#battletrap

When All Hell’s Breaking Loose

heralds of unicron SD version

Hell, yes! They totally have the Stabbington brothers vibe!

Although I'm going to have to do more research on those two.

So here it is, a post about this movie before my huge rant about a certain Netflix show featuring the Maximals.

This is a Rise of the Beasts critique/review and sort of appreciation post. 🦅🦍🐆🦏

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This movie is pretty good, not as good as Bumblebee but it holds up. It does the Maximals justice despite their lack of screen time in the film and doesn’t screw up their characters.

Noah is a pretty decent protagonist, and I want to see more of him. I wouldn’t consider him a Maximal human ally though since he’s clearly more aligned with the Autobots than the Maximals, especially considering his friendship with Mirage. Not to mention Optimus being a mentor/father figure to him. His little brother is adorable too and their relationship is pretty wholesome.

Elena on the other hand is definitely more allied with the Maximals than the Autobots, considering her curiosity with their kind, and her bond with Airazor that was unfortunately cut short since my bird girlie can’t go one entry without being disrespected somehow.

I’d honestly like to see a movie where Elena and the Maximals with new human characters go on an adventure together, no Autobots included, a purely Maximal-based film.

Speaking of which, that brings me to my next point, this honestly should’ve been a Beast Wars film entirely with no Autobots.

The Autobots were good in the movie but they stole the spotlight away from the Maximals when this was their theatrical debut.

Like do we really need another Autobot movie after all the Bay films and Bumblebee?

I know Beast Wars isn’t as well known as the Autobots and Decepticon continuities but there are many fans of the show out there who were geeked to see this movie and would’ve been even more geeked if it was just the Maximals and Predacons.

Speaking of the Predacons, there’s not a single one in this movie, unless you count those Scorponok clones, but we’ve seen that done before, especially in a certain Netflix show that I am waiting to rip to shreds in a future post.

Instead we get the Terrorcons, who've never been in Beast Wars at all, the only thing remotely close to that was Unicron at the end of Season 1. But other than that no trace of them whatsoever, we’ve gotten more from the Vok in that show if anything, but those guys were never used again after Beast Wars.

Another complaint is KILLING MY GIRL AIRAZOR, that's the one big complaint I have about this movie. Having Scourge’s crusty, dirty ass kill my girl with a corrupting rust plague thingy was honestly bullshit. Like she was carrying this whole movie but this ugly ass douchebag decided she was too good for all of us.

He really said “Fuck you Airazor Fans.”

Fun fact, I watched this movie when I first got into the fandom after seeing Transformers One and was watching Animated for the first time. I didn’t watch Beast Wars until after Prime and Rescue Bots.

But what I did know was that I was hyped when Airazor first showed up in Beast Wars. Then I was slapped with disappointment when her and Tigatron were written and eventually killed off.

So the fact that this is the second time she got screwed over like this is pretty frustrating because whenever she’s on screen she’s carrying the scene and is just a Goated character all together.

As for the Autobots I don’t have much to say about them, I’m not really into the whole story arc Optimus has going on with wanting to go back home and Bee’s fakeout death, it’s nothing we haven’t already seen before.

Arcee is just kinda there giving Liza Koshy a pretty nice voice acting role. Her design is also meh but it’s believable, and she’s kinda funny.

Mirage was one of the highlights of this movie, and his friendship with Noah was nice to watch. It was kinda sad when he almost died but luckily for him Noah is the homie and fixed him up.

Bumblebee himself doesn’t do much in the film since he’s too busy being dead for most of it, and the only highlight is him being revived and coming back with a bang during the final battle.

Yet they couldn’t revive Airazor…..😒

Wheeljack was kinda wack because while his movie design is fine by itself, it doesn’t suit any iteration of Wheeljack I’ve seen so far, it doesn’t even look like him.

Stratosphere was cool, pretty chill guy and MVP of the group, not much to say other than that.

As for the other Maximals, while they didn’t get the screentime they deserved and didn’t transform until the end (Airazor not transforming at all 🫠), they were pretty in character in this film. In fact them not being in robot mode much was pretty in character for them as well if you watched Beast Wars and even…Beast Machines admittedly.

The Maximals do attack the Autobots on first encounter but unlike in a certain Netflix show they apologize when Airazor lets them know that that the Autobots are cool, that’s something I see them doing in Beast Wars.

Primal is pretty much a more serious version of himself from Beast Wars (Not Beast Machines we don’t talk about him) and is a calm and civil leader who wants the best for his crew. He has his doubts about Optimus but they’re totally valid considering how Optimus acts in this movie with how reckless he can get out of desperation.

Cheetor barely gets any screentime, but even though he doesn’t have the ADHD Orange cat coded persona from Beast Wars, he’s still a believable Cheetor who’s pretty chill. His design is also pretty cute.

I mean look at him.

Honestly this has my seal of approval just because I want to pet him.

And look at him hanging out with the boi Bumblebee.

Neurodivergent Robot buddies.

Rhinox unfortunately had like a single line of dialogue and was kinda just standing in the background, so there’s not much to say about him other than he looks good and resembles his original self from the show.

Apelinq was pretty random since he never appeared in any of the Beast Wars cartoons, but he did appear in the comics so he did exist beforehand. Idk what he actually did, but all I know is the writers didn’t just pull him out of their ass and they kinda just threw him in there for a dramatic origin story I guess.

Like I already said, Airazor carried the parts of the movie she was in. In fact she was my favorite part of this movie, Mirage was pretty good himself for the Autobot parts. For the Maximal parts Airazor stole the show, it’s been a while since she got the spotlight like this, and it was good to see her get the attention she deserved.

I also loved her bond with Elena, it gave off adoptive bird mom with a human daughter. I wish that was expanded upon. Her being voiced by the GOAT Michelle Yeoh made it even better, her voice had that calm and warm feeling Pauline Newstone had. (RIP the Queen)

As for the villains, not much to say outside of what I’ve said already. Not really that interesting or even intimidating. I mentioned Scourge already but Nightbird and Battletrap are also in this movie and they didn’t do that much that could really put respect on their cartoon counterparts’ names. Nightbird was in Gen 1 and Cyberverse as far as I know and I have no idea who Battletrap is since I thought he was Barricade at first.

Unicron was just Unicron, a giant basketball shaped Robo Galactus.

As for Scourge himself…

FUCK YOU, YOU CRUSTY, DIRTY, UGLY ASS MOTHERFUCKER. You killed my girl Airazor and took away Elena’s bird mom who was the best part of this movie. Thanks to you if the Maximals appear in the new movie and they miraculously add Tigatron, he’s gonna have to go that entire movie without his bird waifu and be lonely. So FUCK YOU, Unicron should’ve swallowed your ass whole. Luckily Optimus gave you the “Give me your Face” treatment you fucking deserved.

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In conclusion, I liked the movie, although it should’ve just been a Beast Wars movie with no Autobots or Decepticons or anything to do with those guys.

But we got what we got.

It would’ve been nice to see the Maximals and maybe even Preds interact with modern humans and see how they bond with them compared to their vehicular counterparts.

Honestly Elena would’ve been a more suitable protagonist while Noah would’ve been better off in his own movie with the Autobots. Elena is definitely a character I want to see explored more especially with her alliance with the Maximals.

Other than that, this movie was pretty good.

6/10.

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Now that that’s done.

Time to start a rant on a Netflix show I have serious beef with due to its portrayal of the Maximals…..