I've already made a couple of passing references to my concerns about the upcoming live action movie, TransFormers: Rise of the Beasts, not least due to its long production delays and reshoots, as well as my ambivalence toward the toys thusfar revealed. As we get closer to the movie's intended release date in June, the hype is naturally building. There have been more toy reveals - including confirmation that the two very different styles of toys that have emerged are due to the expected, individual Studio Series releases and a pair of three-packs that will appear in a separate, dedicated Rise of the Beasts toyline - along with the expected early reviews from the usual suspects on YouTube.
The teaser trailer appeared a few months ago, with the message that "For millions of years, our world has transformed... but something else has awakened" and "Power is primal" - both equal parts ominous and utter nonsense - along with piss-poor CGI that fans have been picking apart and rushing to defend, in almost equal measure, ever since. It was followed more recently by a Superbowl teaser that added little of any substance, and which seemed to be pushing the Porsche brand as much as the movie, but the overall impression I've been getting - for quite some time - is that Rise of the Beasts is not Knightverse part 2, but Bayverse version 2.
Probably the most contentious character, so far, has been Wheeljack... but only because he's so different from the version depicted in the Bumblebee solo movie almost five years ago. We've gone from what seemed to be the ideal representation of G1-adjacent characters to... some kind of robo-nerd wearing dungarees and massive glasses, and it just reeks of Michael Bay's adolescent sense of 'humor'. Countless online discussions opined that these glasses might fold outward to become his traditional glowing 'ears', with precious little evidence to support the idea. More recently, now that Takara Tomy have released higher-resolution images of the CGI characters, I even saw someone comment on how great it was that this new version of Wheeljack has tiny antennae on the sides of his head, making the enormous leap of logic that these were deliberate references to his 'ears', and that they might glow when he speaks... I can't get my head around how some people are so keen to delude themselves based on the most insignificant of cues.
Takara Tomy revealed a whole series of characters, some of whom we'd barely seen, if at all. From my point of view, it's not looking great. Optimus Primal's robot mode is largely monochrome and has one of the blandest head designs of the lot, while Transit is clearly derived from Lego's Bionicle toyline. Cheetor, Airazor and Rhinox aren't even shown in robot mode (there was rumour the Rhinox doesn't transform in the movie), Mirage appears to be sporting a battlemask that hasn't been shown in the trailers, Nightbird looks like something out of one of the more unusual off-brand transforming robots to come out of China (albeit, if I were feeling generous, hints of Shatter from the Bumblebee solo movie), and Stratosphere looks like a more humanoid version of old man Jetfire from Revenge of the Fallen, complete with leather flying helmet and bushy RAF-style moustache - very much reminiscent of the aesthetic of some of the background 'bots in The Last Knight.
I guess it's part and parcel of how the Internet works that, given an outlet, all manner of 'fan theories' will start to circulate so, when it became apparent that we hadn't seen anything new on the Wheeljack toy so far revealed, let alone any news of the Studio Series version, people starting theorising that we had another Sonic The Hedgehog movie on our hands, and Wheeljack's CGI was being frantically redone, as a result of the fan outcry, to bring his head more in line with the G1 original, or the Knightverse version at least. Of course, this has turned out not to be the case, but it shows how quickly and easily some members of the fandom can start clutching at straws. This is further evidenced by the number of tiresome 'fan theories' that are optimistically trying to make sense of what little we know so far, doubtless setting their proponents up for even greater disappointment when the movie finally hits the screens. There's one that might actually have some narrative merit, in the it has been noticed that Scourge's head, behind his mask, appears to share assets with Bayverse Optimus Prime... and while that might be a cool twist, especially given Prime's brief stint as Nemesis Prime in The Last Knight, it seems a little unlikely unless this actually turns out to be some kind of TransFormers Multiverse in the offing. Surely connecting Beast Wars to G1 will be convoluted enough for the portion of the audience that isn't already familiar with the canonical connection from the TV show?
I've been feeling for some time that Steven Caple Jr. has basically been set up to fail. The movie sounds like nonsense, it feels like a soft reboot of The Last Knight due to the hints of Unicron, and there are strong signs that the rookie director has allowed Michael Bay too much influence on the movie, both in terms of how the characters interact (truly chilling rumours of a 'romantic connection' between Arcee and Wheeljack), and the lowest-common-denominator choice of aesthetic for the robots - very much Bayverse-on-the-cheap. The faces of the robots may appear to be somewhat less overcomplicated, but those fans who delight in viewing trailers frame-by-frame have pointed out animation errors in the form of asset clipping - some of which seems to have made its way into advertisement posters - and the fact that Optimus Primal's dramatic splashdown entrance seems to pass through the humans in the foreground without actually getting them wet.
Toy-wise, we haven't seen much new recently, with the latest Studio Series reveals being the so-called Gamer Edition remakes of Optimus Prime, Barricade and, predictably, Bumblebee from the much-lauded War For Cybertron videogame, released back in 2010. Given the upcoming movie, now seems like a very strange time to publicise another new, separate branch to Studio Series, leading cynical old me to suspect that Hasbro are bracing for Rise of the Beasts to be a disaster. What we have seen isn't promising. Bumblebee is just another (underpainted) Bumblebee figure with nothing new to his engineering. Battletrap manages to look good in photos, despite limited paintwork, but I get the impression the in-hand experience isn't great, and it doesn't fit together reliably in vehicle mode. Arcee being Scout class might keep her to the correct scale with the others (except it doesn't really), but the simplistic engineering doesn't do the toy any favours. Freezer is made largely of ball joints, and there are many reports of them all being loose. Airazor is a misguided complete retool of the Kingdom toy that doesn't really seem to fit the established movie aesthetic. Cheetor is a clumsy mess that doesn't deserve inclusion in the Studio Series line, but would make a halfway decent contemporary remake of TransMetals Cheetor with the right paint job. Scourge is an ugly, gappy mess with barely any paintwork and only a passing resemblance to the dramatic CGI. Mirage is yet to be properly revealed, but looks to have Studio Series Jolt levels of vehicle panelling hanging off his legs and back. Very little has captured my interest, and the whole Studio Series ethos of fidelity to the CGI seems to be falling by the wayside, both in terms of engineering and paintwork. If Wheeljack's design had been any good, I might have been interested in that, but it doesn't, so I likely won't be interested. The new Optimus Prime figure will likely be a retool of the existing Studio Series figure, since the CGI appears to be based upon it, particularly in terms of its crummy paintwork. Optimus Primal and Rhinox have yet to be revealed, but I can't help thinking they're going to be as dull as Cheetor. Nightbird and Transit have yet to be revealed, but I'm not holding out much hope for either of them.
I will probably go and see the film... but I won't hurry to do so unless one of my friends buys early tickets. Even though I've had almost nothing positive to say about Rise of the Beasts thusfar, I truly hope I'm wrong about everything, and that it's a decent movie in its own right, capable of being a springboard to a new series of live action TransFormers movies. I want to be excited. I want to be enthusiastic. I want to be optimistic... But what little has been revealed thusfar gives me no reason to expect anything but the worst.
If the finished movie carries any of the typical Michael Bay hallmarks, Hasbro might as well forget about TransFormers movies for the time being. It's already been five years since the last, admittedly thanks to some unavoidable delays and whatever reshoots were deemed necessary. Personally, I'd be happy to wait another five years - or more - if it meant a halfway decent plot, a coherent script, and zero involvement from Michael Bay.
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