Movies with Isaiah: 'Transformers: Rise of the Beasts' is an epic, fun movie

There's no denying the Transformers cinematic franchise has experienced significant highs and lows throughout the years. Michael Bay's first three films are among guilty pleasures, particularly with how he utilized innovative technology, visual methods and special effects, rendering the seemingly impossible into bringing the complicated concept of Transformers to the silver screen.

Bay's vision, while admirable for the most part, contains several flaws that polarized fans and general audiences alike with his heavy focus on human characters, unrecognizable designs of alien robots and how the last two films he helmed became longer, more meandering and less passionate compared to his original trilogy. Bumblebee's solo film was a step in the right direction with a different director who brought a different set of eyes and direction to the mythology.

Pertaining to the story, there were legitimate concerns that I was harboring, the first one being whether the alien robots would receive necessary development and focus, whereas past outings had extensive attention on the human characters. Second, my familiarity with the "Beast Wars" storyline included into the plot created hesitancy, as I knew next to nothing about that show. Where my knowledge still resides with the classic animated series, the Hasbro action figures and 1986's "Transformers: The Movie," in my opinion, remains as the greatest Transformers presentation of all time with amazing music associated with the film.

"Transformers: Rise of the Beasts" paints a picture of the Autobots aligning with the Maximals combating a familiar and new enemy in the form of Terrorcons that seek to bring the planet-eating Unicron in his quest of world destruction and dominance. Its story is simple, straight to the point, formulaic and predictable. None of these descriptions conjure anything remotely negative in totality. In fact, quite the opposite in all honesty. There's nothing wrong with having a story that offers sincere fan service, exciting developments, high-octane action, clever humor and strong emotional moments pleasing to both the devoted fan base and the general audience. One aspect of this film I greatly appreciated compared to Bay's adaptation is the design of the Autobots, Maximals and Terrorcons. Bay's interpretation of the Autobots and Decepticons was jarring to say the least. Any action sequence from his films made it extremely difficult to differentiate between the two. One way to describe his action sequences is one giant metallic, incoherent mess.

"Rise of the Beasts" improves on that approach by leaps and bounds with faithful and familiar visualizations of the Autobots, Maximals and Terrorcons. Channeling a proper color scheme, clean and precise designs of the alien robots and giving them personalities that are strongly and similarly accurate to their animated counterparts provided a breath of fresh air. The battle sequences felt like an actual Transformers that will excite adults and children alike. Watching all of it unfold made me experience the same sensation I had when playing with the action figures growing up during my childhood. It's intense, exciting, emotional, fun and pure fan service overall.

These types of films aren't known for their elite acting or powerful writing. The human characters of Noah and Alaina were serviceable, likeable and not distracting. I'd just prefer more continued focus on the Transformers rather than characters that add little to nothing as far as the story is concerned. "Rise of the Beasts" could be defined as the Transformers film we should've received from the beginning with these designs, combined with the faithful character development and visual artistry that would continue to provide innovative creativity for years to come.

I found this experience simply epic and fun. It has a bit of everything, from action to comedy, suspense, drama and strong atmospheric horror with the Terrorcons. Great storytelling and surprising emotional moments from beginning to end. The only thing keeping it from receiving a perfect score is a minor complaint. Seeing that it appears they're exploring the Unicron trilogy, possibly using the blueprint from the 1986 animated feature film, I would love for them to have used '80s heavy-metal band Lion's "Transformers" theme song at some point. Including it at the beginning or end of this cinematic outing would've made it perfect.

Hopefully the film continues its success, paving the way for a sequel in seeing Unicron making his grand appearance on the big screen for the first time in the future. Stay for two surprising scenes before and during the credits. Overall, "Transformers: Rise of the Beasts" is a great adaptation of these iconic characters that provides fun, excitement, action, comedy and emotion for the entire family. Great and inspiring for children, too. My final score is 9/10 and two thumbs up. Highly recommended.

Isaiah Ridley works at Beacon Cinemas in Sumter. To watch his movie reviews online, find him @Izzy's Cinematic Escape on YouTube.