2023 Catch-Up: Transformers- Rise of the Beasts (2023)

 Is it more than meets the eye?
Is there a more original joke to use?

Let's see how this Sequel to the Reboot (I guess) turns out...

On a distant Planet, a new evil robot working for a bigger, also different evil robot is attacking a Planet full of different, good robots.

This one is for you, Beast Wars fans.
Let's break a Billion!

On Earth, it is 1994.
Missed a chance to make it 1996 (the year that Beast Wars came out).  Oh well.

Anyhow, our Hero is a down on his luck young man with a sick, younger brother who is just trying to get a job.

Through a series of events, he ends up inside of Mirage (voiced by Pete Davidson) and dragged into the conflict.

You see...

This other lady stumbles across an artifact that Unicron (who is no longer the Earth in this continuity) needs to come to Earth to destroy it.

Why Earth?

That's where the Film is set- duh!

The Transformers- which now includes Arcee- battle the new robots to get the key.

They EVENTUALLY run across the titular Beasts (who feature Ron Perlman and Michele Yeoh doing voices) and join forces.

Can they save the Earth?
Do they have The Touch?

To find out, rent or stream it now.

A decent Film that perhaps tries to do too much in too little of time.

The Transformers Films should be fun, popcorn Films with hopefully a deeper message and story.  They should be accessible to anyone.

This one includes an entirely new Lead, his family, 2 new Transformers, all of the Beast Wars Characters, a new Villain and a new bunch of Villain Henchman.

Can they do it in 2 hours?

Yes, but at the expense of many things.

Some things- like Optimus' Arc- work pretty well.  They really spell it out for the 'dummies' out there though, so don't look for subtext.  Other things- like Mirage being protective- are not that interesting, although they do try.

Poor Arcee and most of the Beasts just kind of exist.  Likewise, the Villain is just evil threat and his henchman is Robot Who Collects Trophies.

They turned Unicron into Galactus here...and then gave him a blatantly evil, no depth Silver Surfer.

The Film still kind of works, but I don't know if it can jump start the franchise.  Car pun!

On the plus side, this is a far better performance by Peter Dinklage playing a Robot than in Destiny.

*****

Fans of the Cartoon- original and Beast Wars- will get something out of this.  Sadly, it is more like when the Dinobots were in a previous Film- too little, too late.