Well, I finally saw ROTB thanks to it being free to view on Amazon Prime this month. To be cut and dry about it, I really did not enjoy it. There's some stuff I liked, but once again I feel like we're being given the same MacGuffin plot over again. Honestly, I feel like someone needs to stop letting Michael Bay have a damn thing to do with the Transformers brand entirely at this point. I know he's the executive producer in this case, but amazingly it felt like he was directing this one because it took almost everything the Bumblebee movie did right and tossed it out the window. Then again, some people enjoy these movies for the simple fact they're the same rehashed plot again and again as it does nothing new or monumental that the other ones haven't already done. The film I feel does balance out Bay's common tropes. It does some things better in fact, but I still find his influence on the series to cast this over looming shadow of disorder and greater dysfunction upon the entire series that keeps it from ever achieving and realizing the potential it has to be better than it is. His decisions I feel hold the series back completely though, especially with this obsession with the MacGuffin-type plot. It's seriously where I thought of this bit from American Dad to describe my experience with the Transformers live-action films.
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Yeah. I'm tired. I'm tired of the MacGuffin plot. It's been simply DONE. TO. DEATH. I swear if Transformers One indicates even slightly some type of MacGuffin I'm going to bellow so loud that everyone in the next town over can hear me. XD
After The Last Knight used the MacGuffin plot for the fifth time in the series and Rise of the Beasts has now used it for the sixth time, I think Hasbro needs to look at Michael Bay and say "no more" going forward unless the format is done entirely different. What I mean is that the MacGuffin plot has a formula to it. Something bad happened long ago, some crucial device is hidden/entrusted to be hidden, our heroes find out about the device, the device needs to be acquired before bad guys who are also looking for said device, the device is used destructively, there's a big long drawn out battle that destroys a country's infrastructure, good guys win the day and device is either destroyed outright or turned into something else. Let's not forget to add in some awkward emotional development and inclusion of human sub-plots with relationships and family to drive some kind of point home regarding the morality of our main human characters.
Enough. Just...ENOUGH! Seriously.
I love Transformers and I just am tired of seeing it mishandled by Bay (and his group) who clearly doesn't understand the source material. Frankly, I feel like Kurtzman and Orci had a better grasp of the source material than anyone else even and that goes back to the '07 film. Bay and his groupies have no idea on how continuity works, and they just decided to make something loud and pretty so people are taken in by the splendor of CGI and SFX. It's an advertisement to sell toys. What happened? I thought the brand itself was growing beyond this. I mean G1 cartoon has some heart, yes, but it is a shameless toy commercial ultimately and a product of the 80s. ROTB is like that in a lot of ways though too so maybe that was intentional? I want more stories with the Decepticons and Megatron though, as both are big staples of the brand. The brand itself was specifically founded on both Optimus Prime and Megatron, and the Autobot and Decepticons battling each other. Make it a war movie, do it from the perspective of the Transformers themselves. Get rid of the human drama BS, but then I don't think the general audience can relate with the Cybertronians anymore than a fish can be taught poetry.
So the good, I think the usage of Unicron and Scourge (and calling the Terrorcons Novakane and Feezer his Sweeps/along with their clones) was a nice little thing. Plus giving Scourge some character moments (along with a few lines from the others). Unicron, this version, seemed on the same level as both the '86 movie and even in Transformers: Prime as ominous and foreboding in terms of presence. This is essentially how Unicron is always seen and frankly, I like they nailed this. I was really happy he was portrayed separately from Earth this time, but then you have the fact that this movie wants to keep playing in that particular sandbox by going back and being a prequel of sorts to Bay's previous films. Frankly, I see the series at this point more of a Mobius strip where it twists and turns upon itself infinitely, but the problem is the contradictions within the contradictions that exist. If you look at the Terminator movies, this is an example of an overlapping and contradictory timeline that adjusts itself in each sequel to go into a different split. The problem with Rise of the Beasts? It's less intelligent about it. The final thing is the female characters in the film seemed to not be as one-dimensional and had characterization and even some worthwhile development. I would say Elena Wallace was more than a pretty face, which was great. Arcee, Airazor, and Nightbird had some also great characterizations as well. As for everyone else, Optimus Prime seemed back to being a grumpy psychopath like he is commonly portrayed in the Bayverse, Mirage was Pete Davidson - had many of his...qualities that are just basically Pete Davidson, Wheeljack was given an ounce more of characterization than he had in DOTM but then we're ignoring those movies still at the same time they happen in this timeline? IDK!
Optimus Primal was more of a move-the-plot-along character which is a shame. He does provide some needed exposition, which is nice, but he along with the others (Cheetor and Rhinox) are just there to be plot devices. For this being called Rise of the Beasts, it was lacking in Beasts in their Beast Wars movie, yes? *tap tap* Hello?! Sorry, my inner Ian Malcolm came through for the moment here.
Do you know what I miss about Beast Wars? Garry Chalk! While I love Ron Pearlman, the voice of Optimus Primal is none other than Garry Chalk and he should've been here for this. Hell, David Kaye would have been nice as the Predacon Megatron in this as well. I think that's one thing I enjoyed about the War For Cybertron series on Netflix, even though they didn't have the original voice actors they at least told a somewhat decent story, and they even changed things up to do things differently enough to make it new.
In the end, ROTB will be forgotten and we'll all move on. I know it did some cool stuff, but at the end of the day I don't think it offered anything we haven't gotten already and frankly, I'm tired of that being the common theme with these movies. I think the live-action series is dead to me at this point, but if anyone else still enjoys it, good on them. I hope you people that enjoy it keep finding them enjoyable. I haven't found them enjoyable in a long time. Let's get to the next Transformers media project, shall we? See if it is any better.
