Movie review

Hello guys it’s Matthew and this is my review for Transformers:

Rise of the beasts.
What’s up my fellow movie fans? With Transformers: Rise of
the beasts already hitting theatres I wanted to share my
thoughts and opinions of the movie. Throughout the review I
won’t be making any references to previous Transformers
content besides (Bumblebee), I’ll be mentioning only this film in
particular even though Transformers is a franchise of eight
different movies, multiple cartoons, videogames and comics.
There are four points where I’ll be directly analyzing…
Its story,
Portrayal of characters,
Visuals & performances
And some extra aspects
that might be worth talking about. Now before we get into this
review there are a few things that need to be addressed.
Firstly this film is a sequel to the (Bumblebee) movie from 2018.
Secondly this is a continuation of a rebooted movie series. And
lastly this review will contain spoilers so if you hate spoilers, go
watch the movie and then come back here later. Without
further ado let’s begin.
 Its story
Honestly the narrative of this film is very cohesive and
progressive than I thought it would be. It wastes no time in
setting up the main plot and introducing its main cast. From the
first few minutes we are showed what the conflict is going to
be about, who are the antagonists and then we are introduced
to our human protagonists. A lot of critics complained that the
human characters get too much screen time in the first act of
the movie. Which I strongly disagree to that because if you are
going to have some main characters whose choices and actions
affect the plot, then you need to spend as much time as
possible to fully flesh them out so that the audience can
connect with them well. Another thing I liked about the story is
how the main characters get proper arcs (or journeys of
change) to go through; they start at one point and finish at
another point in their lives. Even though the story is good there
are a few plot holes that might leave you scratching your head,
it’s not a major issue but something to keep in mind. Now that I
have praised the story long enough, let’s talk about…
 Portrayal of its characters
Despite how much I have praised its story, I have mixed
opinions about how they handled their characters. What they
did with the main characters was great.
Like most Transformers movies Optimus Prime is the main lead
with Mirage this time being the main standout character. Both
of these characters go through compelling arcs, Prime learns to
be a more noble leader which involves trusting humans while
Mirage transforms from a comedic goofball to a great hero
through his relationship with Noah. Speaking of Noah he is the
main human character, from the moment he is introduced he is
presented as a relatable person facing everyday problems of a
young adult except he also got to take care of his sick little
brother which makes his character all the more sad. Another
main human character is Elena, but she somewhat falls into the
side character category. Unlike Noah we don’t get to know
much about her personal life in the first act. All we know is that
she works as an intern at a museum and is very intelligent in
archeology which will be further used later in the plot. She also
forms an interesting relationship with Noah. Let’s dive into the
other side characters. Within the autobots you’ve got
Bumblebee, Arcee, wheeljack and a few others. They are all
portrayed well, they all interact with each other like actual
people with each autobot having their own personality and
perspective although one of them gets done very dirty in the
first twenty minutes. Then there are the maximals, which is
probably the central focus of film’s main narrative. First we
have Optimus Primal (leader of the maximals). Even though he
doesn’t get that much screen time as you would expect, he is
still a very grounded character who also guides Prime through
his arc. Then we have Airazor, out of all the maximals she gets
the most screen time and characterization. And is the driving
force to bring the autobots and maximals together. Her fate
towards the third act was truly heartbreaking and impactful.
And lastly we have Cheetor and Rhinox, their presence was
great but they don’t do much or have any sort of depth to them
which is a major issue considering how many characters are in
the film and how much time they have to develop each
character. That being said let’s talk about villains. The main
villain Scourge is easily one of the best villains of any
Transformer film. For one despite being the henchman for a
larger big bad which is Unicron, he imposes a strong threat to
our heroes. He has a menacing presence which strikes fears to
not only the heroes but to the audience as well. The other
Terracons are amazing and intimidating. Overall the characters
are handled really well except when there’s too many to keep
track of.
 Visuals and performances
To be honest with you, I was actually surprised at how good the
visual effects look. Not just during action sequences and in
certain environments but for character designs as well. Every
autobot, maximal and Terracon looks real and slightly faithful
to the its source material and the camera movements during
the action sequences were topnotch. As for the performances
everyone in the cast was fantastic both on screen and voice.
Anthony Ramos brought a very grounded and emotional
performance as Noah, Dominique Fishback as Elena was
amazing too. Peter Cullen as Optimus Prime was just awesome
and Pete Davidson as Mirage was a genius casting choice for
me. Peter Dinklage brought a menacing and vicious tone to the
character Scourge. While the rest of the cast does a very solid
job with their characters, my only grip about the cast is that
Bumblebee doesn’t have a voice actor this time around. Why
can’t y’all bring back Dylan O’Brian for this movie? He was the
perfect actor for Bumblebee in the 2018 film. But anyways
besides that little nitpick I really think this whole cast was
incredible.
 Extra aspects
Moving on to the extras, we have the soundtrack. With this film
being set in the 1990s, there are a lot of classic nineties hits
sprinkled in every now and then. Even though I didn’t grew up
in the nineties I still enjoyed it and wanted more from it.
Additionally the sound effects (Most disregarded aspect in film)
for the movements of the robots were really good.

Conclusion
Which brings me to the conclusion of this essay, if you are
curious about this film but not certain whether you should
watch it, it is up to your personal preference at the end of the
day. If you are a fan of fun action/adventure flicks this movie is
for you, not just because it has great fight scenes but also a
coherent plot so it’s going to be very enjoyable with more films
like this to come. However if you are a casual moviegoer that
just wants cinematic fun without having to worry about
continuity or catching up, then I would suggest either watching
Bumblebee (2018) before diving in or giving this one a pass. In
summary I enjoyed this movie and I would give this flick a score
of 8/10. Very soon I’ll make a review of (The Flash), so keep a
lookout for that. With that said, thanks for reading and
goodbye.