{"id":58102,"date":"2023-06-13T14:05:21","date_gmt":"2023-06-13T18:05:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/?p=58102"},"modified":"2023-06-13T14:05:38","modified_gmt":"2023-06-13T18:05:38","slug":"movie-review-transformers-rise-of-the-beasts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/2023\/06\/movie-review-transformers-rise-of-the-beasts\/","title":{"rendered":"Movie Review – Transformers: Rise of the Beasts"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Bob Garver<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Few blockbuster franchises are as reviled by critics as \u201cTransformers.\u201d The 2007 original and its 2009 sequel \u201cRevenge of the Fallen\u201d both have special places among the worst movies of all time. Later sequels weren\u2019t exactly improvements (though 2018 spinoff \u201cBumblebee\u201d was surprisingly-well-reviewed), but they didn\u2019t inspire the same vitriol, if only because everyone knew to lower their expectations. Still, the \u201cTransformers\u201d brand is associated with eyesore special effects, nauseating mechanical whooshing noises, and unfunny comedy. Director Michael Bay is out, as apparently even he\u2019s sick of these movies, but Steven Caple Jr. steps in seamlessly to ensure that the new movie is still a blemish on the summer movie calendar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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            Having said that, I\u2019ll start off with a compliment: at least I like the main human this time. Original lead Shia LaBeouf was almost as insufferable onscreen as he was off, and all-American bohunk Mark Wahlberg was bland. But Anthony Ramos manages to inject enough charm into underwritten, down-on-his-luck ex-soldier Noah Diaz that he sails right over that low bar to be the most affable human yet. Danielle Fishback as artifacts expert Elena Wallace isn\u2019t quite the best second banana in the series (that would be Isabel Moner from \u201cThe Last Knight\u201d), but at least she\u2019s better than the sleazily objectified love interests from the LaBeouf era.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Noah and Elena soon find themselves in the middle of a war between the good Autobots, this time aligned with a new race called Maximals, and the evil Terrorcons. The Autobots, as always, are led by Optimus Prime (Peter Cullen), and feature load-carrying member Bumblebee, though this time the human\u2019s entry point isn\u2019t Bee, but Mirage (Pete Davidson), a trickster that likes undercover work. The Maximals are led by gorilla-like Maximus Primal (Ron Perlman), though the show is stolen by recent Oscar winner Michelle Yeoh as the falcon-esque Airazor. They\u2019re all banding together to stop world-devourer Unicron (Colman Domingo) and his army, led by Scourge (Peter Dinklage). The inter-planetary war comes down to a battle over an artifact, and the various heroes aren\u2019t on the same page about whether to protect it or destroy it, so they all need to learn a lesson about teamwork and sacrifice. Once they do, it\u2019s just a matter of the usual clanging and whooshing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            The movie makes the odd decision to set itself in 1994, which gives the filmmakers an excuse to throw some mid-90\u2019s hip-hop on the soundtrack (Bumblebee gets the best music cue, big surprise), but there\u2019s little reason other than that. Not that Earth is likely to get eaten by Unicron anyway, but the stakes seem lower knowing that we made it to 1995. Similarly, we know that Optimus Prime and Bumblebee are going to make it to 2007, so there\u2019s no need to worry about their fates here, even when Bumblebee is apparently killed for the umpteenth time before whatever resurrection they have planned for this installment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \u201cTransformers: Rise of the Beasts\u201d gives people exactly what they expect from a \u201cTransformers\u201d movie, but much less than what they should expect from a blockbuster. It had the bad fortune to come out the week following the best blockbuster of the year in \u201cSpider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse,\u201d a film that will probably overtake it at the box office next weekend because this movie is so disposable. The film ends with a promise to soon cross over with another franchise, one whose last installment was \u201cTransformers\u201d-level bad without the admitted commercial success. It might not be so bad if they bring Ramos along for the ride, but I know better than to hold these movies to a high standard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grade: C-<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTransformers: Rise of the Beasts\u201d is rated PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi action and violence, and language. Its running time is 127 minutes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Bob Garver             Few blockbuster franchises are as reviled by critics as \u201cTransformers.\u201d The 2007 original and its 2009 sequel \u201cRevenge of the Fallen\u201d both have special places among… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":58103,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[108],"tags":[2374],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58102"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58102"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58102\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58104,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58102\/revisions\/58104"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}