Transformers: Rise of the Beasts crushed its competition at the global box office with a massive weekend opening of US$171 million at the worldwide box office.
In the Philippines, the film debuted at No.1 on its five-day opening weekend, nabbing a huge chunk of the market share.
The seventh installment in the Transformers franchise, Rise of the Beasts shows Optimus Prime and the rest of the Autobots teaming up with a whole new breed of Transformer – the Maximals – who join them as allies in their epic battle to save Cybertron and Earth against Unicron and the Terrorcons. The film has scored high among audiences, with an 88% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, as of writing.
Local reviews for the film have been mostly positive, mainly for the direction it takes the franchise, and for standout characters such as the Maximals and humans Noah and Elena.
“The Rise of the Beasts continues on the path that Bumblebee started, and tries to bring a bit more sense and story into the Transformers universe. For the most part, it does,” writes Manila Bulletin. “Also, you can’t really go wrong with Optimus Prime commanding the Autobots to ‘Roll Out!,’ and Optimus Primal calling for the Maximals to ‘Maximize!’ It is a definite crowd pleaser.”
Says Manila Times, “It’s light like Saturday morning cartoons back in the day. It’s got comedy, a family angle, action and clever, lovable, noble robots fighting bad robots.”
The Fanboy SEO especially likes the new human characters. “I did like the new take on the human characters for the film in the form of [Anthony] Ramos’ Noah Diaz and Dominique Fishback’s Elena who all have their own plot lines that also gets resolved in a satisfying manner at the end of the film,” he says. “Great choice for giving us Elena, a believable ‘geek’ rather than an unbelievable supermodel who also has multiple PHDs.”
“Malinis at hindi nakakalito o nakakahilo ang labanan sa pelikulang ito,” shares ABS-CBN online. “Doon pa lang, panalo na kaagad ang Rise of the Beasts.”
“While the story is slow-building, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts ends up mind-blowing,” writes Philstarlife. “That final scene is one for the books.”