Few films have meant a turnaround in a drifting saga as wonderful as ‘Bumblebee’. Released a year after ‘Transformers: The Last Knight’ (which is, by all accounts, a horror), this prequel and at the same time spin-off seemed to open up new stories hitherto unpublished in the saga and it managed to hit exactly where Michael Bay’s films failed: in the heart. Five years later, the seventh film in the saga is ready to combine both ways of seeing the Autobots… But the mix doesn’t quite turn out exactly the way he wants.
My friends the Transformers
‘Transformers: Rise of the Beasts’ is ultimately a movie from the classic franchise. It is exactly everything you expect to see: giant robots hitting each other, a very simple plot told in an excessively complex way, a couple of human characters and a couple of winks for the fans that they will enjoy a lot. Put it in some way, could be between the first two deliveries directed by Baywhen he had not yet completely lost the north.
This seventh part feels like a return to the origins that alleviates after the disaster of ‘The Last Knight’ but frustrates the viewer who expected a change in tone after the harmonic and sentimental simplicity of ‘Bumblebee’. There is an attempt to unite the almost grotesque fighting and robotic killing with the drama of two separated brothers suffering through life, but they are far from being equally important. If you were afraid that ‘Transformers’ would become Bart’s People, you’re in luck. If what you feared was a return to form, I have bad news.
But you would have to be blind not to see everything that ‘The awakening of the beasts’ contributes to a saga that only had two options: change or die. The film has its heart and soul between metallurgy and spark plugs thanks to Noah, a penniless ex-serviceman from Brooklyn with a sick brother who gives a little bit of social criticism to a film that didn’t need it, but is grateful to go further. What’s more: until the appearance of Mirage, the film travels through a dramatic territory that is forbidden and almost typical of independent cinema that serves as a counterpoint, in this pseudo-reboot, to those prototype characters from the mid-2000s that roamed the first films in the saga. It’s the symbol of the times, and the franchise does well to, well, transform.
Calling all Autobots!
That does not mean that the core of the footage is a more or less unbeatable formula: good robots, bad robots, a more or less understandable plot that serves as an excuse for them to stick together. You can telegraph every detail of what’s happening on screen before it doesbut it is no less pleasant to see that Steven Caple Jr learned to give clarity in battles directing ‘Creed II’.
Away from the vacuous horror to which Bay condemned the latest installments of ‘Transformers’, where the viewer was more dizzy than paying attention to the battle, this new installment returns to the clearer and less twisted visual and assembly system of his first installments. And less bad. Each of the Autobots, the Maximals and the Terrorcons have their own personality and are distinguishable at first, although some only make an appearance nominal and they have not bothered to give them personality or, practically, lines of dialogue.
In return, the film is lost between trips, lightning, mystic keys, robot-animals and complicates, very consciously, what would otherwise be an overly simple plot. Perfect for fans accustomed to this type of terms and adventures, but also for the Boyero on duty who are going to feel expelled from that confusing prologue and that it falls into all the clichés that previous films have fallen into.
what a bestiality
But without a doubt, for what ‘The awakening of the beasts’ will be remembered in a few years it will be for a final twist that leaves you wanting more even the viewer less enjoyment. It’s surprising, it’s fresh, and it opens up new ways to enjoy ‘Transformers’ in a movie that gambles everything for everything: if it succeeds, we’ll see if the ordeal works. If not, it will simply sink into the long list of good ideas that stayed with it.
‘Transformers’ has a desire for change and good ideas, but is reluctant to let go of the formula of its previous installments: His innovations are like putting chorizo in macaroni after eating it with ketchup for decades. Is it appreciated? Of course. Are you going to remember those macaroons two days later? Of course not. And it does not matter. Summer cinema, traditionally, has always been for consumption and quick forgetfulness, more intended to take advantage of the air conditioning than to see works of art. AND ‘Rise of the Beasts’ continues this tradition with an early 2000s style which has its fair share of epic scenes, predictable fights, non-stop action and more or less exciting twists.
Good intentions don’t necessarily make good movies., and, sadly, the attempt to put together ‘Bumblebee’ with the Michael Bay style does not quite bear fruit. The relationship between the two brothers (“Sonic” and “Tails”) is endearing, but it fails to give the film that emotional blow that it expects and that, of course, it does not find in some giant robots that, at this point, are almost a stumbling block for their own franchisewho asks to open up to new tones, visions and adventures but remains imprisoned in her own prison in the shape of the beginning of the millennium.
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