Transformers: Rise of the Beasts (2023)
Dir: Steven Caple Jr
Writers: Jobs Harold; Darnell Metayer; Josh Peters
Starring: Anthony Ramos; Dominique Fishback
by Paul Bernardo paulieb2003@gmail.com
So Steven Caple has a very short list of films he directed. Creed II, and that’s about it. Given that – he did a decent job.
Visually, it was easy to understand, not too busy and not too confusing. It was actually fun to see the autobots change into robots. I mean, this is not a deep movie, with tugs on the heartstrings. This is a lot of “yo homie” kind of stuff, and “ya feel me?”. White suburban speak that was hip back in the 90’s, when this film takes place.
So the acting here is not good. Pete Davidson voices Mirage – and he is horrible. His “let’s go!” and “you got this!” are just very bad and laughable at best. Pete just can not do it. He is better off in the tabloids dating a celebrity or failing at another streaming show. There is a reason most things he does flop.
Dominique Fishback is not good here either. She feels very out of place and never gets comfortable among all that green screen and CGI.
The one good actor – Anthony Ramos, is from Lin Manuel’s “In The Heights”. Anthony is the lead, and he holds the film together, which is good, because he has to. So instead of a movie to shine in, he has to save it, and take all the burden, which he does. His character is the cliche “good-hearted-guy-who-can’t-catch-a-break-in-the-hood” guy. He means well, wants to look after his younger brother, and help his mom – but gosh darn it – he did some bad stuff while in the military and now no one will hire him. Oh and by the way – the walkie talkie he talks to with his little brother can reach from Brooklyn, USA to Peru, South America. Unreal right? Well so are alien robots that turn into cars!
Michelle Yeoh voices a Maximal bird called Airazor, which is a great character but since it’s just her voice, she is hard to understand. You can tell she tries to talk slow, but her accent along with that bird visual is just a bit much.
Peter Dinklage shines playing Scourge, Peter Cullen again is great as Optimus and Ron Perlman is great as Optimus Primal, the leader of the Maximal beasts.
This film is great for the same reason as playing with Tonka toy dumptrucks. You just want to see big things collide. Lots of big action, and it doesn’t drudge along at just over 2 hours. It’s a good length, and the voice actors here are really the stars.
You come to this movie with your kids, especially boys, you want big fight scenes, you want battles. It’s not complicated, there is a great villain that they know they can not beat. Best they can do is keep him away from Earth, and the battle rages on. It’s fun for the kids. Half of it is set in Peru, so they don’t have to destroy buildings the whole film. There are only 3 robots of each, so it’s not hard to figure out who is who. Easy to see, easy to understand and great big one on one battles between Primes. So you get it all. I was about to look for my old Tonka dump truck when I got home to see if it still had that magic to it. Who knows, if Optimus still has it – maybe Tonka does too!
