Critical popcorn

Is there life in the Transformers film franchise without Michael Bay calling the shots? Having helmed five of the last six films (2018’s Bumblebee spin-off being the only outlier up till now), Bay has seemingly stepped back for this latest Autobot outing for a less hands-on producer’s credit, making way for Steven Caple Jr. (of Creed II fame) to helm the Robots in Disguise’s latest foray instead. Whether this change of director benefits the film is difficult to say, as Transformers: Rise of the Beasts does very little to distinguish itself.

Like Transformers: Age of Extinction (2014), Rise of the Beasts serves as a soft reboot for the long-running series. Positing the characters in the early 90s essentially wipes the slate clean in terms of continuity, and the film keeps things simple by introducing fresh new villains (in this case, the legendary planet-eating Unicron and his Terrorcon apostle Scourge, voiced by Peter Dinklage). The Terrorcons want to destroy Earth, the Autobots and their new allies the Maximals (the titular Beasts) want to save it. As a reintroduction to the world of these films, its pretty standard fare.

As a result, Rise of the Beasts is largely inoffensive but also painfully bland. Like the 1990’s themselves, the whole film is aesthetically dull, and the plot isn’t much to write home about either. Proceedings ultimately boil down to yet another MacGuffin quest (how many has this franchise had now?!), which is hardly enlivened by the dull human characters thrown in to gawp and awe at the giant robotic clashes. There’s some minor drama as casualties pile up on the good guy’s side, but nothing really surprises or lands in the way the filmmakers obviously wanted.

Believe it or not, the lack of Bay-hem is both a help and a hindrance to the proceedings. The casual racism and hypersexulisation that was a constant in Bay’s Transformers films is thankfully gone, but also missing is the director’s signature approach to action, which, whilst often nauseating, was at least inventive and stylish. The CG fight sequences here are coherent but lazy for the most part, lacking the impact of previous outings. Caple Jr. proves capable at orchestrating a big climactic finale, but it’s very uninspiring on both a visual or dramatic level. One wonder whether Michael Bay would have dialled things up a bit more, but then one also dreads the inevitable headache that comes with such a prospect.

At the very least, the cast are good, despite being underserved by the script. Anthony Ramos and Dominique Fishback make for a likeable leading pair as main characters Noah and Elena, regardless of the rather cut-and-paste nature of their character’s personalities, whilst Peter Cullen remains the franchise’s MVP as the voice of Optimus Prime. Prime gets a whole lot more to do here in terms of the dramatic stakes, and whilst his arc is a bit muddled, it at least attempts to give the character some growth after a decade or so of simply being present. Unfortunately the Beasts themselves, the Maximals, barely register, despite some cool designs and some decent vocals from Ron Perlman and Michelle Yeoh, whilst there remains a lot of woeful attempts at humour, mostly from Pete Davidson as the Autobot’s comic relief character Mirage.

So is there life in the Transformers franchise without Michael Bay? Probably yes, but don’t expect to find much of it here. Transformers: Rise of the Beasts just about distinguishes itself from previous Transformer outings and is a lot less problematic than Bay’s films were, though it feels more like franchise life support then a new fresh new start. Formulaic, lacking in style and substance, but largely playing it safe, it’s a rather average outing for the Robots in Disguise, but entertaining enough to pass a couple of hours if you like seeing giant robots hitting other giant robots.

Regardless of who’s behind the camera, that’s ultimately what matters, and on this basic element, the film delivers. Who needs Michael Bay for that?!

Transformers: Rise of the Beasts is released in UK Cinemas 8 June