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It’s still a movie about giant space robots talking trash and smashing into each other, but “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts” is better than most offerings in the franchise.

This latest summertime extravaganza, based on the Hasbro toys, doesn’t reach the heights of the unexpectedly delightful “ Bumblebee ” from 2018. But it’s far superior to the five cacophonous blockbusters Michael Bay directed between 2007 and 2017. Steven Caple Jr. (“ Creed II ”) takes over the reins this time, bringing a narrative focus and visual coherence that’s been woefully lacking in the past. You can actually see what’s happening in the gargantuan action sequences, which is always a plus.

Longtime fans will probably revel in the childhood nostalgia of seeing these beloved characters come to life once again. Besides the Autobots—led as always by Optimus Prime and voiced by Peter Cullen with his signature gravitas—“Rise of the Beasts” also features Maximals from the “Transformers: Beast Wars” TV series and various intergalactic villains doing the bidding of the planet-gobbling Unicron ( Colman Domingo ). They’re all in pursuit of the same ancient, McGuffiny doohickey which is super powerful and can cause massive damage.

But what makes “Rise of the Beasts” palatable for everyone else is the fact that it demonstrates surprising care with the human beings trapped in the midst of this epic battle between good and evil. That’s a rarity in this series, known more for the bland types and groan-inducing banter of the Bay movies. The screenplay, credited to five people, gives the likable Anthony Ramos and Dominique Fishback the opportunity to create characters we might even care about.

And yes, it does sound inherently contradictory to say: “I would like more humanity in my movie about otherworldly beings pretending to be cars and trucks.” But that’s what makes “Rise of the Beasts,” and Travis Knight ’s ‘80s-set “Bumblebee” stand out.

This isn’t exactly a sequel to “Bumblebee,” but it does begin soon afterward in 1994 and before the events of the first “ Transformers .” So it’s sort of a prequel and sort of a reboot. Whatever it is, it takes place in a grungy, pre-Giuliani New York City where Ramos’ Noah Diaz is a former military electronics expert looking for work to support his family. This includes his adorable younger brother, Kris ( Dean Scott Vazquez ), who’s suffering from a chronic illness. At the same time, at a museum on Ellis Island, Fishback’s Elena is fighting to prove herself as an artifacts expert who’s knowledgeable beyond her years. These are both young people of color being repeatedly underestimated and marginalized by the predominately white people in charge, which provides more context and social criticism than we usually see in these movies.

They both find themselves flung into the hunt for the all-important Transwarp Key—Noah when he tries to steal a Porsche that turns out to be an Autobot, Elena when she studies a new sculpture that’s come into the lab with mysterious symbols on it. One of the most enjoyable parts of “Rise of the Beasts” is the back-and-forth between Ramos and Pete Davidson as the voice of Mirage, the wisecracking sports car. The role calls for Davidson to showcase his irreverent, playful persona. It’s perfect casting, and it may be his best work ever.

Other heavy hitters among the voice cast include Michelle Yeoh as the majestic Maximal falcon Airazor, Ron Perlman as the roaring gorilla Optimus Primal, and Peter Dinklage as the vicious Scourge, the leader of the Terrorcons who’s Unicron’s right-hand man. The ever-charming Cristo Fernández basically does his sunny Dani Rojas personality from “Ted Lasso” as a 1970s Volkswagen bus named Wheeljack, but it’s still a pleasure. Nineties hip-hop classics from A Tribe Called Quest, Wu-Tang Clan, Diggable Planets, The Notorious B.I.G. and more are a great fit and provide an infectious vibe.

But ultimately, “Rise of the Beasts” does what every Transformers movie has to do: wrap up with a seemingly endless fight sequence in which big, shiny chunks of metal slam noisily into each other. The smaller and more intimate special effects are more impressive than these massive set pieces; Mirage evolves in a multitude of cool ways that look tactile and realistic, for example. But while this climax isn’t as dizzying and interminable as they so often are, it’s still rather dull compared to the action that came before it.

There is also the fundamental problem that there are no real stakes: We know what happens to these characters, and that they’ll not only be OK but also survive for several more movies. And of course, a mid-credits scene suggests that there’s even more to come from this cinematic universe, because there’s always more to come. So you may as well buckle up.

Opens Friday, June 9th.

Christy Lemire

Christy Lemire is a longtime film critic who has written for RogerEbert.com since 2013. Before that, she was the film critic for The Associated Press for nearly 15 years and co-hosted the public television series "Ebert Presents At the Movies" opposite Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, with Roger Ebert serving as managing editor. Read her answers to our Movie Love Questionnaire here .

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Film Credits

Transformers: Rise of the Beasts (2023)

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

127 minutes

Anthony Ramos as Noah Diaz

Dominique Fishback as Elena Wallace

Luna Lauren Velez as Mrs. Diaz

Tobe Nwigwe as Reek

Peter Cullen as Optimus Prime (voice)

Ron Perlman as Optimus Primal (voice)

Peter Dinklage as Scourge (voice)

Michelle Yeoh as Airazor (voice)

Liza Koshy as Arcee (voice)

John DiMaggio as Stratosphere / Transit (voice)

David Sobolov as Rhinox / Battletrap (voice)

Michaela Jaé Rodriguez as Nightbird (voice)

Pete Davidson as Mirage (voice)

Cristo Fernández as Wheeljack (voice)

Tongayi Chirisa as Cheetor (voice)

Colman Domingo as Unicron (voice)

• Steven Caple Jr.

Writer (story)

• Joby Harold
• Darnell Metayer
• Josh Peters
• Erich Hoeber

Cinematographer

• Enrique Chediak
• William Goldenberg
• Joel Negron
• Jongnic Bontemps

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Transformers: Rise of the Beasts Review

The maximals have this franchise back on track..

Transformers: Rise of the Beasts premieres in theaters on June 9, 2023.

You son of a gun, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts — I’m back in. Consider me as shocked as anyone to be genuinely excited for more Transformers movies after the disappointing-at-best Age of Extinction and The Last Knight. The one-two combo of Bumblebee and Rise of the Beasts is a course correction that unites beloved Transformer clans, introduces decent human characters, and spotlights metal-crunching action that’s an upgrade from the nondescript animated slop we’ve been served in Michael Bay’s last few movies. It’s certainly not going to win over the Academy (outside a possible special effects nomination), but director Steven Caple Jr. executes Rise of the Beasts as a get-the-job-done summer crowd-pleaser that makes me feel like a kid watching Saturday morning cartoons again, only on a grander and more exciting scale.

Picking up the story after 2018’s Bumblee, Rise of the Beasts sticks to the ancient era of 1994, giving it some comfortable distance from the stink of Transformers movies we try not to talk about anymore. Anthony Ramos stars as Brooklyn electronics wiz and ex-soldier Noah Diaz, who acts as the Autobots’ human correspondent, and as he comically grapples with the reality of mechanized aliens driving Earth’s highways, the irreplaceable voice of Peter Cullen as Optimus Prime reveals a new artifact of the day that must be recovered before it falls into the hands of the world-eating, planet-sized villain Unicron. It’s exactly as cookie-cutter a plot as you’d expect from a movie like this.

The animal-themed Maximals aren’t the first non-Autobot or Decepticon faction to appear in these Transformers movies, but they certainly make a more impactful entrance (I’d already forgotten about the Dinobots in Age of Extinction). Ron Perlman’s guttural bellow as lowland gorilla bot Optimus Primal meets the character’s barrel-chested imposition, while Michelle Yeoh soothes as the wise and majestic peregrine falcon bot Airazor. There’s a clear distinction between Optimus Primal’s connection with nature and Earth’s inhabitants versus the untrusting and more militant Optimus Prime, and it goes beyond the visual contrasts of Maximal robotics layered with fur and feathers against Autobot detailing with vibrant Pimp My Ride designs. They took me right back to my days watching the early morning cartoon Beast Wars: Transformers before-school with a bowl of cereal, and Rise of the Beasts effectively pays off that nostalgia (even if my chatty favorite Rattrap is sorely missed).

The Maximals are given the opportunity to shine because we aren’t bombarded with the headache-inducing Michael Bay action sequences that tanked the later Transformers films. Cinematographer Enrique Chediak holds the camera steady as Autobots, Maximals, and Unicron’s Terrorcon henchmen engage in their vehicular slaughters, allowing clean and crisp animation to showcase what exciting Transforms fight choreography looks like. Liza Koshy’s Autobot Arcee is a guns-akimbo Ducati 916 that darts around like a seasoned assassin, while Optimus Primal employs a thunderous ground-and-pound ferocity. An array of fighting techniques from the Terrorcons keeps violent altercations fresh, whether that’s tow truck Battletrap swinging his chain weapon or neon-pink-detailed Nightbird’s aerial maneuvers that scare the engine oil out of Mirage. Rise of the Beasts might keep its battles more contained, but that allows both combatants and move combinations to shine – no more of Bay’s constant cutting that makes action scenes feel like they’ve been run through a junkyard blender.

What's your favorite Transformers movie?

The voice cast behind rubber-burning heroes and villains are suitably fitted, especially Pete Davidson’s wisecracking Mirage. He’s the Autobot with the most personality, dropping Wu-Tang references and juvenile jokes like Davidson would in reality on stage. Peter Dinklage is the most unrecognizable as Unicron’s right-hand henchman Scourge – not to say he’s not good, but Scourge is a boilerplate baddie with a Robotic Mean #1 vocal range that might be a selection in a generic video game character creator. Otherwise, you can hear Coleman Domingo’s intense sternness behind Unicron’s threats as much as the gleeful good-heartedness when Cristo Fernández basically recreates his Ted Lasso performance as Dani Rojas, this time as a Volkswagon van in Wheeljack. Names like Michaela Jaé Rodriguez might not be first fan-casting choices for Terrorcons like Nightbird, but she makes it known why she was selected with the way she personifies a robot made of cold steel and whirring gears.

Not everything can be celebrated with the same enthusiasm, however. While Diaz and Dominique Fishback (as brainy museum artifact researcher Elena Wallace) provide sustainable enough performances as Transformer allies, their characters feel like cogs in a machine. Diaz and Davidson share humorous lines of bromanship as the new Charlie and Bumblebee duo, but the Transformers are more entertaining alone than with their fleshy tour guides. Noah’s connection to his sickly brother Kris (Dean Scott Vazquez) gives Diaz more to chew on as a sibling who fights to show his lil’ bro how to conquer adversity, but that’s shelved for a bit once the landscape changes from New York City to Peru. Should Diaz and Fishback return for a sequel to Rise of the Beasts, I hope their characters feel less typical as Transformers tagalongs.

The Transformers Movies in (Chronological) Order

As for the animation required to bring planet-devourers and Autobot saviors to life, it’s mainly exhilarating outside of interactions where Transformers and human actors engage with one another physically. Maybe that’s Optimus Prime picking Noah up like a nervous hamster or a bodysuit scene where Transformers technology covers an actor aside from his still-visible face. There’s an inorganic Cyborg in Justice League or Robocop remake vibe to it that looks somewhat unfortunate. Luckily, these are minor interruptions in the action, which sees fiery explosions backdrop laser blaster shootouts and limb-severing Transformer swordplay.

Transformers: Rise of the Beasts proves that Bumblebee wasn’t a fluke, and that the Transformers series is finally accelerating in the right direction. Steven Caple Jr. oversees a solid balance between paint-by-numbers intergalactic doomsday storytelling and entertainment-first Transformers action, even though it never achieves the epic scope it’s aiming for and the human side of the story can’t keep up with the robots. There’s a focus on a story with heart and heroics, and that’s never lost thanks to reigning in Michael Bay’s brand of sensationalist chaos. Rise of the Beasts returns to Transformers basics on a larger scale than Bumblebee, but never gets too big for its britches. It feels like playing with Autobots and Maximals action figures in your backyard on a weekend, lost in a smashy-fun adventure that might not save the galaxy, but is a good enough excuse to watch robots turn into cars and fight for a few hours.

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Transformers: rise of the beasts, common sense media reviewers.

Fun (if unnecessary) reboot has heart, explosive action.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Centers on teamwork, courage, and perseverance in

Noah and Elena are brave, intelligent, selfless. T

The two main human characters are Noah, a young Pu

Big explosions, one-on-one fights, and large-scale

Elena rests her head on Noah's shoulder and occasi

Occasional use of "s--t," plus "ass," "damn," and

The entire film is virtually a commercial for Hasb

Parents need to know that Transformers: Rise of the Beasts is the seventh film in the popular toy-based franchise. Based on the 1990s Transformers TV series Beast Wars, the story is set in 1994 New York City, where an ancient artifact acts as a beacon to all-powerful villain Unicron. To help save the…

Positive Messages

Centers on teamwork, courage, and perseverance in the face of difficult odds. The story also requires humans to have empathy for the Transformers and vice versa. The groups must put aside selfish interests in favor of a unified front to stop Unicron, and they learn to trust and rely on one another.

Positive Role Models

Noah and Elena are brave, intelligent, selfless. They don't hesitate to put their own lives in danger if it means saving their families or the world. The Autobots and Primals are dedicated to protecting humans and the Earth, but Optimus Prime isn't initially ready to trust humans the way that Optimus Primal does.

Diverse Representations

The two main human characters are Noah, a young Puerto Rican man (played by Anthony Ramos), and Elena, a young Black woman (Dominique Fishback), who are both from Brooklyn, New York. Elena is also a smart and capable archaeologist. Introduces Noah's close-knit Puerto Rican family, including his single mother and younger brother, who has sickle-cell anemia. The actors who voice the Transformers are from a variety of racial/ethnic backgrounds; director Steven Caple Jr. is Black and Hispanic.

Did we miss something on diversity? Suggest an update.

Violence & Scariness

Big explosions, one-on-one fights, and large-scale battles that threaten property and individuals. Combat to the death between robotic (but intelligent and self-aware) aliens that seems to kill a couple of beloved Transformers. The rest of the kill count is villains. Serious high-speed pursuits lead to many accidents, although it's unclear whether any of them are fatal (they would at the very least cause severe injuries). The main villain wants to devour and destroy the entire planet.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Elena rests her head on Noah's shoulder and occasionally accepts his hand as they run or move out of the way of danger. One suggestive comment: Noah introduces Mirage as a "work friend," to which Mirage replies "Friends? But you've been inside me," referring to the fact that Noah has been in the driver's seat of Mirage in Porsche form.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Occasional use of "s--t," plus "ass," "damn," and the euphemism "fudge." The Spanish term "cojones" is said (it translates to "balls" in English).

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

The entire film is virtually a commercial for Hasbro toys. On camera, the Transformers disguise themselves as specific cars/vehicles: Porsche, Ford, Volkswagen, Chevrolet Camaro, Nissan Skyline GT, Ducati 916, Freightliner FLA, GMC C7000 Tow Truck, as well as Twizzlers. Off camera: merchandise includes apparel, games, figurines, and other tie-ins.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Transformers: Rise of the Beasts is the seventh film in the popular toy-based franchise . Based on the 1990s Transformers TV series Beast Wars , the story is set in 1994 New York City, where an ancient artifact acts as a beacon to all-powerful villain Unicron. To help save the world, two young humans ( Anthony Ramos and Dominique Fishback ) team up with the Autobots and animal-like Primal Transformers. You can expect the usual big, boomy action, with lots of explosions, chases, crashes, intense fights (some of which seem fatal), and large-scale battles that threaten property and individuals. But with the exception of one suggestive comment, this movie is far less crude and crass than previous Transformers films. It also centers on a more diverse human cast and setting (Brooklyn and Manhattan in the mid-1990s) and has themes of empathy, teamwork, courage, and perseverance, as well as the importance of duty to family and community. Language includes "s--t," "ass," and "damn." There's virtually no romance or substance use. Peter Dinklage , Pete Davidson , Michelle Yeoh , Ron Perlman , OG Optimus Prime Peter Cullen , and YouTube star Liza Koshy are part of the voice cast. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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Based on 12 parent reviews

Okay movie; however, note that not all races are cast in a positive light

No sex or nudity, a bit too much swearing., what's the story.

TRANSFORMERS: RISE OF THE BEASTS begins with a prologue introducing how the Primals (animal-like Transformers) defeated the evil, plant-devouring Unicron (voiced by Colman Domingo ), abandoned their planet, and settled on Earth in ancient times. Millennia later, in 1994 New York City, 20-something Noah Diaz ( Anthony Ramos ) needs to find a job to support his little brother, Kris ( Dean Scott Vazquez ), who has sickle-cell anemia. Desperate, Noah agrees to steal a Porsche during a gala -- only to discover that the sports car is a self-driving Transformer named Mirage (voiced by Pete Davidson ). Meanwhile, Elena Wallace ( Dominique Fishback ) makes an interesting discovery as an intern with the New York Archeology Museum on Ellis Island. It turns out to be an ancient beacon that can summon Transformers, including Unicron's loyal servants, led by Scourge (voiced by Peter Dinklage ). Optimus Prime (voiced by Peter Cullen ) and the Autobots want the beacon key to get back to their home planet, Cybertron, but with Scourge and his associates ready to turn the key into a portal for Unicron to destroy Earth, the Autobots, humans, and Primals must work together to stop the villain.

Is It Any Good?

Better than many of its crass, overly sexualized predecessors, this installment in the franchise has a top-notch 1990s hip-hop soundtrack, likable leads, and no cringe-inducing characters. Forget the exposition about Transformers lore -- only devoted fans of the animated shows will truly care about that. Ultimately, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts is a formulaic (except for the lack of romance, which is a nice change) action film featuring an angstier Optimus Prime and yet another seemingly indestructible Transformers supervillain. (Unicron is pure evil, ravenous for yet another planet to consume.) Domingo and Dinklage do an admirable job with their deep, sinister character voices, and Cullen is, as always, the one true voice of Optimus Prime. Ron Perlman gets to be a good guy for a change as the gorilla-like Optimus Primal, and Oscar winner Michelle Yeoh lends her gravitas to the character Airazor. Ted Lasso fans will instantly recognize the voice of VW bus Wheeljack (Cristo Fernandez, aka Dani Rojas). Ramos and Fishback have a sweet platonic chemistry as two Brooklyn-raised young adults who've been thrown together under ludicrous and dangerous circumstances, and the well-cast Davidson provides much-needed comic relief as the jokey, conceited Mirage.

There are moments that seem lifted straight out of Iron Man , Pacific Rim , Godzilla , or any of a dozen other (usually better) action movies, but there's no denying that audiences will have fun while they watch this story unfold. The human drama feels authentic, thanks to Noah's relationship with his baby bro, Kris. But there's not really enough time to dwell on family dynamics. In fact, Elena doesn't even get a family; her entire backstory is limited to reminiscing about her late father. On the alien machine side, Optimus' devotion to Bumblebee (and vice versa) is genuinely touching. Director Steven Caple Jr. isn't reinventing the wheel with this movie, but he is keeping with the vibe of Bumblebee : nostalgic and family friendly, with lots of action sequences. It's unclear what else needs to be explored in the Transformers universe, but this entry has enough heart to be crowd pleasing.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about the violence in Transformers: Rise of the Beasts . Is it realistic and frightening, or does it have less impact because Transformers don't really exist? Do you feel different watching Transformer-on-Transformer violence than watching violence involving humans?

How do you think this installment compares to the previous Transformers movies and franchises?

Previous Transformers films have been criticized for their depiction of women and people of color. How does this installment take a different approach?

Discuss the time period and setting. How does the movie make it clear that it's set in 1994 New York City?

Movie Details

• In theaters : June 9, 2023
• On DVD or streaming : July 11, 2023
• Cast : Anthony Ramos , Dominique Fishback , Tobe Nwigwe
• Director : Steven Caple Jr.
• Inclusion Information : Latino actors, Female actors, Black actors
• Studio : Paramount Pictures
• Genre : Science Fiction
• Topics : Adventures , Friendship , Robots , Space and Aliens
• Character Strengths : Courage , Perseverance , Teamwork
• Run time : 117 minutes
• MPAA rating : PG-13
• MPAA explanation : intense sequences of sci-fi action and violence, and language
• Last updated : January 17, 2024

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

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Rise of the Beasts was a new chance to make the Transformers look great on screen, but…

The Maximals and Optimus Primal get the same visually noisy approach as everyone else

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In terms of quality, Transformers has the lowest batting average of any modern movie franchise, a record that stays firmly intact thanks to Rise of the Beasts . Where Michael Bay’s five (yes, five) entries in the franchise are all visual soup splashed across the screen, the latest installment — helmed by Creed II ’s Steven Caple Jr. — similarly defies comprehensibility, albeit for slightly different reasons. To some extent, each shot is a little more neatly composed. But they’re all strung together with the barest visual and narrative connective tissue, resulting in a baffling film that feels strange not only for a modern blockbuster, but for a Transformers movie as well.

Based on the Beast Wars line of comics, games, toys, and TV shows, the seventh entry in the exhaustive saga begins with a lengthy prologue about a planet-devouring Transformer, Unicron (Colman Domingo), forcing a number of animal-themed Transformers, the Maximals, off their Earth-like home world. Before their planet is destroyed, an ape, a cheetah, and a falcon Transformer manage to steal the latest in a series of plot-driving artifacts related to the Transformers’ home world of Cybertron.

This time, it’s called the “Trans Warp Key,” though its function is similar to that of at least two previous series McGuffins: It opens up a giant portal in the sky. Even before the plot kicks off, this supposed franchise relaunch is already in firmly familiar territory, a trend that continues for a significant chunk of its 127 minutes.

It’s a tale as old as time: A human character stumbles upon a group of Transformers that includes Optimus Prime (Peter Cullen) and Bumblebee (voiceless yet again), and gets roped into their battle with an evil faction, which inevitably involves a race for a piece of Transformers tech that has the power to destroy the world.

The year is 1994, signified largely by numerous references to Mario, Sonic the Hedgehog, and several other era-specific video games, plus an clip of O.J. Simpson’s murder trial in progress. There are also a few hip-hop bangers on the soundtrack, courtesy of Notorious B.I.G. and Wu-Tang Clan. If there’s one thing the film gets mostly right while setting the stage, it’s the aural introduction to mid-’90s Brooklyn, even though a couple of these tracks are mildly anachronistic, appearing a few years before their real-world release.

Still, the film’s soundtrack is in the right ballpark, which makes for an energetic introduction to ex-military tech expert Noah Diaz ( Hamilton ’s Anthony Ramos), his single mother (Luna Lauren Vélez), and his ailing younger brother (Dean Scott Vazquez). While the characters themselves feel real, from their working-class plight to their interpersonal banter, little in the world around them feels specific to a period that was nearly 30 years ago. (I’m sorry, I feel it too.)

The costumes and production design are bland, uninspired, and contemporary enough that the film feels accidentally timeless, though the purpose behind setting it in the ’90s appears to be logistical. In franchise terms, Rise of the Beasts is a sequel to 2018’s Bumblebee, which was set in 1987, and which director Travis Knight ensured was the only visually decipherable movie in this series.

The Autobots still retain their busy designs from the Bay films, but this entry very much continues to rewrite their bizarre continuity . (Alas, we must once again settle for a world in which Harriet Tubman never teamed up with transforming cars.) But Bumblebee may as well not exist in this continuity either, since the Transformers are all back to square one at the top of this story, hiding in plain sight as usual, until they’re discovered for both the first and somehow seventh time.

This time around, the mute Bumblebee isn’t the primary human companion — it’s a chatterbox blue-gray Porsche named Mirage, who Noah steals to pay for his brother’s medical bills. Mirage, unlike most of the Bay-formers, has the advantage of a recognizably human face, à la the Transformers cartoons, but he has the disadvantage of being voiced by Saturday Night Live ’s Pete Davidson, who’s cast primarily for his proclivity for detached snark. That includes him speaking a line that sounds awfully close to Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker ’s infamous “They fly now?!” (Even though there have been flying Transformers since the franchise’s first iteration back in the 1980s.) Mirage’s banter lands about 10% of the time, and is excruciatingly juvenile for the other 90.

There’s also a subplot about museum intern Elena Wallace ( Judas and the Black Messiah ’s Dominique Fishback, who deserves better) discovering half of the Trans Warp Key and beginning to follow a trail of archaeological breadcrumbs to find the other half. But her investigation amounts to little: She doesn’t discover its location herself, since the arriving Transformers drop in on her armed with all the knowledge she lacks, and whisk her off to its location in Peru.

And so, with its human pieces all in play — the human scenes aren’t really the problem here — Rise of the Beasts engages in the first of its many battles over a technological somethingorother, in which the Autobots leap and attack Unicron’s acolytes, who look distinctly Decepticon-esque: gray and unremarkable, like the series’ previous villains.

In that first major action scene, set in the dead of night, something fundamentally breaks about this movie. Where the Bay films at least — oh God, yes, I’m about to hold them up as a positive example — spewed controlled chaos across the frame, with background and foreground elements hinting at a sense of a vastness that’s hard to visually latch on to, Rise of the Beasts has a visual plainness that lays bare its failures of imagination and artistry, in a way Bay was always able to disguise.

With the camera at a safe, unobtrusive distance, punches and melee strikes land without much impact. There’s little weight to the CGI of these supposedly clunking machines, and successive shots are seldom related to each other in any meaningful way. Nothing holds together. Screen direction and geography appear to change at random, so while the individual shots might be decipherable for once, they exist outside of space and time, thrown together in a manner that somehow feels even more kaleidoscopic than Bay ever managed.

The one thing Bay always ensured, even amid his dizzying visual pandemonium, was a sense of scale, both through human eyes and through the size contrast between Transformer characters and human-scale objects. It’s scraping the bottom of the barrel to praise Bay for that specifically, but Rise of the Beasts barely manages that much. The relative size of the Transformers (to humans, and to each other) appears to change drastically from shot to shot. This not only makes the action hard to follow, but when certain characters are blocked at different points of depth, the combination of this shifting scale and an artless sense of lighting yields a constant “giant Dom, tiny Hobbs” (and vice versa) effect from that one confusingly staged dialogue scene in Fast & Furious 6 . Imagine a whole movie that feels like this, and you have a pretty good sense of Rise of the Beasts .

But what of the Maximals, the actual beasts of the title? Unfortunately, they don’t feature in this film nearly as much as Optimus, Bumblebee, and the familiar Autobot crew. Granted, they at least play more of a role than the thoroughly wasted Dinobots of Transformers: Age of Extinction , and they’re also involved in what might be the series’ only actual moral dilemma to date, involving sacrifice for the greater good, even though the lack of physical weight often results in a lack of emotional weight as well.

Like Mirage, the Maximals’ apelike leader, Optimus Primal (Ron Perlman), has the advantage of a face that can actually emote, resulting in a handful of scenes that border on emotionally engaging, even though his comrades — like the avian Airazor, voiced by a bored-sounding Michelle Yeoh — have no such luxury, and have little function or personality beyond delivering plot information.

If there’s one novel action beat in Rise of the Beasts , it’s the way the screenplay (credited to a five-person writing team, including Obi-Wan Kenobi showrunner Joby Harold) finds a fun way for the humans to be actively involved in the Transformer battles as equal participants, rather than onlookers or victims running helter-skelter. Even though the scenes in question are dull as dirt, and completely disconnected from shot to shot.

The climactic action set-piece mimics the final battle in Avengers: Endgame . But rather than putting in the legwork to make audiences care about the characters, the film only apes the aspects of Marvel’s shared-universe climax that don’t work in isolation: the nondescript, wide-open setting, and the anonymous legion of faceless enemies that might as well be a sea of metallic goop. The live-action Transformers movies have always been hard to look at, but with Bay at the helm, they at least felt like the work of a deranged madman allowed to run wild with a camera and VFX budget for the sake of experimentation. (He’s made plenty of good films outside the Transformers sandbox.)

Instead, this time around, the experiment appears to be a studio testing the limits of what technically qualifies as a Transformers film — or a film in general. Transformers: Rise of the Beasts is haplessly cobbled together from CGI elements that appear to have been created by different departments who weren’t allowed to communicate. There’s even a handful of shots in which Airazor is so poorly rendered that she appears almost two-dimensional, as if the crunch likely foisted on the film’s helpless VFX crews were manifesting as an artistic cry for help.

Alien robot cars and their space battles are concepts with such basic, gee-whiz sci-fi appeal that they’ve worked numerous times across decades of comics and cartoons. And yet there’s little childlike wonder to the Transformers live-action movies, which often stuff their frames with visually oppressive, eyesore conceptions of things that ought to be simple and imaginative. Virtually all of the Transformers movies feel like they’re trying to defeat their audience, but this time, the movie wins.

Transformers: Rise of the Beasts opens in theaters on June 9.

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‘Transformers: Rise of the Beasts’ Review: Here Come the Grease Monkeys

Things start out fun with this prequel, but frantic plot mechanics might steer your interest into a ditch.

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By Amy Nicholson

No franchise asks more — and less — from its audience than “Transformers.” The spectacle-first, logic-second series has given us six films to adjust to Optimus Prime, a semi-truck who whip-whop-whoomps into a humanoid with windshield wipers that tickle his nipples. “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts,” a goofy seventh installment that rattles along well enough until the wheels fall off, ballyhoos an evolution: a biomechanical gorilla who calls himself Optimus Primal. Optimus Primate would have been too sensible. And before you ask, the movie offers no explanation why a bionic biped would bother shape-shifting into another bionic biped. Silly mammal — that’s not the point.

In fairness, these metaphysical questions were explored in the futuristic and bizarrely engaging ’90s cartoon “Beast Wars: Transformers” and its spinoff “Beast Machines: Transformers,” which felt like sipping on a spiked juice box in an ashram. When that Optimus Primal was asked if he was robot or animal, he mystically intoned, “Both … and neither. The key is finding the balance within yourself. Only then can you truly say, ‘I am transformed.’”

But also in fairness, those shows and this movie share zero DNA. “I don’t get ‘Beast Wars,’” Lorenzo di Bonaventura, one of this film’s producers, once said . Instead, he and the director Steven Caple Jr. have rewound the clock to 1994 for yet another demolition derby. Once the nostalgic touchstones have been inlaid — one-strap overalls, O.J. Simpson and a killer classic hip-hop soundtrack — Optimuses Prime and Primal (voiced by Peter Cullen and Ron Perlman) team up to combat a planet-gobbler (Colman Domingo) and his minion, Scourge (Peter Dinklage), whose thorax throbs angrily like someone installed a cigarette lighter on his lungs.

Along for the ride are two Homo sapiens from Brooklyn: Dominique Fishback as Elena, a museum intern, and Anthony Ramos as Noah, an electronics whiz. The charismatic actors struggle, through no fault of their own, to share scenes with sentient fenders. It doesn’t help that neither character’s behavior quite passes the Turing test. Elena’s job duties range from authenticating rare da Vincis to having her boss’s clothes pressed; Noah burns scrambled eggs while soldering a cable box. Of the dozen-plus additional creatures crammed onscreen, the only others who register are a motor-mouthed Porsche named Mirage (Pete Davidson), an armored falcon (Michelle Yeoh), and an eroticized motorcycle (Liza Koshy) introduced rump-first in a nod to the director of the first five films, Michael Bay, who sure loved to linger on a lady’s chassis.

Things start out fun, with some clever inversions. Noah steals Mirage and is horrified to realize that the car has, in turn, stolen him. The humans do a little shape-shifting themselves, through costumes and stolen IDs. And Noah is comically pained each time he has to explain that he’s working with alien automobiles to prevent Armageddon. Then the frantic go-here, get-the-gizmo story mechanics steer our interest into a ditch.

The plot is a bust. Five credited screenwriters and not one compelling stake. How pointless is it to threaten main characters — let alone Earth — in a prequel? Worse, at the climax, gray machines slug it out on gray terrain under a gray sky. It’s as visually pulse-pounding as thumbtacks on a driveway, and an invitation to close one’s eyes and concentrate on the A.S.M.R. pleasure of shuddering steel. When that gets old, at least there’s solace in the premise, however slapdash its execution. The very existence of a technorganic ape is evidence that computer-generated blockbusters know they still need a beating heart.

Transformers: Rise of the Beasts Rated PG-13 for language and the sci-fi violence of robots ripping out each other’s spines. Running time: 2 hours 7 minutes. In theaters.

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• Movie Review

Transformers: Rise of the Beasts is the start of something big, but it’s a terrible Beast Wars movie

Paramount’s new transformers feature barely capitalizes on beast wars’ maximals, but the action-packed movie has a couple of surprises sure to please a certain kind of fan..

By Charles Pulliam-Moore , a reporter focusing on film, TV, and pop culture. Before The Verge, he wrote about comic books, labor, race, and more at io9 and Gizmodo for almost five years.

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Very similar to 2018’s Bumblebee, director Steven Caple Jr.’s Transformers: Rise of the Beasts plays like a clever course correction in the context of the rest of Paramount’s films. It’s one meant to bring in both a young, new generation of fans and aging millennials with fond memories of cartoons from the ’80s and ’90s. Rise of the Beasts finds quite a bit of time to pay tribute to older, classic pieces of Transformers storytelling from places like the original Transformers animated movie from 1986. But when it comes to maximizing — which is to say capitalizing on and making interesting use of — the Beast Wars mythos Paramount implied would be a large part of its story, Rise of the Beast falls short, which is disappointing but not exactly a surprise.

Though Rise of the Beasts pulls together characters from both the far-flung past and the distant future, it’s primarily set in 1994 and tells — shockingly — the story of how an unsuspecting human ends up becoming one of the most important participants in a longstanding Cybertronian war. As a young army veteran, all Noah Diaz (Anthony Ramos) really wants is to find a job to be able to support his little brother Kris (Dean Scott Vazquez) and their mom Breanna (Luna Lauren Velez). With steady work being hard to come by, though, it makes more sense for Noah to get into boosting cars with his buddy Reek (Tobe Nwigwe) than to sit around waiting for recruiter calls that simply aren’t coming in.

It being the ’90s, an old-fashioned slim jim is all Noah needs to get into most cars, like the silver and blue Porsche 964 Carrera RS 3.8 he plans to drive off with the evening of his very first robbery. Right as he’s finally able to work up the nerve to get into the car, however, Noah’s shocked and horrified when the vehicle powers up on its own and starts driving off in response to a radio message calling for the Autobots to roll out.

It should be said that, as predictable and somewhat clunky as Rise of the Beasts is, the movie isn’t without its charms, like the clever and flashy ways that it uses its first chase sequence to introduce you to Mirage (Pete Davidson), the Autobot who takes Noah’s attempt to steal him in stride and as a sign that they should probably be friends. Instead of just telling Noah flat-out that he’s an alien who merely looks like a car, Mirage uses the chase sequence to give his human companion an idea of where his code name comes from, and many of the chase’s smaller details, like the mirage-like clones of Noah the Autobot creates, work to illustrate his lighthearted sense of humor.

It’s quite clear from the jump that Noah and Mirage are going to be Rise of the Beasts ’ emotional core. But rather than using its time judiciously to make sure that its human / alien robot friendship dynamic has enough juice to sustain this story, Rise of the Beasts splits its focus between Noah and the Autobots and Elena Wallace (Dominique Fishback), an archaeologist and researcher of mysterious objects of indeterminate origin. 

It’s actually Elena’s late-night tinkering with a strange, birdlike statue that actually sets the bulk of Rise of the Beasts ’ story into motion. But unlike Noah, who always feels like he’s being moved from one scene carefully crafted to build up his heroic framing, Elena constantly seems like something of an afterthought who ends up being saddled with spiels of exposition for dialogue. Fishback is doing her best with what little Rise of the Beasts ’ script gives her, but Ramos is able to shine as both a comedic and somewhat dramatic presence opposite Mirage, who mostly just feels like Davidson — dick jokes and all — in Autobot form.

Even though it’s a nod to Beast Wars , Rise of the Beasts ’ central MacGuffin is every bit as memorable as those in previous Transformers movies, which is to say “not very much.” But it serves the purpose of bringing all of this story’s new players into focus very quickly, which helps keep Rise of the Beasts from ever feeling like it has major pacing issues.

One significant problem the movie does have, unfortunately, is the way it starts to feel overfull and like it doesn’t know how to manage all of its characters once Mirage and Noah have linked up with Optimus and the other Autobots and once the movie’s villains all begin to mobilize.

Similar to his cartoon counterpart, Rise of the Beasts ’ Unicron (Colman Domingo) is a Galactus-like, planet-devouring being of such massive proportions he needs emissaries to help him find suitable sources of food. Unicron’s presence is one of the stronger links Rise of the Beasts has to Paramounts older Transformers movies by way of 2017’s Transformers: The Last Knight , where the character was teased out. But rather than following up on threads from that film, here the character exists more as a looming presence in the dark distance who pushes Terrorcons Scourge (Peter Dinklage), Nightbird (Michaela Jaé Rodriguez), and Battletrap (David Sobolov) to do his bidding.

When it was first announced that Paramount was finally going to introduce elements of its Beast Wars series to the live-action Transformers franchise, one of the more interesting questions looming over the movie was how it was going to go about approaching characters like Optimus Primal (Ron Perlman), Airrazor (Michelle Yeoh), and Cheetor (Tongayi Chirisa). Despite being directly connected, the original Transformers and Beasts Wars cartoons were so chronologically and logistically separated that it seemed unlikely that Rise of the Beasts would go the direct adaptation route. But the movie’s title did imply that the Maximals would play a rather significant role in Rise of the Beasts ’ plot, which is what makes the way they kind of just… show up and don’t do all that much another spot of disappointment.

To be quite clear, all of the Maximals look fantastic — like horrifically cool mechanical beasts whose fine features have an uncanny way of making them feel like organic creatures. And the movie does gesture toward their complicated, messy lore that made Beast Wars so fun to obsess over. But ultimately, the Maximals really only end up serving to pad out the Autobots’ ranks as Rise of the Beasts brings the somewhat benevolent humanoid robots and the explicitly nefarious robots together for a fight over the fate of multiple worlds.

Like many a Transformers movie before it, Rise of the Beasts puts an inordinate amount of focus on its human protagonist, who often feels like he’s pulling focus (to be fair, charmingly so) in a movie that really should just be about robot-on-robot violence. Rise of the Beasts does try to differentiate Noah from other Transformers human heroes like Sam Witwicky by giving him a legitimate means of following the Autobots into battle . But the way that the film props Noah up has the unintended side effect of highlighting how Rise of the Beasts doesn’t give Elena all that much to do in its final acts and how the film as a whole has a tendency of sidelining its female characters in a way that really jumps out as being unnecessary.

To some extent, it feels like some of Rise of the Beasts ’ uneven characterizations can be chalked up to there just being so many moving parts in play, but that’s a problem of the movie’s own making and something that might have been wholly avoidable. Especially in its final acts, Rise of the Beasts really starts to feel like the kind of Transformers movie that first kicked the live-action franchise off: it’s big, explosive, and very nice to look at for a few minutes before it all starts to blend together. Whether or not that’s intentional on Paramount’s part isn’t quite clear, but what does seem more certain is how the studio sees Rise of the Beasts as the beginning of its next big movie franchise play.

That’s an odd thing to say about the seventh installment in an ongoing franchise, especially one that doesn’t exactly take advantage of its own prime opportunity to really start steering the ship in a new direction. But for anyone who’s just trying to see some robots turn into some cars and / or animals, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts will get the job done.

Transformers: Rise of the Beasts also stars Liza Koshy, Cristo Fernández, and John DiMaggio. The movie hits theaters on June 9th.

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Transformers: Rise of the Beasts Reviews

This is the seventh movie in a franchise that — among other things — gave us Mark Wahlberg as a scientist and posited that alien robots aided Harriet Tubman on the Underground Railroad, so don't look for too much in the way of sense.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Jan 25, 2024

Rise of the Beasts is the best Transformers entry since Bumblebee, but it won’t be the last time we see these robots fight on the big screen.

Full Review | Nov 13, 2023

As a review, I'll give it a C+ for delivering what you'd expect. As a note, make sure to stick around for the end credit scene.

Full Review | Original Score: C+ | Nov 13, 2023

... The movie continues the current tendency of delivering a good time to the audience at the movies with a sci-fi super production that doesn't forget to also offer relatable characters. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 27, 2023

It plays it safe, and while that does make it watchable it doesn’t make it good.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/10 | Oct 16, 2023

Transformers: Rise Of The Beasts is all about the heart that the story infuses into this plot about robots fighting other robots.

Full Review | Sep 14, 2023

Rise of The Beasts plays it safe when compared to the Bay-era, and falls short of the previous iteration Bumblebee. The movie is still funny and charming, with just enough action, and a good amount of heart.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.75/5 | Sep 7, 2023

What an annoyance to have a 'Transformers' movie with well-drawn humans, only to have them choke on the exhaust fumes of franchise expectations.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Sep 2, 2023

A movie heavy on action and light on story and acting.

Full Review | Original Score: C | Aug 8, 2023

Bay, at least, wasn't afraid to take chances. Rise of the Beasts, unfortunately, feels as though it's trying way too hard to color in the lines.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/4 | Jul 27, 2023

The seventh installment to the beloved Hasbro Toys franchise redials the overall narrative and visuals into pure nostalgia escapism that sets the Transformers back on track.

Full Review | Jul 25, 2023

. . .A mixed bag that establishes this latest outing as less than meets the eye.

It's all just such a wasted opportunity and a rather inconspicuous start to the heaven help us, "Hasbro Cinematic Autoverse", even if it's still easily the second best of the modern Transformers movies.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Jul 25, 2023

As dull as a smashed headlight.

Full Review | Jul 22, 2023

This movie is, of course, very loud, lots of special effects, but it does have a good story at it's heart, partly because Anthony Ramos & Dominique Fishback really center this film and give it a real emotional heft.

Full Review | Original Score: 7.5/10 | Jul 21, 2023

Transformers: Rise Of The Beasts is a film that will be enjoyed by hardcore Transformers films and because of the re-boot vibe is easily accessible to those who haven’t seen the other films.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 21, 2023

Transformers Rise of the Beasts is the equivalent of looking back at your childhood when you would grab your action figures! Fun, Amusing, & enjoyable BUT that's it The 3rd act’s Action set piece is up there with Bumblebee’s Opening Scene though!

Full Review | Original Score: C | Jul 20, 2023

Transformers: Rise of the Beasts is one of the franchise’s best yet. If you’re a fan of great action, special effects and hip-hop culture with a great story, this movie is one to watch.

Full Review | Jul 19, 2023

After Michael Bay tarnished the essence of the Autobot spirit with his soul-draining movies, Steven Caple Jr. returns some pride to the Hasbro warriors. He does that by keeping the focus on the robots, and not the humans.

Full Review | Original Score: B | Jul 14, 2023

Everything about the film is half-assed – the writing, performances and staging of action sequences are executed with a shrug.

Full Review | Jul 12, 2023

‘Transformers: Rise of the Beasts’ Review: A Less Bombastic, More Relatable Sequel Shows That There’s Still Life in the Machine

Anthony Ramos and Dominique Fishback, plus a few old Transformers and some wild-animal new ones, minus Michael Bay's overkill, equals the kind of fun you don't have to hate.

By Owen Gleiberman

Owen Gleiberman

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When “Bumblebee” (2018) came along, and Michael Bay finally stopped directing the films, it became clear — in case it wasn’t already — that the “Transformers” movies had never needed to be so bombastic in their Mighty Entertainment Imperative. They could have relaxed more and still delivered that robot-as-wrecking-machine buzz. “ Transformers: Rise of the Beasts ” isn’t as stylish as “Bumblebee,” but it’s an example of how a “Transformers” movie can serve up the escapist-junk-food amusement it promises without giving you a synthetic sugar headache.

The film was directed by Steven Caple Jr., who made “Creed II,” the most prosaic entry in the “Creed” series, and when I say that he has staged “Rise of the Beasts” in a scruffy plain grounded way, I mean that as a (moderate) compliment. The film invites you in. Set in a hip-hop-inflected 1994, it’s got a relatable human story that works, and thanks to a script that actually has sustained bursts of dialogue, the robots felt more real to me as characters than they usually do. But they’re still the Transformers.

There is Scourge, the central villain and leader of the Terrorcons, a fascist hulk voiced by Peter Dinklage in tones so dark and ominous they just about shake the earth. And then there is Scourge’s boss, Unicron — a metallic outer-space ring of evil with pincers large enough to wrap themselves around an entire planet. He’s voiced by Colman Domingo with a scary dark majesty that sounds like it could scrape the bottom of the ocean.

One of the best decisions Caple made was not to let any of these figures overstay their welcome. The human story in the foreground is an obligatory and often boring part of any “Transformers” movie, going back to Shia LaBeouf maniacally zooming around in the first few. But the way that Anthony Ramos , from “In the Heights” and the original Broadway production of “Hamilton,” plays Noah Diaz, a military veteran from Brooklyn who’s trying (and failing) to land a job as a security guard, even as he looks after an 11-year-old brother (Dean Scott Vazquez) with sickle-cell anemia, he gets us on Noah’s side. Ramos reminds you of the nervous dudes, all antic jokes and feelers, that the young John Leguizamo used to play. Especially when Noah gets drawn, against his better judgment, into participating in a robbery, and the silver Porsche he’s stealing turns out to be Mirage, an Autobot voiced by Pete Davidson as a winningly good-hearted trickster bro.

The plot, which coincidentally mirrors that of the upcoming “Indiana Jones” movie (the film is aware enough of the parallel to try and defuse it with an Indy in-joke), revolves around the Transwarp Key, a space-time conduit that’s been split in two. One half of it shows up inside an ancient artifact that’s being studied by Elena Wallace ( Dominique Fishback ), a museum researcher whose boss likes to take credit for her research. Elena and Noah, after bonding over their Bushwick youth, join forces to help the Autobots locate the other half of the key in the Aztec wilds of Peru.

Peru, with its photogenic ruins, gives the movie a nice vibrant spacious green backdrop for the robot showdown to come. If Scourge gets his metal claws on the key, Unicron will use it to destroy Earth; Optimus wants the key so that the Autobots can return to their home planet of Cybertron. And the Maximals? They’re on hand to provide the novelty a franchise needs, and do, though I’m not sure if animal robots will prove as compelling to viewers as monster trucks. I expect a box-office ground-rule double, rather than the home runs the old Bay overkill used to provide. That said, Michelle Yeoh makes her valorous presence felt as Airazor, a glittering peregrine falcon whose devotion to the cause takes a surprise turn.

Reviewed at AMC Empire, June 4, 2023. MPA Rating: PG-13. Running time: 117 MIN.

• Production: A Paramount Pictures release of a Skydance Media, Hasbro, New Republic Pictures, Di Bonaventura Pictures, Bay Films production. Producers: Michael Bay, Tom DeSanto, Lorenzo di Bonaventura, Duncan Henderson, Don Murphy, Mark Vahradian. Executive producers: Steven Spielberg, Valerii An, David Ellison, Bradley J. Fischer, Dana Goldberg, Brian Goldner, Don Granger, Brian Oliver.
• Crew: Director: Steven Caple Jr. Screenplay: Joby Harold, Darnell Metayer, Josh Peters, Erich Hoeber, Jon Hoeber. Camera: Enrique Chediak. Editors: William Goldenberg, Joel Negron. Music: Jongnic Bontemps.
• With: Anthony Ramos, Dominique Fishback, Peter Cullen, Michelle Yeoh, Peter Dinklage, Ron Perlman, Pete Davidson, Colman Domingo, Dean Scott Vaquez, Luna Lauren Velez, Cristo Fernández, John DiMaggio, Michaela Jaé Rodriguez.

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‘transformers: rise of the beasts’ review: seventh installment is comfort food for fans.

The return after a five-year break of the popular sci-fi action franchise stars Anthony Ramos and Dominique Fishback and features the first big-screen appearance of fan favorites the Maximals.

By Frank Scheck

Frank Scheck

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The other major non-robot character is Elena (Fishback, Judas and the Black Messiah ), a talented researcher working at an archaeological museum on Ellis Island who attempts to discover the lineage of a recently discovered ancient artifact resembling the Maltese Falcon. She gets more than she bargained for when her late-night examination of the piece virtually destroys it, revealing a mysterious object inside.

Meanwhile, Noah, during a botched attempt at minor criminality, winds up hiding in a Porsche 911 that soon reveals itself to be Mirage (the ubiquitous Pete Davidson ), an Autobot laying low in the city along with his fellow Transformers, including Optimus Prime (series stalwart and MVP Peter Cullen), Bumblebee and Arcee (Liza Koshy).

The Maximals, for those not in the know, stem from a syndicated animated television series that ran from 1996 to 1999, featuring Transformers who take animal shapes. The fan-favorite robot beasts include Optimus Primal (Ron Perlman), a gorilla; Airazor ( Michelle Yeoh ), a peregrine falcon; Rhinox (David Sobolov), which you can guess; and Cheetor (Tongayi Chirisa), ditto. This breed of Transformers who sport genuine-seeming fur, skin and wings represents a nice contrast from the vehicular brand to which we’ve become accustomed.

The film benefits greatly from its locations, including New York City (and Montreal subbing for same) and especially Peru, including the gorgeous historic city of Cusco and the ruins of Machu Picchu, which haven’t received this kind of exposure since, well, virtually everyone’s dating site profile.

Director Steven Caple Jr. ( Creed II ) steps up to the plate nicely, with this massive production representing a major departure from the smaller-scale films he’s previously helmed. (Of course, it helps to have Michael Bay and Steven Spielberg among the producers.) The many, many action sequences are spectacularly conceived and executed, including a car chase on the Williamsburg Bridge that’s probably still tying up downtown traffic.

As for the story, well, that proves less interesting, although the five, count ‘em, five screenwriters attempt to invest the proceedings with genuine human emotion. While the subplot involving Noah’s kid brother battling illness feels like something that even Pat O’Brien would have deemed too corny in a ‘30s melodrama, the growing friendship between Noah and Elena — fueled by their shared Brooklyn roots and desire to save the world without dying in the process — proves effectively sweet. Ramos invests his performance with a dynamic enthusiasm that will certainly work for younger viewers, while Fishback, so impressive in the recent Prime Video series Swarm , proves equally relatable.

The voice talents are also impressive, with Perlman and Dinklage using their stentorian delivery in suitably imposing fashion and Yeoh proving perfect as the falcon Maximal because, as everyone knows, she can actually fly in real life. The only misstep is Davidson as the wisecracking Mirage; the comedian-actor’s voice is distractingly recognizable delivering lame Marky Mark jokes and groaners like “Cojones muy grande!”

The film ends with a teaser hinting that the Transformers franchise will next be conjoined with another. No spoilers, but if you’re thinking corporate synergy, you wouldn’t be far off.  

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