Unicron (Colman Domingo), a planet-eating demon, has sent his minion, Scourge (Peter Dinklage), to find the Transwarp Key which will allow him to continue devouring the universe.  Centuries ago, the key was entrusted to Optimus Primal (Ron Perlman), son of Apelinq (David Sobolov), leader of the Maximals, who fled to Earth and hid the technology from Unicron.  The key is uncovered by a museum in 1994 and it is up to burgeoning archeologist Elena (Dominique Fishback) and ex-military technology specialist Noah (Anthony Ramos) to join forces with Optimus Prime (Peter Cullen), the Autobots, and the remaining Maximals to keep the Key from Unicron and save Earth. 

Steven Caple Jr. was handed the reigns to the Transformers franchise by Paramount Pictures for the seventh installment: Rise of the Beasts.  This second-shortest film in the series, clocking in at only 127 minutes, is packed full of robot action, extended set pieces, and heavily peppered with one-liners penned by a team of Joby Harold, Darnell Metayer, Josh Peters, Erich Hoeber, and Jon Hoeber.  Despite the massive writing team, the film still feels surprisingly coherent even given the wild premise, and it achieves that by following closely the action movie/MacGuffin template – complete with its own Maltese Falcon statue! – so that the deep lore which is present does not hinder audiences from understanding the core concepts of the story.  The exposition serves to color in some details, but wisely, the script does not inundate audiences with new vocabulary that they must understand and recall later, nor is it entrenched in the films that came before it so new audiences can easily be welcomed into the fold.   

In addition to cleaning house with the creatives from the Micheal Bay era of the franchise, though Bay retains a Produced By credit along with franchise stalwart Steven Spielberg, the human cast centered by Ramos and Fishback are also Transformers newcomers.  With so few humans to latch on to – Noah’s younger brother Kris (Dean Scott Vazquez) and associate Reek (Tobe Nwigwe) pretty much sum up the supporting cast – the onus is on Ramos and Fishback to sell the concept while the large voice cast has to keep the film alive.  Thankfully, the cast is committed to bringing this story to screen and they deliver the absolutely absurd dialogue with enough conviction that even the holdouts in the audience will find themselves won over by the spectacle, and possibly even find some connection to the characters as the emotional beats are paid off late in the narrative.  Rise of the Beasts is clearly Ramos’ vehicle to steer as he is given the most to do in the film, and late on fuses with Mirage (Pete Davidson) to take on Scourge and Unicron.  Fishback does the best with what she is given, but Elena is a largely thankless role even though she is heavily involved in much of the action.  To her credit, she refuses to cede screentime, even when the blocking of the scene regulates her to the back of the frame, and she imbues her performance with physical flourishes that keep eyes on her in an act of assured defiance which is in line with Elena’s nature.     

The cast, both human and robot, are all aided by the mid-90s setting complete with a soundtrack featuring nostalgic hits from Wu-Tang Clan and A Tribe Called Quest, among others.  It is not just nostalgia bating the audience, but the soundtrack helps to date the film back to when these kinds of bold, quippy action films were in their sunset years before the growing pains of CGI set in which eventually led to Marvel Studios taking the action genre, and the entire concept of a blockbuster, hostage.  Set ten years after the toys made their North American debut thanks to Hasbro, the film is clearly sending out a beacon call of its own to a specific demographic, but like the lore of the film, it is not alienating to newcomers.  Caple Jr. delivers a satisfying action film with bright, bold colors and sympathetic characters who are able to convince audiences that they are the heroes Earth needs. 

When it comes to the Transformers cast, as with Ramos, the leading bot is Mirage and Davidson, in a cruel twist of fate for the actor trying to find his footing in the post-SNL era of his career, shines in a role where he is heard but never seen.  Not having to worry about his physicality, the comedian is able to really home in on his timing and builds a great rapport with Ramos’ Noah.  The film feels a little bloated with Transformers, though, and while the breezy runtime is appreciated, it feels like there was a bit of a tradeoff here.  It still helps to fill the world, especially since the human characters are so few in numbers, but looking at the Maximals, specifically Rhinox (also, David Sobolov) and Cheetor (Tongayi Chirisa), they are barely present at all, and given even less to do.  The antagonists fare even worse, Scourge himself largely plays second fiddle to Unicron and the generals of his army are seen only in glimpses and if they are named, it is in a single, fleeting occurrence. 

Messy ensemble management aside, Rise of the Beasts does fairly well with its locations splitting its time in line with the act changes: New York, Peru, and the base of a portal that would allow Unicron close enough to Earth to devour it.  The Peru scenes are luscious to look at. Shot by Enrique Chediak, the deep greens of the forest play surprisingly well with the Autobots’ industrial bodies, and it is exciting to see the Maximals prowl through their jungle home.  It is unfortunate, then, that the final set piece takes place in a grey and dark CGI wasteland, but thankfully, the action is all quite legible. In addition to just being able to see what is going on, it is also thematically engaging given the multiple points of view between the characters on how to handle the Transwarp Key, but it does highlight that we never had the same opportunity to learn and connect with the expanded robot cast as there are some incomprehensible sequences in the melee, not because of quick cuts or poor lighting, but because who these ancillary characters are was never quite established.  With the inherent knowledge that good will triumph over evil, it eventually becomes clear, but there are swathes of action where the stakes are nonexistent as we have no connection to who is on screen. 

As a franchise, Transformers is one that has found waning goodwill with moviegoers since its box office peaked with Revenge of the Fallen (2009), the second installment, as each subsequent release grossed less and less. After the warmer-than-expected reception of Bumblebee (2018), the first spinoff from the Bay legacy, it seemed that Rise of the Beasts was going to continue to find fertile ground for the franchise by continuing to release standalone adventures. That notion was undermined by the final scene – not a stinger, but an actual scene – in which Noah is introduced to Agent Burke (Michael Kelly), a member of GI Joe, in a teaser that promises not only the continuation of Noah’s story but also the crossover of another property that has historically found middling success in making the leap from toy store shelves to the silver screen. For what Rise of the Beasts is otherwise, it is a fun and competently made blockbuster that lets our synapses take a two-hour break while robots shaped like cars and animals fight other robots for a piece of tech that is vaguely understood outside of it being an object of power. It is empty-calorie filmmaking that pairs perfectly with the empty calories of a bucket of popcorn and an ice-cold fountain soda.