Bumblebee

Alright everyone, I have finally seen “Bumblebee,” which came out almost four weeks ago. Everyone is probably wondering if this was worth going to see? I’m glad you asked because I will tell you that. This “Transformers” prequel is actually good, which feels strange to say about a live-action “Transformers” movie. But that’s the only way to say it, really. K. Austin Collins said in his review, “The movie, which was written by Christina Hodson and directed by Travis Knight, is a warm and fuzzy origin story about a girl and her robot, full of handsome emotional beats, a John Cena villain worthy of a Saturday morning cartoon, and a soaring sense of minds changed and good triumphing over evil. There are big splashy battles, sure, and a little bit of political intrigue in the plotting. But this movie was unabashedly designed to be a kick in the feelings.” Again: strange for a live-action “Transformers” movie.

That’s not really in a bad way. Huge fanatics of the “Transformers” franchise, who are out there, have to say that the five “Transformers” films released, all directed by Michael Bay, have had a pretty consistent run. Collins said, “They’re all very much Michael Bay movies: heated, overstuffed, and greasy as old junkyard parts.” It’s actually good to change things up, particularly for a prequel like “Bumblebee.” Collins said, “What’s intriguing is that the film should change things up in this particular way, with A-Ha needle drops and a plot ripped right from the E.T. playbook.”

Say anything about Michael Bay, but at least his movies have their own names. Collins noted, “They occupy their own territory—albeit one I don’t necessarily want to visit often.” However, “Bumblebee” could have been directed by anyone, as long as they were working from the right book.

This makes it a nice time, but not a bad one. The protagonist of “Bumblebee” is Hailee Steinfeld, who plays Charlie, an 18-year-old Californian trying to survive all of the bad 80s hair, teenage social drama (Gracie Dzienny), and a charming boy across the street (Jorge Lendeborg Jr.). She’s confident and hardworking, but because the rules of being a 21^st-Century action protagonist, she’s also had some sadness in her past. Her dad has passed away. She still has her little brother, Otis (Jason Drucker), and mother, Sally, (Pamela Adlon), who has, alarmingly, a boyfriend named Ron (Stephen Schneider), a guy whose idea of a good birthday present for Charlie is a book encouraging her to smile more.

Charlie desires the same thing every 18-year-old wants for her birthday: a car. What she ends up getting, obviously, the Autobot she nicknames Bumblebee, voiced briefly by Dylan O’Brien, who at first look is a completely run-down Volkswagen Beetle. After a little repair, the massive, shy, yellow Autobot appears, as ashamed and easily disciplined as a puppy, and so do the Cybertron problems that brought him to Earth. Optimus Prime (Peter Cullen) sent Bumblebee to Earth because of the war on Cybertron, only to be followed by the Decepticons, with one named Blitzwing (David Sobolov) removing his voice box.

Collins admitted, “The best scenes in Bumblebee are probably meant to be the heartwarming, humorously ironic bonding scenes between this young woman and her alien robot friend. But I perked up a bit more at all the other stuff:” the Decepticons villains named Shatter (Angela Bassett) and Dropkick (Justin Theroux) who came from Cybertron to track down Bumblebee, for example, or the military Agent Burns (current WWE Wrestler John Cena), whose only thought is to chase the lovable Autobot takes him amusingly off course.

Collins admitted, “There’s just a nudge more imagination in that stuff than in the central arc, which surprised me. Knight, C.E.O. of the increasingly inventive studio Laika, was an animator on the Laika films Coraline and ParaNorman, as well as the director of Kubo and the Two Strings. His studio’s been a welcome change of pace in American animation, a worthy counterpoint to the rounded-edge goody-goody vibes of most Pixar films.” In “Coraline,” the main character has to go up against the threat of a needle on her eyes, a villain who wants to replace her eyes with sewn-on coat buttons.

Collins noted, “In Bumblebee, though, the greatest danger is a nostalgia overdose: the same music cues, emotional beats and the like that have defined everything from Netflix’s Stranger Things to last year’s It remake.” “Bumblebee” is also more of a kids’ movie in look and feel than the previous “Transformers” movies, which makes you think whether there are really little kids out there who get into the opening scenes of Everybody Wants to Rule the World.

Despite the film is mostly nice, little of the crafty, awkward strangeness of Knight’s other movies seems to inspire his methods to “Bumblebee,” which is almost too bad. Collins ended his review by saying, “Because while I can’t even begin to imagine with Optimus Prime by way of Coraline would look like, and am sure that would not be a good idea, it’s at least an idea.”

I know this may seem strange that I would say this, but this is the best of the live-action “Transformers” movies. You should definitely see this, even though there might be a little of Michael Bay-isms in the film. However, he is producing it, so he doesn’t have complete control over it. Also, Jon Bailey aka Epic Voice Guy is voicing two of the Transformers, so give him support.

Thank you for joining in on the review, stay tuned Friday for the continuation of “Madagascar Month.”