentalogy, the movie only briefly mentions the events of the excellent 2018 film and feels like a missed opportunity to build on its progress. Instead, the plot follows a predictable formula of retrieving an object and delivering it to another location, a common trope in many high-budget action films.

Gone are the heartfelt human characters of Bumblebee. Anthony Ramos and Dominique Fishback play wafer-thin, NPC-like humans who serve only to set up jokes and as convenient plot devices later in the film. There is little charisma here as the human characters are lost amongst the grey nothingness of the emotionless CGI robots.

The titular Transformers are voiced by an all-star cast that includes a returning Peter Cullen as Optimus Prime, newcomer Pete Davidson as Mirage, and the addition of Ron Perlman, Michelle Yeoh, Peter Dinklage as various Autobots, Maximals, and Terrorcons. Davidson’s character stands out with a refreshing uniqueness among the other robots. However, with the exception of Mirage, the actors’ talents are not fully utilized, as their roles are largely unrecognizable due to the excessive modulation and filtering of their voices. As a result, anyone could have been chosen to create these characters with similar outcomes.

Rise of the Beasts is layered thick with humor, seemingly intent on breaking tension that does not exist. The movie doesn’t build up its characters in a way that makes any of them feel as if they are in peril. With a third act that desperately and transparently wants to channel the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it directly parallels certain moments from Avengers: Endgame. These payoffs feel hollow and have simply not been earned by the film. 

A movie like Transformers: Rise of the Beasts should be anything but boring, but that’s precisely what the film is. With all its flashy imagery, loud explosions, and laugh lines, the Beasts is uninteresting and feels like the world’s most expensive direct-to-streaming film destined to live out the rest of its days on Paramount+.