Growing up, I didn’t have much interest in Transformers toys.
But, when they started rolling out the first live-action flick in 2007 – that’s when I got interested in them.
Well, mostly in the action movie that has giant sentient robots fighting sort of interest, but, I’m still digging them.
The latest installment into the series adds animal robot camouflage bodies instead of an assortment of vehicles.
Outside of that, it’s your standard big fighting robot movie with explosions, screaming humans, and the quintessential good versus evil battle.
The film clocks in at 127 minutes long and is rated PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi action and violence, and language.
Transformers: Rise of the Beasts is a science fiction action film based on Hasbro’s Transformers toy line, and primarily influenced by the “Beast Wars” storyline.
The film is the seventh installment in the Transformers live-action film series. Serving as a standalone sequel to Bumblebee (2018) and prequel to Transformers (2007), the film was directed by Steven Caple Jr. from a screenplay by Joby Harold, Darnell Metayer, Josh Peters, Erich Hoeber, and Jon Hoeber.
It stars Anthony Ramos, Tobe Nwigwe, Dominique Fishback, Ron Perlman, Peter Dinklage, Michelle Yeoh, Liza Koshy, Michaela Jaé Rodriguez, Pete Davidson, Colman Domingo, Cristo Fernández, Tongayi Chirisa, and returning franchise regulars Peter Cullen, John DiMaggio, and David Sobolov.
The homeworld of the Maximals, an advanced race of Cybertronians with beast modes, comes under attack from the planet-eating dark god Unicron (Domingo).
His heralds, the Terrorcons, and an army of Predacon scorpions, led by Scourge (Dinklage), seek to obtain for their master the Maximals’ greatest piece of technology, the Transwarp Key.
The Key can open portals through space and time which would make Unicron’s power limitless and leave the whole universe at risk.
The Maximal leader Apelinq (Sobolov) sacrifices himself to allow the other Maximals to escape the planet before Unicron devours it.
Now under the command of Optimus Primal (Perlman), the Maximals use the key to flee to Earth.
In 1994 Brooklyn, ex-military electronics expert Noah Diaz (Ramos) struggles to find a job to support his family and is convinced by his friend Reek (Nwigwe) to steal a Porsche 911 to sell, only to discover that the car is the Autobot Mirage (Davidson) in disguise.
Concurrently, museum intern Elena Wallace (Fishback) studies an ancient statue of a falcon bearing the Maximal symbol and accidentally breaks it open to reveal half of the Transwarp Key hidden inside.
The key releases an energy pulse that is detected by Optimus Prime (Cullen), who summons the other Autobots; Mirage is contacted in the middle of Noah’s attempted theft.
Unfortunately, that means Noah is roped into the robots’ mission to recover the key so they can use it to return to their homeworld - Cybertron.
Drawn by the key’s signature, the Terrorcons arrive on Earth, and Elena is caught up in the conflict when the villains attack the Autobots outside the museum.
Scourge deactivates Bumblebee and steals the key half before the Maximal Airazor (Yeoh) arrives and drives him off.
Airazor explains to the Autobots that the Maximals have been hiding on Earth for thousands of years, and split the Transwarp Key in two to keep it out of Unicron’s hands.
Overall, there’s nothing quite like watching giant robots fight to save Earth on the big screen, plus this installment has an awesome soundtrack and plenty of banter between human and robot characters.
