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BUMBLEEBEE (2018)
Bumblebee poster

CAST
HAILEE STEINFELD
PAMELA ADLON
JOHN CENA
JASON DRUCKER
RICARDO HOYOS
JORGE LENDEBORG JR.
JOHN ORTIZ
STEPHEN SCHNEIDER
GLYNN TURMAN

WRITTEN BY
CHRISTINA HODSON

PRODUCED BY
MICHAEL BAY
TOM DESANTO
LORENZO DI BONAVENTURA
DON MURPHY
MARK VAHRADIAN

DIRECTED BY
TRAVIS KNIGHT

GENRE
ACTION
ADVENTURE
SCI-FI

RATED
AUS:M
UK:12A
USA:PG-13

RUNNING TIME
114 MIN

 

 

Bumblebee image

A charming and intimate reset to a convoluted and messy franchise, Bumblebee works in stripping back the world building mythos and placing its focus on a nostalgic sci-fi action adventure that is as sweet as it is electrifying.

Anyone who equates money with taste clearly has not seen the Transformers movies. Executive produced by Steven Spielberg and directed by Michael Bay, the five movies that comprised this franchise made a tonne at the global box-office (with a good dosing of help by the people of China) but have consistently proven to be the lowest in overblown blockbuster filmmaking. It is the equivalent of  throwing a bunch of action figures and a can of Red Bull in a blender, and then throwing the metallic sludge against a wall.

Thankfully, a creative shift has spurned this franchise into calmer, more agreeable water. Directed by Travis Knight (Kubo and the Two Strings) and written by Christina Hodson (Shut In), Bumblebee imagines a Transformers movie where the love between a young woman and a large robot alien has more impact than the image of an exploding helicopter. Not to say that Bumblebee isn’t a fine action movie. But that its strength is in the fact that it is more E.T. than Age of Extinction is truly a welcome, wonderful thing.    

A masterstroke of casting has Hailee Steinfeld star as Charlie, an 18 year old gearhead whose loss of her father places her in an unshakable stupor. When Charlie is gifted a rusty old yellow VW Beetle, little does she know that her new ride is none other heroic Autobot soldier, Bumblebee. With a pair of Decepticon head hunters on his tail and a Black Ops soldier in Jack Burns (John Cena) seeking their whereabouts, Charlie and Bumblebee must try to save the world without losing one another.

A 1987 set prequel, what is at first striking about Bumblebee is the colour and energy that this film exudes. While it is getting rather old hat to set films in the 1980s, the decision to do so here works a treat, with the vibrant character designs of the Transformer characters evoking the popular cartoons of that era, as opposed to Michael Bay’s gurgled mess of metal. The action scenes are also much better constructed, with every grind and crunch of metal on metal action felt on multiple levels.

What elevates these action scenes is the one thing missing from many of these films: stakes. Both of the “end of the world” kind, and especially of the intimate, primal kind. This is achieved not only through Hodson’s great writing and Knight’s expert handle on building the relationships between its characters, but also through the terrific performance by Hailee Steinfeld. Much like her turn in Edge of Seventeen, Steinfeld brings a wit, a spunk, and a very personable attitude to her role of Charlie, whose dealings with grief and depression surprisingly sits alongside nicely with her part in an intergalactic war.

It’s a winning performance and one that Knight wisely let’s shine alongside the CGI Bumblebee creation which is enthused with personality and spirit. Here is hoping that the eventual additional films in this franchise will continue to treat the small, human moments of this story with the same focus as its large, bombastic ones, proving there is “more than meets the eye” in creating an effective blockbuster.

 

****

 

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