Review: 'Transformers: Rise of the Beasts' puts some welcome humanity in the pounding Autobot action

To say “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts” is an improvement over the overblown franchise monstrosities directed by Michael Bay isn’t saying a lot — but it’s saying enough for this intermittently entertaining story of giant machines and tiny humans joining forces to save the universe.

The human part of the movie starts in Brooklyn in 1994. Noah Diaz (Anthony Ramos) is looking for a job, so he can bring money into the family and pay off some of the medical bills the family owes treating his kid brother Kris (Dean Scott Vazquez), who has sickle cell disease. When legit work seems out of reach, Noah agrees to help the neighborhood crime boss, Reek (Tobe Nwigwe), steal a mint-condition Porsche.

The moment Noah gets in the Porsche, something strange happens: A booming voice comes out of the car stereo, saying “Autobots, assemble!” Then the car, seemingly with a mind of its own, speeds away with Noah an unwilling passenger. When he’s finally dumped out, he learns that the Porsche is actually an alien robot in disguise, named Mirage (and voiced by Pete Davidson). And that booming voice is the Autobots’ leader, Optimus Prime (voiced, now and forever, by Peter Cullen).

Meanwhile, on Ellis Island, another Brooklyn resident is having her own adventure. Elena Wallace (Dominique Fishback) is an intern in an archaeology museum, but knows more about ancient artifacts than even her bosses. So when a bird figurine arrives, she recognizes that its origins are mysterious — and when she pokes around after hours, it reveals to be a glowing rod of unknown origin.

Thanks to massive amounts of talky exposition, we know that the glowing rod is the trans-warp key, something the Autobots could use to get back to their home world. It’s also something that must not fall into the hands of the evil Unicron (voiced by Colman Domingo), a planet-eating mechanical creature who has sent his main henchman, Scourge (voiced by Peter Dinklage), across the universe to find it. 

Optimus Prime, who’s been hiding on Earth with his Autobots, is distrustful of humans, but he reluctantly agrees to let Noah and Elena help with their mission — because, being humans, they can go unnoticed in places where a Freightliner-sized robot would not. Eventually, and after more exposition, the mission lands in Peru, where we meet another group of Transformers: The Maximals, who look like ferocious animals and are led by the gorilla-looking Optimus Primal (voiced by Ron Perlman).

Director Steven Caple Jr. (“Creed II”) wades through a lot of exposition and ponderous dialogue — five writers are credited on the screenplay — to explain Unicron, the Autobots and Maximals relate to each other, and how humans got in the middle of all this. (The screenwriters also slip some lines in for the diehard fans, including a reference to former franchise star Mark Wahlberg.)

For most of us, the windy dialogue is filler for the robot battles — but it’s those battles that are the reason to see “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts.” The finale, like most blockbusters, unleashes a torrent of computer-animated action — but here, the stakes and emotional connections are drawn out well, and Ramos and Fishback bring a welcome dose of humanity to the well-staged mechanical mayhem.

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‘Transformers: Rise of the Beasts’

★★★

Opens Friday, June 9, in theaters everywhere. Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi action and violence, and language. Running time: 127 minutes.