When I first heard about a “Bumblebee movie” starring Hailee Steinfeld and John Cena, I was not excited, in fact I was bracing for yet another dissapointing Transformers movie. I thought that they were just milking the franchise dry.
But then, I saw this teaser art for the film – Bumblebee and Steinfeld’s character Charlie under a beautiful night sky illuminated by a million stars and I was so in love with this poster and I started to actually look forward to the film. Then the film starts to get so many positive reviews and currently holds a 93% score on Rotten Tomatoes score after weeks of being released and the positive reviews from critics kept pouring in and I was intrigued, could a Transformers movie actually be this good?
And after seeing the movie for myself (drum roll please….)
Lo and behold! Yes! Its possible!
“Bumblebee” is hands down the best Transformers movie ever!
The film was so beautiful. The story was well thought of, the characters were fleshed out and carefully written.
Its as if they took everything that was wrong with the “Bayformers” films and corrected it for a Transformers film that we all deserve.
The film opens with a battle in Cybertron between the Autobot resistance and the Decepticons and already you know that this is not Michael Bay’s Transformers, there are no towering shiny robots that bear no resemblance at all to the classic Transformers designs.
What we have is Director Travis Knight paying homage to the original designs it was so nostalgic it actually felt like you were watching an episode of “Transformers” – of course one with better and more colorful graphics. Also you can tell that production stayed away from the use of excessive explosions, a known trait in the “Bayformers” films which has drawn flak over the years.
Instead “Bumblebee” goes old school with their fight sequences and has more physical robot rumble, which was a welcome change.
You can really see that the writing focused on Bee and Charlie’s relationship, how Charlie helped Bee find his voice and how he in return helped Charlie find the courage and spark in life that she lost.
I love how Charlie was given a strong back story, an edgy teen feeling left out from her own family after the sudden passing of her father.
I appreciated her drive and motivation unlike Shia LaBeouf’s Sam Witwicky, whose only motivation was to get into Megan Fox’s pants.
Speaking of Megan Fox – the movie also does a good job of washing off Bay’s objectification of women in his films (admit it, you still have that image of Megan Fox opening the hood of the car in her too tight for High School attire with the perfect hair and tan in your head) and Bay’s casting of Victoria’s Secret Models as they run around in high heels while explosions happen left and right by casting the wholesome Hailee Steinfeld whose character Charlie is a believable 18 year old.
She is a bit awkward and tomboyish, in 80s rock band tees, jeans, leather jackets and boots. The most that you see of her skin are of her knees, when she puts on her colorful uniform for her work at the carnival.
Speaking of the 80s since “Bumblebee” was set in 1987 it is a big love letter to the 80s!
Watching the film, is a good way “to confuse kids nowadays” as it features cassette tapes, walkmans, vinyl, VHS tapes (and so much hair product) among other things that are probably in museums nowadays.
The music! Oh the music! I loved it so much I had to curate my own Bumblebee playlist right after seeing the film and of course I’m listening to it now while I’m writing this.
I’m glad to say that while “Bumblebee” has ticked off the boxes in all of what I have already mentioned but it doesn’t stop there ~! It was a nice touch to give Charlie’s family more than just “the family role”, they provide more than just comic relief too as they actually contribute to the plot, which is all that I’m saying now.
Fans of John Cena will be happy to know that he played the role of Agent Burns well. He has a couple of lines in there that had me LOL, it was good to see (pun intended) that he was not a “throwaway antagonist” as well.
Bumblebee was so good you wish that the past five films did not happen at all.
There were tears, its the beautiful story of a girl and her Autobot, drawing similar themes from “Iron Giant” and “ET” but with its own fun and nostalgic spin.
9/10 “Bumblebee” is now showing in cinemas.