Bumblebee review

BUMBLEBEE:

NEW DIRECTOR, 80S SETTING, AND MORE FAMILY-FRIENDLY TONE; ALL FOR THE BEST!

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: *** ½ out of 4

PARAMOUNT PICTURES AND ALLSPARK PICTURES

Every hero has a beginning in Bumblebee

            The Autobots and Decepticons go back in time to the 1980s in Bumblebee, the latest installment of the live-action Transformers film series based on the popular Hasbro toy line of the same name. Serving as a prequel to the first Transformers movie from 2007 directed by Michael Bay, this marks the first live-action Transformers movie not to be directed by Bay but rather, Travis Knight (Kubo and the Two Strings) in his live-action film debut in the director’s chair with Michael Bay (The Rock, Armageddon, 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi) serving as a producer.

            The previous installments of the Transformers franchise never quite won critics over despite being huge box-office hits and while plenty of people including myself consider the first film to be a solid movie, it is undeniably flawed and filled with a lot of Michael Bay tropes and clichés that don’t exactly help it stand the test of time. After five times of seeing Bay give us the exact same thing and offending our intelligence as well as tiring us out in the process, we finally have a Transformers movie with a new director, could it FINALLY break the Transformers movie curse?

            The answer is a very enthusiastic, YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

            Not only does it break away from the overblown action sequences, unnecessarily raunchy humor, racial stereotypes, and one-dimensional characters of its predecessors, but Bumblebee replaces them with a likable human protagonist for once, Transformers nostalgia that never feels forced, and a simple yet touching story about the friendship between a girl and her alien robot similar to E.T. and The Iron Giant. Out of all the Transformers movies, this one has the most heart to it and it’s the one I’ve cared the most about the characters whether human or robot, easily the best in the live-action Transformers series.

            After the fall of the planet Cybertron, during the war between the heroic Autobots and the ruthless Decepticons, Optimus Prime (voiced by Peter Cullen) sends a young B-127 scout to Earth in hopes to find a new home. Meanwhile on Earth in the year 1987, a girl named Charlie Watson (Hailee Steinfeld-True Grit (2010), Pitch Perfect 2 and 3, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse) who was traumatized by the death of her father and is resentful of her mother for remarrying, wants a car for her eighteenth birthday.

            Charlie visits a run-down scrapyard belonging to her friend, Hank (Len Cariou-About Schmidt, Secret Window, Spotlight) where she comes across a yellow 1967 Volkswagen Beetle, which Hank gives to her at no charge for her birthday. While fixing her car up, Charlie realizes that the Beetle she got turns out to be a transforming robot, and not just any robot but the B-127 scout who was sent to Earth.

            She learns that he cannot speak as his voice box was damaged during a Decepticon ambush and calls him Bumblebee after noticing that he sounds like a bumblebee. Bumblebee and Charlie develop an unbreakable friendship and get into all kinds of wacky shenanigans, but their fun is cut short when a secret organization that monitors extra-terrestrial activity called Sector 7 discovers Bumblebee’s existence and tries to take him away from Charlie presuming that he is hostile.

            However, two Decepticons known as Shatter (voiced by Angela Bassett-Malcolm X, Black Panther, Mission: Impossible: Fallout) and Dropkick (voiced by Justin Theroux-Zoolander 1 and 2, The Lego Ninjago Movie, Star Wars: The Last Jedi) arrive to Earth posing as peacekeepers to persuade Sector 7 and their lieutenant, Jack Burns (John Cena-The Marine, Ferdinand, Blockers) in hunting Bumblebee down claiming him to be a dangerous criminal. On the run from Sector 7, Charlie, her friend, Memo (Jorge Lendeborg Jr.-Spider-Man: Homecoming, Love, Simon, Alita: Battle Angel), and Bumblebee must stop Shatter and Dropkick from using a beacon to bring Decepticons to Earth and destroy the planet.

The film also stars John Ortiz (Carlito’s Way, Fast & Furious 4 and 6, Kong: Skull Island) as Dr. Powell, Jason Drucker (Every Witch Way, Barely Lethal, Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul) as Charlie’s little brother, Otis, Pamela Adlon (King of the Hill, Recess, Teacher’s Pet) as Charlie’s mother, Sally, UFC fighter, Rory Markham (The Death and Life of Bobby Z, The Experiment, Setup) as Jake Adams, Stephen Schneider (Chasing Life, You’re the Worst, Broad City) as Charlie’s stepfather, Ron, and features the voices of Dylan O’Brien (Maze Runner trilogy, Deepwater Horizon, American Assassin) as Bumblebee’s speaking voice, Grey DeLisle-Griffin (The Fairly OddParents, The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy, Avatar: The Last Airbender) reprising her role from Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen as Arcee, Steve Blum (Cowboy Bebop, Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, The Boxtrolls) as Wheeljack, Kirk Baily (Cowboy Bebop, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, Mobile Suit Gundam) as Brawn, and Screen Junkies’ Jon Bailey (Honest Trailers, Epic Voice Guy) as Soundwave and Shockwave.

Overall, Bumblebee manages to breathe new life into a creatively-empty franchise and delivers a nostalgic blast from the past while still being an entertaining film on its own. Unlike Michael Bay, Travis Knight has a much better understanding of what people enjoy about Transformers and you can tell just by the final product that he is directing out of passion and love rather than for a simple paycheck.

The movie is filled with homages and references to other Transformers movies and shows that die-hard fans will truly appreciate. Retro-looking Autobots and Decepticons, an ending that leads right into the first Transformers movie, and there’s even a really clever use of the iconic Stan Bush song, The Touch from the 1986 Transformers animated movie, I literally wanted to stand up in the theater and applaud the moment it played.

But even without the Transformers nostalgia, it’s a solid movie with charming characters, stunning visual effects, and a touching story. Unlike Shia LaBeouf’s Sam Witwicky and Mark Wahlberg’s Cade Yaeger, Hailee Steinfeld’s performance as Charlie feels natural and the first Transformers human protagonist I actually cared about, she doesn’t scream every other line like Shia or…portray himself surrounded by transforming robots like Marky Mark, just a teenage outcast with a friend from another world, her character even teaches Bumblebee how to communicate through music when his voice box was damaged.

My only real criticism is more of a nitpick, but unlike the Bay Transformers films where they’re overlong and you lose interest at the halfway point, Bumblebee is just barely under two hours long and not once was I ever bored with it, I actually wanted more when the movie ended. I wouldn’t have a problem sitting an extra 15-20 minutes, something I’d never say about the previous installments.

If you’re a die-hard Transformers fan, this is it, Bumblebee is the movie you’ve been waiting for. Fan-service done right, and it gives exactly what you want to see without any of the things that didn’t work in Michael Bay’s films.

But even if you’re not familiar with the Transformers mythos and want to see an exciting and surprisingly warm-hearted movie in the same vein as The Iron Giant, you’ll still have a great time. Bumblebee is proof that there truly is more to this franchise than meets the eye and hopefully a new line of films will spawn from this rare Transformers gem.