Bumblebee

A simplistically welcoming reboot to one of the oddest franchises of our time

(Written by Guest Columnist Harrison Lee)

I don’t pretend to be a movie connoisseur: I prefer rowdy action sequences over drama, dry, dark humor over history, and cheap horror over sentiments. When evaluating a movie, I don’t always usually look for classics that stand the test of time, but flashy productions that glow with youth and exuberance. The Transformers movies, in many ways, are the epitome of my preferred genre of films. Not much really goes on in the plot, there is basically no character development, and Michael Bay’s signature choreography of action, explosions, and CGI-fueled special effects dominate your senses and leave your ears ringing.

In many ways, I really like that formula of success. Throughout the first three Transformers movies: Transformers, Revenge of the Fallen, and Dark of the Moon, I have been as big of a Transformers fan as anyone out there. There was something about those movies that kept me going back to them, over and over again. Things like Optimus Prime’s heroism, Megatron’s strategies of world domination and power, Bumblebee’s loyally amiable demeanor and soundtracks like Arrival to Earth that make my blood boil (it is still, to this day, featured prominently on my Spotify playlist). The first Transformers movie, I can say for a fact, is one of my favorite movies of all time. Maybe it is because of the fact that I had never heard of Transformers prior to that and really enjoyed the surprise, or perhaps because I thought Shia LaBeouf to be pretty cool before he got all weird, SJW, and irrelevant.

Then came Age of Extinction, and everything changed.

I enjoy Mark Wahlberg’s work as much as the next guy, but there were many things about the 2014 film that really irked me. Between the action and nonexistent plot development, AOE had simply no way for the audience to feel for the characters and their stories. Stakes were minor and any hopes of cinematic excellent were wiped out by the multiple blatant product placements. At that point, it had been pretty clear that Michael Bay had been out of his element and not even trying to advance the story. With its countless plot holes and contradictions far too obvious for even my taste, the series was becoming harder and harder for me to enjoy and appreciate. While I’d always liked Optimus beating down on evil Decepticons, with each additional fight I grew tired out of the same old cinematic techniques. It somehow still made over a billion dollars, most of which probably came from viewers like me.

I won’t spend too much time talking about The Last Knight, as my great friend, the guy who runs this blog, already has. Truthfully, it’s probably for the best that we forget that it ever happened. The less said about it, the better. You can find his article here.

After The Last Knight, people in charge of the Transformers franchise wisely ran Michael Bay out of town and enlisted Travis Knight to direct a prequel to the five movies, and what better way than to do it on Bumblebee? After filming started in July of 2017, it didn’t take that long for the $100M production to hit the theaters in full force. In many ways, it is a simplistically welcoming reboot to one of the oddest franchises of our time. Bumblebee, instead of the over-the-top cinematography and cookie-cutter special effects, focuses on solid interactions, life experience, plot substance, and resolves its conflicts brilliantly.

Hailee Steinfeld is one of the rising stars in today’s Hollywood. I’m probably one of her biggest fans, and her performance in Bumblebee is something to behold. It is fair to say that the Michael Bay pentalogy wasn’t exactly too concerned about the development of characters, but this Transformers movie was different. Focusing directly on the interaction, conflicts, and resolutions between Charlie and her first car, the movie portrays a touching image of the teenager’s childhood while simultaneously mixing in well-time humor and mid-80s references. I can’t say that I’d been around during that time, but the film succeeded in bringing about nostalgia for those yearning for a simpler, more authentic time. Even though Bumblebee retconned a lot of what had been established in Michael Bay’s Transformers franchise, it established a straight-forward plot and timeline that I could focus and brought a heartwarming sensation surprisingly relevant to our lives.

While the overall stakes and action sequences in this movie pale in comparison to those in the first five Transformer movies, they are very self-contained and the choreography is very clever. While the ending of the fight scenes seems a little contrived, it brings back memories of Charlie’s childhood and connects them to the pressing fight at hand. Overall, Bumblebee is a heartwarming wintertime feature that celebrates one of our favorite Autobot heroes in a much-deserved manner.

*All images on this post a legally owned by Allspark Pictures, Di Bonaventura Pictures, Tencent Pictures & Bay Films.