Charlie
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On the run in the year 1987, Bumblebee the Autobot seeks refuge in a junkyard in a small California beach town. Charlie, on the brink of turning 18 years old and trying to find her place in the...
- (252)
- Travis Knight
- PG-13
- Hailee Steinfeld
Bumblebee Reviews. “Bumblebee” is a good spin-off that easily stands on its own unique merits. Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Aug 19, 2022. Well always have Transformers movies as...
Dec 21, 2018 · Yes, Bumblebee ostensibly loves Charlie, his human owner/buddy. But the military? And the bad robots? According to the film’s aimlessly destructive (but convincing) logic, Bumblebee delivers the only fitting punishment for their (inefficient) kind of violent intolerance: total destruction.
Dec 18, 2018 · “Bumblebee” is an origin story, and it begins on Cybertron, the realm of the Transformers, where we witness a decisive battle between the car-morphing Autobots and their sworn enemies, the ...
- Travis Knight
- Glenn Kenny
- 113 min
- The Transformers franchise gets a much needed tuneup in Bumblebee.
- Bumblebee Gallery
- Verdict
By Jim Vejvoda
Updated: Apr 21, 2020 3:44 am
Posted: Dec 19, 2018 10:15 pm
After years of cinematic scrap heaps, Bumblebee redeems and reinvigorates the Transformers live-action film franchise with some heartfelt fun. It might not be a great movie or a radical reimagination of the familiar concept, but this ‘80s-set prequel does strip away all the clutter and bloat that had piled onto the series over the last decade and refocuses on the bond between young human and ‘bot that it all began with back in 2007.
Much of this refreshing change is due to Travis Knight (Kubo and the Two Strings) stepping in as director after Michael Bay helmed the first five movies. Knight and screenwriter Christina Hodson’s story gives its human protagonist, Charlie (Hailee Steinfeld), more depth and more of an arc than either Shia LaBeouf or Mark Wahlberg’s protagonists received, which creates more of an opportunity for emotional investment. This emphasis on finding the humanity in the story and providing an actual character arc thankfully extends to its Autobot title character as well.
Bumblebee has an emotional journey here, starting off as basically the robot equivalent of a fearless young soldier at war before going through a sort of lost-puppy phase while on Earth. He can be earnest and vulnerable but also dangerous and formidable. Knight’s background in animation certainly helps here as Bumblebee’s facial expressions and body language articulate a range of emotions that make it easy to become invested in him and his plight.
Bumblebee smartly drops a lot of the convolutions and overly complicated MacGuffins that marked the prior films. This movie doesn’t necessarily reject the canon established in the Bay films – it is definitely a prequel to 2007’s Transformers – but it also purposefully sidesteps a lot of the history depicted in the first five installments. Did the Transformers still visit ancient Earth at some point before Bumblebee and the two Decepticons arrive in northern California in 1987? Maybe, maybe not. It’s left vague. In that way, Bumblebee is a bit of a soft reset for the series, holding onto those elements that worked and ditching the baggage.
Bumblebee is an ‘80s movie through and through, not just in terms of its period setting but also in its execution, establishing a tone and pace reminiscent of your typical Amblin production of that era and of teen-driven genre flicks like WarGames and Short Circuit. But the ‘80s callbacks and Easter eggs here are relentless, with nearly every scene including a music cue or a reference. I get it! It’s 1987! If Bumblebee was an ‘80s reference drinking game you’d be dead from alcohol poisoning by the midpoint. While the humor is nowhere near as groan-inducing as it was in the Bay movies, not all the jokes land and comedy just isn’t Steinfeld’s strong suit. She’s far better at the heartfelt and dramatic moments.
Bumblebee is the best live-action Transformers movie since the 2007 film, even though it doesn’t quite recapture the wow factor of seeing the robots in disguise come to life that very first time. But it does wisely bring the series back to basics in its character-driven storytelling and simplified approaches to both Transformer designs and visual e...
Dec 20, 2018 · “Bumblebee,” directed by Travis Knight (“Kubo and the Two Strings”), is the best “Transformers” movie so far, going all the way back to the 1986 animated film.
Dec 21, 2018 · Bumblebee: Directed by Travis Knight. With Hailee Steinfeld, Jorge Lendeborg Jr., John Cena, Jason Drucker. On the run in the year 1987, Bumblebee finds refuge in a junkyard in a small California beach town.
