BACK TO LIFE
I have not been this pleasantly surprised by a movie in the cinema since Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle last year.
Basically, judging from the trailers and promotional material, I thought this movie was gonna suck. How wrong I was.
Such was the reputation of the Transformers franchise as a whole for being a load of rubbish movies especially after the last two, Age of Extinction (2014) and The Last Knight (2017) were critically panned despite earning a lot at the box office.
I didn't even bother watching the last two movies in the franchise because it had reached a point where you were essentially watching the same movie again with new action sequences and a new hot actress to ogle in true perverted Michael Bay fashion.
Naturally, there wouldn't be that much hype for another sequel - which is why it's a stroke of genius to reinvigorate the franchise by making a spinoff origin story for one of the most popular Transformers, the titular Bumblebee.
Add in the immensely talented Hailee Steinfeld in the lead role and what we have was a truckload of genuine potential - something the previous cash cow sequels had absolutely none of.
I'm just going to cut to the chase - this movie was such a fun time.
To my surprise, there weren't an excessive amount of CGI Transformer battles and stupid unnecessary explosions.
In its place was an proper story about characters you care about and some actual heart and soul which made it a much better movie than the past three movies combined.
Clearly, change was needed, and no bigger change can be achieved without getting Michael Bay out of the director's chair.
Introducing director Travis Knight, who breathed so much new life and positive energy into this movie while at the same time delivering stuff the fans want - explosive action, awesome fight sequences, cool cars and weapons, etc.
Being set as a prequel to the original Transformers (2007), along with it being set in 1987 provided a huge array of material to work with in this origin tale.
The thing about setting the movie in the 80's is that there's always room to squeeze in some awesome 80's nostalgia, and with Bumblebee, nobody can blame Knight for going down memory lane.
From the clothing to the hairstyles and the visual/audio media shown, it was a joy. Plus, you get a very clear sensing that this movie was very heavily influenced by a certain 80's Steven Spielberg movie about an alien being coming to Earth and living with a human being.
I'm of course talking about the eternal classic, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), and Bumblebee borrows all the good bits from the movie.
The movie we end up getting is, as I would describe it to someone who asks me what the movie is about, is "E.T. meets The Breakfast Club or some other John Hughes 80's teen classic with Transformers in it".
I feel it's a pretty accurate description.
Naturally, some would say that it's just copying but I feel in this context of a origin story and a prequel tale, if you were to seek inspiration from something, at least get it from the very best - and that's what they did.
Speaking of 'very best', Hailee Steinfeld is terrific in the part which she played so naturally.
Having played a fair share of adolescent roles over the past few years (Begin Again, The Edge of Seventeen), she somehow still manages to bring something new to this role of Charlie Watson, a troubled 18-year-old former diver who still mourns the death of her father while being stuck in the middle of a weird family dynamic.
She blossoms in the role and her interactions with Bumblebee are so legit that it's hard to picture how all she had to interact with while filming her scenes with the robot was some green screen thing with the only physical thing she could touch and act with being its head, probably craned 3 feet above her own.
On top of that, when it came to action scenes, I thoroughly appreciated how they let her character perform to the plausible capabilities an 18-year-old human being could have done in the situation.
What I mean is that she didn't end up doing things too heroic or too ridiculous that would suspend disbelief. What we end up getting was a somewhat more realistic take, which I could appreciate.
The rest of the cast is alright, but there's just one cast member I have to talk in detail about. And his name is...
Yeah sorry I couldn't resist it.
Yep, it's John Cena. Why oh why did he have to be in this movie?
He plays a serious character in the movie, and I simply couldn't stop myself from laughing whenever he appeared on screen.
I simply couldn't take him seriously, and he even does some super cheesy stuff in the movie (involving a salute) that made me lose it.
I'm sorry, the dude simply can't act, and it's one thing to play an oversized muted brute who just smashes for fun (Dave Bautista does that brilliantly) but not everyone is a Dwayne Johnson, who is actually a decent enough actor.
He was by far the weakest part of the movie in a role that could have very easily been played by any big-sized buff American dude that isn't John Cena.
On the technical side, the CGI was all very good and some of the cinematography too was excellent, especially in certain scenes where Charlie is having fun while driving along a coastal road with her friend Memo (Jorge Lendeborg Jr.). The camera work there really brought out the pure fun of the scene and the fun the characters were having.
The movie is also paced very well and never really drags at any point. Also, at 114 minutes long, it is BY FAR the shortest entry in the Transformers franchise and thus living proof that you don't need a 2 and a half hour explosion fest to make a good popcorn-munching movie experience.
All in all, Bumblebee surprised me in the best way possible and turned out to be the opposite of 'yet another Transformers movie' - a genuine movie with heart and a story to tell, WITH Transformers in it.
Pair that with a bunch of 80's nostalgia and an effervescent female lead and you have a winning cocktail, and its 93% approval rating (as of 31st December 2018) only seals the deal further.
Take it as an 80's John Hughes coming-of-age drama updated for modern action-loving audiences and you'd probably have a ball of a time.
Or be like me and go in thinking you'd hate the movie, only for it to end up being included among my Top 10 for the year.
Bumblebee is an absolute joy and it's quite easily the best Transformers movie they've made so far.
Just like Steinfeld's song for the movie, it really brought the franchise "back to life".
8.5/10.
I didn't even bother watching the last two movies in the franchise because it had reached a point where you were essentially watching the same movie again with new action sequences and a new hot actress to ogle in true perverted Michael Bay fashion.
Naturally, there wouldn't be that much hype for another sequel - which is why it's a stroke of genius to reinvigorate the franchise by making a spinoff origin story for one of the most popular Transformers, the titular Bumblebee.
Add in the immensely talented Hailee Steinfeld in the lead role and what we have was a truckload of genuine potential - something the previous cash cow sequels had absolutely none of.
I'm just going to cut to the chase - this movie was such a fun time.
To my surprise, there weren't an excessive amount of CGI Transformer battles and stupid unnecessary explosions.
In its place was an proper story about characters you care about and some actual heart and soul which made it a much better movie than the past three movies combined.
Clearly, change was needed, and no bigger change can be achieved without getting Michael Bay out of the director's chair.
Introducing director Travis Knight, who breathed so much new life and positive energy into this movie while at the same time delivering stuff the fans want - explosive action, awesome fight sequences, cool cars and weapons, etc.
Being set as a prequel to the original Transformers (2007), along with it being set in 1987 provided a huge array of material to work with in this origin tale.
The thing about setting the movie in the 80's is that there's always room to squeeze in some awesome 80's nostalgia, and with Bumblebee, nobody can blame Knight for going down memory lane.
From the clothing to the hairstyles and the visual/audio media shown, it was a joy. Plus, you get a very clear sensing that this movie was very heavily influenced by a certain 80's Steven Spielberg movie about an alien being coming to Earth and living with a human being.
I'm of course talking about the eternal classic, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), and Bumblebee borrows all the good bits from the movie.
The movie we end up getting is, as I would describe it to someone who asks me what the movie is about, is "E.T. meets The Breakfast Club or some other John Hughes 80's teen classic with Transformers in it".
I feel it's a pretty accurate description.
Naturally, some would say that it's just copying but I feel in this context of a origin story and a prequel tale, if you were to seek inspiration from something, at least get it from the very best - and that's what they did.
Speaking of 'very best', Hailee Steinfeld is terrific in the part which she played so naturally.
Having played a fair share of adolescent roles over the past few years (Begin Again, The Edge of Seventeen), she somehow still manages to bring something new to this role of Charlie Watson, a troubled 18-year-old former diver who still mourns the death of her father while being stuck in the middle of a weird family dynamic.
She blossoms in the role and her interactions with Bumblebee are so legit that it's hard to picture how all she had to interact with while filming her scenes with the robot was some green screen thing with the only physical thing she could touch and act with being its head, probably craned 3 feet above her own.
On top of that, when it came to action scenes, I thoroughly appreciated how they let her character perform to the plausible capabilities an 18-year-old human being could have done in the situation.
What I mean is that she didn't end up doing things too heroic or too ridiculous that would suspend disbelief. What we end up getting was a somewhat more realistic take, which I could appreciate.
The rest of the cast is alright, but there's just one cast member I have to talk in detail about. And his name is...
Yeah sorry I couldn't resist it.
Yep, it's John Cena. Why oh why did he have to be in this movie?
He plays a serious character in the movie, and I simply couldn't stop myself from laughing whenever he appeared on screen.
I simply couldn't take him seriously, and he even does some super cheesy stuff in the movie (involving a salute) that made me lose it.
I'm sorry, the dude simply can't act, and it's one thing to play an oversized muted brute who just smashes for fun (Dave Bautista does that brilliantly) but not everyone is a Dwayne Johnson, who is actually a decent enough actor.
He was by far the weakest part of the movie in a role that could have very easily been played by any big-sized buff American dude that isn't John Cena.
On the technical side, the CGI was all very good and some of the cinematography too was excellent, especially in certain scenes where Charlie is having fun while driving along a coastal road with her friend Memo (Jorge Lendeborg Jr.). The camera work there really brought out the pure fun of the scene and the fun the characters were having.
The movie is also paced very well and never really drags at any point. Also, at 114 minutes long, it is BY FAR the shortest entry in the Transformers franchise and thus living proof that you don't need a 2 and a half hour explosion fest to make a good popcorn-munching movie experience.
All in all, Bumblebee surprised me in the best way possible and turned out to be the opposite of 'yet another Transformers movie' - a genuine movie with heart and a story to tell, WITH Transformers in it.
Pair that with a bunch of 80's nostalgia and an effervescent female lead and you have a winning cocktail, and its 93% approval rating (as of 31st December 2018) only seals the deal further.
Take it as an 80's John Hughes coming-of-age drama updated for modern action-loving audiences and you'd probably have a ball of a time.
Or be like me and go in thinking you'd hate the movie, only for it to end up being included among my Top 10 for the year.
Bumblebee is an absolute joy and it's quite easily the best Transformers movie they've made so far.
Just like Steinfeld's song for the movie, it really brought the franchise "back to life".
8.5/10.
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