Bumblebee Movie Review

Here's what you need to know; still struggling with the grief of losing her father, Charlie's shattered life is about to get the spark it needs when she comes across a rusty old Beetle and takes it home. This is no ordinary Beetle however, it's an Autobot, one lost on a strange and frightening new planet with the Government and a pair of evil Decepticons on his tail. But Charlie isn't deterred by the threat of a looming alien invasion, Bumblebee needs a friend, and she needs a catalyst to bring back the joy and love that was lost in her life.
As you may or may not know, I'm a huge fan of Transformers, after watching Michael Bay's 2007 film when I was 11, I was in love with this franchise of action and transforming robots and bleak, harrowing tales of war and death. But as I've detailed before, while I hold shows like Transformers Animated and Prime and the video game Fall of Cybertron very close to my heart, I've developed an increasingly cynical attitude towards the Michael Bay series, a series that, on top of not really understanding how to be good movies, blatantly had no idea how to approach doing this franchise even a modicum of justice, while killing any integrity it had left with over exposure and those sodding turbo-changers. So when a Bumblebee spinoff was announced, I really didn't care, all I saw was an attempt to double down on the Bumblebee over exposure and cash in on a franchise that, if The Last Knight's box office numbers were anything to go by, wasn't long for this world. Then I learned that Travis Knight was directing this film, and the trailer dropped, and my attitude towards the film basically did a 180, I was suddenly excited for a Transformers movie, and while other, more exciting things have happened since that trailer, *cough* Godzilla *cough * Battlefield V *cough,* my excitement for the film never really went away, until the other night when I attended two showings of the film on the same day, the first out of excitement and curiosity, the second out of pure joy that not only had I seen the best Transformers movie yet, but I'd watched one of the most enjoyable films I'd seen all year, maybe even my new favorite of the year.

Bumblebee's prologue is just five minutes of pure fan service as the last remaining Autobots hold off the Decepticon army on Cybertron. Anyone who's played High Moon Studios' Cybertron games will get a massive kick out of this, but more so than the Cybertron games, this film's prologue seems almost designed to tickle the pickles of G1 fans, because there's just so many Transformers, all of which are visually unique and instantly recognisable; Wheeljack, Ironhide, Arcee, Soundwave, Shockwave, Starscream, Thundercracker, and of course, Optimus Prime. All of which fit effortlessly into a happy middle ground between the aesthetics of G1 and Bayformers that I genuinely didn't think was possible, and I'll be honest, it was beautiful. Then Bumblebee lands on Earth, and the film just doesn't stop, as he unfortunately lands right in the middle of an army training exercise before throwing down with Blitzwing. Something didn't expect and really like is how Bumblebee still has his voice in this prologue, it's in this prologue that we learn how he lost his voice, and I was surprised by the amount of emotional weight it adds to Bumblebee and his friendship with Charlie, a key element of which being Charlie trying to teach Bumblebee how to talk. This prologue was amazing, I just wanted to see that and nothing else, but I knew it was only a prologue and expected that the film would end up losing a lot of steam, and yet it didn't, somehow.

Right out of the gate, Bumblebee already leaves Bayformers in the dust with its approach to socially outcast heroes, whereas Sam was obnoxious and awkward, deliberately but a bit too successfully, Charlie is neither, she's sweet and likable. Like Sam, she is flawed, she has a personal conflict, but while Sam's was crushing on a girl way out of his league and having fuck all social skills, Charlie's personal conflict is a little heaver, and handled far, far better. How this struggle is developed in this one film is more emotionally impactful than the first three Bay films combined; Charlie is in very genuine, very human emotional pain, and like Bumblebee's voice box getting ripped out, this is something I didn't expect, and really, really liked. The friendship that Charlie and Bumblebee develop in this film is its biggest strength by far, they are both incredibly likable characters, and the love they end up feeling for each other is just so warm and sweet, making for a bitter sweet ending that really pulled at the heart strings for me, which is weird; a Transformers film making me well up, that's literally never happened before, and I saw Optimus Prime get his spark blown out when I was 12. Like I said in my post on the trailer, the importance of a human and a Transformer hugging cannot be understated, and I adore that about Bumblebee.

Now if this were Bayformers (which it technically is,) here's where things would start to fall apart; side characters, but once again, Bumblebee doesn't completely fuck it up. The parents are no longer annoying, there's a little brother that is annoying, but that's the point and the film doesn't over-do it, and when you do hate a character, it's actually because you're meant to. John Cena's in the film, and despite him being a famous actor, wrestler and meme, I haven't seen anything with him in it, not that it would have changed my outlook on the film or his character. Burns is likable for the right reasons; he's charmingly over the top, and he has some funny moments sprinkled throughout when he isn't being cartoonishly intense, and while he really isn't the villain of the film, the film succeeded in not losing any of its momentum as it switched back and forth between Charlie and Sector 7, something that, once again, this film pulls of while Bayformers doesn't. Then there's Memo, and he could have sucked, but he was great. In a way, he's the Sam of this film; the nerdy, awkward guy crushing on a girl who doesn't even register him, and like Charlie and Bumblebee, him and Charlie develop a surprisingly wholesome and genuine friendship, though like a lot of films these days, he doesn't get the girl, I'm just going to lie and say that I don't know the reason why because this is a wholesome review for a wholesome film, we're green on fucks and shits but politics is a no-no.

Bumblebee, being a family film, has a lot of comedic moments, but like everything else about the film, it's wholesome; gone is the low brow, obnoxious, offensive drivel of the Bay films, no gay dog sex, no stoned parents, no screaming roommates or insufferably Twins. It occurred to me at some point that Bumblebee was actually making me laugh at times, something Bayformers also managed but with a much lower success rate, and at the cost of the rest of the comedy making me want to brush my teeth with 12-Gauge Birdshot. The film's generally more family friendly nature does bug me in one way however, and that's how the film handles death and violence. For a film whose emotional core is built around a grieving daughter, the film's reluctance to show any kind of violence to its human characters is a bit weak. Sure, having people turn to slime when they die is more kid friendly than them dropping dead, covered in blood and burns, but it seems so clean and safe compared to how the film handles Charlie's grief, disappointingly so, since there's a scene in this film that's bound to be more distressing to kids than any dead Texan, I know, I could hear them crying in the cinema. But, and this is second biggest but in the film, and something that I've already commented on, the film has heart, in fact it has a vomit inducing amount of heart. Rather ironically, for a film I initially expected to be the most soulless film in the series, it actually has more soul than any other film in the series, it has genuinely lovable characters, compelling drama, compelling heroes and villains, and a general feeling of joy and warmth that no other film in the series even comes close to having, Bumblebee almost made me cry, and that's not something I'll admit easily, unless we're talking about Paddington, that is.

But then there's the other but, the bigger but; possibly Bayformers' biggest failure was its complete inability to do justice to the Transformers, its butchering and gutting of lovable heroes and villains by stripping them of personality or style while cramming in as many recognisable names as possible, turning them into nothing more than vehicles of mayhem, literally. Bumblebee on the other hand takes a less is more approach, cutting its roster down to four, that's right, four Transformers; Bumblebee, Blitzwing, and the film's main villains, Shatter and Dropkick. This honestly couldn't have worked out more perfectly for the film, with all three of the film's Decepticons having distinct and appealing looks and personalities, so much so that I actually want their toys, particularly Shatter, who, while not a match for Megatron, is a solid and sinister villain, one that embodies the manipulative and sadistic cruelty of the Decepticons admirably. And while Optimus, Ironhide, Soundwave etc. are all in the film, they're very much in the back seat, which might turn you off if you expect more Bayformers Mayhem, but Bumblebee is very much a film of substance before style, something I've always said Transformers needed, and here we are, I was right.

Since Michael Bay isn't directing this film, the film, rather unsurprisingly, has a massively different tone and visual style, but both of those changes are unquestionably for the better, since the film's Transformers look amazing and all have unique looks, the action isn't over the top and rendered almost unwatchable by pyrotechnics and a medley of metal. The film is less action heavy than previous films, but the action honestly hasn't been this good since the forest fight in Revenge of the Fallen, which is unsurprising given Travis Knight's background in animation, but's it's very refreshing that the action is both fun and violent, but actually has stakes and emotional weight, and unlike the Bay films, Bumblebee doesn't have to be as reliant on its action to be entertaining thanks to the characters and drama. It's also set in the 80's, which naturally means there's a fuck ton of retconning, but at this point, I really don't care, this franchise is more retconned than Star Wars by now. That does give the film the opportunity to capitalise on the 80s nostalgia wave, which it absolutely does with a solid selection of 80's songs including Bon Jovi, The Smiths, Steve Winwood, and The Touch by Stan Bush, because why the fuck would it not have The Touch by Stan Bush, as well as a serviceable soundtrack of its own, including a song performed by Hailee Steinfeld, the film's lead actor, and someone whose music I've not really liked that much, and yet I'm listening to her song; Back to Life while I write this, and have actually been listening to it basically non-stop for the past two days, all the while daydreaming about how much I love this film, because I really do, I really, really do.

My name is Bumblebee
My opinion of this film has changed a lot since it was announced, what I feared would be the most cynical and soulless film the series has seen yet, somehow turned out to not only be the best film the Transformers series by far, but possibly my new favourite film of 2018, and I really mean that. The film's a bit too kid friendly and PC at times for my tastes, but they really are my only issues, and compared to everything else, they are minor. The film's less is more approach has resulted in the most compelling story in the series, packed with genuinely lovable characters and heartfelt, soul melting drama on top of the excellent robot action. It's the warmest film I've seen since Paddington 2, even warmer than Ralph Breaks the Internet, which I did see, just didn't review because I'm lazy. I watched Bumblebee three times in two days, and I'd happily watch a fourth, a fifth, a sixth time. Never thought it would happen, but it's true, Bumblebee is an absolute must watch.