My Thoughts on "Transformers: Rise of the Beasts"

Note: 

This was originally written on Friday June 16, 2023, and was posted on DeviantART on Saturday June 17, 2023. Usually, I don't like to post more than one post a day on the blog. I like to let each post breathe, and have time to resonate with viewers, not that I really have at this time. That's something that does bother me about Blogger is that it counts your views as the writer or the admin in with other views. So, you can't really get an accurate picture of how many views your posts actually have, and how many people are engaging with your blog. That is one thing that I do like about DeviantART's system because it only counts the views of other people. It does not count yours. Which makes sense you were the one who wrote the post in the first place. Why would should your view be counted in views of some random people who stumbled upon your work, and was kind and courteous enough to give it a read? 

Anyway, the reason I'm posting this same day as my Guardians of Galaxy Vol. 3 review is that New Year's Eve is only three days away, and I have deadline to meet. If I can post all of my individual reviews for the movies I saw this year before Sunday January 31, 2023, then I'll have more time to finish work on the 2023 New Year's Eve Recap. I just need to write the intro, and it'll be all ready to go. Even if writing this note, or foreword (whatever you want to call it) takes me the rest of the day, that's fine. I needed a break from Skull Island: Rise of Kong anyway. 

Yes, I bought that game, and I'm playing it, and I'm almost finished with it. Even though I knew it got terrible reviews, and everyone on the Internet seems to hate it, I still decided to give it a shot. You know me, I like to form my own opinions on things, and I don't like to just go along with what everyone else is saying about a particular movie or game. Who knows? I may end up liking that certain movie or game that everyone hates, or I may end up hating that certain movie or game that everyone loves. It's happened to me more than once. 

In the case of Skull Island: Rise of Kong, while it isn't anywhere near as bad as everyone on YouTube made it out to be, it's still a pretty tedious slog, and isn't that fun to play. You can tell that the game was made on a limited budget and was rushed because it is extremely unpolished and very wonky. I had to go back to main menu and restart the game quite a few times because Kong got stuck, and wouldn't move. And there were several moments where the textures wouldn't load on some of the background assets like the trees. So, they just looked like unrendered polygons. Still, it wasn't anywhere near as buggy as some reviewers made it out to be. But, Kong's facial expressions in the cutscenes are extremely unintentionally hilarious. Oh, and that one cutscene with the flashback scene where Kong remembers Gaw, the dinosaur that killed his parents, and it's a still image, like it's like jpg that they didn't do anything with, was quite bad. I cannot believe that got past the testing phase, or whatever, and was allowed to be in the final product.

One criticism that I would like to sort of address is that a lot of people complained that Kong wasn't "big enough." Like, a lot of people said that Kong's size wasn't right, and that he just felt like a normal sized gorilla 🦍 and not like the 25 foot or 50 foot or 100 foot or even 200 foot ape that we've gotten accustomed to seeing in the films. But, I really didn't have that issue. I thought he was pretty big, and they do convey that he is a giant ape, and not just a regular-sized gorilla 🦍 because the ground shakes and rumbles when you land on the ground after a big jump. So, Kong is still a giant ape in this game. It's just that they didn't have any humans in the game to really show how big he really is. But, this is a prequel, set years before any modern humans came to the island in the 20th century or 21st century.

Another thing that bothers me about a lot of reviews for that game is that pretty no one knows or acknowledges that it's based on the King Kong novels by Joe DeVito for DeVito Artworks. Not even Monster Island Buddies, even though he's supposed to be a kaiju fan. Like, what the hell, man? I guess he is more of a Godzilla fan than a King Kong fan, so I'll be a little bit fair to him. Not completely fair, but just a little bit. Like, everyone who talked about that game just assumed that just because it's King Kong, and King Kong is a movie character and King Kong is mainly a movie franchise, that it's based on one of the movies. But no, technically, this game is a book adaptation 📖. 

DeVito basically took the original 1933 King Kong movie, and then crafted his own lore around it. That's where the mythos about the Kong species and Kong's parents come from, and where the character, Gaw came from. Kong: Skull Island and the MonsterVerse Kong as a whole took a lot of inspiration from DeVito's books 📖, whether they know it or not, or whether they acknowledge it or not. It's where the idea of Skull Island having greater lore behind it and the idea of Kong having an archenemy that he has to fight for dominance on the island to become the king came from. Since those books 📖 do predate Peter Jackson's King Kong remake from 2005. So, needless to say, a lot of people were confused by the existence of Gaw, and this talk about Kong's parents and an ancient civilization on Skull Island that now no longer exists because they hadn't read the books 📖 or even heard of them for that matter. I mean, the game itself doesn't really do a good job explaining any of these things, but still. 

I picked that game out for my birthday 🥳 since my aunt and uncle let me buy whatever I wanted that day. After playing the game for however many hours I played it last night, I gotta say, I wish I had bought Pikman 4 or Pikman 3 Deluxe instead. Then it would've gone good with Pikman 1+2 which I got as a Christmas gift 🎄🎁 from my aunt and her family. But, I guess that having the first two Pikman games is good enough right now so that I can test to see whether I like that series or not before spending money 💵 on buying the third and fourth game. But, my cousin did buy me Super Mario 3D World+Bowser's Fury as a gift 🎁 for my birthday 🥳, so it balanced out I would say. I will be playing that game after I finish Skull Island: Rise of Kong. 

That finally brings me to what this whole thing is about, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts. This was the last movie that I saw in theaters this year up until I saw The Equalizer 3 back in September. Like, Rise of the Beasts was the last movie I saw in theaters in the summer, and then I didn't see another movie in theaters until the fall with Equalizer 3. I didn't see Barbie or Oppenheimer because I had no interest in either one, and I started to resent them for how popular they both became. And I didn't see Mission: Impossible –  Dead Reckoning Part One because I don't like Mission: Impossible. I know, shocker I know. I've made a lot of movie hot takes that would probably get me a lot of hate from certain sections of the Internet if I weren't just a nobody with a blog that no one has actually read. I did intend on seeing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem 🐢🥷 in the theater back in August, and even seeing Meg 2: The Trench 🦈 too, but neither of those ended up happening. But, after watching Mutant Mayhem, I'm confident in saying that I will see the sequel in the theater if one ever gets made. 

The jury's still out on Meg 2 🦈 and whether that movie's any good, and whether spending the exorbitant amount of money 💵 to go see it in theaters would've been worth it. I know the critics hated it, but critics hated the first Meg 🦈 movie, and I still liked it, even if it was kind of Chinese propaganda 🇨🇳. Propaganda is a strong word. That word better describes movies like Transformers: Age of Extinction, Pacific Rim: Uprising, Independence Day: Resurgence, parts of The Martian, and the Chinese version 🇨🇳 of Iron Man 3. 

But, The Meg 🦈 was the very least pandering very hard to the Chinese 🇨🇳 just it could get a Chinese release 🇨🇳 and appeal to the Chinese market 🇨🇳. Hollywood was really obsessed with catering to China 🇨🇳 and Chinese production companies 🇨🇳 were really trying to influence Hollywood back in the 2010s. Luckily, that sort of thing has cooled down, and even stopped in some cases, since relations between the United States 🇺🇸 and China 🇨🇳 have fallen apart, and the two countries in a semi-cold war with each other. They aren't in a cold war yet, but it's getting pretty damn close to being one. 

From what I understand, Meg 2 🦈 is very much the same as The Meg 🦈 in this regard since it's still set in Asia, in and around China 🇨🇳, in China 🇨🇳's periphery, and features a ton of Chinese actors 🇨🇳. Not Chinese-American actors 🇺🇸, but Chinese actors 🇨🇳 from China 🇨🇳. This includes the second main lead, Wu Jing. He's a huge movie star in China 🇨🇳, and from what I've heard about that movie, he dominates that movie and kind of takes it over from Jason Statham, the actual main star of that movie and the first movie. But, I guess I'll find out when I eventually see it. Even if the critics hated it, there's always still a possibility that I might like it. 

Which bring me back to Rise of the Beasts, the movie that this whole thing is actually about. While most of what I heard about this movie was mostly positive at first, opinions on Rise of the Beasts shifted more towards the negative. More and more people started posting negative reviews of it online, and more and more people started hating on it. 

A lot of people complained that the plot was convoluted and didn't make a lot of sense. A lot of people complained that it felt too much like the Michael Bay Transformers movies. A lot of people complained that it didn't focus enough on the Maximals, and didn't feature the Predacons, and wasn't enough of a Beast Wars movie. And a lot of people complained about the ending which tied the Transformers franchise in with G.I. Joe franchise and set up a future crossover, which has happened in comics before. A Transformers and G.I. Joe crossover isn't a new thing, even if a lot of people act like it is. 

Going back to what I said earlier about how people who had never read the DeVito Kong books 📖 or knew of them were confused by the plot of Skull Island: Rise of Kong, well, people who had never seen Beast Wars: Transformers or knew of it were confused by the plot of Transformers: Rise of the Beasts. Like, if you were unfamiliar with Beast Wars, then you probably had no idea who the Maximals even were, and didn't understand why they turned into robot animals. 

In the original Beast Wars series, they turned into realistic-looking animals since their transforming abilities were derived from the Pretenders, a type of Transformer that was able to turn into a human and be indistinguishable from the real thing. It's what Alice from Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen was, she was a Pretender. That's why she was able to transform into a human, and no body (except maybe Bumblebee 🐝) was able to tell that she wasn't human, but an alien robot in disguise. It was like the next step in the evolution of the Cybertronian race. But, in this movie, since they had to have it take place in the 1990s, and not in the distant future like Beast Wars, the Maximals just turn into robotic animals that you can tell are robots and don't really look a whole lot like their real-life animal counterparts. Like, Optimus Primal in this film doesn't look like a real gorilla 🦍, and certainly wouldn't be mistaken for one.

But, even if a lot of people hate it, and denounce it as a bad Transformers movie, I still like it. It is flawed? Yes. Is it the best Transformers movie? No. But, it is still pretty good, in my opinion at least. At least Cody was fair to this movie in his review that he posted earlier this month, which is pretty good BTW. He reiterated and articulated many of the things that are good about this movie, and that I like about it. 

I don't agree with a lot of his criticisms for the movie however. Like, he said that Scourge was a terrible villain, but I completely disagree. I thought Scourge was an awesome villain, one of the best villains in the live action Transformers movie franchise, we consider these movies as part of one large series rather than as a completely different series. I thought that he was better than Lockdown in Age of Extinction, and I'm surprised that Cody didn't bring up the comparisons between those two characters in his review considering how alike they are. 

I also disagreed with him about how this movie didn't focus enough on the Maximals, and that the title, Rise of the Beasts was misleading. The movie is still very much centered around the Maximals, they're main driving force of the plot. Like, none of the events of the film would've happened if it weren't for the Maximals fleeing their home planet to Earth 🌎, and hiding the Transwrap Key in ancient ruins. It's not at all like the Dinobots in Age of Extinction, who don't contribute anything to the story, and have nothing to do with the main plot, even though Cody draws that comparison and I don't think it fits. I will give him that the Maximals could've had more screen time and more lines. 

Like, besides Airrazor and Optimus Primal, none of the other Maximals get much screen time or lines of dialogue. Cheetor gets one line in the entire movie. And Rhinox has no lines whatsoever. And of course, as Cody himself noted, Rattrap was no where to be seen, despite being a core member of the team, and despite being a sort of comic relief type of character. And the exclusion of the Predacons in this movie is odd considering that they are the Maximals' rival team. 

I also agree that it is a shame that Optimus Primal never says his iconic catchphrase, "That's just Prime" at any point in the film. There was even a great opportunity to put it in there, the moment in the final battle when Battletrap says, "Somebody give me a real fight" Optimus Primal could've come in, and said, "Well, that's just Prime," and then smashed his head with his rock. There's edits of that scene like in on YouTube. So, why couldn't the filmmakers have done that for real? That was a huge missed opportunity. Maybe, in the next Transformers movie if they make one.

Perhaps, this was more of a Beast Wars movie initially, but then someone came up to the writers and said, "We should have Unicron in this," and because the Predacons have nothing to do with Unicron, they decide to x them out of the story, and replace them with the Terrorcons as the Maximals' main enemy. The Terrorcons are an obscure team with not a lot of lore behind them, and have been changed throughout the years. So, they could change them and make more servants or heralds of Unicron, and no body would care or notice like they would if they tried to force the Predacons into being servants of Unicron. 

And the inclusion of Unicron made the movie a lot bigger and more cluttered than it probably would've been or probably should've been otherwise. I’ve seen some suggest that instead of making a main line Transformers movie with Unicron and Beast Wars characters, that they’ve made an Optimus Prime solo movie in the same vein as Bumblebee 🐝. And while I would’ve liked that, and I think it might’ve been preferable in the long run, I still don’t hate what we ultimately got. Maybe, instead of calling it, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, they could've called it Transformers: Rise of Unicron, or Transformers: The Scourge of Unicron 😉. 

I'm also surprised that Cody didn't address the deleted scene where Optimus Prime fights and kills a Decepticon hitman named Transit (because he transforms into a bus 🚌). He spent an entire section of his review talking about how Decepticons were absent from the movie, and yet, he didn't talk at all about the deleted scene that actually had a Decepticon in it. Maybe, he didn't know about that deleted scene. But, that's strange. Usually, he's on top of these sorts of things. So, shame on him for not talking about this deleted scene.

Cody also disliked the G.I. Joe teaser at the end, and seemed to be a bit cynical about the idea of a Transformers and G.I. Joe crossover, or a Hasbro cinematic universe as a whole. Now, the Hasbro cinematic universe thing, I can understand, I don’t like that either. A Hasbro cinematic universe always sounded like a terrible idea, even back in the bad ole Last Knight days. It’s just as bad of an idea as a Mattel cinematic universe, which Mattel has actually been contemplating ever since the monumental success of Barbie 🤑. 

To be fair, a Mattel cinematic universe is a lot worse of an idea than a Hasbro cinematic universe because at least Hasbro actually has stories, characters, and lore behind their toylines. Mattel doesn’t have anything except Barbie, which they have created storylines and lore behind, sort of. Oh, and they got He-Man, but that movie project's been in development for decades, and shows no sign of actually seeing the light of day anytime soon. So, yeah, all Mattel has to do launch a cinematic universe with right now is Barbie, but as I said, it's a really bad idea.

But, the idea of a Transformers and G.I. Joe crossover by itself, with none of that cinematic universe bullshit, is not inherently bad. It has happened before! Like, it isn't as much of a leap to go from transforming alien robots to a secretive military organization or elite military unit and a diabolical terrorist organization. It all works together a lot better than you might think about hearing the idea of Transformers and G.I. Joe crossing over. Plus, the idea of the Autobots working with G.I. Joe and the Decepticons working with Cobra is a pretty sweet idea. I would see a movie like that if it was done well. 

Of course, the ultimate issue with this whole idea is that G.I. Joe hasn't really a successful film or success franchise of its own outside of Transformers. Sure, the two live action G.I. Joe movies were financially successful, but they failed to win over critics, audiences, and fans alike. The G.I. Joe franchise has been rebooted two times. G.I. Joe: Retaliation was a soft reboot of G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra as well as being a sequel, and Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins was a hard reboot of both The Rise of Cobra and Retaliation, ignoring the events of both films, and recasting every character. And we all know how that turned out. So, I would say that G.I. Joe would need to get its own house in order before even thinking of crossing over with Transformers. Otherwise, people will just think G.I. Joe cannot actually succeed on its own, and has to cling onto a more successful and popular franchise and ride its coattails. And no one wants that, do they? 

But, besides the things I disagreed with Cody on in his review, one thing I cannot believe he did address is the debate over whether these new Transformers movies are reboots or are prequels to the Michael Bay Transformers movies. Not in his video on this movie or in his video on Bumblebee 🐝. It seems like he just went along with the idea of these movies are prequels within the same continuity as Michael Bay films, despite the numerous inconsistencies that creates. I wish he delved more into that in his videos. But, what can you do? They're made. They can't be changed, unless Cody just remakes them entirely in 10 or 20 years, which is always possibly given that he always ends up disliking his older videos at a certain point, after they each a certain age. 

One last thing I would like to address before I end this note, and let you read my review, is the issue over box office. As many of you no doubt know, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts underperformed at the box office, making only $439 million 💵 at the worldwide box office against its estimated $195 million-$200 million budget 💵. The movie was considered by many to be such a commercial failure that the Transformers franchise's future on film was genuinely put into question, in a way that wasn't after Transformers: The Last Knight, despite the The Last Knight arguably being an even bigger disappointment than Rise of the Beasts. People were asking whether or not there would even be anymore live action Transformers movies after this one, despite there being an animated Transformers movie called Transformers One supposedly coming out next year, in 2024. 

Cody even joked about the movie's box office disappointment in his video by acting as if hardly anyone had even seen the movie, even though most of his audience had certainly seen the movie. He's made really lame and frustrated jokes like this in his other videos, like in his video on Pacific Rim, where he acted like the sequel, Pacific Rim: Uprising didn't exist up until the final few seconds of the video. And he kept on that joke in his review of Pacific Rim: Uprising by saying that Pacific Rim: Uprising isn't a real sequel and that we can all just pretend that it doesn't exist. And then everyone in the comment section kept repeating the same joke that the movie doesn't exist. It wasn't that funny you guys. The movie exists, get over it already 😠! Bunch of cry babies.

Personally, I cannot wrap my brain around how this movie could be considered a box office disappointment or even a flop when it made 239 million more than its budget. Like, how is this movie considered a disappointment or a flop, while Elemental, the latest Pixar movie, made a similar amount of money 💵 on a similar budget, and is considered a sleeper hit? How does that make any sense? Me personally, $439 million 💵 is a pretty okay box office take for a movie like this. Sure, it's not a billion, or 800 million or even 600 million, but it's still okay. You know, at least it didn't make less than its budget like The Flash or The Marvels did. That's how I see it. Anyway, onto the review. 

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(This is the poster for Transformers: Rise of the Beasts.) 

 

I just saw Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, and I thought it was pretty good. Obviously, the Transformer stuff was great. I really like how they made them all sound like actual robots with more modulated voices. And the designs are good mixture of the blocky G1 style and more detailed and intricate style of the Michael Bay movies. It's a nice middle ground between those two extremes. And call me crazy, but I feel like this movie made me like Mirage more than Bumblebee 🐝, and I'm sure that's the case for a lot of other people who saw this movie.

Certainly, Bumblebee 🐝 did get sidelined for most of this movie. He gets "killed" during the first half of the movie, and he remains out of commission for the rest of the movie while the other characters (human and Autobot) try to figure out a way to revive him. And then when he does get resurrected, he makes a grand entrance during the climax, just when the good guys need him most. It's a lot like what happened to Optimus Prime in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. 

Oh, and Bumblebee 🐝 getting resurrected by that Energon surge caused by Unicron's arrival doesn't bring his voice back. For some reason, the live action movies don't like Bumblebee 🐝 having a voice. They always take away his voice, and just have him talk with the radio. Maybe, they still think that's funny, but I would like to hear Bumblebee 🐝 talk with an actual voice. Especially when the voice he had in Bumblebee 🐝 was so good.

Mirage is the one that got the spotlight out of all the Transformers in this movie, Autobots, Maximals, or Terrorcons. And he was definitely the most entertaining character in the movie, he brought a lot of laughs. Pete Davidson did a great job at voicing him, and I'm glad that Mirage is still alive by the end. They kind of made it seem he's dead, but then he gets brought back to life in a mid-credit scene. I know, major spoiler, but I did put a warning at the top.

I really like what they did with Optimus Prime here. He probably has one of the best arcs in this whole movie. He goes from distrusting humans, to working with humans by the end, and he's reinvigorated as he felt guilty about getting the Autobots stranded on Earth 🌎, and a lot of the movie is him blaming himself for what happened. But, he learns to value Earth 🌎 and the human race, and vows to protect it, along with the Autobots.

I'm sure a lot of fans of Beast Wars were really excited when they learned that this movie would feature them, and this movie doesn't disappoint. This is predominantly their movie. The whole movie is pretty much centered around them, and they're the key to stopping the main threat that is Unicron, another character that Transformers fans have been wanting to see in live action. This movie definitely handles the Maximals way better than Transformers: Age of Extinction handled the Dinobots.

That all being said though, the majority of the Maximals don't much screen time or even that many lines. It's mostly just Optimus Primal and Air Razor. So, sorry if you're a Beast Wars fan and your favorite character either isn't here or doesn't get much screen time. But, Optimus Primal and Air Razor are both pretty awesome though, Ron Perlman did a great job voicing Optimus Primal, and likewise Michelle Yeoh did a great job voicing Air Razor. Her career has really hit the accelerator ever since being in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, and winning an Oscar for Everything Everywhere All at Once. But, she dies right before the climax, so she doesn't make it to the end, not like Mirage or Bumblebee 🐝.

The villains are pretty cool. There are no Decepticons in this movie, just Terrorcons and Predacons, and Unicron of course. The Terrorcons all have really badass designs, especially the leader, Scourge. He had such an awesome voice and an awesome design, and he just was a really menacing presence. And of course, he wanted to see him get defeated by the end since he hurt and killed some of our favorite characters throughout the movie. Unicron was just badass. He isn't in the movie that much, but when he is there he makes the most of it.

They did a great job at making him seem big, powerful, and imposing. You get the sense that he's almost unstoppable, which is helped by the fact that they don't kill him. Sure, they close the portal, trapping him in the tiny bit of space he's stuck at, but he's still alive at the end, and they make it very clear that stopping him is going to be very difficult. He is definitely returning in future installments, and there definitely will be future installments (more on that later). I can only assume that they're going to have him team up with Megatron, who we still haven't seen yet, or rather Megatron team up with him. Maybe, we'll see him turn into Galvatron possibly?

The human story is okay. It's really nothing special, but it's fine. It gets the job done. It doesn't intrude or overtake the Transformer stuff, which was what many people complained about with the Michael Bay movies. They complained that the movies focused too much on the human characters, and not enough on the Transformers. This movie doesn't make that mistake. It knows exactly what people want to see, and it gives it to them. I certainly liked Anthony Ramos's character, Noah Diaz way more than Mark Wahlberg's character, Cade Yeager in Transformers: Age of Extinction and Transformers: The Last Knight.

And even though this movie does take place in the 1990s, specifically, in the year, 1994, there really aren't that many 90s references. They didn't overload this movie with 90s references like they overloaded Bumblebee 🐝 with 80s references. They did play a lot of 90s music, specifically 90s hip-hop, they did reference Super Mario Bros. 3 on GameBoy, they did reference Sonic the Hedgehog a few times (Noah and his brother refer to each other as Sonic and Tails when they talk to each other on walkie-talkies), and they did show the Twin Towers in the background in the New York scenes, which was cool, but that's really about it. I did like the soundtrack, I thought it was pretty nice, even if this movie doesn't highlight the music as much as Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 did, but it is nice. If they have a soundtrack album out for this movie, I might consider buying it.

To put it simply, this movie is pretty much what the Michael Bay movies should've been, and I'm not even someone who hates the Michael Bay movies, or at least, not all of them. I still think the first one from 2007 is pretty good, and I have a soft spot for both Revenge of the Fallen and Dark of the Moon. But, this movie is a more refined version of what those movies were striving to be, like everything is just executed way better. And if the ending of this movie is anything to go by, then the sequels are going to be awesome too. We're finally going to get that Transformers/G.I. Joe crossover after that planned Hasbro cinematic universe was scrapped. Speaking of endings, let me know if there was an after credits scene or not. I didn't stay long enough to see if there was or not. I just saw that mid-credit scene with Mirage being revived.