There’s been a lot of confusion among fans – perhaps semi-deliberately stoked by Paramount – as to whether or not Transformers: Rise of the Beasts should be considered a sequel, prequel, or reboot. Without necessarily offering a definitive answer, all the cast and crew who appear in the 4K extras are of the same mind: it was filmed under the working title of “Transformers 7,” and they do consider it a sequel to Bumblebee and prequel to the Michael Bay movies. If certain plot points make absolutely no sense when viewed in that context, keep in mind that Bay gave even less of a damn about continuity than he did about accusations of misogyny and stereotyping, and his five movies frequently contradicted one another.
Directors: Transform and Roll Camera!
Perhaps the best thing for Transformers moving forward is the same idea the Mission: Imposisble series used to have until Christopher McQuarrie took it over on Tom Cruise’s behalf – give each subsequent installment a different director with a distinctive style and let them bear that filmmaker’s stamp. Consider each one its own thing, or else wonder why planet-sized robot Unicron from the future wants to eat the world that, in the present day, literally is him (per The Last Knight). Hell, if we take that plot point as canon, we must accept that the Maximals fled from Unicron to hide out on Unicron, where they’ve lived now for millennia and never figured that out, even as Autobots were around in primeval times, and the society of Witwiccans worked with them throughout human history to keep Unicron dormant.
This kind of confusing logic is the sort children might make up as they go along while playing with their toys, and to some of us, that kind of agreeable nonsense is the appeal. Rise of the Beasts’ writers, who include Joby Harold, Darnell Metayer, Josh Peters, Erich Hoeber, and Jon Hoeber, don’t concern themselves too much with external continuity, but they’ve made sure the logic within this one stays on point, and the themes are spelled out explicitly – Brothers look out for each other! Good guys need to work together to defeat evil!
Where Old Is New
In theory, Rise of the Beasts should have been the perfect compromise movie to unite Transformers fans, as Optimus Prime says, “Till all are one.” With character designs and performances similar to the original cartoon, a spectacle on some of the same scale as Michael Bay’s action, and a multi-cultural cast reminiscent of The Fast and the Furious, it should have been a winning combination. The low grosses suggest that perhaps Bay was the primary draw all along until he no longer was. Transformers as a movie franchise will go for at least one more movie, the all-CG prequel Transformers One, and that may determine just how big an audience the Transformers faithful are. It certainly fits in the suggested Mission: Impossible mold of making each movie post-Bay very different.
One thing that’s for sure with all Transformers movies, though, they look impeccable. Like or dislike the aesthetics and pace, one cannot deny that all the money is up there on the screen. That’s certainly the case with the Rise of the Beasts 4K – it only comes with the 4K disc, including no Blu-ray to compare. If you’re a buyer who gets 4Ks to play the included Blu-ray now, and the 4K in the future when you upgrade your TV one day, this may be a bummer. But for 4K users, the disc needs nothing to compare it to. It looks excellent, from the tiny particulate showers when Unicron is demolishing planets to the many shades of darkness in the museum and tomb scenes, revealing robots in the shadows.
Plus, no offense to Anthony Ramos, but his every freckle and pore can be counted. His is a face full of fascinating detail and texture, rather than pancake makeup and skin conditioning.
More Than Meets…Well, You Know
So smooth are most of the effects that a trained eye may notice the few things that seem mildly imperfect – Stratosphere, the cargo plane, could maybe use another pass on the CG. But then you look at Ramos in the Mirage armor at the end, and his face seems to be floating in it as if superimposed. Aha! It’s obviously digitally pasted on, yes? Well, no. On the extras, we get to see Ramos in the suit. It’s basic, and there’s a layer of CG on top, but he really did wear a costume in that shape.
The featurettes, which are all on the 4K disc since there is no other one, add up to about an hour and mostly feature director Steven Caple Jr, producer Lorenzo DiBonaventura, and star Anthony Ramos, with occasional on-set interviews from costar Dominique Fishback. The hefty A-list of voice talents appear via quick glimpses in the recording booths, but not in any other form.
Perusing
Most fascinating among the featurettes is one about the location shoot in Machu Picchu, where they couldn’t bring generators, nor even let equipment touch the ground. The crew invented an entirely new steadicam rig to do robot POV shots and relied heavily on drones, which took a while to get permission for. Considering they probably could have faked some of it in a studio, it retroactively makes the movie feel all the more impressive.
Extended and deleted scenes mostly seem to include things that the budget couldn’t contain, like an extended mountainside road chase and the addition of Cheetor and Rhinox to the chase through the tomb, in which it would have been unclear if the Maxinals were friends or foe. An alternate opening that emphasized Optimus’ longing for home had him fighting a bus-shaped Decepticon named Transit (voice of John DiMaggio) – some of this finished footage got reused for his debut scene in the final cut. And an alternate ending animatic suggests that at one time, the plan was for Unicron to suck Optimus up into space where they’d meet face to face.
Voice Box?
It’s a shame there’s no commentary – we all likely have many questions, from continuity issues to that final scene teasing a Hasbro crossover. What’s not in question is how fun the 4K is to look at, in every detail. Bumblebee cinematographer Enrique Chediak easily adapts to the new vision, and Caple brings an emphasis on believable characters that we haven’t really had before. If you like discs that show off what 4K can do, you’ll dig this one. And though the story may be slight, it’s an overdue nod to the fact that kids from all backgrounds played with robots in disguise…and still can as adults.
Movie: 4/5
Extras: 3/5
Transformers: Rise of the Beasts debuts on 4K disc Oct. 10., and is currently available for purchase on digital
