The evil planet-devouring god Unicron (voiced by Colman Domingo) wants this Key so that he can jump easily from meal to meal, but it’s guarded by the Maximals—Transformers that assume the shape of animals—who escape the destruction of their planet by using the Key to escape to Earth and hide it there. Millennia later (1994 to be exact, with plenty of needle drops and pop culture references to remind us), one half of the Key is discovered and accidentally activated by a museum intern and artifacts researcher named Elena (Dominique Fishback, Swarm).
That alerts Optimus Prime (voiced, of course, by Peter Cullen), who knows the Key can get his Autobots back to Cybertron and calls them into action to acquire it. One of those Autobots is Mirage (voiced by Pete Davidson), who is disguised as a Porsche that, as it just so happens, is in the process of being robbed by Noah (Anthony Ramos, In the Heights). Noah’s an ex-soldier who is forced into crime after being unable to secure a job and medical care for his ailing younger brother.
Noah and Elena soon find themselves aligned with Optimus, Bumblebee, Arcee, and other Autobots as they struggle to keep the Key from Unicron’s agent Scourge (Peter Dinklage) and his team of Terrorcons. As the quest leads them all to Peru, the Autobots discover other allies there: the surviving Maximals, led by Optimus Primal (Ron Perlman), who also vow to stop Unicron from obtaining the Key.
Caple introduces all his characters—humans, Autobots, Maximals, Terrorcons, and other interested parties—with relative ease, and the designs of all the various Transformers makes it less of a chore to keep track of them this time around. The simplicity of the story where everyone’s basically after the same thing allows for less tedious exposition (although there is always some, just look above!) and more room for, dare we say it, character development.
Fishback and Ramos are both appealing, empathetic, and charismatic, with most of the first act spent establishing their stories before the robot action kicks in. Fishback thankfully continues the precedent set by Hailee Steinfeld in Bumblebee of the women in these movies being more than just the exploitative eye candy of the cringeworthy Bay days.
Even series mainstay Optimus Prime gets to do some character work this time. Not every choice old Optimus makes is the right one, and he’s haunted by past mistakes as well; Cullen inserts a subtle regret into the voice this time. Davidson’s Mirage is the comic relief on this ride, although he’s a fiercely loyal link to the humans as well. Meanwhile Perlman and especially Michelle Yeoh as the Maximal falcon Airazor bring these newest entries to the live-action franchise a certain gravitas and faint dignity.
#Transformers #Review #Rise #Beasts #Learned #Lessons #Bumblebee #Michael #Bay
