Copyright Screen Rant
2023's Transformers: Rise of the Beasts promised to breathe new life into the franchise, blending the grounded and more heartfelt tone of Bumblebee with the action and spectacle of Michael Bay’s films. While it is one of the better live-action Transformers movies, Rise of the Beasts does have some issues/missed opportunities. Despite its fairly impressive visuals and full cast, Rise of the Beasts stumbled in some key ways that kept it from being one of the live-action series' very best. Here are some of the biggest problems Transformers fans had with Rise of the Beasts. Wheeljack’s Design Still Isn’t Right In Live-Action No matter how many Transformers movies are made, Hollywood just can’t seem to get Wheeljack right beyond a quick cameo. Most fans were thrilled to hear that the Autobot inventor was coming back. However, the Rise of the Beasts version looked almost unrecognizable, trading his iconic head fins for a boxy van design, bizarre suspenders, and a pair of glasses. It’s very much a step down from the sleeker, G1-inspired look Wheeljack had in Bumblebee, though his appearance was incredibly brief during the movie's Cybertron sequences. Considering how faithful the designs for other Autobots like Optimus Prime and Arcee were this time around, the more drastic redesign for Wheeljack in Rise of the Beasts felt pretty unnecessary, especially for one of the franchise’s smartest and coolest G1 Autobots. Hopefully, future Transformers movies will finally give Wheeljack a proper design. The Maximals Should’ve Been From The Future, Not Another Dimension One of the more confusing decisions in Rise of the Beasts was the changes to the Maximals’ origins. In the classic animated Beast Wars continuity, the Maximals come from Cybertron’s far future as descendants of the present-day Autobots who then time-travel to prehistoric Earth. However, Rise of the Beasts' Maximals are presented merely as Cybertronians from another dimension and a world destroyed by Unicron. As such, this new lore disconnects them from the primary Cybertronian history fans know and love, making their inclusion feel more random beyond being victims of Unicron. It’s not a dealbreaker per se, but it does rob the Maximals of potential narrative ties they might have had to the present-day Autobots and their legacy. Scourge’s Changed Origin Undercuts His G1 Legacy In Rise of the Beasts, Scourge serves as the movie's main villain. Leader of the Terrorcons and a servant of Unicron, Scorge was Unicron's herald who sold his soul to the world-consuming villain after his own world was destroyed (much like Marvel's Silver Surfer as the Herald of Galactus). While he’s quite imposing, there aren't any references or ties to his original backstory. In the G1 continuity, Scourge was created from the corpse of the Decepticon Thundercracker after Unicron reformatted him. By turning Scourge into a standalone character rather than a corrupted Decepticon, Rise of the Beasts arguably lost what could have been a more dynamic layer of identity and continuity for the villain voiced by Peter Dinklage. Although the change was likely due to Rise of the Beasts' status as a soft reboot of the Transformers franchise, it still makes Scourge feel more like a generic (and derivative) enforcer rather than a true embodiment representing Unicron’s sinister power and all that the big bad is fully capable of. The Maximals Were Underused (And Rattrap Was Missing Entirely) For a movie that marketed itself around the arrival of the Maximals as a brand-new faction of live-action Transformers, it’s shocking how little dynamic screen time they actually got. Optimus Primal, Airazor, and Cheetor had their moments, but Rhinox was practically silent for the duration of the movie. Likewise, Beast Wars' fan-favorite Maximal named Rattrap didn’t even appear, the Maximals' abrasive demolitions expert who could have easily helped give the team more character dynamics. The lack of Maximal personality was very much a missed opportunity, especially given how much Beast Wars thrived on said character dynamics. Audiences no doubt wanted to see these animal Transformers interact and clash with their Autobot counterparts. Instead, they were treated for the most part like side characters, when they should’ve been the movie’s emotional core right alongside the Autobots. Cutting OG Megatron Was A Disappointing Mistake Just like with Bumblebee, early concept art and toy leaks suggested that Rise of the Beasts would have originally featured Megatron in some capacity, the Decepticon leader himself with an all-new G1-inspired design. While it seems the original plan was to introduce him trapped and frozen when both movies were meant to serve more as prequels to the Michael Bay movies, Megatron was seemingly cut during development when the decision was to go more of the reboot route, keeping the focus on Unicron and the Terrorcons for Rise of the Beasts. Although the decision did help streamline the story, it also robbed the film of what could have been some major setup for the future. A tease of Megatron’s survival would’ve instantly excited fans and built momentum for the next movie. No T. Rex Megatron Disappointed Beast Wars Fans If losing G1 Megatron wasn’t enough, Beast Wars fans had to deal with another heartbreak: the absence of T. Rex Megatron, the iconic descendant of the Decepticon leader from the future who transformed into a giant purple Tyrannosaurus. It would have been amazing to see Optimus Primal and Megatron clash in live-action, but it wasn't meant to be (most likely due to the aforementioned lore changes). It would have been huge in terms of connecting Rise of the Beasts to Beast Wars more directly. Shifting Tones & Rushed Character Development (Especially Optimus Prime) One of the biggest criticisms of Rise of the Beasts is its uneven tone. The movie often switches between heartfelt character moments and chaotic action without enough emotional build-up to back it up. The pacing rushes from plot point to plot point, leaving little time for quieter moments that could’ve made the story hit harder. There's also the ongoing tendency to prioritize the movie's few heartfelt moments for the human actors, rather than the Transformers themselves. That said, the issue of shifting tones is most apparent with Optimus Prime, who starts the film as oddly cold but ends it with a sudden moral awakening to call Earth home and protect humanity. While Peter Cullen delivers as always as the voice of Optimus, Prime’s arc feels somewhat undercooked. To that point, it's since been confirmed that there were missing scenes in the first act that would’ve made his evolution feel more earned. The G.I. Joe Crossover Tease Still Hasn’t Paid Off The major surprise G.I. Joe/Transformers crossover tease at the end of Rise of the Beasts should’ve been a slam dunk with an immediate announcement of a movie set to hit theaters in the next couple of years, teeing up an exciting Hasbro shared universe with Transformers, Joes, and perhaps even more properties. As of 2025, there’s been zero follow-up. No official announcements, no casting, and no production updates beyond actor Anthony Ramos casting some recent doubt on the Transformers/Joes crossover due to Paramount's ongoing merger with Skydance. For such a bold ending, the radio silence has been frustrating for fans who expected Rise of the Beasts to kickstart something bigger. That being said, it was recently announced that Robert Kirkman's Skybound is developing an animated Transformers/G.I. Joe connected series, inspired by their current Energon Universe comics (so at least that's something to look forward to).
