So I caught this today, and whilst it was a very enjoyable film, I am a bit confused.
It is set in 1994, before the events of the first film in the franchise.
In this film, we are introduced to the Maximals (the Beasts of the title) and the Terrorcons, and also a supreme-badass being called "Unicron".
I don't think that any of these are then mentioned in any of the other films (which are all set later than 1994). I think I need to do a little digging around to see if there are any theories about this.
But back to the film itself, and as I say, it was very enjoyable, if all a bit predictable. There were some neat new touches though, and hints at the end of more to come from at least one of the human characters.