While the box office disappointment of Transformers: The Last Knight seemed to signify the end of the Transformers franchise, 2018’s Bumblebee proved there was still cinematic life in the property after all. Now, the studio is following up its ‘80s-set hit with a ‘90s-set sequel, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, to be directed by Creed II’s Steven Caple, Jr.
As it turns out, The Last Knight only marked the death of the Bay era of Transformers movies. Now, Paramount is moving into more faithful, lighthearted territory with Bumblebee and its upcoming sequel. Inspired by the Beast Wars storyline, Rise of the Beasts can take these important lessons from the successes and failures of Bumblebee.
The Human Characters Are Just As Important As The Robots In Disguise
As lovable as Bumblebee himself is, the heart of the Bumblebee movie is Hailee Steinfeld’s coming-of-age arc in the role of Charlie. After the Bay movies peddled one-note archetypes, Rise of the Beasts should continue Bumblebee’s emphasis on its human characters.
Fortunately, the cast of Rise of the Beasts is rounded out with some interesting parts: Anthony Ramos will play Brooklyn family man and ex-military electronics expert Noah, Dominique Fishback will play constantly undermined artifact researcher Elena, and Dexter star Luna Lauren Vélez will play Noah’s mother.
Avoid The Usual Pitfalls Of Prequels
Bumblebee creates all sorts of problems in the Transformers timeline, namely that Bumblebee ditches Charlie at the end to wait for the Autobots to arrive, despite the fact their arrival was decades away.
Set midway between Bumblebee’s ‘80s setting and the Michael Bay movies’ contemporary setting, Rise of the Beasts needs to avoid the usual pitfalls of prequels at all costs. Use Better Call Saul as a guide.
The Characters’ Relationships Are More Interesting Than Mindless Bayhem
In Michael Bay’s Transformers movies, dialogue scenes were a necessary evil on the way to mindless bouts of Bayhem. He was more interested in blowing up cars than exploring interpersonal relationships.
The largely action-free Bumblebee instead captivated audiences with the friendship between Charlie and Bumblebee, which proved to be far more interesting than any number of exploding cars.
The Classic Transformer Designs Are Infinitely Better Than The Bay-Era Re-Imaginings
In translating the Transformers to the big screen, Michael Bay re-imagined their look a bit too literally, resulting in characters that literally look like walking trucks. Voice actors like Peter Cullen and Hugo Weaving have brought their all to the roles, but since the characters have no distinguishable facial faces beyond crumpling metal, there’s no human connection.
In Bumblebee, the Transformer designs are much more faithful to their classic aesthetic, and it was much easier to connect with the title character emotionally as a result.
Fill The Soundtrack With Hits From The Decade In Which The Movie Is Set
Bumblebee’s soundtrack was full of ‘80s hits by artists like Bon Jovi, Duran Duran, the Smiths, A-ha, Tears for Fears, and Simple Minds to immerse the audience in its nostalgic historical setting.
Since it’s been announced to take place in the ‘90s, following the one-decade-at-a-time tradition of the X-Men prequel series, Rise of the Beasts can have similar fun with beloved ‘90s tunes by Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and Nine Inch Nails.
Leave The Aspect Ratio Alone
Since Michael Bay shoots his movies on a multitude of huge, expensive cameras with varying lens sizes, his aspect ratios are all over the place. The letterbox size changes from cut to cut. It’s fiendishly distracting, especially during action scenes.
In Bumblebee, director Travis Knight left the aspect ratio alone. It’s a lot easier to focus on the story and characters when the shape of the frame isn’t changing intermittently.
Nostalgia’s A Helluva Drug
As art moves beyond even postmodernism and collapses in on itself, nostalgic callbacks to franchises people love like Star Wars and Jurassic Park are becoming more and more common. That's why nostalgia is such a strong element in films The Force Awakens, Jurassic World, and, yes, Bumblebee.
But if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Transformers fans are ridiculously nostalgic about the characters’ classic designs and the aesthetic of the old cartoons. Bumblebee leaned into that, and Rise of the Beasts should, too.
Live-Action Cybertron Is Awesome
One of the greatest sequences in Bumblebee is its opening, which sets up the titular Autobot’s origin story but also gives Transformers fans the most vivid live-action depiction of the civil war on Cybertron to date.
Travis Knight essentially directed this sequence as a live-action Transformers cartoon, which is what fans have wanted since Paramount first announced it was turning the toys into a movie franchise.
Strike The Right Balance Of Heart, Humor, And Spectacle
The reason why Marvel’s movies are so popular is that they consistently strike the perfect balance between the three main ingredients of a satisfying blockbuster: heart, humor, and spectacle. If a movie is life-affirming, funny, and full of explosive action, it’ll be a crowd-pleaser.
The Transformers movies struggled to mix this cinematic cocktail for a while. The comic relief in Bay’s movies is cringeworthy at best, while their soulless metal-on-metal action has no emotional substance. Mercifully, Bumblebee righted the ship with a sweet message about friendship, fun banter between the characters, and plenty of engaging action scenes with real stakes. Rise of the Beasts needs to continue that trajectory and not fall back into old habits.