Bumblebee - Review: For better and for worse, this film takes you back to the '80s for a charming, surprisingly small-scale adventure

Bumblebee - Review: For better and for worse, this film takes you back to the '80s for a charming, surprisingly small-scale adventure

Release date (US): December 21st, 2018

Starring: Hailee Steinfeld, John Cena, Dylan O'Brien, Peter Cullen, John Lendeborg Jr., John Ortiz, Angela Bassett, Justin Theroux

**DISCLAIMER**: This is a subjective, opinionated article that does not have, nor should have any affect on your opinion. As such, my opinion is entitled to change over time and whatever is written here at this point in time may not and should not be held to me in the future. You are not meant to agree with me 100 percent of the time, because the nature of subjectivity is we see everything differently. If there is something you happen to disagree with, I absolutely respect your point of view if you will respect mine. Please keep this in mind. 

The Review

To be clear right from the start, I had zero investment in the Transformers franchise. I had never seen a Transformers film, not in its entirety at the very least. But I had things about the Michael Bay-led series. And very few of it was good. The reviews hailed the Transformers films as some of the worst ever, for its poor use of characters, Transformers mythology, terrible humor, mediocre action, and terrible plot. But, as it turned out, the films made money. A few of them did reach the billion dollar threshold, thanks in large part to overseas markets, which constituted more of the same kind of movie to make that same kind of money again. 

But profits began to dip ever so slightly, until it came to a point with Transformers: The Lsat Knight that the studio realized they couldn't be doing this anymore. They couldn't be churning out poor quality films like this, because people were starting to buy into them less and less. So, they did the only reasonable thing: they got rid of the problem in Michael Bay (mostly - he's still a producer) and replaced with more critically acclaimed Travis Knight, and rebooted, or at least soft rebooted, sending the franchise back into the '80s.

All this to let you know; I had zero investment in this franchise, but I had all this information stored before watching the film. This film had been hailed as one of the best in the franchise. So I went in blank, not knowing what I should be expecting from a film like this.

And despite a slow beginning, the film managed to charm me. The word "charmed" really manages to encapsulate my feelings about this film. It was much smaller in scale than I had originally imagined, and while the film opens with a bang, the smaller-scale tone kicks in about thirty minutes in and doesn't let go.

That's what Travis Knight gets right about the film. It's not a film about explosions and actions. And yes, while the film does have enough of those, it really isn't the most important part, which is surprising because of what I've heard about the franchise to begin with. Knight really takes time and effort to get the relationships, at least between Bumblebee and Hailee Steinfeld's Charlie, right and authentic. And for the most part, their relationship works. While the ending didn't pack as emotional of a punch as I had originally imagined, I was pleasantly surprised as to the amount of pain and heart they were able to wring out of an Autobot that couldn't talk for the majority of the film.

But as mentioned in the title, the film does indeed take place in 1987, and with that, come an abundance of '80s references. Throughout the movie, I was heavily conflicted as to whether I bought into how much the characters were alluding to the time period. Sometimes it really worked; for example, people were mentioning Russia a few times, which would make complete sense seeing as 1987 was the end of the Cold War. At the same time, although I understand that Bumblebee talks through music, the amount of '80s music does wear on you a little bit. Perhaps it's just me, having not lived in that era, but I didn't quite buy into it. 

However, it was consistent. It almost never used the music arbitrarily, like films like Suicide Squad or Aquaman. Films like Guardians of the Galaxy use the music in an organic way, through Peter Quill and his music players. This film does much of the same. Charlie is an avid music fan, and it's actually fairly integral to her backstory, which again goes to humanize her even more. A bit of time is spent on developing Charlie as a character, and a lot of it works really well. I really appreciate when a film takes the time to develop the lead character. She has a backstory, she has some motivations, and she has some reason for being able to connect with Bumblebee. 

And to the movie's credit, going with the theme of consistency, the film picks a supporting cast that, while not being the best actors, fill in their roles as needed. Can John Cena act? After watching this film, I'm still not quite sure. The movie wrote a role for him that perfectly fit his personality and his acting ability, so he was able to roll with it. That being said, the particular role he was given was not particularly interesting or inspiring. It's a very typical kind of character that you'd see in these kinds of movies, but Cena plays it as well as he can.

Charlie family surprisingly get a large amount of screen time as well. Here's what I will say about them. I liked how they tried to make it a realistic feel with the family. The film and the script tried to paint the family as one that's just "trying to get along" and just a normal, everyday kind of family. There are moments where you really see that, and you see the conflict in Charlie. She doesn't want to be a part of this family. But there are other times where characters, especially the mom, and at the end the dad, do some ridiculous things and say some ridiculous things. It's one thing to embrace the cheese and the '80s nature of the film, which I completely respect. And in the film, if you're caught in the moment, which for the most part I was, you totally buy it. But after walking out of the film, when I was really thinking about it, I began to see how some of the parts didn't work quite as well as others. 

But of course, no matter how small-scale the film is, it wouldn't be a Transformers film without the action. I will say that the film opens with a bang. I absolutely loved the first ten minutes. Granted, the first ten minutes clashed pretty terribly with the rest of the film, but I enjoyed both parts equally that it didn't bother me as much. The first ten minutes sets up a world on Cybertron that you really buy into, and the CGI is excellent. It's superb. The way the Autobots and the Decepticons move is so fluid, and the way they transform just seems so natural. 

The third act is more action-packed than you would think as well, but not in an unexpected way. The final fight devolves into the typical "blockbuster" third act, which is hard to avoid in a film like this. The fighting itself was rather generic and the goal for the heroes has been seen and done so many times. But what I liked about this film was the heart. Knight never lets go. Throughout the entire final thirty minutes, the movie is purely centered around Bee and Charlie. Of course, there are evil Decepticons trying to take over the world, that's fine. But even to the last minute, Bumblebee is trying to protect Charlie. 

In Conclusion: In reality, the film is centered around two characters, and that's okay. Unlike the previous five Transformers films, which had an overabundance of characters, this one takes a step back and focuses on a relationship. It's essentially a character study. Influenced heavily by films like E.T., the film takes great care to make the characters feel real, and it really works. Perhaps the film is a little too stuck in the '80s, but the sooner you can buy that, the sooner you can enjoy this film. The film has action, it has laughs, and it has great visuals, but above all, it has heart.