‘Transformers: Rise of the Beasts’: Optimus Prime is not as friendly as he once was
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: It’s a trip down memory lane for all the loyal fans of the Transformers franchise. After all, they finally get to see ‘Beast Wars’ come into play in the new ‘Transformers: Rise of the Beasts’ film. The premise is simple: a Transwarp key opens a portal through space and time, making intergalactic and universal travel possible. Unicron, the ultimate demon and the biggest thorn in the journey of Autobots wants it to devour planets. Unfortunately, the Maximals, the descendants of the Autobots have kept it safe on Earth, and as soon as the key is located by a human and triggered, Unicron sends his loyal servant, Scourge to retrieve it.
There’s just one small problem - Optimus Prime. He’s stuck on Earth in 1994 along with a few Autobots and wants the key to return to Cybertron and save it. He’s assisted by the new folks, the Maximals, who are in hiding but vowed to protect the trans warp key with their life. Optimus Prime, the leader of Autobots is known as a sacrificial leader and the predecessor films display his quality to put his life at risk for humans at a gargantuan level. However in ‘Rise of the Beasts’, Optimus Prime fights only for one cause — returning to Cybertron, which is a huge character flaw and shift if his record is to be studied. The film doesn’t put humans in the mix a lot except for Noah Diaz, an ex-military electronics expert, and Elena Wallace, an artifact researcher who finds the Transwarp key. Prime looks completely out of sync with the human race and his actions prove it. His first thought is not to protect Earth but leave it as soon as possible. This wasn’t the case in Michael Bay’s Transformers.
Doesn’t trust Noah to retrieve the Transwarp key
When the Transwarp key is located in a Brooklyn museum, Noah gets trapped in Porsche while trying to steal it. Turns out that car is Mirage, an Autobot blessed with powers of illusion who is tending to a distress call by Optimus Prime. Mirage offers a friendly hand to Noah and suggests that to retrieve the key from the museum, the Autobots should send this human. Prime is completely against this idea. He doesn’t want to leave the fate of his planet in the hands of the human. If anyone remembers the first Transformers film, Optimus Prime sought Sam Witwicky’s help to locate the glasses that had the coordinates to the ‘All-Spark’ but in ‘Rise of the Beasts,’ Prime wants nothing to do with the humans.
He’s not against them, doesn’t want their help but only uses Earth as a pit stop to fulfill the goal of returning to Cybertron. The human-alien connection that was established and celebrated in the previous Transformers films was absent until it returned as it does near the end of the film, to fulfill a larger goal of defeating Unicron.
Why did Optimus Prime act so indifferent toward humans?
Optimus Prime’s objective to save Cybertron trumps all in ‘Rise of the Beasts.’ He is blinded by his ambition until Noah reminds him that Earth is at risk as well if Unicron enters their atmosphere. Noah vows to fight till the end to defeat Unicron, prompting Prime to rethink his strategy and beliefs. If not for Noah, Prime would have continued in a daze to fight Unicron and his henchmen Scourge with little to no regard for the damage to Earth.
The leader of the Maximals, Optimus Primal also reminds Prime about their oath to protect all life in the universe, and not just Cybertron. Prime is then filled with a sense of higher purpose and commits wholeheartedly to kicking Unicron out for the sake of the entire universe.