> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.thenaijanerds.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Transformers: Rise of the Beasts Continues Heart and Character Focused Trend - URL: https://www.thenaijanerds.com/transformers-rise-of-the-beasts-continues-heart-and-character-focused-trend/ - Published: 2023-06-05T20:05:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-01T20:06:49.000Z - Description: Rise of The Beasts plays it safe when compared to the Bay-era, and falls short of the previous iteration Bumblebee - Author: Jeffrey Peterson - Tags: Movie Reviews Director: Steven Caple Jr. Run Time: 1 hour 57 mins ***Transformers: Rise of The Beasts*** is a good, summer blockbuster that’s sandwiched between the debut of **Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse** and ***The Flash***. With this placement, the sequel has the opportunity to gain some momentary traction as movie-goers attempt to see **Spider-Verse** a second or third time and others continue to debate if they’ll give their time and money to one of the final DCEU movies. ***Rise of The Beasts*** plays it safe when compared to the Bay-era, and falls short of the previous iteration ***Bumblebee***. The movie is still funny and charming, with just enough action, and a good amount of heart. The film begins on a Cybertron-like planet, immediately introducing us to Maximals as they battle Scourge, one of Omicron’s Terrorcon henchmen that help in the devouring of planets. We jump to 1994 and meet Noah Diaz (Anthony Ramos), a former member of the military, struggling to find work while assisting his mother (Luna Lauren Velez) and taking care of his brother Kris (Dean Scott Vazquez). Noah’s friend Reek (Tobe Nwigwe) knows of a job that will bring in some money, so the two venture to a parking garage to steal a Porsche. Meanwhile, archeology intern Elena Wallace (Dominique Fishback) discovers an artifact that leads to the Maximals coming out of hiding. The earlier carjack leads to an all-call for the Autobots to assist in finding the second half of the artifact Elana discovered, all to save Earth. The sides debate whether to team up before the Terrorcons can bring Omicron to Earth. The film has a huge cast once you factor in all the voice work. Additional Autobots and Maximals include Optimus Primal, Airazor, and Mirage, voiced by Ron Perlman, Michelle Yeoh, and Pete Davidson respectively. The best voice-over work is probably Davidson, but the big standout in terms of acting for me was Vazquez. It may be because of his age, Transformers were originally a toy after all, but Vazquez brings sincerity to the role as the easily-influenced little brother that really grounded the film for me. Nwigwe is the other human standout. In terms of voice-over work, most of it is fair. Since the film focused on a smaller cast of humans, they have tons of space to work with. I really enjoyed Ramos and Fishback too. Their chemistry isn’t off the wall, but it’s enough. They do really well individually. They don’t quite match ***Bumblebee*** level, but it’s close. Action isn’t one of the strong points of the film, but there’s enough of a tease here to fill the summer blockbuster quota. I’ve seen multiple critics claim that there’s no visual signature to the film and I agree with that, but I also didn’t witness anything so over the top or out of line with the film’s premise that I wanted to roll my eyes or throw up. While Bay’s films were often criticized for their sweaty humans and championed for their visual flair and questioned for their utter destruction, it all added up to an action-packed orchestra that was consistently bombastic. ***Rise of The Beasts*** goes for a different approach and is different from ***Bumblebee*** too. The movie goes for a classic 50/50 balance of exposition and action, and unfortunately, much of that action focuses on the Autobots and not the Maximals. There’s also some major editing issues when the action does start up and it is difficult to ignore. More than once, the logic of the film skips ahead and hopes you don’t notice: cars, robots, and people exist in a given space and then that’s broken in the very next scene. It was very distracting, more so than the fight scenes that ended up as a whir of color. The final scene of the movie made ***Rise of The Beasts*** worth it for most people. This screening required us to turn our phones off and that made sense by the end. I won’t spoil it and don’t let anyone else ruin it for you if you care about the franchise. I’m glad they used it to actually end the movie and not as a post-credit scene. ***Transformers: Rise of The Beasts*** earns my first 3.75 out of 5\. I’m not afraid to round it down. I just don’t want to yet.