It would be easy to be pessimistic about “Bumblebee.” The live action “Transformers” series is probably one of the worst film series in recent memory, and yet despite that, the billions of dollars it has made makes it seem like audiences don’t care either way. As long as it has big robots, they’ll turn up. Which is why “Bumblebee” is so important. And so, so good.
Set in the 1980s, the film is a semi-reboot of the Michael Bay series that preceded it. It never outright does anything that would cut itself off from the previous films, and yet it is very clearly trying to distance itself from them. However, this distancing never hangs over the movie like a cloud. Rather, it ends up distancing itself the most thanks to some pretty strong writing.
Screenwriter Christina Hodson does an excellent job of forming two likable characters and putting them together rather quickly. Really, this is a pretty simple story that has been seen before. Previous films like “E.T.” and “The Iron Giant” seem to have provided the template that “Bumblebee” follows, but its not without its own spins on the formula.
One of those spins comes in the form of remarkably better action that before. Gone are the overly-complicated CGI monstrosities and the overabundance of slow motion. It seems that director Steven Knight (“Kubo and the Two Strings”) has pulled from his animation background to make the action intricate without sacrificing clarity.
There seems to be a much larger emphasis on practical effects this time, or at the very least, blurring the line between the CGI robots and the real actors. It’s nearly flawless throughout, which helps with the film’s suspension of disbelief and with preventing everything from becoming an over blown CGI mess.
Much of the action is simple, going for hand to hand combat and some gunplay here and there. There are still explosions and there is still some gratuitous violence to other robots and humans, but the tone and visuals are what keep it all grounded.
Speaking first about the tone, everything has a bubbly lighthearted feeling that somehow persists even in the darker moments. There may be aliens coming to find our titular hero, but he still finds time to joke around with his human counterparts, and it helps endear audiences to the character more than ever before.
Visually, its clear the budget is lower than previous “Transformer” films, there are fewer giant robots of course. But the redesigns help to better establish the action and visual style of the film. Gone are the robots so intricate and detailed that it becomes a chore to keep track of them. This new Bumblebee is big and chunky and bright yellow. It’s closer to the original cartoon style, and it fits the tone perfectly. Every other robot is kept to this mentality: chunky and colorful.
Now, it is worth mentioning the biggest knock against “Bumblebee.” As good as the film is and as much of a breath of fresh air as it is for this series, there’s very little of the film that hasn’t been seen before. While the ways Hodson and Knight tell their story are different, this is still the same misunderstood alien tracked by the government story seen time and time again. The same twists happen, the same redemptions, the same misunderstandings.
In that case, it falls to the actors to help save this otherwise predictable story. The main two, Hailee Steinfeld (“Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse,” “The Edge of Seventeen”) and John Cena (“Blockers,” “Ferdinand”) are both equally excellent. Steinfeld plays a spunky and angsty teen Charlie, balancing both extremely well without becoming annoying. Cena’s sympathetic Sgt. Burns is anything but one dimensional, a refreshing change of pace from previous Transformer villains. The rest of the is still great, although their screen time and use within the story can vary.
Despite being a CGI creation, Bumblebee himself is still full of charm and personality. He’s fierce and loyal, but he also manages to be downright adorable for much of the film. He is without a doubt, the film’s scene (and heart) stealer.
“Bumblebee” may be predictable and cliched, but it helps tremendously that those clichés are delivered but such talented actors and that the story revolved around such a charming character. This is a wonderfully charming film, with a great sense of visual balance and tone, never sacrificing its heart and sense of emotion for big explosions and intensity. It’s taken someone fiercely loyal, like Bumblebee, to transform this series into something special. 4/5
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