Rise of the Beasts!

I spent Sunday with my dad and we watched a couple of movies. One was Gladiator, which is a favourite, and will never not make me cry. The other was Transformers: Rise of the Beasts. 

Before I give my opinion, you ought to know that I was (an am) a huge Transformers fan. I watched the cartoon religiously as a child. Interestingly enough, when I went back to watch the cartoon a few years ago, I discovered how absolutely terrible it was. The writing was awful. I greatly wondered at my childhood tastes. But still, The Transformers were a huge part of shaping my imagination. I ate that dumb, poorly-written cartoon up.

When I heard they were doing a live-action adaptation, I was unreasonably excited. Also a bit nervous, as I tend to be when something I love is put in someone else's hands. I really wanted them to do the feeling of watching this cartoon as a kid justice.

I'm happy to say that they did. The first The Transformers movie was great fun. It was a bit silly, it did have its corny moments, but altogether was a movie I didn't regret spending money to see. A worthy adaptation of a childhood favourite. We don't talk about the third one. Also, I'd like to point out that the score of the first film was incredible. I still listen to it fourteen years later.

Now, I had fallen off the Transformers train after the third one, which was a little disappointing. I did go see Bumblebee, which shot to the top of my favourite Transformers movies, but that was the last one I saw.

So, come Sunday night, when my dad and I were hunting Netflix for movies to watch, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts popped up and I decided to give it my vote. I didn't get into Beast Wars the way I did The Transformers, but I figured it'd be a delightfully terrible movie, and so wouldn't be mad at it.

Well... it was far better than I could ever have imagined it.

Mild spoilers ahead.

The movie does retcon the first film ever so slightly. If you've watched the first film, you'll remember the the Autobots arrived from space, in pods. I believe that they were called to Earth by Bumblebee, who was already here as a scout. To an epic score, I might add. They scanned their vehicle types in based on what was around them at the location of their impact with earth.

In Rise of the Beasts, many of them were already on earth and already had their vehicle types figured out. While the first film takes place in the current (so, 2007), this movie takes place in 1994. So... the Autobots were all on earth about thirteen years before they came to earth....

Granted, I haven't watched all the movies. I understand that the film Bumblebee did a little bit of retconning, and that another Transformers movie even put some Autobots as members of King Arthur's round table (what?). I didn't watch that one, so I'm not sure if it explained why everyone except Bumblebee was off world by the time of the events of the 2007 film.

I would also like to know, if the Autobots were once Knights of the Round Table, why Optimus Prime had such a terrible mistrust of humans in Rise of the Beasts. Surely he'd have learnt the main point of his character growth in Rise of the Beasts already (which is that humans aren't all terrible or untrustworthy, and therefore worth saving)? I will have to go through and rewatch and watch for the first time the entire Transformers live-action franchise in order of events and not release to find the answers to my questions, I think. That would be:

- Bumblebee
- Transformers: Rise of the Beasts
- Transformers
- Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
- Transformers: Dark Side of the Moon
- Transformers: Age of Extinction
- Transformers: The Last Knight

Maybe I'll have a better grasp of how they've retconned the original lore and how they've justified it.

The only reason I am considering that currently is because I enjoyed Rise of the Beasts a great deal. It was fun. And the tie-in to one of Hasbro's other properties right at the end was surprising and awesome. I laughed, and cannot wait for that cross-over film. Having those two worlds actually exist concurrently in a kind of Hasbro-verse is actually a fantastic idea.

Anyway, I really enjoyed it. It hit all the right notes for a Transformers film and has gotten me back into the franchise. One day, if ever I can afford a car, there will be an Autobot symbol on it somewhere...

Right, I have to go. Enjoy the rest of your day!

Slán go foill!