The essence of the ‘90s is captured in Director Steven Caple Jr.’s new venture into this franchise with “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts”. Going into this venture felt wildly out of place as not usually a film franchise I could say I loved. Walking out of it was a whole different story as the entire screening audience gave it a whopping applause upon its ending, myself included.

Maybe it’s my love for Anthony Ramos as an actor, but this film highly entertains and in all the best ways. The opening scene is a mixed bag of loud robots and not understanding it completely, gives and initial “oh no” feeling. But those went immediately away as the real story begins in New York City circa 1994 – six years after the events in Bumblebee. As we are first introduced to Noah (Anthony Ramos), a proud New Yorker, ex-military, tech wiz trying to make ends meet by setting up illegal cable boxes for his friends. Out of a job, and trying to provide for his hard-working mother Breanna (Luna Lauren Velez), and younger brother Kris (Dean Scott Vasquez), who is battling sickle-cell anemia, his desperation leads him to attempt to stealing a fancy car. As luck would have it, the car he chooses is a actually a Transformer named Mirage (v/o Pete Davidson), which places Noah smack dab in the middle of the conflict between Autobots and a planet destroyer bot called the Unicron (v/o Colman Domingo).

Our other lead human on board this film is Elena (Dominique Fishbeck), a museum curator who finds an artifact that awakens Unicron’s henchman Scourge (v/o Peter Dinklage), which gives him the power to locate all the bots on Earth. With Optimus Prime (v/o Peter Cullen) and the voice-less Bumblebee back, the main revelation is a new robot species of Transformers called the Maximals. They are giant metal animals and include a gorilla named Optimus Primal (v/o Ron Perlman), a rhino named Rhinox (v/o David Sobolov), and a killer eagle named Airazor (v/o Michelle Yeoh). With the goal being completely apparent that it will be their job to save Earth, get the Autobots back to their home of Cybertron, and do it all before everything is destroyed.

Whew! In case you haven’t guessed, yeah, there is a lot going on here – and to keep track of it all seems daunting, but while it’s happening, you just do. And you have so much fun while doing so. The third act’s action set piece is up there with Bumblebee’s and the only real miss is that opening segment. But with possibly the best soundtrack of a film all year, all wrapped up with robots, you’ve got yourself some fun entertainment.  With stylistic needle-drop moments on the soundtrack packing in tracks from Wu-Tang Clan, A Tribe Called Quest and more, including the roaring rumbling score by Jongnic Bontemps, all comes together to bring 90’s hip-hop to the forefront. But the absolute highlight is by far LL Cool J’s “Mama Said Knock You Out”, being overlayed a brutal bot fight scene that not only perfectly times and fits the scenes, but adds so much and then more.

The visual effects however, although overwhelming in the climactic battle, still manage a ‘wow’ factor with seamless transformations that look impressive. Far from perfect, Rise of the Beasts sticks to the basics of action blockbusters and focuses on getting them right, making it an enjoyable entry that pushes the Transformer franchise in the right direction. With the snappy dialogue, colossal fight scenes and even some tender moments — Rise of the Beasts has all the ingredients of a summer blockbuster.

Anthony Ramos and Dominique Fishback do a great job with their characters and their chemistry working on-screen is truly wonderful. While some of the characters we don’t see as much as maybe we’d like, the film is full of names and Pete Davidson as Mirage might just have stolen the show. But as noted, the true star is without a doubt the soundtrack stacking up to any film yet this year, and that is stating a lot as there have been some gems out there. The ending is spot on and even though it’s setting up for the next one, it could almost be a stand-alone and yet still, it’s the music and you just can’t get past how the music in the movie is so fire.

Lastly, it’s just plain fun. Period.

Grade: B

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“TRANSFORMERS: RISE OF THE BEAST” FROM PARAMOUNT PICTURES IS OUT IN THEATERS FRIDAY, JUNE 9, 2023

Review Screening: Friday, June 2, 2023 ~ Courtesy of LAFTV Film Group