After a slow and unfortunate deterioration in the quality of the Transformers movies, the franchise was in serious need of a good reboot, and with Bumblebee the series has transformed.
I saw Bumblebee on New Year's Eve 2018, a week or so after it was released. Early reviews had been positive and the trailers showed a refreshed look and a more grown-up approach to plot and story (even the first Transformers film had "Sam's Happy Time" which somehow escaped the cutting room floor). And the trailer where Soundwave ejects a transforming Ravage... sign me up for tickets, now!
The film opens on Cybertron - yes, really - and I very quickly identified Prowl, Wheeljack, Brawn, Optimus and others. The Decepticons are also well represented, with later scenes showing the Seekers, Shockwave and Soundwave - who sounds like the original G1 Soundwave too (none of the whispering and growling of the recent films).
Bumblebee is dispatched to Earth to set up a base and ensure the Decepticons don't establish themselves there. However, Bumblebee's arrival on Earth is shortly followed by Starscream's and Bumblebee is massively outgunned. I assume it was Starscream as he transformed and looked and even sounded like Starscream, even though I don't think he was named specifically.
The battle with Starscream leaves Bumblebee without his voice or memory. I detect the hand of Mr Spielberg in delivering the "alien must have no voice and learn to communicate" plot which he has been pushing - albeit successfully - since ET The Extra Terrestrial. Losing his voice and his memory, Bumblebee subsequently goes into hiding.
The story is well written, and I'm pleased to say that the robots get plenty of screen time. One of my main criticisms of the later films was the excessive focus on the humans in the story, to the detriment of the robots. I fully get that humans are cheaper to film than robots, but the over-reliance on the human back-story has been an ongoing issue for me. That's not the case here - the robots feature heavily in the story and it feels like Bumblebee is on screen around 70% of the time, and it certainly seems like the human-only scenes last barely five minutes before there's a robot back on screen again.
And I'm pleased to report that the humans are the best written in Transformers history, by far. The parents are far better than the Witwicky parents, who were consistently dreadful - the only thing that could be done with them was to limit their screen time. Here, though, the humans - the military and civilian - are all credible and make genuine, believable contributions to the plot. We see an early Sector 7 and the basis of the Internet, all handled well. This is the kind of writing we saw in the better parts of Dark of the Moon, with the Transformers actively involved in human history.
The story revolves around two Decepticons trying to track down Bumblebee, firstly across space (dispatching a G1 Cliffjumper along the way) and then on Earth, while Bumblebee and his human companion Charlie learn to work together to keep him safe until he recovers his memory. There are some fantastic touches from Transformers history - The Touch by Stan Bush is a great example - and the final showdown features a neat little sequence where one of the Decepticons throws Bumblebee to the ground; Bumblebee transforms to car mode before turning 180 degrees, driving towards the Decepticon, jumping and transforming back into robot mode - exactly as Jazz does in the title scenes of the series one cartoon.
The ending features Bumblebee leaving Charlie, his mission now accomplished. After exchanging his vehicle mode from a Volkswagen to a Camaro, he drives off across the Golden Gate Bridge and to my delight, joins a red articulated lorry with grey trailer. There isn't a single word of dialogue or explanation, but the sight of a genuine G1 Optimus Prime on the big screen made me realise what has been missing from all the previous Transformers movies.
I was surprised - almost astonished - to discover that many of the film crew for Bumblebee are the same as the previous movies, with Michael Bay now as a producer instead of director, along with Lorenzo di Bonaventura, Tom deSanto and Don Murphy. This film feels, looks and sounds so different from all of the previous films that credit must go directly to the writer, Christina Hodson, and the director Travis Knight. There are fewer explosions and out-and-out gun battles, and instead the focus is on the story - which is believable (as far as these stories can be) and written with three-dimensional characters who aren't written just for awkward gags. There is still plenty of action and robot vs robot combat, on Cybertron and on Earth, but less of the widespread explosions and overly lengthy battle scenes.
On a side note, this film plays fast and loose with the continuity established in the first film. For example, Optimus is already on Earth in 1987, and in his G1 form, and at the end of the movie we see seven new Autobots about to land on Earth (observed by Bumblebee and Prime). It seems that the new movie is rebooting the continuity - given the strength of this story, that's fine with me.
Overall, this film is far and away the best of the series, even exceeding the first and third films. Even taking the excellent Cybertronian footage out of the equation, the film is still outstanding. The focus on a limited number of characters works (as it did in the first movie) and the human characters are written with depth, care and real feelings - not the stereotypes we have been served recently. There is also - most importantly - a significant proportion of screen time dedicated to the Transformers, which is ironic since this is the first film in tbe franchise without "Transformers" in the title.
I highly recommend this film, for original Transformers fans who are old enough to have children and for their children too (who will enjoy the movie just as much, but for entirely different reasons). 10/10.
I saw Bumblebee on New Year's Eve 2018, a week or so after it was released. Early reviews had been positive and the trailers showed a refreshed look and a more grown-up approach to plot and story (even the first Transformers film had "Sam's Happy Time" which somehow escaped the cutting room floor). And the trailer where Soundwave ejects a transforming Ravage... sign me up for tickets, now!
The film opens on Cybertron - yes, really - and I very quickly identified Prowl, Wheeljack, Brawn, Optimus and others. The Decepticons are also well represented, with later scenes showing the Seekers, Shockwave and Soundwave - who sounds like the original G1 Soundwave too (none of the whispering and growling of the recent films). Bumblebee is dispatched to Earth to set up a base and ensure the Decepticons don't establish themselves there. However, Bumblebee's arrival on Earth is shortly followed by Starscream's and Bumblebee is massively outgunned. I assume it was Starscream as he transformed and looked and even sounded like Starscream, even though I don't think he was named specifically.
The story is well written, and I'm pleased to say that the robots get plenty of screen time. One of my main criticisms of the later films was the excessive focus on the humans in the story, to the detriment of the robots. I fully get that humans are cheaper to film than robots, but the over-reliance on the human back-story has been an ongoing issue for me. That's not the case here - the robots feature heavily in the story and it feels like Bumblebee is on screen around 70% of the time, and it certainly seems like the human-only scenes last barely five minutes before there's a robot back on screen again.
And I'm pleased to report that the humans are the best written in Transformers history, by far. The parents are far better than the Witwicky parents, who were consistently dreadful - the only thing that could be done with them was to limit their screen time. Here, though, the humans - the military and civilian - are all credible and make genuine, believable contributions to the plot. We see an early Sector 7 and the basis of the Internet, all handled well. This is the kind of writing we saw in the better parts of Dark of the Moon, with the Transformers actively involved in human history.
The ending features Bumblebee leaving Charlie, his mission now accomplished. After exchanging his vehicle mode from a Volkswagen to a Camaro, he drives off across the Golden Gate Bridge and to my delight, joins a red articulated lorry with grey trailer. There isn't a single word of dialogue or explanation, but the sight of a genuine G1 Optimus Prime on the big screen made me realise what has been missing from all the previous Transformers movies.
I was surprised - almost astonished - to discover that many of the film crew for Bumblebee are the same as the previous movies, with Michael Bay now as a producer instead of director, along with Lorenzo di Bonaventura, Tom deSanto and Don Murphy. This film feels, looks and sounds so different from all of the previous films that credit must go directly to the writer, Christina Hodson, and the director Travis Knight. There are fewer explosions and out-and-out gun battles, and instead the focus is on the story - which is believable (as far as these stories can be) and written with three-dimensional characters who aren't written just for awkward gags. There is still plenty of action and robot vs robot combat, on Cybertron and on Earth, but less of the widespread explosions and overly lengthy battle scenes.
On a side note, this film plays fast and loose with the continuity established in the first film. For example, Optimus is already on Earth in 1987, and in his G1 form, and at the end of the movie we see seven new Autobots about to land on Earth (observed by Bumblebee and Prime). It seems that the new movie is rebooting the continuity - given the strength of this story, that's fine with me.
Overall, this film is far and away the best of the series, even exceeding the first and third films. Even taking the excellent Cybertronian footage out of the equation, the film is still outstanding. The focus on a limited number of characters works (as it did in the first movie) and the human characters are written with depth, care and real feelings - not the stereotypes we have been served recently. There is also - most importantly - a significant proportion of screen time dedicated to the Transformers, which is ironic since this is the first film in tbe franchise without "Transformers" in the title.
I highly recommend this film, for original Transformers fans who are old enough to have children and for their children too (who will enjoy the movie just as much, but for entirely different reasons). 10/10.
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