So I’ve seen Transformers Rise of the Beast now twice and I have to say it was everything I had expected. It to be and I’m glad that many of my ideas and thoughts didn’t happen. A few months ago I wrote about the True Villian in Rise of the Beast. The idea of Nemise Prime showing up and/or Beast Wars Megatron. While I’m sad we didn’t at least get a nod to Megatron. I feel after almost 6 films dealing with Megatron as the villain.
Even now he was side-line in Dark of the Moon, was Galvatron in Age of Extinction, and wasn’t really the focus in The Last Knight, I feel that they are going away from the standard battle of Prime vs Megs.
Killing Major Character Fakeouts
Okay, I called that Bumblebee was going to die in Rise of the Beast. The trailers seem to push Mirage as the new Bee and the stab of Bee in the trailer. I should have known it was a fake out. I feel like a major problem in Hollywood and media in general. Even in comic books, they often don’t keep major characters dead for long.
I think the reason why Transformers the Movie works so well and holds up even today (even know it takes place in the year 2005,) It holds up because it does something no longer a major franchise seems to want to do; kill major characters off and keep them dead. At least for a time. Prime does come back later but dies again.
Yes, they often almost always kill the villains off. Which I find an issue too. A common thing I hear is, well you can’t keep the bad guy around too long or the audience gets bored with them. I think Transformers had a unique opportunity because of the fact that while Megatron was a bad guy in 5 Transformer films; They kept him resh by updating his alt-modes, making him more of a pawn to a bigger bad guy. The Fallen, Sentinel Prime, Quintessa, and of course Lockdown. That last one is a stretch given how that film played out.
Scourge killing Bumblebee
Honestly, you could have removed this whole thing and I don’t think it would have an effect on the flow of the movie. It does two things. First, it makes you believe, that yes the heroes can die. The problem is, while the emotions showed by the other Autobots were AMAZING, they quickly pointed out he could come back to live with enough Energon.
Of course, by plot, we are led to Peru where they have an area that is Energon rich but not enough to bring a bot back, Come to the final act, a bust of Energon hits the area and brings Bee back to life, to give him an epic return to the fight.
Did I like Rise of the Beast?
Of course, I did. It was good, it wasn’t super over the top, the action was well done and they focused on the Autobots as the characters. I felt like the humans were secondary to the story than the focus like the first set of films.
I also really liked the human characters, especially Noah. I think I liked him a lot better than I did Sam. It might be because they made him an everyday person who just happened to be in the military at one point in his life.
Storywise, it reminded me of 2007, it was simply, it had its MacGuffin that pushed the plot. They made me care about the characters, the Transformers. I felt like I was watching the show vs watching the films. I won’t go into spoilers here, because I want people to go watch it.
The maximals were all done well, even know I wish we had gotten a bit more in terms of their story and how it how fits in this new story. For those who don’t know, the Maximals are the direct descendants of the Autobots. They end up traveling back in time to Earth 65 million years shortly after the Arc crashed and landed on Earth. This is why Optimus Primal is prime even know he never truly held the Matrix of leadership himself.
The best Transformers Film?
Yes and no, it was great to see them do Beast Wars for the most part right, they did the characters all right. I thought Arcee was spot on, Wheeljack even know he could have been cut, and was good (even with the internet hating his head design). The Terrorcons had a bit of Personality there themselves which was nice.
Scourge actually felt like a threat, they did Unicorn correctly, I hope to tease him about transforming or at least try to pull it off. I feel like if they take Unicorn more the route Transformers Prime did, we can do more with him than just being a large planet. I would love to see Rodium Prime appear alongside Optimus Prime and Optimus Primal.
I give the film a solid 4 out of 5 rating, a must-see in theaters, and can’t wait to grab this one on DVD. I hope they do some special collector box of it. I’ll be grabbing that.