Film: Transformers: Rise of The Beasts (IMAX 3D)
Cast: Anthony Ramos, Dominique Fishback, Luna Lauren Velez, Dean Scott Vazquez, Tobe Nwigwe, Peter Cullen, Ron Perlman, Peter Dinklage
Director: Steven Caple Jr.
Rating: 3/5
Runtime: 128 mins

This franchise entrant is certainly better than most that came before it. It’s far more lucid, the action is more clearly defined and there’s a form here that is far more eye-pleasing and easier to unravel intellectually. Steven Caple Jr. (the director of “Creed II”) takes over the reins from Michael Bay (who directed the first 5 issues) and Travis Knight director of the best one so far, 2018’s ‘Bumblebee’.  This time it’s a better-focused effort and there’s a certain visual coherence that helps us see the action far more clearly and definitively. It’s not all a blur like the gargantuan action sequences we saw in Michael Bay’s version of the extravaganzas based on the Hasbro toys.  

The Autobots including Mirage(Pete Davidson), Arcee, and Bumblebee led by Optimus Prime( Peter Cullen) team up with the Maximals including the majestic falcon Airazor (Michelle Yeoh), the roaring gorilla Optimus Primal(Ron Perlman), etc., to fight various intergalactic villains including the vicious Scourge(Peter Dinklage), the leader of the Terrorcons who is also the right-hand man of the planet-gobbling Unicron (Colman Domingo). They are all in pursuit of some ancient power hidden in two halves of an interplanetary beacon, that could help obliterate planets. Optimus Prime and his cohorts are obviously the good guys. The really cool aspect here is the way in which Mirage evolves into multiple Autobot personas.