Transformers save the day again

New installment of famous movie series hits the screens, Xu Fan reports.

"Autobots, roll out!" This iconic catchphrase, spoken by Optimus Prime, the extraterrestrial robot hero from the long-running Transformers franchise, brought excitement to a generation of Chinese born in the 1980s.

Now, fans can hear the familiar line once again in the latest Hollywood blockbuster, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, which was simultaneously released domestically and in North America on June 9.

As of Monday, the adrenaline-charged film — the seventh installment of the live-action franchise — has grossed over 440 million yuan ($61.5 million) to soar as one of the biggest summer blockbusters, according to the live tracker Beacon.

The new story begins centuries ago with the Maximals — a group of intelligent robot-beasts — who are forced to fight against evil Transformers and ultimately flee to the Earth for their survival.

Shifting gears to the year 1994, which is the main time period for the story, Noah Diaz, a former United States' soldier, is struggling to land a security guard job to earn money for his younger brother's medical expenses. Meanwhile, Elena Wallace, a 25-year-old researcher, discovers a mysterious artifact at a natural history museum that turns out to be a pivotal treasure in deciding the fates of both the Earth and their home planet of Cybertron.

The two young people's paths cross when the duo become the new human allies of Optimus Prime and his Autobots, who team up with the Maximals, who have hidden in a Peruvian jungle, to fight their common foe, the Terrorcons, and stop their scheme to bring back their villainous boss, Unicron.

Earlier this month, the movie premiered at Aranya Jinshanling, a resort and residential community located at the foot of a section of the Great Wall that was constructed during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) in Hebei province. Around 400 audience members enjoyed an outdoor sneak preview on a giant IMAX screen, which required a support skeleton made up of 5,000 steel scaffolding pipes weighing a total of 40 tons.