Just think about three little words: Transformers. Historical. Fiction. Following the ’80s-set Bumblebee, the latest Transformers movie is set in 1994 (and the trailer features the World Trade Center right off the bat, which is unsettling). Do you think the masters of the Transformers brand just didn’t want their characters to have cell phones?
Anyway. Maximals! Terrorcons! Optimus Prime (Peter Cullen) and Optimus Primal (Ron Perlman)! And the villainous Unicron, which just looks like someone spelled “unicorn” wrong! They’re all gathered here today to make for big action sequences and robot dramatics.
The synopsis offers very little to go on:
Returning to the action and spectacle that have captured moviegoers around the world, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts will take audiences on a ‘90s globetrotting adventure with the Autobots and introduce a whole new faction of Transformers – the Maximals – to join them as allies in the existing battle for earth.
Side note, do you ever wish for smaller-scale villains? Just your run-of-the-mill bad guys instead of ones who eat planets or want to destroy half of life on earth? And who then need to somehow be one-upped in the next film? Just me? Okay, cool.
Transformers: Rise of the Beasts is not Transformers: Beast Wars, but is clearly pulling from the same well. On the human side, the film stars Anthony Ramos (In the Heights) and Dominique Fishback (The Deuce); team robot includes Peter Dinklage as Scourge, Michelle Yeoh as Airazor, Pete Davidson as Mirage, Liza Koshy as Arcee, and John DiMaggio as Stratosphere. It’s directed by Steven Caple Jr. (Creed II) from a screenplay by Joby Harold, Darnell Metayer & Josh Peters, and Erich Hoeber & Jon Hoeber.
[ed note: I need to point out that the trailer for this film, which purports to be set in 1994, uses “Ruff Ryder’s Anthem”, a DMX track from 1998. Come on, let’s not break the reality here, OK?]
Transformers: Rise of the Beasts is in theaters on June 9th.
Check out the trailer below.
