For a while now, the Transformers franchise has been impenetrable to the point that watching it makes me temporarily question whether I understand or speak English. In the latest entry, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, Optimus Prime (voiced by Peter Cullen), head of the Autobots, is in search of something called a "transwarp key", a vital piece of technology which, in the wrong hands, would allow a planet-gobbling robot Unicron (Colman Domingo) to set his sights on Earth.
Among his special abilities, Unicron can possess other robots, including his chief henchman Scourge (Peter Dinklage). Thankfully, Optimus Prime and co find helpful allies in the Maximals, who are also robots, but specifically robots who transform into mecha-versions of various animals. One of these, a very big falcon, is voiced by Oscar-winner Michelle Yeoh.
There's no reason why a franchise based on a children's toy can't indulge in a little Herculean worldbuilding (if Greta Gerwig wants to introduce some millennia-old mythology into her forthcoming Barbie film, I'm open to the idea). But the persistent issue with the Transformers saga, whether under Michael Bay's vision or not, is that it treats all plot and backstory like mandatory history homework viewers must complete before they're allowed to watch robots punch each other in the head. There's not a morsel of joy to be found here.
Absurdly, the film attempts to align Noah and Elena's struggles with racism and economic inequality to those faced by the Autobots, the scrappy, little interplanetary underdogs
This story is from the June 09, 2023 edition of The Independent.
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This story is from the June 09, 2023 edition of The Independent.
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