Saturday, December 22, 2018

‘BumbleBee’: A Solid Change for the Transformers Franchise


     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.

Visually Well Done Despite the Lack of Innovation
     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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