QUICKIE -- Bumblebee (2018)

Bumblebee is a 2018 American science fiction action film centered on the Transformers character of the same name. It is the sixth installment of the live-action Transformers film series and a prequel to 2007's Transformers. Directed by Travis Knight and written by Christina Hodson, the film stars Hailee Steinfeld, John Cena, Jorge Lendeborg Jr., John Ortiz, Jason Drucker, and Pamela Adlon, with Dylan O'Brien, Angela Bassett, Justin Theroux, and Peter Cullen in voice roles. It is the first live-action Transformers film not to be directed by Michael Bay, though he still produced, and Travis Knight's first live-action film. Principal photography on the film began on July 31, 2017, in Los Angeles and San Francisco, California.

Bumblebee premiered in Berlin on December 3, 2018, was theatrically released in the United States on December 21, 2018, and has grossed over $455 million worldwide. The film received positive reviews from critics, who praised the action and Steinfeld's performance, as well as the 1980s setting and sense of nostalgia, with many calling it the best installment of the Transformers franchise.

Cast:

Humans

Hailee Steinfeld as Charlie Watson, a 18-year-old girl who finds and befriends Bumblebee
John Cena as Jack Burns, a former U.S Army Ranger lieutenant and agent of Sector 7
Jorge Lendeborg Jr. as Guillermo "Memo" Gutierrez, Charlie's next-door neighbor who befriends Bumblebee
John Ortiz as Dr. Powell, an agent of Sector 7
Jason Drucker as Otis Watson, Charlie's younger brother
Pamela Adlon as Sally Watson, Charlie and Otis's mother
Stephen Schneider as Ron, Charlie and Otis's stepfather
Glynn Turman as General Whalen, Burns's superior at Sector 7
Len Cariou as Hank, the owner of a junkyard where Charlie sources car parts
Gracie Dzienny as Tina, Charlie's mean-spirited classmate
Ricardo Hoyos as Tripp Summers, Charlie's classmate and Tina's boyfriend
Fred Dryer as Sheriff Lock, a sheriff who enters into a high-speed chase with Charlie, Memo, and Bumblebee
Lenny Jacobson as Roy, a trailer park resident killed by Dropkick
Megyn Price as Amber, Roy's girlfriend
Nick Pilla as Seymour Simmons, an agent of Sector 7. John Turturro portrayed an older version of the character in the previous live-action Transformers films.
Edwin Hodge as Danny, an agent of Sector 7
Tim Martin Gleason as Mr. Watson, Charlie and Otis's father, who died of a heart attack

Transformers

Dylan O'Brien as the voice of Bumblebee, a young Autobot scout who transforms into a yellow Willys MB jeep, before switching for a rusty yellow 1967 Volkswagen Beetle, and eventually a yellow and black 1977 Chevrolet Camaro
Angela Bassett as the voice of Shatter, a Decepticon triple-changer who transforms into a red Plymouth GTX and a Harrier Jump Jet
Justin Theroux as the voice of Dropkick, a Decepticon triple-changer who transforms into a blue AMC Javelin and a Bell AH-1 SuperCobra
Peter Cullen as the voice of Optimus Prime, the leader of the Autobot resistance, who transforms into a 1977 Peterbilt 352 Freightliner semi truck
David Sobolov as the voice of Blitzwing, a Decepticon who transforms into a red/white McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II and is responsible for damaging Bumblebee's voice box
Grey Griffin as the voice of Arcee, a female Autobot in charge of keeping contact with the capital. Griffin reprises her role from Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.
Steve Blum as the voice of Wheeljack, an Autobot scientist. He was previously voiced by George Coe, in Dark of the Moon.
Andrew Morgado as the voice of Cliffjumper, one of Bumblebee's fellow scouts who is killed by Dropkick on the Moons of Saturn
Jon Bailey as the voices of:
Shockwave, a Decepticon scientist
Soundwave, Decepticon communications officer, who houses his minion Ravage in his chest.
Kirk Baily as the voices of:
Brawn, an Autobot commando
The Seekers, various Decepticon soldiers under Soundwave, Shockwave, and Starscream's command
Sunstorm, a Seeker that gets hit in the head with Hotlink's decapitated head by Bumblebee
Hotlink, a Seeker who gets decapitated by Bumblebee
Dennis Singletary as the voice of Ratchet, an Autobot medic. He was previously voiced by Robert Foxworth in the first four films.

Transformers who appear in non-speaking roles include: Ironhide, the second-in-command of the Autobot resistance on Cybertron, Starscream, the second-in-command of the Decepticons and a Seeker, Skywarp, Thundercracker, Dirge, and Teletraan 1, who appears as one of the computers on the launchpad tower. There is also various generics like a Blue robot, an Orange robot, some generics of Arcee, Wheeljack, Ratchet, a Yellow robot, a White robot and a robot that looks like Huffer. A Seeker that looks like Red Wing is shooting at someone, also Nacelle. Prowl also appears in the movie, as well as an Autotrooper, some soldiers, Hot Rod, Jetfire, one that looks like Brawl and a Thundercracker clone. This is also the first Transformers film not to feature an appearance from Megatron, the leader of the Decepticons and Optimus Prime's nemesis.

Plot:

On Cybertron, the Autobot resistance led by Optimus Prime, are on the verge of losing the civil war against the Decepticons and prepare to evacuate the planet. A Decepticon force, led by Soundwave and Shockwave, intercepts them during the evacuation, and Optimus sends Autobot scout B-127 to Earth on an escape pod in order to set up a base of operations where the Autobots can regroup.

In 1987, B-127 reaches Earth alone, crash-landing in California and disrupting a training exercise by Sector 7, a secret government agency that monitors extraterrestrial activity on Earth. Colonel Jack Burns presumes B-127 to be a hostile invader and attacks him. B-127 scans a Willys MB Jeep and flees into the forest, where Blitzwing, a Decepticon scout, ambushes him. When B-127 refuses to reveal Optimus's whereabouts, Blitzwing tears out his voice box and damages his memory core; despite this, B-127 stabs and kills him with one of his own missiles. Before collapsing from his injuries, B-127 scans a nearby 1967 Volkswagen Beetle.

Meanwhile, teenage girl Charlie Watson remains traumatized by the death of her father, and resentful of her mother Sally for remarrying. Charlie finds a yellow Volkswagen Beetle in a scrapyard belonging to Hank, who gives it to her as an 18th birthday present. When trying to start it, Charlie unknowingly activates a homing signal that is detected by Decepticons Shatter and Dropkick as they interrogate and execute the Autobot Cliffjumper on one of Saturn's moons. The pair heads to Earth, where they gain Earth vehicle forms and pretend to be peacekeepers, persuading Dr. Powell and the rest of Sector 7, despite Burns's disagreement, to help them find and capture B-127, whom they claim is a fugitive and a traitor.

While Charlie attempts to fix the Beetle, it transforms into B-127, whom she befriends and nicknames "Bumblebee". She then unknowingly unlocks a message from Optimus urging Bumblebee to defend Earth in their absence, which restores some of his memories. Bumblebee is discovered by Charlie's neighbor Memo, who agrees to protect their secret due to his feelings for Charlie. Left alone, Bumblebee accidentally destroys Charlie’s home and causes an energy spike that attracts Sector 7’s attention. When Sally blames Charlie for the destruction, Charlie angrily leaves with Bumblebee and Memo, only to be intercepted by Sector 7 and the Decepticons. Bumblebee is captured while Charlie and Memo are returned home. Charlie finally expresses her pain over her father’s death and makes amends with her brother Otis, who helps Charlie follow Burns to the Sector 7 outpost where Bumblebee is being held. Shatter and Dropkick torture Bumblebee into revealing the Autobots’ whereabouts, discovering that the Autobots are coming to Earth. They leave him for dead after revealing their plan to bring the Decepticons to Earth. After alerting Burns to the truth about the Decepticons, Dr. Powell is killed by Dropkick.

Charlie electro-shocks Bumblebee back to life, restoring his memories. After fighting past Burns' obstruction and attempt to re-secure Bumblebee with the help of Memo and Charlie's family, Charlie and Bumblebee set out to prevent Shatter and Dropkick from contacting the Decepticons using a radio tower at a nearby harbor. Burns also intervenes and defends Charlie. His helicopter is shot down by Shatter, but Burns is saved by Bumblebee. While Bumblebee fights Dropkick, he binds him with a chain, entangling his systems when he transforms and Bumblebee rips him apart. Charlie deactivates the Decepticon beacon, causing an enraged Shatter to pursue her. Bumblebee destroys a dam wall, triggering a flood that causes a cargo ship to crush and kill Shatter. Burns, having a change of heart and feeling gratitude towards Bumblebee, gives Charlie and Bumblebee time to escape before the army arrives.

Charlie and Bumblebee arrive on a cliff overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge, where Charlie, realizing that Bumblebee has a greater purpose on Earth, says goodbye. Bumblebee scans a 1977 Chevrolet Camaro and drives away, and Charlie returns to her family.

Bumblebee reunites with Optimus Prime, now using his new name instead of B-127. Prime praises Bumblebee for keeping Earth safe as they watch more Autobots arrive through Earth's atmosphere. Meanwhile, Charlie finally finishes repairing the Corvette she and her father were working on, and drives off into the sunset.

The Verdict:

If I'm perfectly honest, I was ready to leave the theater after this introduction with the Autobots and Decepticons at war on Cybertron. Roll credits. That's all I really needed to see and that was worth the price of admission alone that I paid for to see this in the movie theater before the Christmas holidays.


I couldn't help but throw my hands up in the air and internally shout, "WHY THE HELL WE CAN'T HAVE A LIVE-ACTION TRANSFORMERS FILM ENTIRELY ON CYBERTRON WITHOUT THE RANDOM HUMANS INVOLVED?" I loved that scene on Cybertron - like ALL of it. All of those 15-20+ minutes that started off this film in epic nostalgic fashion, then Bumblebee crash lands on Earth and the bulk of this movie turns into typically the same stuff that we've seen since the first Transformers film. Seriously... is it really THAT hard to ask for a Transformers film that's set entirely on Cybertron? I mean c'mon, those War for Cybertron and Fall of Cybertron games are begging for a cinematic adaptation in some fashion - even more so for that Combiner Wars webisodes from a few years back too that Machinimia did with IGN. At least we got a pretty sweet toyline out of that though...

Yes, we mean you.. 

To be quite honest, I didn't mind Charlie (portrayed by Hailee Steinfeld) too much - the character nor the actress playing her; we've come a LONG way of annoying human protagonists from the initial portion of this film franchise (hey Shia LeBouf). Cade Yeager (Mark Wahlberg) wasn't bad in his role in the previous two films either. I'm just like whatever at this point of human sidekicks in this Transformers stuff. I never liked it in the Generation 1 cartoons when I was a kid, I really didn't like it when Transformers went into that whole anime phase in the early 2000s post-Beast Wars/Beast Machines to current with their animated outings, and I just don't really see the point for it in these live-action films either. My years in college from taking film theory courses would easily chuck that up to "spectators needing something on screen to identify with in said medium" but I'm like screw that. I can identify with whatever Transformers' personality that I can relate to my own. I don't need to see diversity or whatever to draw me into these films. That's the problem right there to be honest - Hollywood currently has this fixation that they have to please every possible audience that would ever look at their products and it's not really necessary nor a requirement to successful storytelling. Fans of Transformers are going to see this one way or another whether there's humans in it to identify with or not.

One look at the kid brother and you can tell he's going to grow up to be a bigger douche than is was here.

That being said, I thought Charlie wasn't annoying but goddammit I hated her family though from start to finish. They weren't funny nor charming, they just came off as tacked on distraction and waste of this film's runtime. Most of the film's runtime was wasted on Charlie and Bumblebee just sitting around her garage, moping around since Bumblebee couldn't remember his mission parameters on Earth while Charlie was still mourning the death of her father. I thought it was pretty fucked up that her family didn't allow her to grieve at times while her mom and kid brother just moved onto the new step-dad taking his place without question. Like even their birthday presents for her were pretty fucked up too. Being a Christmas baby, believe me that I know a thing or two about receiving some shitty ass gifts for your one special day of the year.

Charlie's next-door-neighbor, "Memo", was a little entertaining in his own right, but nowhere as funny as Cade Jaeger's assistant who was killed by Lockdown in Transformers: Age of Extinction. I still say that was the biggest tragedy of that film. Should've killed off Cade's annoying daughter instead. There's a reason she didn't return in the sequel that that film since I don't know a single person who actually enjoyed her character in that film. Just ugh... WWE's John Cena is in this film too as part of the Sector 7 organization that has been aligned with the Transformers since the start of this film franchise. We get to see the "origins" of that relationship as they are the ones who make first contact with these visitors from Cybertron - both Autobot(s) and Decepticons.

Shatter and Dropkick, the two Decepticon triple changers that act as the primary antagonists for this film.

If you can find me someone who believes that pitch, then I got some real estate on Krypton I want to sell 'em...

I thought it was interesting that the featured antagonists in this film weren't Megatron, Starscream, and a host of easily forgettable (and yet VERY disposable) Decepticon underlings. Instead, they went with two triple changers (something that hasn't been touched upon in these films to date by my personal knowledge and memory) - Shatter and Dropkick - as the primary Decepticon antagonists in this film. Bumblebee faces Blitzwing when he first crashes onto Earth, who rips out Bumblebee's vocal circuits during that altercation. These battles are pretty much what we've all come to expect from these Transformers films and Michael Bay in general - some flashy, yet stylish cinematography, followed by a finishing move that looks like something straight out of Mortal Kombat, and ends with a battlefield littered with explosions. You're either going to love it or hate it at this point.

Watch It or Don't Bother?

I won't go as far as the people who hate everything that Michael Bay has done in terms of bastardizing stuff that I've grown up with and reducing them to stuff that you would need that roll of toilet paper to wipe your ass with of, but Bumblebee's origin here isn't much to write home about. 

If you hated all of these Michael Bay Transformers films up to this point, then this film clearly isn't for you. It's more of the same, just with some Generation 1 Transformers flair and nostalgia thrown in for good measure. I felt that they wasted 80% of the runtime on far too much human-oriented distractions than the titular Transformer that the film was named after in my humble opinion. For fans of the film franchise and the Transformers franchise as a whole, do yourselves a favor and check out the amazing Cybertron scene at the beginning. After that, I can't really recommend wasting your time watching the rest of the film for everything that follows unless you don't mind the heavy human-related exposition that plagued Transformers: The Last Knight's narrative.

Sorry, B, but I can't recommend people to go out of their way to watch this one. Wait for the Redbox release or to show up on Netflix in a few months.