MOVIE REVIEW
“Transformers: Rise of the Beasts”
Rated PG-13. At the AMC Boston Common, AMC South Bay and suburban theaters.
Grade: B
Please send me the names of those clamoring for another “Transformers” film, who aren’t employed by or related to producers Michael Bay and Steven Spielberg. But here we are. “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts,” which is set in 1994 Brooklyn and later in Peru, is sort of like a “Transformers” film with those shape-shifting Autobots grafted to a “Planet of the Apes” movie. The best parts of the film are the fraternal ties between the lead human, Noah Diaz (Anthony Ramos, “In the Heights,” “Hamilton”) and his ailing little brother Kris (Dean Scott Vasquez) and between Noah and a wise-cracking, trash-mouthed Autobot named Mirage (Pete Davidson). Ably directed by Steven Cable Jr. (“Creed II”) and written by at least six people, “Rise of the Beasts” kicks off with the usual sepulchral narration.
For the record, the film is a sequel to “Bumblebee” (2018) and a prequel to “Transformers” (2007) and the seventh film in the live-action “Transformers” series, and while it is not a great piece of cinema, it benefits from the beating hearts of Ramos, Vasquez, human female lead Dominique Fishback and Davidson and from its affable, self-deprecating humor. The narration introduces us to some of the characters, including a monstrous “Terrorcon” named Scourge (voiced by Peter Dinklage), whose touch is poisonous, and (in my mind at least) another pesky robotic creature known as Exposition.
The plot, which is both complicated and child-like (imagine a toddler banging their toys together), requires Diaz, who is desperate for a job to help his family and gets involved in car theft, to become the ally of the Autobots, who search for the “Transwarp Key,” a glowing device that will allow them to return to their home Cybertron. At the same time, Elena Wallace (Fishback), a brilliant assistant researcher at an Ellis Island museum, discovers the key inside an ancient Horus-shaped sculpture. Also on the trail of the key are Scourge and the evil Terrorcons, who have raptor-like robots at their beck and call. In another introduction, we meet creatures known as Maximals, led by the King Kong-like Optimus Primal (Ron Perlman). Also among the Maximals is a falcon-shaped creature named Airazor voiced by the literally everywhere Michelle Yeoh. The Terrorcons want to use the key to open a door to planet-devouring Unicron (Colman Domingo) and… well, you get the picture.
The action features the trademark, transforming Autobots, which can be acquired from Hasbro, like most of the other ‘bots, a nicely-staged car chase on the Williamsburg Bridge, a robot beat down on a grassy knoll on Ellis Island, an “Indiana Jones”-evoking race to track down the key in an Incan temple in Peru with the help of a local Transformer named Wheeljack (Cristo Fernandez). The save-the-planet battle at the end is the usual superhero-movie CG stuff. But the film was shot in part on location in a spectacular-looking Peru, where a festival is staged, and the film might actually spur interest in the ancient Incan Empire among children. I cannot imagine the complications facing cinematographer Enrique Chediak (“Bumblebee”). But he gives the film a real sense of place in each of its settings. The 1990s-era soundtrack boasts vintage Wu-Tang, Biggie and LL Cool J. Making his film debut, rapper Tobe Nwigbe is fun as Reek, a local car thief who enlists a reluctant Noah. Davidson’s espanol needs some work. But he gives his laugh lines real, ahem, energy. “Transformers: Rise of the Beast” has a truly sweet and surprising twist ending. Will the Autobots pluck happy victory from the rubbish prospect of the end of the world? Cue the gravelly-voiced narrator.
(“”Transformers: Rise of the Beasts” contains violent action, profanity and rude humor)
