One of the biggest surprise cinematic joys of the year has landed on DVD, Blu-Ray and digital download formats—Bumblebee! The prequel to all those Michael Bay helmed Transformers movies is by far the best one in the series. It’s at least the finest since the first.
Why Bumblebee works so well requires a layered answer. Now, I know what you’re thinking. “Wait, a Transformers movie is conducive to insight richer than transportation vehicles turn into giant alien robots?” For Travis Knight’s Bumblebee, you bet your bottom dollar.
The best superhero movies are great character studies that just happen to feature a supernatural heroic element to it. That is the case of any genre movie that elevates itself over like-minded films. Skyfall, for example, is much more than a James Bond movie. It is about confronting the complicated web that is our past and coming to terms with how it shaped and defined us. It just happens that the person going through that inner searching is one of the best spies in the entire world whose entire being comes closer to ending than it ever has in its decades-long run in the cinemas.
Bumblebee is about family, fate, friendship and loyalty and the costs that requires of one’s soul if you are to stay true to the person or thing that inhabits your own circle of trust—to paraphrase a concept from Meet the Parents!
The film begins in space and finds our autoboots facing their greatest foe. Things get so bad in this battle that they must abandon their home planet and this elite group of fighters each go their separate ways until they are called upon by Optimus Prime (voiced by Peter Cullen, as he has since the beginning). Our favorite yellow vehicle lands on Earth, specifically the San Francisco bay area. Lucky for him, he winds up at a junkyard frequented by Charlie (Hailee Steinfeld). One her 18th birthday, she finds the old beat up VW Beatle. Other than serving as a home for a bee nest (think that had anything to do with how he got his moniker?!), Bumblebee has been sitting idly by for who knows how long before Charlie takes a liking, sits in the driver’s seat and tries to turn the engine. When it starts, we all know this is going to be a match made in heaven.
Those Decepticons, that were last seen destroying the Autobots’ planet, are spanning across the universe searching for those who escaped their wrath. Shatter (Angela Bassett) and Dropkick (Justin Theroux) are two Decepticons who land on earth and have one thing on their mind—find Bumblebee and destroy him. Thing is, between Bumblebee and the two Decepticons, there has been quite a swath of activity on the military front trying to track down how these things came from space and where are they now. Led by Agent Burns (John Cena), they see all of it as a threat. As they should. After all, this is decades before the first Transformers movie takes place, so those charged with our nation’s defense are going to be fierce in finding those who invade our space. Think about it, this is all while the Cold War is taking place and anything falling out of the sky is scene as a threat. The U.S. military doesn’t even know who are the good guys or the bad guys. At this moment, they are simply coming to grips with the idea that we are not alone in the universe.
One who takes that kind of surprise rather well is Charlie. It happens, teased in the Bumblebee trailer, in her family’s garage as she is working on the car, Bumblebee’s blue eyes light up and he takes his autoboot form. She’s stunned, sure, but I would describe it as much more excited than anything else. Their kinship is pure, tender and endearing. It’s easy to see that both characters deeply care about the other. At the same time, a boy who lives across the street, Memo (Jorge Lendeborg Jr.), has taken a liking to Charlie (she’s completely clueless about it, as most teens would be).
What is so well done, and yes, we are still talking about a Transformers movie, is how these affection-based relationships intertwine throughout screenwriter Christina Hodson’s heart-centric script. Hodson has not only crafted original characters that are multi-layered and possess a rich emotional reservoir, but she also puts these souls in some perilously thrilling situations. It’s a stunning combination as orchestrated by Knight in the most masterful of ways. The director is best known for his work at LAIKA (Kubo and the Two Strings) and I believe that being a product of that rich environment where the character is king prepared him to humanize a film franchise that has suffered from a serious lack of humanity in terms of its characters—both machine and human over the years.
Knight delivers an 80s-set prequel that rings true in almost every facet possible. As a child of that decade, the attention to detail is beyond stellar and his choice of songs to inhabit the soundtrack also reflect the type of deep thinking that went into every other aspect of Bumblebee.
For more on the film itself, don’t miss my theatrical Bumblebee review!
One of the great joys of the Bumblebee Blu-Ray release is the enclosed glossy cover comic book, Sector 7 Adventures: The Battle at Half Dome. This comic provides us with a “next chapter,” for lack of a better phrase, for our favorite yellow Autobot. Must salute the folks at Paramount Home Video for thinking outside the box on this. One does not necessarily think of the literary art form when thinking of Transformers. Yet, when you delve deep into the fandom of those multi-purpose vehicles from outer space, you could safely bet that those appreciators do enjoy comic books. It’s a home run, I tell ya.
Sector 7 Archive includes two extras: Agent Burns: Welcome to Sector 7 and Sector 7 Adventures: The Battle at Half Dome. The latter is a motion comic take on the printed comic book that is included in the release. It’s just dazzling, visually stunning and something truly to treasure. The former finds Cena introducing new recruits to his agency that is set up to work with those Autobots.
The film commences with that battle scene I spoke of earlier. It’s a shot to the system beginning to a movie. Love a film that can start with an extended action sequence whose cost will be paid over the course of the entire film. Bee Vision: The Transformers Robots of Cybertron is a featurette that puts a spotlight on all the Transformers that are participating in the battle. It’s as informative as it is entertaining. One thing’s for sure, as soon as the almost four-minute featurette concludes, you’re going to want to go back to the film itself and check out that opening sequence once again!
When it comes to a far-reaching making-of featurette, that arrives in Bringing Bumblebee to the Big Screen, a five-part bonus feature.
Filmmakers and the cast chat up this prequel and how focusing on Bumblebee, of all the Autobots in the universe, was a stroke of utter brilliance. The Story of Bumblebee also includes a touching look at the heart of this entire effort, the Bumblebee-Charlie friendship.
The second of the five-part featurettes are The Stars Align. This seven-minute look at the casting of Steinfeld and Cena again shows the smarts that were poured into the making of this movie and how casting is everything. With those two in place, filmmakers had a protagonist and antagonist (who may or may not come around by the end of the film) that were perfect bookends for this entire landscape.
Bumblebee Goes Back to G1 is a fascinating look at how the design of Bumblebee took its influence from the GI 1980s variants that us kids of the decade of decadence will remember so well, all while still including the influence of all those Bay films that came before.
Back to the Beetle dives into Bumblebee as the form he takes in this particular incarnation. Cast and crew dish those character traits that are congruent throughout the series and how that connection was of utter importance. One learns quite a lot about the influences for Bumblebee, from the comic books to the TV series and more outside elements.
For fans of the state of California, especially its rich car culture, California Cruisin’ Down Memory Lane is an almost twenty-minute (!) expose on the production design for Bumblebee and for those of us who were molded by that decade, this is one outstanding look at giving a modern film a feel that is firmly out of the Reagan era. They did a fantastic job with it, so kudos to all involved for putting together a featurette for those of us who are fascinated by such things—especially after literally feeling like we were in the 80s while watching Knight’s latest movie.
There are also deleted and extended scenes that are certainly interesting and an almost ten-minute look at some outtakes that Transformers fans will love.
Overall, Bumblebee is a must-own for the collection. This is a film that can be watched repeatedly and I, personally, can see revisiting this particular chapter of the Transformers universe at least once a year!
Film Grade: A-
Bonus Features: B+