#like wtf happened between Bumblebee and ROTB

[benadrylcandlewhack]

I've never felt more conflicted about a movie than Rise of the Beasts

[luckycheesefoodie321]

Ok so I watched Transformers: Rise of the Beasts (SPOILERS)

I guess this is Michael Bay’s soft retcon of the Transformers franchise since this is meant to be a sequel of sorts to the Bumblebee movie. Which I did really enjoy. This one was like a 7/10 if I put it all together.

The whole arbitrary angry robot alien coming to take over Earth with his equally angry main henchman doing his dirty work is kind of how all the transformers films go in terms of plot lines so that was kind of whatever. You don’t really come to a Transformers movie for the plot anyhow. You hope for some good action sequences and maybe some fun character moments.

I feel like a lot what of the individual characters in RotB had going on was a lot of fun but the character relationships felt a little lacklustre to me.

Like in Bumblebee you could see the connection between Charlie and Bee but that’s always been something Transformers has done well. Bumblebee is a staple and has often been the main Autobot and so we all hold affinity towards him. He’s the robot we can relate to and is our tie in to the story. Optimus isn’t quite that. He’s more a tie in to the world building, the sage mentor-instructor who expositions everything, and also gets to have his badass leader moments and epic speeches.

But regardless there’s always a really strong human-bot relationship, usually between MC and Main Autobot, which previously has almost always been Bee (I confess I have not seen the Mark Wahlberg Transformers movies).

This time it was Noah and Mirage (I see y’all with the shipping tags, I salute you but for right now I’m sitting in a more bros vibe XD). Noah and Mirage and to an extent Noah and his brother, had the most chemistry in the movie. Each of their scenes had fun, had natural banter, and then they brought down that banter to something sweet and heartfelt and I genuinely felt sad when Mirage “died”. Part of that was because we see Noah and his brother’s bond, and Mirage gets to see that bond, and so we kinda see Noah’s brother through Mirage. And we all know we love to see a goofball who has a serious moment. Mirage parroting back the same words Noah always said to his brother just ties in that bond and makes Noah feel that much closer to Mirage. So yeah the “death” scene was sad. It led to a goofy ass moment where they got Mirage to turn into an iron man suit for Noah and I was honestly like wtf is happening.

But I would argue they were the best dynamic in the movie.

They kept trying to have Noah and Optimus be mirrors of each other but it was a lot more showing not telling. They sacrificed a lot of that good storytelling of demonstrating their similarities in favour of big explosions. If they had axed the exposition at the start, and made the Maximals like a big surprise later on that hey we’ve been here all along and now we’ll exposit some info on you, that could’ve given them a lot more leeway to building those mirrors between Noah and Optimus.

Like again you’re not going to a Transformer’s movie for the story, but I will say the first couple of movies did a lot in the way of demonstrating the chemistry between Bee and Sam Witwicky and why Optimus saw potential in Sam and why Mikaela was drawn to Sam.

Like I could see how Optimus’s personality had subtly shifted. He was still wise and delivering banger lines. But he was also tired, frustrated, angry, distrustful and I genuinely found that so interesting given how we’ve known him in the past. They’ve kind of paired down on Optimus’s visual scale. Like he used to be freaking huge, as tall as buildings. Like Sam was like half the height of his head. Which I do miss. They really make you feel the size and majestythat are the Autobots in the earlier movies, specifically Optimus Prime, who is a living legend by all accounts. But if that means we get more depth to his character outside of knowledgeable and understanding old veteran, then I’m all for it.

And again we see a lot of Noah’s home life but they just don’t quite go far enough to make it home how difficult he has it, and leave a lot to be assumed. But you see enough of how it is and how tough he has it. But then he’s suddenly raring to go in saving the world and yeah I guess they tie that in to wanting to keep his family safe but it did feel kinda abrupt. And that’s definitely a scripting issue. Some of the lines and line delivery was very stiff and uncomfortable. I think the cast tried their best but some of the more heartfelt lines or intimate moments felt very monotone. When it was Noah on his own kinda just reacting to the situation, it felt much more natural. But the exchanges between characters didn’t flow as smoothly as they could have.

That said, we got enough of two characters to understand them. But you can’t pit them against each other as being similar to each other without banking on more dynamic interactions between them or demonstrating how they individually mirror each other.

Like I said. The individual characters were enjoyable enough. I liked Optimus’s tired dad vibe. Noah was a decent MC. But there could have been a few different avenues they could have taken in letting Optimus and Noah see eye to eye.

Show Noah not immediately trusting Mirage and the Autobots but slowly building that rapport. He was taken aback by Mirage at first and then immediately made peace with his presence. Show me how that dynamic shifts so that the sad “Mirage dies” moment feels earned. And while you’re doing that show Noah going out of his way to save an Autobot when he could’ve escaped. Show Optimus placing trust in a human BEFORE the trans dimensional space key thing gets stolen. Then they have the big apology moment where Optimus says he should’ve trusted Noah and yadda yadda big team up moment ensues.

Also just a weird side bar. I’m sure they talked like this in the 90s (I’m a 98 baby) but the part where Noah goes “squad up!” Kinda took me outta the immersion for a second. Also it felt so awkwardly placed. Like potentially adlib but idk. At no point had I seen Noah having demonstrated leadership skills or authority where he can just order around the Maximals/Autobots like that. I mean he wasn’t, but there was no gravity to his words. Like if he had said that to me, I wouldn’t immediately jump into formation. Not to mention it was followed up by really poor line delivery where he said something like “there’s gotta be something we can do. Just think” and it had no urgency to it… then in comes Optimus Primal who delivers his line so much better like “it’s too late” and I’m out here like I believe him.

Tbh the action moments were fine. Could be desensitisation to big scale fights bc we’re so over saturated with them now. The whole iron man suit moment was just goofy as hell and when he somehow managed to catch Optimus and stop him from being sucked away?? Like Optimus Prime. The dude as big as skyscrapers?? The dude who was carried by helicopter??? That part was absurd.

Bringing it back to Bumblebee. I think the best thing they did for this story was to take Bumblebee out of it so that a new Autobot could have his time to shine they wanted this to be about Mirage and Optimus interacting with Noah and they got that chance. Now don’t get me wrong. Even if I knew it was a fake out death, Bumblebee dying made me upset and him coming back brought a lot of joy back to the story. Like we love a comeback moment (cue that song XD). The moment could’ve been a touch more devastating to make his come back more powerful. But it was a lot of fun when he did come back and there’s a reason he’s such a compelling character and a staple fave of Transformers.

But had he been there, it would have taken away from what I have already said to be the best character dynamic in the movie which was Mirage and Noah. It would have turned into another Bumblebee movie. I do like the tie in to the Bumblebee movie and mentioning his history with Charlie. That was cute.

I didn’t mind Alana/Elaina/Alayna (I have no clue how her name is spelt). I enjoyed her most in her initial intro showing her historical knowledge and then she was given some of the driest lines to deliver. Idk if it’s her acting but her dialogue was clunky and uncomfortable.

All in all. Average action movie. Some nice moments. Wasn’t expecting a GI Joe tie in but sure. 7/10