Transformers: Rise of the Beasts retains some of Bumblebee's tonal warmth while failing to build on the intelligence that made its predecessor the franchise's most carefully crafted entry. Steven Caple Jr.'s 2023 film is not a return to the Bayverse's worst excesses, but it settles for adequacy where Bumblebee achieved quality, and its failure to develop what that picture established gives it a disappointing quality that its surface competence cannot fully offset.
At a Glance
Director: Steven Caple Jr.
Runtime: 127 minutes
Starring: Anthony Ramos, Dominique Fishback, Peter Cullen, Ron Perlman, Peter Dinklage
Release: 2023
Critics Rating: ★★½ (2.5/5 stars, competent but uninspired)
Audience Rating: ★★★ (3/5 stars, enjoyable if forgettable)
Plot
Set in 1994 New York, the picture follows Noah Diaz, a former military electronics expert struggling to support his family, and Elena Wallace, a museum intern, who become involved in a conflict between the Autobots, the Maximals (animal-form Transformers), and the Terrorcons, servants of the planet-consuming Unicron. The screenplay by Joby Harold, Darnell Metayer, Josh Peters, Erich Hoeber, and Jon Hoeber introduces the Maximals as the most significant new addition, and their integration into the franchise's established mythology is handled with enough clarity to give the picture a coherent framework. The Unicron threat gives the film a cosmic scale that the franchise had not previously achieved in the Bumblebee universe, but the villain is developed with insufficient depth to generate genuine stakes. The narrative's movement from Brooklyn to Peru follows a familiar franchise template, and the screenplay does not find enough that is new within that template to distinguish itself from the Bayverse entries it is nominally departing from. The Peruvian finale delivers the expected spectacle but arrives at a destination the audience has visited in various forms across the franchise's earlier films, and the resolution of the Unicron threat is handled with a speed that suggests a production more interested in setting up future instalments than in giving the current one a satisfying conclusion.
Characters
Anthony Ramos's Noah is a more credible protagonist than the Bayverse's human leads, a young man of motivation and screen presence whose family situation gives the picture a personal stake that earlier franchise entries have not always provided. His relationship with his younger brother, whose medical needs drive Noah's financial desperation, gives the character a particularity that the Bayverse's human protagonists rarely achieved, and Ramos communicates that detail with enough warmth to make Noah the franchise's most sympathetic human lead since Steinfeld's Charlie. Dominique Fishback's Elena is the most thinly served character, an intelligent and capable researcher whose expertise is used primarily as a plot mechanism rather than as a basis for development. The gap between Fishback's evident ability and the material she is given is the picture's most persistent casting frustration. The Maximals, particularly Optimus Primal voiced by Ron Perlman, are the most enjoyable new additions, and their interactions with the established Autobots give the picture its most entertaining passages. Perlman's Optimus Primal is the most assured of the new voice performances, bringing a physical authority and a generosity to the character that gives the Maximals a presence their limited screen time does not always allow. Peter Cullen's Optimus Prime remains the franchise's most enduring asset, and his interactions with Primal are the picture's most satisfying passages, two leaders of different traditions finding common ground with a directness and a dignity that the human storylines do not always match. Peter Dinklage's Scourge is the most underwritten antagonist, a Terrorcon commander of physical menace whose motivations are never developed beyond servitude to Unicron.
Meaning / Themes
The central concern is the relationship between personal loyalty and broader responsibility, a theme that earlier franchise entries have engaged with in various forms but that Rise of the Beasts handles with enough grounding to give it a modest dimension. Noah's decision to prioritise his family's needs over the Autobots' mission gives the central conflict a personal stake that the Bayverse's more abstractly motivated human protagonists did not provide, and his eventual commitment to the broader cause is handled with enough preparation to feel earned rather than arbitrary. The Maximals' own history as refugees from a destroyed world gives the film's themes of sacrifice and belonging a secondary register that the screenplay gestures toward without fully developing.
Direction
Caple pitches the picture at a register of action adventure with a 1990s period flavour, a tonal choice that gives it a nostalgic affability that distinguishes it from the Bayverse's more relentlessly contemporary register. The New York setting is used with enough particularity to give the picture a sense of place that the Bayverse's more generic locations did not always provide, and the period soundtrack, featuring hip-hop and R&B from the early 1990s, gives it a sonic identity that suits its cultural context and connects the franchise's established period-setting strategy to a new decade with enough affection to feel considered rather than formulaic. The tonal register is less consistent than Bumblebee's, however, and the shift to the Peruvian finale's more conventional action spectacle feels like a concession to franchise expectations rather than a natural development of the established register.
Caple's direction is more spatially coherent than the Bayverse's but less tonally consistent than Bumblebee's, maintaining a basic visual clarity across the action sequences while failing to give the picture the distinctive identity that Knight's 1980s aesthetic gave its predecessor. The Brooklyn sequences are the most visually grounded, using the period setting with enough environmental detail to give the picture a texture that the more generic action passages lack. The Peruvian finale is staged with enough scale and physical specificity to deliver the franchise's expected spectacle, but it lacks the weight that Bumblebee's more character-focused climax achieved. Jongnic Bontemps's score draws on the period's musical influences with enough skill to give the picture a musical texture that suits its 1990s setting.
Rise of the Beasts received mixed reviews on its release and was a moderate commercial success, grossing over $439 million worldwide. Critics acknowledged the improved human protagonists and the Maximals' entertainment value while noting the failure to build on Bumblebee's intelligence. It is now regarded as a missed opportunity, a picture that had the creative foundation to continue Bumblebee's quality but chose adequacy over ambition, and its reception has prompted ongoing discussion about the franchise's creative direction and whether the Bumblebee universe can sustain the quality of its opening entry.
Final Verdict: A picture that knows how to function without knowing what it wants to say. Ramos and Fishback are more credible human protagonists than the Bayverse's leads, the Maximals are an enjoyable addition to the franchise's roster, and the 1990s period setting gives the picture a cultural particularity that distinguishes it from its predecessors. It is not the film that Bumblebee's quality suggested the franchise was capable of producing, and the gap between what it achieves and what it might have achieved is the most instructive thing about it.