BUMBLEBEE: A BREATH OF FRESH AIR

 

  Bumblebee is the first ever live action prequel/reboot film that has been released from the transformers franchise and it is set during the 1980s. In all honesty,i'm not sure if this film is just a prequel or also a reboot because, by the end of the film you can see that this is definitely a happens before the first film with Shia Labeouf but, it also runs away from tying itself to the already established Transformers franchise by itself too seriously. The reason i think it might be a reboot is simply due to the fact that they redesigned the transformers to have their more simple classic design from the old school cartoons rather than the more "extra" design filled unnecessary level of detail. This film tries very much to be more human and rely more on emotional connection rather than being a grand cgi filled fest that could span the course of multiple two hour films.

   The plot is simple;in the face of being terminated, the Autobots must flee from Cybertron when the Decepticons destroy and hunt them. In hopes of one day coming back together, the Autobots spread themselves round the galaxy in order to have time to plan their next attack. Bumblebee finds himself en route to earth but when he lands, he quickly gets ambushed by military forces. Before he is able to state his  intentions, both the military and Bumblebee are ambushed by a Decepticon who Bumblebee manages to defeat at the cost of his speech box and a damaged memory disk. Damaged and alone, Bumblebee who is now unable to speak or remember his mission must go into hiding by disguising himself as a rusty old Volkswagen Beetle.

   The thing that surprised me in this film was how they did the action scenes. We're used to seeing this gigantic battles  where you see a ton of explosions and end up not even know what's going on. Here, when the Autobots and Decepticons are going against each other, the camera kind of readjusts to the perspective of the transformers rather than showing from the perspective of a tiny human. I love when you can be able to focus on a fight without the unnecessary happenings going on in the background. The fight scenes make you feel invested because you can actually focus on what's going on and see transformers struggle rather than seeing them as this empty big machines that just cause massive wreckage to a city during the third act of the transformer films.

  I think the cast did a great job in this film, Hailee Steinfield who plays the main character Charlie who befriends bumblebee when he crash lands on earth. She is the main emotional glue in this scene,i can't imagine how strenuous it must have been trying to act with a character that is purely computer generated. She has this really touching scene with Bee that got me admiring her acting chops. John Cena plays Jack Burns, a strong willed military man who has baggage with bumblebee and wants to "stop him". I don't know why but, for the weirdest reason, i just can not take John Cena seriously in films. I don't think he's a bad actor at all, he was great in blockers and he's fine here too but the problem is,my brain has registered to seeing John wrestle on the WWE.

   Asides from the transition of second to the final act feeling a bit rushed,Bumblebee manages to be a simple and enjoyable addition to the transformers franchise,offering a whole lot of heart,comedy and cool action sequences to keep you interested especially if you felt like the older transformer films took themselves too seriously.  Also, according to a new policy, google + will now be registered as anonymous due to it no longer being a part of the google blogger template. If you liked this post, leave a comment telling me what you thought, share and subscribe!