Film Review: ’Transformers: Rise of the Beasts’ is Clanky Calamity

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CHICAGO – When it comes to bad movies there are three types … fun bad, memorably bad, and ordinary bad. “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts” belongs in the latter category. It’s a clinking, clanking calamity that fails on almost every level, which is about par for the course when it comes to this series.

Rating: 1.0/5.0

Set in 1994, this story operates as something of a prequel to the Michael Bay-directed original movies. The plot, such as it is, follows a small group of Autobots who must keep a MacGuffin – called the Transwarp Key – out of the hands from the Terricon minions of Omicron, a planet eating robot out to destroy all life. In addition to a pared down group of Autobots led by Optimus Prime (voice of Peter Cullen), there’s now the Maximals. These are robots in animal form led by a gorilla named, wait for it, Optimus Prime-al (Ron Perlman).

Stranded a long way from Broadway is the human co-star from “Hamilton,” Anthony Ramos. He’s a former soldier named Noah, looking for work to help support his working mom, and he’s got a sick little brother too. Aiming to earn a little quick cash, he agrees to steal a car which turns out to be one of our transformer friends, Mirage (voice of Pete Davidson) and he gets roped into helping save the world. They’re joined by museum research assistant Elena (Dominique Fishback), whose main function is to serve as an exposition machine, decoding ancient texts in an instant and keep the plot mechanics moving.

Continue reading for Spike Walter’s full review of ”Transformers: Rise of the Beasts”

Transformers: Rise of the Beasts
Photo credit: Paramount Pictures

Continue reading for Spike Walter’s full review of ”Transformers: Rise of the Beasts”