Yay or Nay?: Bumblebee (Film)

Sorry for the lack of post last week. We were both really busy! I'm happy to say I've begun my research term to finish up my master's, so I'll be posting a lot about what I learn (I hope) in the coming months. This week I had to prepare a précis for my supervisor...and that was a daunting task. Never written a précis, but it's making me want to be done with the entire process of writing and developing a sixty page Major Research Project! A précis is apparently a chapter by chapter in depth proposal...so yeah. Hopefully it gets a little more structured after this week, but yeah, as I write this I'm finishing up the proposal for my analysis chapters of the project, and possibly drafting an email to an old professor of mine. He thinks that one of the term papers I wrote for the course I took this winter might warrant publication with some tweaking, so I cannot turn that down! But I rant...now that classes are over, and soon my research term might be more structured you can expect more regular uploads from me! Also finishing grading exams for my TA job, so yeah, after this it should get easier to upload. Anyway the book stack of my research is beginning! 

I expect this small stack to look much bigger in a couple weeks! 

Anyway! To the review! 

This movie was so adorable!! And CORRECT for a change from the Michael Bay piece of shit. I loved the original Transformers cartoons from 1987, and proudly own the 25th anniversary editions. One thing that pissed me off was when Bay did not adhere to the original story, or characters. And yes. Characters and original plot lines bothered me in the Bay movies. We had a whole cast of characters that never came to life, or weren’t done so correctly. But with Bumblebee, that has changed, and even what doesn’t stay to the original has a delightful charm to it!

With that said, this is my review of Bumblebee, the movie!

The Story

B-127, a soldier fighting a lost war on Cybertron, is sent to Earth to pave a new “base” for the remaining Autobot resistance after the fall of Cybertron. After a fatal accident however, B-127 is found by a young girl named Charlie Watson. After reviving him, she discovers that he is no ordinary yellow VW bug.

*cue old-timey Transformers “robots in disguise” song*

Seriously if you haven’t treated yourself to the old Transformers cartoons and are a fan of this film, definitely check it out. I’ll link a lovingly reviewed version from a great YouTuber named Aalgar here!

Do you know who kicked ass? Starscream, voiced over by Chris Latta. Now THAT is how you do Starscream. 

My Thoughts

Rare is the film that can make a relationship between two characters feel not only real, but organic, and believable enough that I can feel it. And my god, did I feel it! Charlie and Bumblebee are two sides of the same coin, broken and in need of fixing. The character of Bumblebee is adorable and downright amazing. He is both that great combination of childishly innocent, and fiercely loyal, which makes a great backdrop to what he becomes at the end.

One of the things I really loved about this film was that it showed the capacity of human nature—the ability to love and want to help and fix brokenness, as demonstrated by Charlie. And the more...dark sides of humanity, greed, violence, backstabbing, and selfishness, as emphasized by a character in the film named Dr. Powell, and at least in the beginning, Agent Burns, played by the amazing John Cena.

Another thing that was really good about the film was surprisingly a lack of action in favour of good, old-fashioned character and story development. There is a lot of work in the film just focusing on our two leads, which does wonders when actually trying to establish a believable and deep relationship between these two characters. There wasn’t an explosion every minute, in true Michael Bayian fashion. Again, not to say I don’t love my action, but if you want people to sympathize and be invested in your characters, you have to invest in good development and story, which the film does.

And what more can I say? It’s funny in the right places, sad in others, and downright cute and adorable when it needs to be. Everything is in its place in this film and that is very welcomed for a Transformers film spinoff. I need a sequel, is what I’m saying.

My Rating

So that’s it! I really loved this movie and would recommend it as a buy, stream, and a definite watch! Get it where you can!!

My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5 stars