After a series of abominations in the name of Transformers by dear Michael Bay, Travis Knight; the director of Kubo and the Two Strings has arrived to prove that this animation classic could definitely be made into a live action flick and the result can be amazingly glorious!
For those who are familiar with the G1 Transformers era during the 80s, Bumblebee is about to give you a hard nostalgia punch in the face, as the designs of the versatile robots, be it the Autobots or Decepticons, were simple and intelligible just like it was in the cartoons. But what ultimately made them and the film work was the human-like personality they all had! That's exactly what made them 'alive' for otherwise they would have just been metals on motion!
Be it grooving to music, watching films, seeking for comfort, learning to speak, hugging, pacifying, enjoying the moment, practicing to hide or ejecting cassette tapes, Bumblebee (voiced by Dylan O'Brien) did it all! You could see his expressions and feel what he's feeling! Travis Knight has humanized this cute little robot and made us love him so much! By adding on weakness, vulnerability and a plot goal in hand, Bumblebee easily became one of the best non-human protagonist on film! You startle in shock when his voice function was killed! You care for his well-being whenever he was physically captured and tortured! You weep when his ephemeral death arrived! The same screenwriting trope was utilized upon the antagonists Shatter (voiced by Angela Bassett) and Dropkick (voiced by Justin Theroux). Shatter's ability to deceive and manipulate plus Dropkick's thirst for senseless murder rendered them both as effective threats!
Hailee Steinfeld played Charlie, the human protagonist who lost her father and found it hard to move on. There were definitely rooms for improvement in crafting the scenes to make us understand earlier and clearer of what exactly was she lacking in life, but this is not to say the writing didn't show any efforts. Most of her actions revealed character traits as it should, and after a point in time, we saw why she was remorseful. The entry of Bumblebee in her life and their interactions were the best parts of the motion picture! Although it took extra time than necessary before the eventual meeting happened, it was nothing but delight after!
Their relationship was sweet and touching! Fixing a radio for the muted robot, driving over a landhill with an opened car hood plus revenge on a bully with eggs and tissue rolls were sequences fitted into the main plot to develop the bond Charlie and Bumblebee shared. Some of the occurrences may seem like segues, but proper damage control was done by the screenwriters to integrate said events with the main plot before it became too late. Their separation at the end was a tearjerker! Whatever you do, be sure not to miss Bumblebee destroying Charlie's house with a dog witness!
As far as the writing's concerned, it was standard. Surprisingly there weren't many expositions at all; the ones existed were only revealed when needed, that too subtly. To an extent in the beginning, the screenplay design was smart. It propelled the story forward by appropriately planting setups and inciting incidents for Bumblebee, Jack Burns (John Cena) and Charlie before combining their journey together! Yes, Bumblebee faced many functional close-to-death encounters, but after a point we knew he wasn't gonna die for good, and that released some of the essential tension unfortunately. Charlie's skill for diving was only required for the climax, but at least she wasn't a useless human protagonist throughout in the midst of giant brawling robots. The swankiness and cheesiness of the colleague girls can be slightly excused due to its 80s nature. The humour's okay; it did provide a few chuckles here and there. At other times, it was corny and tepid. Many aimless scenes were included just for the laughs, such as Charlie's mum bringing her dog to the vet using Bumblebee. One can't help but feel every character had a comical undertone to them for the exact same reason. Most of the scenes that intended to be funny would have benefited from trimming the portion shorter which would have made the comedy punchier. With all these being said, Bumblebee's speech replies and Charlie's family surviving a major car crash from all possible angles were hilarious!
Bumblebee was a visual effects milestone! It's incredibly realistic and its dirt treatment was supreme! Look at Bumblebee's detailed articulations! From top to toe right to his adorable feet, the team did an exceedingly stunning job! The makers were aware of the beauty of Transformers' process of transformations, therefore they paused moments like half-transfiguration even in action sequences to annex variety!
Speaking of action sequences, the geography's clear! You could vividly see which robot's fighting which. Optimus Prime (voiced by Peter Cullen) ejecting Ravage, Cybertron war, Starscream launch, chase on cliff with Bumblebee's partial arm out to hold the handrail and the military rustles were exciting! Watch out for the amazing tracking shot covering Bumblebee and Dropkick grappling whilst Charlie running in front of them! Other technicalities wise, the colours were sprightly. Editor Paul Rubell didn't had to zoom in and out of Earth and Cybertron interchangeably to narrate simultaneous incidents; just a cut would have done the job sufficiently and gracefully.