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Movie review: Why 'Bumblebee' is the Transformers film we deserve

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David Dizon, ABS-CBN News

<div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img src="http://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2019/life/01/09/bum-03.jpg"/></figure></div><p>There&#x27;s a scene in &quot;Bumblebee&quot; that gives you a pretty good idea of the entire movie: Charlie, played by Hailee Steinfeld, is driving along the road in her titular mustard-yellow VW Beetle when she asks her friend, Memo (Jorge Lendeborg Jr.), to take off his shirt. She then uses the shirt to blindfold herself before opening the VW&#x27;s sunroof and standing up. Memo also joins her as they whoop it up half-in, half-out of the car, driverless, as Bumblebee does all the driving for them. The wind then whips off her blindfold but Charlie does not stop. She just keeps going, arms raised, with a Tears for Fears song providing the soundtrack. </p><div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img src="https://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2019/life/01/09/bum-04.jpg"/></figure></div><p>That&#x27;s probably the best scene in &quot;Bumblebee,&quot; the prequel to the &quot;Transformers&quot; franchise and the first not to be directed by Michael Bay. It&#x27;s also a marker: this ain&#x27;t your usual Bayhem Transformers.</p><p>It&#x27;s calm without being loud, there is no lingering camera-crawl on a woman&#x27;s behind, the story is coherent, the misogyny non-existent. The Autobot vs Decepticon battles are not headache-inducing. More importantly, its story is very human. You can take your kid to this movie and come out with your sanity intact. </p><figure class="op-interactive"><iframe height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/lcwmDAYt22k?enablejsapi=1" width="560"></iframe></figure><div class="iwantbar">Watch more in <a href="//www.iwantv.com.ph/">iWantv</a> or <a href="//tfc.tv/">TFC.tv</a></div><p>Working with a fraction of Bay&#x27;s mammoth budgets, director Travis Knight takes an &#x27;80s sci-fi trope - kid befriends alien (see: &quot;ET,&quot; Flight of the Navigator,&quot; &quot;Mac and Me&quot;) and then flips it - this time, the lead is a girl and the alien a robot. </p><p>Charlie (Steinfeld) is a teen mechanic who&#x27;s still grieving over the loss of her father. She&#x27;s working to restore an old Corvette but really just wants a car for her 18th birthday. When she does get one, a rusty 1967 Volkswagen Beetle from her uncle&#x27;s junkyard, she gets more than she bargained for when the car turns out to be B-127, a Cybertronian robot soldier on a mission to find a new base for the Autobots. B-127&#x27;s activation brings in two Decepticons, Shatter and Dropkick, who want to find the new Autobot base and bring the war to a new planet. </p><div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img src="http://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2019/life/01/09/bum-05.jpg"/><figcaption> </figcaption></figure></div><p>There&#x27;s plenty to like, plenty to be joyful about with &quot;Bumblebee.&quot; &quot;E.T.&quot; is a major influence on this movie; the scene with B-127 clumsily destroying Charlie&#x27;s house feels like something out of Spielberg&#x27;s playbook. Charlie&#x27;s relationship with a non-human, inorganic character also grows on you: that scene with the destruction of the house links directly to her growing concern for her strange new ward. </p><p>Steinfeld, who recently voiced the amazing Spider-Gwen in Golden Globe-winning animated feature &quot;Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse,&quot; does topnotch work as Charlie. Much like the titular robot, she&#x27;s bursting with potential but held back by trauma. When she takes a literal leap of faith for the love of her robot, you know she&#x27;s on her way into healing. </p><div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img src="http://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2019/life/01/09/bum-06.jpg"/></figure></div><p>Also notable is the use of music in the movie. Since Bumblebee is mostly mute in this movie, he has to use songs to communicate. Expect some Smiths, Rick Astley and one pop hit that gave me chills. </p><p>What really wowed this &#x27;80s kid, however, is the callbacks to G1 Transformers. Fans of the original cartoon are going to flip over the cartoon-accurate depictions of Cliffjumper, Shockwave, Soundwave, Ravage, and Arcee. Also (spoiler) I had legitimate chills when Optimus Prime takes on Starscream and the other Decepticons. </p><div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img src="http://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2019/life/01/09/bum-07.jpg"/></figure></div><p>There are a few stumbles in &quot;Bumblebee&quot;: the B-plot with the Decepticon pursuers defies logic and the acting by WWE superstar John Cena as a Sector 7 agent is groan-inducing. There are also one or two story beats in the final act that felt like story padding, which is fine compared to the narrative bloat in the previous Transformers movies. </p><div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img src="http://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2019/life/01/09/bum-08.jpg"/></figure></div><p>Director Travis Knight doesn&#x27;t mimic the visual style that Bay gives these movies: there are no confusing layers of movement per shot, fewer explosions, fewer fast cuts, lack of grounding shots. &quot;Bumblebee&quot; doesn&#x27;t feel frantic and lacks a certain sense of scale, which is a good thing. </p><p>It&#x27;s a small movie compared to Bayformers where every other shot feels huge, explosive and oozing money. Instead, Knight gives &quot;Bumblebee&quot; a heart instead of spectacle. Sometimes, less is more and that&#x27;s all you need in a Transformers prequel. </p>

<p>'Bumblebee' ain't your usual Bayhem Transformers. It's calm, there is no lingering camera-crawl on a woman's behind, the story is coherent, the misogyny non-existent. You can take your kid to this movie and come out with your sanity intact. </p>

'Bumblebee' ain't your usual Bayhem Transformers. It's calm, there is no lingering camera-crawl on a woman's behind, the story is coherent, the misogyny non-existent. You can take your kid to this movie and come out with your sanity intact.

Movie review: Why 'Bumblebee' is the Transformers film we deserve

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Movie review: Why 'Bumblebee' is the Transformers film we deserve

David Dizon,

ABS-CBN News

Published Jan 09, 2019 01:42 PM PHT

|

Updated Jan 09, 2019 02:13 PM PHT

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movie review

Travis Knight

Michael Bay

Hailee Steinfeld

Bumblebee

Transformers

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