somebody watched ET and also the Iron
Giant yes the most original thing about
bumblebee is that it's a good
Transformers movie and as we all know
that bar isn't set very high but I'm
happy to report the bumblebee is a good
movie by any standards and for little
kids it's a freaking great movie I mean
there was a scattering of little kids at
our press screening and they were
actually shouting at the screen a couple
of times it was adorable and reminded
you that bumblebees actual mission all
along has been to sell toys although for
a movie that I think is very much for
little kids although it does have have
some total issues not only has does it
have some sexy aspects to it but also a
lot of people and transformers die on
screen horrible deaths which I actually
thought was pretty horrible but I did I
did question who the target audience for
this movie is and maybe Paramount and
Travis Knight isn't so sure themselves
so how is it speaking of target
audiences how is it for adults right
well the adult Transformers fan I
suspect will be mighty impressed with
how this movie goes back to its Saturday
morning cartoon roots particularly at
the very beginning they have this whole
opening sequence on Cybertron you know
I've never been a Transformers fan of
you know I've seen all the movies but
I'm not familiar with the animated
series but for the there are a couple of
people in my audience so you could hear
them audibly be like woo this is what I
remember right and as for the rest of us
like myself bumblebee is a tad too
old-school in a month
chock-full of innovative storytelling I
mean this movie not only takes place in
the 80s but it feels like it was made in
the 1980s as I said very easy almost
slavishly you know as I said I would
have I would have appreciated a little
more innovation but excellent
performances and an amazing third act
transformer versus transformer versus
transformer fight scene it was really
really good
well that will have you as it did me
leaving the theater with a smile on your
face ah Hailee Steinfeld has found her
best role here yet
I like turned her a debut role with True
Grit but I think that she said trouble
you know speaking you know transformers
has had a hard time defining itself as a
franchise and I think Hailee Steinfeld
said a hard time defining herself as an
actress I think for a while she tried to
be hot you know but I think that Hailee
Steinfeld is an incredibly relatable
likable person and she's best when she's
playing that so she sanded down her
rough edges to reveal a very winning and
relatable and dynamic leading lady I
actually couldn't have liked her more in
this role she's a believable mechanic
and action hero but not a Mary Sue but
also enough of a teenage girl to name
that the robot she just found from space
bumblebee and once she named him
bumblebee I was like oh my god it makes
perfect sense of course a girl named
bumblebee right I mean I think a guy
would have gone our boy would have gone
with like maybe stinger and was
hilarious
I'm just glad she didn't stick streamers
to his ears it was very funny but as I
said very dynamic balanced character you
know tomboy and girlish Hailee Steinfeld
handled the balance extremely well loved
it again couldn't have loved her
character more and then as for her kind
of romantic interest we'll touch on that
but a jorge Lindenberg jr. is just as
charming here as he was in love Simon I
really like him as an actor
and the actors playing Hailee
Steinfeld's family well at first they
seemed like budget actors like let's
save some money with the parents because
pike pamela Adlon seems like a Catherine
Keener impersonator in fact I looked up
to see if she was related to Catherine
Keener they sound so similar and have
such similar inflections to their speech
pattern and then Stephen Schneider I'm
sure this must have been someone
intentional but he seems to have stepped
out of die hard but while at the
beginning I was a little nervous about
them they all turned out to deliver a
surprisingly sweet and hilarious back up
to Steinfeld in the third act and I
actually was like I love this family
although I think that's how Hailee
Steinfeld was supposed to feel - so good
job Travis Knight taking me on that
emotional journey with Hailee Steinfeld
towards her family and then sure John
Cena is Mark Wahlberg light but he's so
good at it he has the tube
lines in the movie huge laughs from the
audience one you heard in the trailers
about the Decepticons but one it was a
new line that at least I haven't seen it
anywhere else it was really clever
and if Cristina Hudson actually wrote
those lines you know as opposed to them
being improvised on set and I'm feeling
suddenly a lot better about her upcoming
birds-of-prey script I mean they were
legit funny lines also speaking of girl
power lots of birds of prey is supposed
to be I think Hudson did a nice job here
as well making against I mean because
Hailee Steinfeld contributed to making
Charlie very likable but of course so
did the script so Hodson did a great job
there I thought the mom character was
very cool as well and very realistic and
I also appreciated the evil female
Decepticon who was the leader I thought
that was great but it wasn't - you know
it wasn't again - Mary Sue - leaning
into like Star Wars has done to some
degree I thought everything just was
nicely balanced I loved it
one thing I didn't like though was at
the end they had like this me - moment
and I would just like I don't want to
spoil anything but I just like to give
some advice and that's - all all women
if if someone just you know a romantic
interest just wants to hold your hand
and you think there's even a chance that
you might like them just hold their hand
don't ruin the romantic moment I just it
was a weird note for the movie to end on
and I thought just a little bit -
hashtag me - as for Travis tonight the
Nike Air who decided he wanted to make
movies and did so with his dad's money
well he's kind of like finally graduated
to his own standing now well maybe we
don't know if his dad maybe invested in
this paramount production at all but
anyway he did a really nice job this is
the second rich kid in the past couple
of weeks to make good the first of
course being Megan Allison with all
those Vice nominations but anyway he did
a great job and in fact I would say that
Travis Knight is the best transition
I've seen yet from directing animation
to live-action and you would think this
would happen every time but I haven't
seen it
to this degree until Travis Knight and
that's that the animation background is
incredibly helpful with being able to
handle the VFX sequences which makes
perfect sense when you think about it
but night there's such a good job here
that you would never guess this was his
first live-action movie you would think
this was like his third or fourth and
especially cuz it even with live-action
directors who come from live-action when
they move into VFX it takes them like at
least one movie to get their footing but
Travis Knight hits the ground running
like a real professional I got the VFX
here were excellent and aside from the
VFX he also balances the tone quite
nicely keeping things both sweet and
sour now I'm sure you've seen the
headline the rumor that he is perhaps
being considered by Disney to take over
guardians of the galaxy as good as good
a job as he does here I don't think he's
a good match with that with that product
because I think the gardens in the
galaxy is mostly sour with just a little
bit of sweet and I think Knight likes to
have too much of a balance for that
Marvel property but don't get me wrong
bumblebee definitely has bite from the
mean and gross teenage girls that
terrorize Hailee Steinfeld's character
there is there is a considerable
sexiness in the movie it just just goes
right up to the line in terms of all
ages material they also have humans
exploding indigo and then shocking robot
violence Wow
I mean talk about take no prisoners
remember how it used to be hard in the
Michael Bay Transformers movies to tell
you were even looking at well here you
can not only see what you're looking at
clearly but the transformer robot fight
choreography is like as good as human
fight choreography I was really
impressed with Donnelly how the scenes
looked but how well thought-out they
were it took a little too long for
bumblebee to get his memory back I mean
they tried my patience a little bit I
was like you gotta stop come on
bumblebee get in there that's taken too
long but when he did when he finally did
get his memory back oh it was a sight to
behold
as for bumblebee Knight does a fantastic
job giving a pile of stealing glass real
heart using a combination of excellent
mine work I think that particularly
comes from his animation background and
stop-motion and music choices to make
bumblebee seem more real than ever
before a Dylan O'Brien verse just
momentarily voices bumblebee at the
beginning of the movie but made an
impression until bumblebee loses
voice in a very cool scene it happened
so quickly but I was like that's nice
and then angela bassett twist her words
as beautifully as her Decepticon twists
her blade I loved her so yeah as I said
I would classify bumblebee is a good
movie not a great one but it is a
crowd-pleaser and one that I suspect
will do amazing business on streaming
once people realize just how pleasant it
is yeah that's what I would say it's
pleasant it's a pleasant surprise
there are other movies playing right now
that I think are more worth seeing in
the theatres but I would see this at
some point now as for the Transformers
franchise going forward I would continue
along this route but now that they have
their footing again I think a mix
between this and the Bay phones which
have more action and have a better scope
a bigger scope that would be just right
I think this is just a little bit too
small too small potatoes for especially
for something like transformers so
that's my review of bumblebee share your
own thoughts about the movie down below
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