Transformers: Rise of the Beasts (2023)

The fifth-biggest movie in South Africa in 2023, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts is set in 1994 and centres on ex-military electronics expert Noah Diaz and artefact research intern Elena Wallace as they work with the Maximals and the Beasties to fight an invasion that threatens to consume Earth. It’s both a prequel to 2007’s original Transformers and a standalone sequel to 2018’s Bumblebee. 

Directed by Black Reel winner Steven Caple Jr (Creed II), Transformers: Rise of the Beasts stars Emmy nominees Anthony Ramos (In the Heights) as Noah and Dominique Fishback (Swarm, Judas and the Black Messiah) as Elena, with Grammy-nominated Nigerian-American hip-hop artist Tobe Nwigwe as Reek. Also listen out for the likes of Ron Perlman, Michelle Yeoh, Peter Dinklage, Peter Davidson, Colman Domingo and award-winning Zimbabwean actor Tongayi Chirisa as transformers. 

Screen Rant calls it, “The perfect summer movie,” while Geeks hails it as “perhaps the best Transformers movie since the first.”

Also watch the first six Transformers movies on Showmax, starting (chronologically) with Bumblebee, all the way through to Rise of the Beasts.