For what it’s really worth, this is the first Transformers movie I’ve seen that I found entertaining. (I didn’t see the Bumblebee offshoot, which a lot of people liked.) Don’t get me wrong, I’m not categorically against movies about trademarked toy brands or video games, but when you combine that sort of commercial ethos with the Michael Bay aesthetic you get not only overkill but overkill that numbs to the point of incomprehension. Rise of the Beasts is co-produced by Bay but directed by Steven Caple Jr., who did a fine job on the second Creed movie. Unlike Bay, he seems genuinely engaged with the story and takes more than a few beats to drive home each plot point so that the cacophonous mayhem and violence has some sort of organic sense to it. And while the script has five names attached to it, it also has a simplicity of spirit that implies you don’t need a Ph.D in Hasbro Studies to get the whole zeitgeist behind the franchise. I tend to forget that stuff anyway.

It’s also got halfway relatable human characters. Though there was obviously a certain logic behind making the two leads put-upon members of minority groups, the sympathy factor attached to this idea makes for more actual drama than the series deserves. Anthony Ramos is appealing as Noah Diaz, the ex-military tech head who can’t seem to get a decent job in mid-90s Brooklyn and turns to grand theft auto in order to make some quick cash to help his younger brother, who is suffering from sickle cell anemia. It’s during the heist that he comes in contact with Mirage (Pete Davidson), the punky sports car Transformer with whom he develops a kind of standup comedy routine. And the always reliable Dominique Fishback is Elena, a museum artifacts expert whose knowledge about Central American civilizations beats that of her white, tenured superiors by a mile, and which those superiors take advantage of. Though the social commentary these two characters spark is rather thin, it gives more context to a story about a race of robots, the Autobots, who are stranded on a planet far from home and which take it upon themselves to defend their new home from extraterrestrial invaders. The story has its own species of overkill—the invaders want nothing less than to literally consume planet earth—but since it takes place temporally before the action described in the Bay Transformer movies (thus making it a kind of prequel), we get a better sense of what’s at stake for these machines, and that happens to be a chance to return to their home world if they can get their mechanical mitts on a certain key that unlocks a space portal. If this sounds like the same plot device at the center of the new Mission Impossible movie, I can only say it must be a huge coincidence.

The Beasts of the title are another group of stranded robots who resemble terrestrial animals and which were created for a TV show I know nothing about. However, they are voiced by an impressive lineup of stars, including Michelle Yeoh, Ron Perlman, and Peter Dinklage. Most of the viewer’s attention, however, will be spent on the action set pieces, which are more comprehensible than what I’m used to but typical overkill nonetheless. Nobody expects Chekhov, but a few scenes of the Autobots reflecting on what violence really accomplishes might be refreshing. 

Now playing in Tokyo at Toho Cinemas Nihonbashi (050-6868-5060), Toho Cinemas Hibiya (050-6868-5068), 109 Cinemas Premium Shinjuku (0570-060-109), Shinjuku Wald 9 (03-5369-4955), Shinjuku Piccadilly (050-6861-3011) Toho Cinemas Shinjuku (050-6868-5063), Toho Cinemas Shibuya (050-6868-5024), Toho Cinemas Roppongi Hills (050-6868-5024).

Transformers: Rise of the Beasts home page in Japanese

photo (c) 2023 Paramount Pictures TM Hasbro