Quite a while since I watched the last Transformers movie. About five years. I cannot say that I had really high expectations for this one. A Transformers movie is a movie you watch almost entirely for the special effects after all.

It is an okayish movie but I have to say that I was less impressed with this one than with the previous ones.

It is clearly a movie directed to a somewhat younger audience. Still at times it was a bit cringeworthy. Especially the small “speeches” from Optimus Prime. I know it is a PG-13 movie but I think Hollywood underestimates the intelligence of young adults. But then, given the political bias Hollywood has these days maybe it is not surprising that they expect below average intelligence.

Still, there were some cool special effects, a lot of Transformer fights and such like stuff making the movie not feel like a complete waste of time.

The story is of course on the thin side and the title of the movie is misleading hyperbole. Yes, the beast Transformers are introduced but I would hardly call it “rise” . Just a few more Transformers stranded on Earth.

One thing I didn’t much like was the appearance of Optimus Prime. He looked like a has-been bum with his shabby truck and shabby appearance when not in his truck mode. Optimus Primal was much more cool.

As I wrote, overall a watchable movie but nothing really to write home about.

Oh, by they way. Remember that useless woke far left tomato site? On the page for the movie the “critical consensus” says “Thanks to some genuine human drama between the set pieces and palpable affection for the title characters, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts is one of the franchise’s more enjoyable outings.” and then they put a rotten tomato side by side and claims the movie is rotten. They cannot even get their own bullshit straight .