Road to Transformers: Rise of the Beasts - Bumblebee Review

 

Bumblebee is a sci-fi action movie based on the Hasbro toyline Transformers, more specifically the character of Bumblebee. It's also the sixth movie in the live-action series. It was produced by Allspark Pictures, Di Bonaventura Pictures, Bay Films, and Tencent Pictures and distributed by Paramount Pictures. Bumblebee was written by Christina Hodson and directed by Travis Knight.

The story is after losing their war on the planet Cybertron, Optimus Prime sends Bumblebee to Earth to set up a base on operation. Later on, a girl named Charlene aka Charlie, unknowingly sets off his homing signal thus alerting two Decepticons named Shatter and Dropkick. Now, Bumblebee must do whatever he can to not only survive these enemies, but also protect his new friend.

• Negatives

One bad aspect of the movie is, it has an identity crisis. Nobody, not even the movie itself can tell if this is a reboot or a prequel. And this debate has been going since the movie was released. Both audiences and filmmakers can't say it's a reboot, because Bumblebee still has the same face he had in the first movie, and Sector 7 is here as well. Last time I checked, when you do a reboot, you wipe the slate completely clean. Not half of it. And nobody can say it's a prequel, because the movie makes a lot of contradictions to the first movie. Such as, Optimus Prime being on Earth, when at this point in time, he shouldn't be there. When making a movie to a franchise like this, it's best to keep it as simple as possible, as suppose to leaving the audience confused. And with what I've seen from the marketing for Rise of the Beasts, we're most likely still gonna be left confused.

Other negative is the villains Shatter and Dropkick, they were so generic. I mean it, they have no personalities other than being evil. They easily could've been replaced with any other Decepticons, and the movie would've been exactly the same.

• Mix

One mix bag came from the special effects. Now there were a lot of times, and I do mean a lot, where it looks good. Other times it's just unforgivable. Like this,

CG on Bee doesn't look bad, but man that green screen. It looks like the actors were photoshopped onto the background.

Then we have Charlie's story. Whenever she's with Bumblebee, and those two are forming their bond, it's nice, sweet even. It's a good story, when we're not focusing on the Transformers. Her story with her family, not so much. I'm 90% sure the family story, checked off almost every cliché in the troubled family story. Now you can use all of the tropes for a story like that, all you want. A lot of those are pretty much mandatory. What you need to do is nail the execution, which didn't happen. What we got with the family story was as predictable as it could get.

• Positives

If there was one thing I truly liked, it was the action. Regardless of the quality, this franchise doesn't fail when it comes to action. The best came from the final fight, and especially the beginning. The opening sequence was pretty much the G1 cartoon brought to life.

Now, I by no means hate this movie, I did have some fun with it. However, I do believe it's overhyped. The only reasons why this got great reviews was because Michael Bay didn't direct, and because people finally got their nostalgia pandering. 

And before any of you say I'm just being a bias and bitter Bay fanboy, read my reviews for the previous five movies. I haven't given one, not one of those movies a very high rating, despite being a big fan of Michael Bay.

My final rating is, Okay.

Well folks, the road to Transformers: Rise of the Beasts is finally over. Come back on Saturday, Jun 10th, for well, my review of Transformers: Rise of the Beasts. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day.