If there was any movie property that has
been beaten to death with awful installment after awful installment, the Transformers movie series is the perfect
definition of that. What started out as a potentially good franchise with a
decent first movie from 2007, just crumbled into an abyss of terrible writing,
effects that got worse with every installment, and an ego fest made by someone
who didn’t care for the original Transformers series and had no intention on
improving their craft. Things are changing however, as Bumblebee is the first film in the Transformers movie series not directed by Michael Bay and is
serving as a reboot of the franchise. Thankfully, the truth of Michael Bay
being wrong for this series has been proven as Bumblebee while derivative and flawed in some areas is the Transformers movie fans need in their
lives.
A
Simple Familiar Story
The plot of Bumblebee centers on the famous Autobot coming to Earth from
Cybertron to escape the wrath of the Decepticons. Unfortunately, the character
gets amnesia and ends up becoming friends with a girl named Charlie Watson and
they have to figure out what’s Bumblebee’s purpose is along with hopefully
saving the world from the threat of the Decepticons. On the surface this story
does not sound anything particularly new, and when watching the film, it really
isn’t. The film is the typical, alien creature comes from another planet and
becomes friends with a kid/teenager and that kid hides him as a pet while
trying to also protect the creature in question from a treat whether it be the
government, the treat from their own planet or in this case both. It very much
is the formula of films like E.T., Lilo
and Stitch and most obviously, The
Iron Giant. To the film’s credit however, even though it is a story told a
million times in films before, it is a movie that tells this story much better
than any of the major knock-off of E.T. out
there. This is mostly due to the film’s tone of being a simplistic adventure
with some fun action sequences and a surprising amount of heart. The writing in
this film does a better job representing the true touch the Transformers had
with it not being too over the top and having moments that feel genuine.
There’s not stupid dog humping jokes or anything ridiculously convoluted like
in Transformers the Last Knight, it
is just a simple story about a girl with her robot friend and that’s all you
need. After witnessing so many movies that just do not care about making it
feel genuine and emotional and just being an onslaught of visuals with no
substance, Bumblebee is incredibly
refreshing for a movie in a series like Transformers
to be like this.
A
Human lead that’s…Actually Likable?!
One issue that the Transformers movies have painfully suffered from are the leads in
their movies, as they have been nothing more than obnoxious awful characters
with no development and soul to them and take away the main focus that are the
Transformers themselves. Bumblebee accomplishes
something revolutionary for these movies as, this is a Transformers movie where the main leading human is actually a
character for once. Charlie Watson manages to be the best human character in these
movies easily and it’s due to the character actually having a bit of a
backstory and arch that makes her have much more depth than she had any right
to be, but also due Hailee Steinfeld doing an incredible job with the material
she is given. Steinfeld gives it her all during every emotional sequence she is
given making this character feel real and not an obnoxious tool like Shia
Labeouf was in the previous movies. The other human characters are serviceable,
as they don’t really have a whole lot to them and they don’t have a whole lot
of depth outside of what their role in the film is. Everyone from the parents,
the boyfriend and the main general army dude played by John Cena don’t feel
that much different compared to other characters in these type of movies are,
however there was never a moment where they felt unbearable by being completely
useless and spouting cringe-worthy moments of humor like in Bay’s efforts. They
are all served their purpose in a standard way which works well for this film.
Though what is a Transformers movie
without the Transformers and in this film they tend to be the highlight easily
outside of Charlie Watson. Bumblebee himself is given a lot of personality with
many humorous moments and also just an expressive character all around despite
not having a whole lot of dialogue. He serves the purpose of being the lovable
creature from another world perfectly but also given some more action packed
moments to add to the Transformers feel. Speaking of which, some of the other
Transformers show up in this movie and while there is not a whole lot of time
dedicated to them, every single sequence with them is a treat to behold.
Optimus Prime in particular is just as awesome and heroic as fans wanted to see
him and unlike the later Bay films where he comes across as needlessly cruel,
Prime is still the amazing leader we all know and love. The film also doesn’t forget
to showcase Optimus’ awesome moves during the fights sequence showing how cool
of a character he can be. The only downside is that there isn’t a whole lot of
Transformer action in this movie, however it’s still more faithful to the
series than the Bay films ever was, and is an incredible glimpse of what this
franchise could become soon in terms of staying true to these characters.
V
One element of the first Transformers from Michael Bay that
actually was pretty impressive and still is today is the special effects. The
film did a fairly good job adapting the Autobots and Decepticons into live
action, giving them a neat polish look and also a good sense of scale in terms
of how big they are. The future movies failed with that by having the CGI look
lackluster in comparison to how the first movie looked. Bumblebee is a visually more impressive movie than the last couple
of Transformers movies, but doesn’t
quite look as polished as the first film. It might be due to the fact that the
first film was over a decade ago now and more effects driven film have
impressed much more than the Transformers,
but even with that in mind, Bumblebee
doesn’t look quite as polished. While the robots do exist fairly okay in this
movie, there isn’t quite as much weight and scale to them in this movie which
make them look not as convincing as previous efforts. Yet, there is an element
that makes this movie look better than all of the Bay movies and that is how
the Transformers themselves are designed. Asides from Bumblebee who looks
fairly similarly to his Bay movie design, the Transformers in this movie look
more like how they have in the original show with their classic designs.
Instead of looking like a bunch of cluttered parts of a car in robot form like
how the Bay films designed them, they look more like an actual car in robot
form, and it’s all translated into some pretty solid CGI. The CGI itself may
not be the best for a live action movie, but during the parts where it’s in
space and on Cybertron, the film might be the best CGI Animated Transformers movie we never got. Not to
mentioned the action in this film is much better shot to where more of it can
be seen clearly and have a decent more variety of set pieces where the Bay movies
just were set in bland boring cities. This is a Transformers movie that actually has space battles and it’s every
bit as awesome as you would hope a movie with the Transformers on Cybertron
would be. Again as mentioned earlier, there’s a whole lot of it, but it is
still a great glimpse of what
Transformers should be and makes for a better constructed movie visually
despite the weaker CGI.
Now
Lets Never Have Michael Bay Direct this Series Again
Bumblebee
is
a fun time that although derivative and flawed in some areas, its techniques of
making the Transformers in a live
action film into less of a mockery is remarkable. It is a great redemption of Transformers and leaves you wanting a
bit more, but not in a “Michael Bay barely gave us what we wanted” kind of way
but a” that was a great start, I want more of it and done even better” way. Bumblebee is a must see for Transformers
fan and if this is a lead up to what could possibly be the perfect Transformers movie, then this is an
excellent new beginning for the franchise.
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