Directed By Steven Caple Jr

Starring – Anthony Ramos, Dominique Fishback, Dean Scott Vazquez

The Plot – Set in the 1990s, the film takes audiences on an action-packed, globetrotting adventure as the Maximals, Predacons, and Terrorcons join the battle between the Autobots and Decepticons on Earth. Noah (Ramos), a sharp young guy from Brooklyn, and Elena (Fishback), an ambitious, talented artifact researcher, are swept up in the conflict as Optimus Prime and the Autobots face a terrifying new nemesis bent on their destruction named Scourge.

Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi action and violence, and adult language

(3) Transformers: Rise of the Beasts | Official Final Trailer (2023 Movie) – YouTube

POSITIVES

Free from the clutches of Michael Bay’s childhood-traumatizing direction, the Transformers franchise speeds towards a rich and prosperous future, thanks to the expanding fraternity of unique visionaries who have each inscribed something freshly integral to the experience. In this instance, Caple Jr effectively maintains a grip on the comedic balance, which has previously oversaturated the conflict in past films. To be fair, there is still plenty of humor here, but it’s measured mostly in organic doses that not only works surprisingly well with the overwhelming dramatic heft in stakes and circumstances that enhance the film’s central conflict, but also keeps the embarassing instances of racial stereotypes in accents and actions free from the canvas that Steven spectacularly decorates. On that aspect, Caple’s decision to supplant the story in 1994 New York is one that pays off brilliantly to the value of the movie’s convincing production design, with personality playing productively in the familiarity of the imagery, but especially in the collective efforts of East coast inspired Hip-Hop selections in the movie’s soundtrack. What I love about these tracks is that they’re meticulously plucked and deposited at the perfect moments to inspire fun and nostalgic glee to the engagement, and as the case with one major third act arrival, proves the sensational infectiousness that the right song can conjure in the souls of the audience. Another vital element of Steven’s direction is the on-site shooting locations of New York and Peru, which inscribe an immersive element to such earth-shattering action sequences. While the editing of these sequences leaves a bit more to be desired in manipulated long takes that are too obvious in telegraphed execution, the backgrounds in imagery easily cements what is the most beautiful looking Transformers film to date, with plenty of exotic greens in enveloping jungles playing vivaciously towards the immense autobots. Caple Jr’s direction isn’t free from Bay parody, however, as this is still a human-driven narrative, but with the kind of fleshed-out personalities in Noah and Elena that make them such a delight to follow for two hours of screen time. Most of the merit certainly goes to the endless charisma that each supplant to their respective characters, leading to an unshakeable benefit of chemistry between them that feels integral to the air of their evolving dynamic, but equally integral is the contrasts and similarities of their outlines that feed all the more effortlessly towards the defined illustrations of their motivations, where humans don’t feel like the weakest element of a Transformers film for once. On top of all of this is an ending that even still leaves me reeling, an hour after my jaw being dropped by it. This is an element where the less you know and hear about this film the better, as the future of this franchise is looking dramatically different from where it did an hour prior in the film, where one shocking delivery left me actually eager for the next installment of a franchise that I previously didn’t care much about.

NEGATIVES

Even with so many benefits cementing a fun and at times exhillarating experience, some monumental hinderances kept this from being the best Transformers movie of all-time. I start with the heavy-handed exposition of the dialogue, which not only constantly feels like it’s being delivered by writers out of frame trying to imbed vital information forcefully to an audience who they have no faith of capably interpreting, but also vividly conveys the convoluted essence of this overstuffed screenplay with not enough sun to shine on the many tiers of this tree that the film feels like it continuously expands upon. There are plenty of examples of these underwhelming instances, but for my money the disappearing act of the central antagonist, the vulnerability of Optimus Prime constantly getting his ass kicked in every fight throughout, and especially the film’s title, for its lack of relevance to the Beasts, who are essentially nothing more than a plot device to the other bots, are strange inferiorities that constantly took me out of the engagement, even leaving it feeling disjointed between halves. This is where the film gets real ugly for me, because the first half of the movie has impeccable pacing, with urgency and vulnerability that constantly keeps the narrative moving at all times, but the second half grinding to the kind of screeching halt that subdues momentum with plodding emphasis. You’ll know the exact moment this shift takes shape, mainly because geographically and creatively things change for the random, with the burroughs of the Bronx being traded in for the randomness of Peru, and the storytelling remaining stalled once all of the aforementioned heavy-handed exposition has been forcefully unwoven throughout. For my money, this film’s second half could even afford to lose fifteen minutes of the lethargic lingering, especially since a lackluster second act leaves it feeling like it’s biding its time until the materialzing of its world-ending conflict, beginning with still a half hour left in the run time. Lastly, while the C.G.I has mixed results of reality rendering, the lowest of the lows here are appallingly bad, with one character’s artificial armor bringing unflattering reminders to mind of Mark Ruffalo in the Iron Man suit, during “Avengers: Endgame”. The design of the bots are positively effective enough, but their motions in movements feel as slowly stalled as ever, feeling all the more evidential with editing schemes that constantly have to get ahead of their movements to obscure such artificiality.

OVERALL
“Transformers: Rise of the Beasts” is a welcome addition to a franchise with its own limitless lows, especially the refreshing direction of Steven Caple Jr, whose impactful decisions of production influence an engagement with all of the personality, without undercutting any of the dramatic tension. While the film struggles through an inferior second half, with plodded pacing and coldly lifeless C.G deposits, the jaw-dropping reveal during the film’s closing moments alone is worth the price of admission, outlining more that meets the eye with the promising future of this once frenetic franchise.

My Grade: 6/10 or C+