Everything You Need To Remember To Watch Transformers: Rise Of The Beasts
It's the dawn of a new era for Paramount's live-action "Transformers" franchise. The Michael Bay years are well and truly in the rearview mirror (for better or worse) and the property seems to be in the midst of figuring out a fresh new identity for itself. "Bumblebee," the 2018 prequel directed by Travis Knight and starring Hailee Steinfeld, added some much-needed heart and ground-level stakes to the epic-sized war between the heroic Autobots and villainous Decepticons. Meanwhile, the upcoming "Transformers: Rise of the Beasts" has finally pulled the trigger on one of the most popular franchise storylines ever: "Beast Wars." (Yours truly reviewed the film that puts the "maximal" in "maximalist cinema" for /Film, which you can read here.)
But with each and every new entry, conventional wisdom dictates that there's even more established canon and sprawling lore to keep track of. "Rise of the Beasts" marks the seventh title in this series, so surely that means fans need to fire up their Blu-Ray players and streaming service subscriptions to marathon everything that came before ... right?
Well, not necessarily. This isn't exactly the tightly-interconnected Marvel Cinematic Universe, and even "Rise of the Beasts" director Steven Caple, Jr. has gone on record saying that fans can go into this new sequel with the bare minimum of context.
But what's the fun in that? This explainer is for those completists out there who, like me, tend to want as much background information as possible. So with the understanding that not every previous movie in the franchise is required viewing for this latest film, here's everything you need to remember to watch "Transformers: Rise of the Beasts."
Transformers (2007)
Ah yes, who could forget their very first taste of Bayhem in the "Transformers" universe? Director Michael Bay's 2007 film jumpstarted the live-action franchise, dropkicked an entire generation into puberty (many had "Fast Times at Ridgemont High," but those of us a bit younger sadly had to settle for Bay's camera leering at Megan Fox), and completely defined the busiest and most visually impenetrable designs for the Autobots and Decepticons that would go on to dominate the next decade of the series. Seriously, I dare you to look at that screenshot above for longer than five seconds without developing a headache.
Taking place in the current day, the plot specifics and broad strokes of the original movie admittedly don't have much to do with "Rise of the Beasts," which is set in 1994. But it does establish all the most important aspects to ground us in the basics that will end up playing huge roles in future movies: Optimus Prime, his loyal sidekick Bumblebee, and the eons-spanning war over their home world of Cybertron. Several aspects of the new film just wouldn't land the same without being familiar with the gravitas of a Peter Cullen-voiced Optimus, the iconography of Bumblebee and his yellow Camaro disguise, or the knowledge of just how much more childish and crass this franchise once was — #neverforget Bumblebee peeing on John Turturro, which doesn't even crack the top 10 most questionable aspects of the franchise.
In short, this was the one to start them all and, for better or worse, "Rise of the Beasts" owes it to "Transformers."
Bumblebee (2018)
I'm sure I can speak for everyone when I say that life's simply too short to waste on hours and hours of zero-calorie, unpleasant, and largely ineffective filmmaking involving robots created to sell toys. That's the gift I'm giving you with this next entry, skipping every "Transformers" movie between 2009's "Revenge of the Fallen" and 2017's "The Last Knight" to get right to the good stuff.
Travis Knight's "Bumblebee" was the first live-action "Transformers" to be directed by someone other than Bay, putting the franchise through a creative reboot of sorts (if not a literal one, though that still seems to be somewhat up in the air) and getting back to what fans wanted from these movies in the first place. That meant an extended prologue set on Cybertron and with all the classic Transformers designs ripped straight from the animated material, a heartwarming and emotional storyline about a girl (Hailee Steinfeld) and her car, and a much smaller-scale adventure that evoked the likes of "E.T." more than anything else.
As far as "Rise of the Beasts" is concerned, this prequel takes place roughly seven years prior to the events of the latest film but otherwise shares little in common beyond some loose connective threads. Bumblebee still can't speak while Optimus and the other Autobots are all living off the grid on Earth, as shown in "Bumblebee." And the spectacle-filled Cybertron war plays a pivotal background role for Optimus' motivation, as he and his team are stranded on Earth and desperate to get back home to finish the fight. In "Rise of the Beasts," Steinfeld's Charlie (who receives a quick reference in the upcoming movie) has been replaced by Anthony Ramos' Noah and Dominique Fishback's Elena, and the California setting has been swapped for a more globetrotting plot that goes from Brooklyn to Peru.
Homework material
Oh yeah, we're taking it all the way back to the originals.
While not strictly necessary to understand everything that happens in "Rise of the Beasts," you absolutely can't go wrong taking a trip down nostalgia lane. That means starting with "The Transformers," the animated cartoon that aired between 1984 to 1987. Based on Hasbro's line of toys, the series quickly amassed a devoted fanbase of kids who would eventually justify the big-screen effort of 1986's "The Transformers: The Movie." Both properties detailed the rivalry between the Autobots and Decepticons, laying the groundwork for all the most famous events — Dinobots, Unicron, and much, much more — that later stories would attempt to adapt. No less a voice cast than Peter Cullen, Leonard Nimoy, and even Orson freaking Welles would lend their talents to these works, setting the stage for an even more relevant property to revisit (or experience for the first time).
That's right: we're talking about "Beast Wars: Transformers." One of the earliest ever purely CGI-animated shows, the 1996 series takes place centuries in the future of the main timeline and first introduced the concepts of Maximals and Predacons as the ancestors to the much more famous Autobots and Decepticons. While "Rise of the Beasts" only really takes the loosest interpretation of the series, it still counts as important viewing material for those who want to make complete sense of the premise of the upcoming film. Diehard fans will certainly be able to spot a whole host of Easter eggs that casual watchers will miss out on, and there'll be an extra layer of enjoyment from watching the work of a director who clearly had a childhood soft spot for the same material.
"Transformers: Rise of the Beasts" comes to theaters on June 9, 2023.