THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
Everyone knows that Michael Bay’s directorial efforts in Hasbro's Transformers franchise rose and fell quicker than anyone ever expected. While his first outing in 2007 has a pay off, most fail to be just as fun because they spend more time showing off explosions than giving us a solid plot. Each film succeeded in the box office, but Paramount knew this franchise deserved better. So they took a step back and gave us a much more creative story without Bay, solely focusing on one of the most popular protagonists.
PLOT
Bumblebee takes place in 1987 and follows the titular Autobot who was first named ‘B-127’. The civil war between Autobots and Decepticons is at its worst, resulting in the Autobots splitting up until it’s safe to regroup. B-127 is assigned by his leader Optimus Prime (Peter Cullen) to scout planet Earth, to see if it’ll suit as a base of operations. He crash lands on California and encounters Sector 7 agent Colonel Jack Burns. Although he means no harm, his chance of earning trust disappears when the Decepticon Blitzwing (David Sobolov) attacks. When he refuses to reveal Prime’s whereabouts, he damages his voice box. B defends himself by stabbing him with a missile. He flees and transforms into an '87 Volkswagen Beetle before collapsing from his wounds. He is found by teenager Charlie Watson, who is grieving over her deceased father. Her process is much harder as her mother Sally (Pamela Adlon) is engaged with her boyfriend Ron (Stephen Schneider). She finds B from a junkyard and accepts it as a birthday gift by her Uncle Hank (Len Cariou). When she first attempts to turn him on as a vehicle, she unknowingly activates a homing signal that is found by Decepticons Shatter and Dropkick. When they come to Earth, they make contact with Burns and S7 scientist Dr. Powell. They pose as the heroes and convince their superiors to help them find B with their technology, despite Burns' concerns. By night and at home, Charlie does attempt to fix B and this time, he wakes up and transforms in front of her. When she vows not to harm her, she names him 'Bumblebee' based off of the color and both befriend each other. The next day, they go to the woods and Charlie attends to fix his voice. Instead, she activates a message from Prime, which helps him regain his memories after temporarily suffering from amnesia. The message is to defend Earth until the Autobots arrive. When returning home, Bee begins to use the radio to communicate. Charlie's neighbor Memo ends up discovering him but because of his crush on her, he promises to keep a secret. The next day, they have a car trip and unintentionally make their way through a cliffside party. She gets pressured by classmate Trip (Ricardo Hoyos) to dive into the sea below. Despite formerly being part of a diving team in high school, she doesn't bring herself to do it. When Trip's girlfriend Tina (Gracie Dzienny) teases her over her dead father, she and her friends get even by TPing her house. Bumblebee gets carried away by also smashing her car after already egging it. Knowing authorities could look for him as his vehicle disguise, Charlie suggests for him to stay home the following day while she goes to work at the fair. The autobot unintentionally destroys the house and causes an energy spike that gets the attention of Sector 7. Since Sally is unaware that Bee is alive, she finds Charlie responsible when they come home. They get into an argument that results to Charlie leaving the house after admitting she hasn't gotten over the loss of her dad. When she and Memo have another car trip, they encounter an S7 military unit led by Burns. Bee helps them flee from him, but they quickly encounter Shatter and Dropkick who demand Prime's whereabouts. Charlie tries to step in, but both get incapacitated by Burns. She then wakes up at home, finding Burns lie to her mom that Bee is government property. Memo is found home as well and with her brother Otis (Jason Drucker) promising to keep her cover, they plan to get their friend back. At the S7 outpost, the Decepticons see the rest of the message and discover that Prime is coming to Earth. With this discovery, they intend to signal the Decepticons at Cybertron to get the jump on them. Dropkick kills Powell when he overhears their true intentions and warns Burns the truth of them. They leave Bee for dead when shooting him in his chest. Once they leave, Charlie brings him back to life by electroshocking him. When he wakes up, he aggressively defends himself against Burns. When Charlie tells him to stop, he calms down. The two make their way to stop the Decepticons from signaling Cybertron. Memo stays behind in hopes to buy them time, which fails. Sally and Ron find Charlie on the road, only to be involved in a car chase between her and Burns. Charlie separates herself from them all by getting them jammed between other cars. When reaching the water tower, Bumblebee is able to kill Dropkick by ripping him apart with chains after binding him. When Charlie deactivates the beacon, Burns catches up via helicopter. Shatter shoots at him but Bee saves him from crashing. He then destroys a dam wall that starts a flood. Shatter is killed after being crushed by a cargo ship. Believing he is killed as well, Charlie dives to check on him, discovering he survived the flood. Realizing the autobot is not hostile, Burns allows him to escape. By morning, Charlie insists that he should leave because of his greater purpose. Before he does so, he changes into a '77 Chevrolet Camaro. When Charlie comes home, Bee reunites with Prime and insists being called after his new name. The film ends with Charlie successfully fixing her father's car.
THOUGHTS
I had low expectations checking this out when first released in 2018, after losing satisfaction of the prior outings. So I was in plain relief that I ended up enjoying it when it was over. This movie was naturally fun to watch, which was missing from before. Because of a new vision by director Travis Knight and writer Christina Hodson, we were able to see the most creative film we've ever seen from this franchise in a long while. It sounded hard to contain the infamous robo civil war and have the perspective be on one protagonist, yet it works because it's fresh to see it this time around. This franchise always delivers with satisfying action sequences and standard visual effects, which is no exception here. The only difference it has from Bay’s films is that the explosions are not overused. The coolest thing about the visuals is how the Transformers resemble their looks from the first animated series from the 80s, hence a successful nostalgic feeling. The best easter egg to ever catch in this film was briefly hearing Stan Bush's 'The Touch' from the '86 animated film. If you don't like that song, you're not a true fan. Going back to being refreshing, the true reason that this film does a better job with is being character driven. You totally feel it between the dynamic of Bee and Charlie. We love Bumblebee he is an underdog, whose youth makes him all the more sweet. While you don't hear his voice a whole lot, I truly believe Dylan O'Brien did a great job embracing all that from the voice alone. Hailee Steinfeld was better than I anticipated in the role of Charlie. Her relationship with Bee reminded me of The Iron Giant, as in that titular robot's relationship with the child Hogarth. I thought about that because of how they met in a crossroads. The robot is gentle but dangerous when provoked, whereas she is someone feels lost and unfree. She feels this way because her father's death broke him. And in a way, she sees him through Bee because he made her feel like herself as their time progressed. Letting go of the people/things you love is always hard and it was for her. But we know Charlie will be okay because she knows they'll be with her in spirit. Steinfeld's song 'Back to Life' is neat to hear because of its meaning to fighting for who you love and being a good friend. All of these components taught the true moral to always have faith in yourself and avoid doubt or you'll never overcome what troubles you within. John Cena was another welcome addition that impressed me as well with his performance as Burns. He does act cruel but that is only because he wants to protect his country like any soldier would. He gets redeemed because when Bumblebee saves him, he realizes that he shouldn't shoot first and ask later. He even salutes him before he leaves he understands he is as much of a solider as he is. I also didn’t mind John Ortiz as Powell. He made the character relatable because it would realistically sound exciting to encounter extraterrestrials. As a scientist, there was no way he would miss out on a moment like this. However, he found out the hard way that big decisions like that should’ve been thought through beforehand. While he doesn’t drive the plot as much as Burns, he does leave a good impression with his intent to do the right thing. I’m not sure if he qualifies as a hero, but what mattered by the end was that he died a good man. I found myself smiling seeing Jorge Lendeborg Jr. as Memo. He is likable because despite being as nervous as any nerd would be around someone they crush over, he is good natured from beginning to end. He may not get the girl yet, but her attention is good enough on his end. And as for the villains, Angela Bassett and Justin Theroux were great choices for voicing Decepticons Shatter and Dropkick respectively. Both of them gave their own perspective of sounding as amoral as any other antagonist would be. The scariest thing about them other than being a 'brain & brawn' duo is how they truly believe they're on the right side as they show extreme contempt for the Autobots. This film is better than I thought, but there were still moments where I believe could’ve been changed/improved. First off, is it really a reboot if it show the questions’ answers from the Bay films. We see Bee lose his voice, turn into the same ‘77 Camaro from the first film, Megatron is absent and there is an S7 agent named ‘Simmons’ just like the John Turturro character from before. If it really is a reboot, I don’t think the last fact would be in this film. I know the follow-up Rise of the Beasts would re-confirm this is a reboot, but it felt weird to see them reuse traits from the past. Going into the story, it is convenient for Bee to transform into a vehicle that was nearby but how did no one from that lake hear that commotion on his side? Ignoring a thud is one thing, but the stuff he had went through is way more than that. I know things were very different in the 80s, but why did Charlie have to deliver the food/drinks to customers halfway across the fairgrounds? That ain’t fair at all because she could've gotten lost and would’ve not found her customer. That sounds worse than spilling the meal on them. I didn’t think this film would have continuity errors, but it has the oddest one yet. Charlie has the exact picture and polaroid of her with her dad. That confuses me highly because I don’t understand how that’s even possible. If that doesn’t confuse you, a gas station has two names in different takes as the Decepticons crash land, going from ‘Gas N Guzzlin’ to ‘Guzzlin N Gas’. And how did Bee transform in time to avoid being caught by Charlie’s mom? He was in the corner, not the center of the garage. If you want to talk about messed up, I was irritated how her mom even took him to drive to the vet without permission and no one chose to tell her before she notices he’s gone. I don’t care if her mom pays the bills, that is just wrong of her to do, especially since they’re not on the same page. The biggest mistake that our antagonists make is that Dropkick says aloud how kneeling to the humans is humiliating when Burns could’ve heard him. One thing I could pick on about Memo is that he had a poster of The Thing in his room. That is another ‘bullshit’ moment for me since that film was not popular at the time because it was a box office flop. I don’t care how much of a cult classic it grew to be, don’t be a poser and act like everyone loved it back than. I also screamed ‘Bruh’ when he barges into Charlie’s garage. I know it’s funny that he finds out but whether or not you’re crushing on her, wait until you’re invited to come in after you knock. Him walking in was weirder than the door being unlocked. The biggest question I got to say is what would the Decepticons do to find Bee had he not put his finger in an electric socket? That happened out of luck, so you can’t help but wonder if they had a backup plan. They didn’t even track his radio signal, so what gives? I don’t want to root for the bad guys but they acted a little lazy on that end. It does appear that Powell was supposed to die so that Burns can return to the conflict, but why was he alone with the Transformers? He seemed the most important scientist of S7, so I don’t buy that he’d be there without a few soldiers. I don’t want Charlie to die, but she should’ve died in that garbage can when it got shot. That would’ve been a better excuse to not see her again. Yeah it’d be dark for a movie meant for kids, but that can should not be invincible. The last thing to bother me is how no one passing by San Francisco Bridge notices Bee at the hill. I know we need an excuse for him to be the ‘77 Camaro but I feel like this could’ve worked out in a more secluded spot. Ignore all of these issues and you’ll still be having a good time. In short, Bumblebee is the comeback that Transformers needed and I couldn’t be anymore grateful about it. If you love the franchise as I do, you will not regret seeing this one.
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