Reaction & Review | Bumblebee

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to "Tales of the Longbox" here on Reaction & Review. Tonight, guys, I'm gonna be covering a movie from 2018. That movie is "Bumblebee".

Now, I don't know if I mentioned this before or not way back when I reviewed "Transformers: The Movie", but I consider myself a casual fan of the Transformers series. I don't exactly follow the entire lore of the Transformers mythos nor have I read many of the comics, but there are some things about the series that I do genuinely like. For example, as I just mentioned, I've seen and reviewed the animated Transformers movie from the 80's and I loved it. I've seen it about a good 4 or 5 times since my review of that movie and it still holds up very well. I mostly really enjoyed the Michael Bay "Transformers" movies, flaws and all. And even though I haven't played it in a good while, I still own my copy of Transformers: War for Cybertron for the Xbox 360, because it's the only Transformers game I've played so far that I really enjoyed.

And since I just mentioned the Bay films, that brings us to tonight's movie. From what I've heard, and I could be totally mistaken here, this movie apparently has no connection with any of the Michael Bay 'Transformers" films. And if that *is* the case, then that honestly may be a good thing. Now I want to clarify again that I do enjoy watching the Bay films, but honestly, there is only so much you could do with those particular set of films before you start to run out of ideas. And admittedly, the fifth film did just that. So if this film's starting fresh in it's own universe, then that's probably for the best. Although whether that's the case or not is something I'll find out when I start watching the movie.

The only other thing I know about this movie is one of the stars of the film, and it's one that I have very mixed feelings on. That star being John Cena. Now I should mention that I was a fan of John Cena's work back in the WWE days when I was younger. At least, until I started to pick up on his "Super Cena" shtick to where it eventually got old and he grew kind of boring. And when it comes to his films, well, I can't really gauge an opinion on that, since I've only seen one movie that he starred in. That movie, of course, being "The Marine". A movie that was mostly plotless and kinda shit, but still somewhat enjoyable, mostly for Robert Patrick's performance. Cena was just...there, really. He wasn't the worst, but it's definitely not one of his stronger performances either. But then again, it was only his first movie, so maybe I shouldn't judge too harshly yet.

So now, I have to deal with him here in a movie about giant talking robots fighting each other. I have no idea if he's actually gonna contribute anything to this movie at all, or if he's just gonna be a fucking standby character that'll eventually be squashed by one of the robots. I have a feeling the latter option is not going to happen, but hey, I can dream it, can I? But in all seriousness, I really don't know what to expect from Cena in this movie. But regardless of his role, I am hoping for the movie itself to be pretty good. And the only way I'm gonna find out is if I shut up, and I push play, and I'm gonna do that right now. So, without further ado, it's time to kick back, relax, and check out "Bumblebee".

10 minutes later

Huh...you know, guys, I understand it's been a while since I last watched any of the Bay "Transformers" films, but I don't recall if it was ever brought up as to how Bumblebee lost his voice. Well now, I got my answer as one of the Decepticons just ripped his voice synthesizer from his neck. Damn, that looked painful!

14 minutes later

Well, guys, it is official. I hate Charlie's entire family. I hate her Mom, I hate her bratty little brother, and I especially hate her over obnoxious step-dad. Charlie herself has been a little bit bland, but I'm hoping that'll improve as the film goes on. But as for her family, I hope they all get fucking crushed by the Decepticons by the time the movie's finished. I strongly doubt that'll happen, but hey, I can kinda hope for it, right?

11 minutes later

O...K, well, that's...something new. I've never seen a human blow up as a...watery bubble...I think. Honestly, guys, I have no idea of the substance he became afterwards, but that was...certainly something, I'll say that much.

17 minutes later

You know, guys, I understand this is probably just a minor nothing, but for some reason, every time I look at the size difference between the humans and Decepticons, I can't help but notice that the Decepticons look a lot...smaller than usual. Perhaps maybe it's just me, but I always imagined that they looked a lot taller, like in the Bay "Transformers" movies. Here though, every angle that I'm looking at the Decepticons, they look fucking tiny as shit when compared to the humans. I understand that this is, again, probably just me nitpicking, but it's honestly starting to bug me a little bit, you know what I mean?

6 minutes later

All right, as brief as that was, hearing "The Touch" was a nice little creative nod there. That was kinda awesome.

10 minutes later

OK, you know what? When I made that comment about the size difference between the Decepticons and humans, I was honestly just thinking that may have just been me overthinking it. Well now, we got Bumblebee scourging around inside Charlie's home, like it's almost nothing to his size. Granted, I understand Bumblebee is probably the smallest of all the Autobots, but I didn't think he would be *this* fucking small! Jesus Christ...

12 minutes later

All right, I have a question, and it's something that just came to me. So earlier, when Bumblebee was messing around in Charlie's house, he managed to trigger a signal from the U.S. military base that a couple of the Decepticons are using to find his location. My question here is if they were able to find his signal, then shouldn't Optimus Prime and the rest of the Autobots be able to hone in on his location as well? I ask this, because we haven't seen them since the start of the movie, and we have no idea if they even made it to Earth or not. You would think that they would've found him by now if that was the case, but I guess maybe they just have really shitty radar, who knows? All I do know is that it leaves me wondering why they haven't been able to find him since that point of the movie, you know what I mean?

18 minutes later

Wow...OK, that was probably the most violent death I've seen in this entire movie. Holy shit, that was...kinda awesome.

The Review

Well, guys, that was "Bumblebee". Let me go ahead and the shut the film off here...OK. Before I get started, I should mention, on the off chance someone else mentions this first, I am aware that Michael Bay was one of the producers of this movie. However, unlike the previous 5 movies, he's not the director for this one. The director for this film goes by some guy named Travis Knight. I just want to get that out of the way first, because I know some people still have some boner hatred against Michael Bay for "ruining the Transformers franchise". And I will say that if you weren't a fan of those movies, then this one will certainly satisfy those fans, because this movie is actually pretty solid. Now mind you, the movie isn't great by any stretch, but it definitely feels like a more structurally made film, at least in terms of a live action "Transformers" movie, anyway.

So now that I've kinda summarized what I thought about the movie, let's actually talk about it in a little more detail, shall we? I'm gonna start with writing. Now as I just mentioned a moment ago, this movie felt more structured and knew what it wanted to do. And being that we're only working with one Autobot in this movie, it definitely helps the film tremendously. Now being that this is an action film, you normally shouldn't expect character depth to happen in this particular genre. And this movie kinda follows suit on that. However, I'll get more into that in a second. As for our actual story, it starts off on the destruction of Cybertron, as the Autobots and Decepticons fight each other. And with Cybertron's destruction nearing, Prime sends Bumblebee away to Earth to find a hidden base for the Autobots while they fight off the Decepticons. Then later on in the film, two Decepticons managed to track down Bumblebee's location on Earth after our main character, Charlie, starts up Bumblebee (who remains in vehicle mode), as they later get an idea to track down Bumblebee with the help of the U.S. military's satellites while also pretending to be on their side. And as for Bumblebee, he remains with Charlie as she tries to help understand him while trying to get her own life in check.

In fact, why don't we jump right into the characters, since I just mentioned them. Of all the character depth in this movie, the ones that are going to matter the most is the friendship between Charlie and Bumblebee. You *really* feel a connection between the two characters for similar reasons. For Bumblebee, obviously, it's him trying to get use to the fact that he doesn't have a real voice anymore. And as for Charlie, she feels rather disconnected with her family after her Dad died of a heart attack, and doesn't know what to do with her life since he's been gone. Now yes, she does have a hobby in fixing cars much like her Dad did and also has a side job, but she still feels like the loner character. So when you put these two characters together, they have really solid chemistry with each other, and it's really well done, too. With everyone else, though, I can barely remember their names, outside of Agent Burns and Memo. Memo is suppose to serve as a potential love interest for Charlie, but it really doesn't go anywhere. Partially because, Memo doesn't really get involved in the film until almost an hour in. There were a couple of times beforehand where he tries to talk to her, only for her to ignore him for one reason or another. And he really has no kind of depth to his character whatsoever. You could honestly cut him out of the movie and you wouldn't miss a thing. He really is *that* worthless. And as for Agent Banks, well, he's more just the meathead soldier that just follows orders and nothing much else. Charlie's family, I fucking hated, and the two Decepticons who are there to look for Bumblebee, I don't remember their names at *all*. The only Decepticon names I'm aware of are Megatron, Soundwave, and Starcream. Why they couldn't bring in any of those into the fray rather than two no-namers is anyone's guess.

But let's stick with the positives again for a moment. One big positive I can definitely give this movie is it's runtime. If you look back at the 5 previous films directed by Michael Bay, one recurring pattern you might notice about them is the fact that they all run over 2 hours, sometimes over 2 and a half hours, give or take. And that could be seen as a major overkill, because while it's understandable that you want to be hardcore nuts with your film, you also don't want to overstay your welcome. And in the case of "Age Of Extinction", that one definitely felt over-bloated, what with it being the longest film in that franchise at 164 minutes. This movie, however, only runs at an hour and 53 minutes long. Which is definitely a breath of fresh air, at least when compared to the Bay films. The pacing in this movie is much tighter. Nothing here really felt like it overstayed it's welcome. Now yes, while I could nitpick about the prologue being way too short, AKA the destruction of Cybertron being only 3 minutes long, or how some of the humorous scenes involving Bumblebee aren't that great, it still does a good enough job to keep the story moving forward without having to be hobbled down by any of it's weak points.

Speaking of weak points, there are a couple of issues I did have with the movie, story-wise. I mentioned it earlier, and I'll ask it again. If Bumblebee was able to accidentally create a signal for the Decepticons to track him at his current location, then why did none of these Autobots ever get this response? I would've figured that they maybe would've shown up during the final act of the movie, but surprisingly, they don't. And in the case of Optimus Prime, you only see him two times in the actual movie, not counting scenes where Bumblebee is projecting holographic images of his recordings. Once at the prologue, and the other time towards the end credits. But anywhere else, no. And going on that subject, right towards the end of the movie, if Optimus was actually on Earth, possibly the whole time, then where the fuck on Earth has he been this entire time?! Unless, again, he has a really shitty radar system, then why did he not receive the same signal like the two Decepticons did? With them, they got the signal when they were at the U.S. military base. But what about Prime? It's not like he was injured or anything, since he looked perfectly fine on Cybertron and towards the end of the movie, so what the hell is Prime's excuse for not getting it? I don't know, and honestly, it leaves a bit of a glaring plot hole. Now it's not enough to completely ruin the film entirely, but it does raise a bunch of questions if you really start to think about it for too long.

But otherwise, guys, the writing here, despite some noticeable flaws, is still really solid. In fact, this movie shares another similar aspect to the Michael Bay films, in which it's a fun mindless popcorn flick. Where if you go into it with your brain shut off, then you are going to have a blast with this movie. I can almost guarantee that. Now with that said, let's get into the acting. For the most part, the acting here is pretty good. The two best performances come from Hailee Steinfeld, who plays our main character. She *really* nails this performance down to a tee, and it makes her character stand out quite a bit. The other noticeable mention goes to Peter Cullen, who's mostly been voicing Optimus Prime since the 80's cartoon. And the fact that he's still got it is fucking great. Granted, like I said, Optimus is only in the movie for about a few minutes tops, but Cullen still gives out a really solid performance for the character. Everyone else in the cast did OK, including John Cena. Granted, his character is just kind of a tough-sounding meathead soldier, but he still turns in a halfway decent showing. So overall, the acting here ranges from mostly being pretty good to a couple of them sounding great.

Special effects in this movie are also really solid. Now admittedly, I have no idea if they're from the same effects team that did the previous 5 movies, because I wasn't able to find any info if it was from them or not. But even if that's not the case, the effects here are almost on par with what was shown in the previous 5 movies. I still have a bit of a soft spot for the effects there, but that's just more of a personal bias. But yeah, the CG here on the Transformers themselves looks really good, the pyrotechnics are done really well and are also not as explosive happy like they were in the Bay films. So yeah, I really have no complaints when it comes to the special effects.

I do have to comment on camerawork, because it ties into another issue I had when it comes to this movie. Now being that this is a different universe that is separate from Michael Bay's films, I can accept the fact that the designs of the Transformers are gonna be different, and I don't have any issues with that. What I do have an issue with is the size difference between them and any human characters. One of the biggest examples has to be the scene where the two Decepticons are first inside the military base. Because with every angle that the movie cuts to during this scene, the size difference on the Decepticons seems to change every time the camera cuts to a different angle. Sometimes they'll look too small, and other times they'll look almost kind of regular human-sized. And it just looks so jarring to me because I always imagined that they looked bigger in size, kinda similar to the Bay films. Now with Bumblebee himself, I can kind of give it a pass given his own size, even though the scene of him being able to fit inside of Charlie's house with almost no problems is pretty ridiculous. But the two Decepticons have this size issue where with each cut it seems like to me that the size change was always inconsistent. Now admittedly, this may just be my poor eyesight, but it still looked really jarring to me to not give it a notice.

But otherwise, camerawork for everything else is great. The lighting here is lit perfectly fine. The sound-mix is also good. Music, I also want to touch upon. See, one of the things that happens in this movie is that Charlie tries to give Bumblebee a voice through a radio that she fixed for him. And unlike the Bay films where Bumblebee basically spoke in movie quotes from other Paramount movies, this one has it to where he speaks through song lyrics. And most of the songs in this movie are from the 80's, which is great. There are songs in this movie from artists like Bon Jovi, Howard Smith, Simple Minds, to even Stan Bush. Which admittedly, for the latter, is only that one song I touched upon earlier...and somehow, I felt like I just made a terrible pun given the song choice and all. But anyway, there are a lot more songs in here that are from the 80's and they all sound great. So if anything else, I would totally recommend giving the soundtrack a listen to sometime, especially if you're a fan of 80's music.

Speaking of which, when all is said is done, am I able to recommend "Bumblebee"? Most certainly, yes. Like I said earlier, if you are someone who wasn't a fan of the Michael Bay films, then this movie will definitely make you a fan again, what with it being a new universe and all. If you did like the previous films and if you go into it with the right mindset of it being a popcorn flick, then you are going to love it even more. Now admittedly, the movie might be trying to learn towards a slightly younger audience, but honestly, I don't think that's gonna be an issue for you, because it offers plenty enough for both sides to enjoy. And if you've been a Transformers fan since the beginning, then you probably have already seen this, and might already own it on DVD or Blu-ray. Or you might even have Paramount+ to watch it on there, too. But regardless of how you watch it, the movie is a really solid action film. And who knows? Maybe I just might add it to marathon with the other 5 Bay movies I bought as a combo pack that has all of the movies together. Though considering how long those movies are, I'm not totally sure marathoning them would be the best idea. But hey, at least I have that option, if I want to pursue it. In the meantime, though, I think I'm gonna go and replay Transformers: War for Cyberton again. Because it has been a good few years since I last played it, and after watching the opening prologue to this movie, it kinda made me want to replay it again. So I'm gonna go and do that next after I get done typing this review up.

And with that, guys, we come to the close of another Reaction & Review. Until next time, ladies and gentlemen, you got the touch, you got the power, and I'll see you all later. Peace.