4 Star

Birth of Our Optimus Prime.

Another instalment in the franchise, this time it’s a prequel to the 2007 ‘Transformers’ film. Directed by Steven Caple Jr. (Creed II, The Land) who moves from shorts and TV to full length feature films, with this CGIfest, as Hasbro’s child is reborn, with new transforming aliens and a planet eating evil entity.

Unicron (Colman Domingo, Lincoln, Selma) is a planet eating entity and it attacks the home world of the Maximals, a highly developed race of Energon related transformers. Unicron sends his top servant Scourge (Peter Dinklage, Game of Thrones, I Think We’re Alone Now) down to the planet, because Unicron’s appetite is bigger than the galaxy that he is consuming. He wants to eat the universe, and to do that he needs the Transwarp Key that the Maximal’s have.

On the planet, the Maximals are led by Apelinq (David Sobolov – The Flash, Bumblebee, Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves), and he is the custodian of the Transwarp key.  To stop Scourge and Unicron getting their hands on it, he sends Optimus Primal (Ron Perlman, Season of the Witch, The Book Of Life), Rhinox (David Sobolov), Airazor (Michelle Yeoh, YES, MADAM! aka. POLICE ASSASSINS, Royal Warriors [Wong ga jin si]),  and Cheetor (Tongayi Chirisa, The Anthrax Attacks, Trees of Peace) to take the Transwarp key somewhere Unicron cannot find it.

Earth 1994, (Get ready for a banging soundtrack 90s rap style) Noah Diaz (Anthony Ramos, Hamilton, A Star Is Born) and his little brother Kris (Dean Scott Vazquez, 9 Bullets, In the Heights), and Mother Breanna (Luna Lauren Velez, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, Shaft (2019)). Noah is ex-service, and an electronics whizz, but he is down on his luck, he has to look after the poorly Kris, and he needs to find a job to help pay for his brothers mounting medical bills. He keeps getting knocked back, due to him not being a true team player. His friend Reek (Tobe Nwigwe, Mo (TV Series), Rap Sh!t (TV Series)) wants him to start earning real money, helping him liberate rich peoples vehicles. This is going to get him in trouble.

Meanwhile, on Ellis Island, ancient artefacts expert and intern Elena Wallace (Dominique Fishback, Judas and the Black Messiah, Project Power) is being grilled by her boss Jillian (Sarah Stiles, Unsane, The Blacklist (TV Series)) as she knows more about the subject than she does. While looking through police evidence, she spots a small statue of an eagle, this is going to get her in trouble.

Noah has to turn to Reek to make money and he agrees to liberate a Porsche at a posh gala. Noah follows Reek’s instructions and is soon in front of the car. With Reeks trusty tool, he is soon in the vehicle. Elena on the other hand has a big problem, she has sneaked into the antiquities room and started studying the eagle statue. It turns out that it isn’t a statue, but a Transwarp key, and it sends out a signal that Transformers can detect.

Transformers Assemble!

Noah finds out that the car he has just broken into is a Transformer named Mirage (Pete Davidson, Bodies Bodies Bodies, The Suicide Squad), who races to team up with Optimus Prime (Peter Cullen, Transformers: Dark of the Moon, Transformers: Age of Extinction) and Arcee (Liza Koshy, Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken, Work It), They know it is a way home.

But the Terrorcons can also see it and Scourge wants to please his master, let the battle commence, for the Earth and beyond.

Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, may not have the famous faces of the previous instalments, but this is a new origin story and has that edge of ‘who will survive’? A must for the true fans and collectors, also the CGI fans, as this is awesomely done. Transformers: Rise of the Beasts is packed with nail-biting moments.

Transformers: Rise of the Beasts is available on DVD, Blu-ray, 4K UHD and Digital.

Special Features:
Dive deeper into the world of Transformers: Rise of the Beasts with over 1 hour of exhilarating special features, including deleted and extended scenes.