Film Review: ‘Bumblebee’: A Prelude to Universal Harmony

Mark Jackson
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Kind, innocent Bumblebee, a robot who transforms into a yellow Camaro and back again, is the most beloved Autobot in the “Transformer” series. If he could sing, he’d sound like Rod Stewart. Why? Take a look at Bumblebee’s soulful baby blues. It’s not possible to get any more “blue-eyed soul” than he is.

Hailee Steinfeld as Charlie and Bumblebee in “Bumblebee.”  (Paramount Pictures/Hasbro)
Hailee Steinfeld as Charlie and Bumblebee in “Bumblebee.”  Paramount Pictures/Hasbro

And Bumblebee’s likeability is partially why this origin story, while sixth in the “Transformers” series, is arguably the best movie of the lot.

What are the other reasons? Allow me to paraphrase myself, from my last “Transformers” movie review, because I believe it’s a fine piece of precognition, wherein I prophesied the style in which “Bumblebee” would be made. Four years ago, I said:

“The franchise will continue, but it now needs a gritty upgrade to retro. It needs to be un-Michael Bay’d. This fourth “Transformers” installation is over-long, over-done, and over-titled. It needs to get back to the Harley-Davidson philosophy, which is—they got it right the first time. Stay vintage. Keep the Autobot automobiles of the 1970s muscle-car variety. And don’t high-tech everything just because you have more RAM.”

Well, while I’m at it, let me paraphrase myself some more: “The first ‘Transformers’ was an instant American pop-movie classic. It established the Transformer formula. A Transformer movie must have four things: The machinery and cars must look cool; there must be a long-legged jail-bait female of stunning visage (tanned); there must be green cornfields and orange sunsets; and there must be nearly poetic teen dialog such as, “Dude, she’s an evil jock-concubine.”
So yeah. That’s exactly what this new (not-Michael Bay) director, Travis Knight, did. It took them two whole movies to arrive at my wisdom. Why doesn’t anybody listen to me?

The Not-Megan Fox

Let’s get real. Megan Fox was the real reason all the young dudes loved “Transformers.” Foxy Fox, the muscle cars, and the cool robots. This is a boy movie series; boys played with the Hasbro Transformers toys; boys crushed on the bombshell Miss Fox; and it appears that director Michael Boy, I mean, Bay, has a surname that may just be misspelled.

So in “Bumblebee,” the replacement jail-bait teen girl is Hailee Steinfeld, which is very shrewd casting. Because, unlike Fox, Steinfeld is a world-class actress, springing fully formed from the forehead of Pallas Athena (more like the beard of Jeff Bridges) in “True Grit,” and not only establishing herself as a zeitgeist channeler of her generation’s teen angst, but also morphing into a bona fide pop-star of rare, seductive, vocal ability. And she’s no slouch in the jail-bait department.

Hailee Steinfeld as Charlie and Bumblebee in “Bumblebee,” from Paramount Pictures. (Will McCoy/Paramount Pictures/Hasbro)
Hailee Steinfeld as Charlie and Bumblebee in “Bumblebee,” from Paramount Pictures. Will McCoy/Paramount Pictures/Hasbro

So while she’s tomboyish and in bombshell-stealth-mode, if you look closely, Steinfeld handily nails the “Transformers” job requirement of “long-legged jail-bait female of stunning visage.” How so stealthily? Because she’s not sun-tanned. But she does share Megan Fox’s precocious grease-monkey mechanical ability, a concept that is very thrilling to all ages of boys, even ones in their 90s.

The main thing, though, is that she has the acting chops to ground all this CGI in heartfelt, character-driven territory, where this series has never been before.

Origin Story

Chances are, regardless of your age, you must’ve seen one of the six “Transformers” movies by now, so you know who Optimus Prime is, yes? So you probably therefore also know Bumblebee already.

Except you wouldn’t recognize him, because instead of the 2007 Camaro he later becomes, he started off as an early-1970s VW Beetle that’s been sitting around a junkyard long enough for bees to start building honeycombs behind his rearview mirror. Wait, bumblebees don’t make honey. Honeybees do. Well, it’s more like, you know, honey is sweet, bees are yellow, Bumblebee is yellow, he’s got honey in him, therefore—he’s sweet. It’s sort of like a “Transformers” syllogism.

What’s he doing in a junkyard? That’s maybe the fifth requirement of a “Transformers” movie: Dust-covered vintage vehicles that have been sitting a long time in barns and such are not what you think they are.

Bumblebee is actually B-127, a rebel Autobot sent here by his fearless leader, Optimus Prime, to scout out new planetary digs in the ongoing interplanetary war with the Decepticons, who destroyed the Autobot planet of Cybertron.

Hailee Steinfeld as Charlie and Bumblebee in “Bumblebee,” from Paramount Pictures. (Paramount Pictures/Hasbro)
Hailee Steinfeld as Charlie and Bumblebee in “Bumblebee,” from Paramount Pictures. Paramount Pictures/Hasbro

For the newcomers unfamiliar with Decepticons: You know that movie company Bad Robot? It’s got that freaky red robot? That’s a Decepticon. I’m pretty sure. Anyway—bad robots.

B-127 touches down here ‘round about 1987, in the form of a very small comet, near a U.S. military base, the personnel of which naturally chase him around in armored trucks featuring large land harpoons.

Shortly after, a Decepticon trackerbot catches up with Bumblebee and rips out his vocal chords (such as they are). It’s here that he goes to ground as the aforementioned yellow junkyard VW Bug, somewhere on the California coast.

The junkyard belongs to the granddad of one Charlie (Hailee Steinfeld), teen girl mechanic-geek. Like a sort of gorgeous Gollum, she wants to claim (for her birthday present) this Bug, as her “precious.”

And while rolling under the Bug on one of those mechanic skateboard thingies, she glimpses a curious visage staring back at her, above the muffler and the drive shaft.

Hailee Steinfeld as Charlie in “Bumblebee,” from Paramount Pictures. (Jaimie Trueblood/Paramount Pictures)
Hailee Steinfeld as Charlie in “Bumblebee,” from Paramount Pictures. Jaimie Trueblood/Paramount Pictures

This Movie’s Bad Robots

There’s no rest for the weary, and Bumblebee’s got two nasty Decepticons on his tail: Shatter (Angela Bassett) and Dropkick (Justin Theroux), who transform into the most muscled-up versions ever of a fire-engine-red Plymouth Satellite and a blue AMC Javelin, respectively.
John Cena as Agent Burns, Dropkick (left car) and Shatter in “Bumblebee,” from Paramount Pictures. (Will McCoy/Paramount Pictures/Hasbro)
John Cena as Agent Burns, Dropkick (left car) and Shatter in “Bumblebee,” from Paramount Pictures. Will McCoy/Paramount Pictures/Hasbro

They also furthermore transform into a red F-4 Phantom fighter jet and what looks to be a blue Cobra gunship helicopter, respectively, and the latter enjoys splatting humans with his galactic zapper (the effect of which looks, PG-13 appropriately, like a soap-bubble popping). As he remarks, “I like the way they pop.”

John Cena as Agent Burns and Bumblebee in fight mode, in “Bumblebee,” from Paramount Pictures. (Paramount Pictures/Hasbro)
John Cena as Agent Burns and Bumblebee in fight mode, in “Bumblebee,” from Paramount Pictures. Paramount Pictures/Hasbro
A third bad guy is the military man played by former WWE wrestler John Cena.

On the nice guy side, there’s Charlie’s geeky next-door neighbor and classmate Memo (Jorge Lendeborg Jr.), sporting a 1970s Afro and a schoolboy crush.

Jorge Lendeborg Jr. as Memo and Hailee Steinfeld as Charlie in “Bumblebee,” from Paramount Pictures. (Jaimie Trueblood/Paramount Pictures)
Jorge Lendeborg Jr. as Memo and Hailee Steinfeld as Charlie in “Bumblebee,” from Paramount Pictures. Jaimie Trueblood/Paramount Pictures

Iron Giants

That’s what all these Autobots are, really—they’re iron giants, sort of like the one in the children’s cartoon movie of the same name. And like that relationship of Hogarth Hughes and Iron Giant (brilliantly voiced by Vin Diesel), Bumblebee and Charlie have a similar friendship.

“Bumblebee” reflects the trending offerings on social media: our current preoccupation with videos featuring cross-species bonding. We’re enjoying watching a lion, tiger, and bear (oh my!) that grew up together and now, as their 800-pound furry selves, frolic about together. We like the one about the dog that swims out to meet his friend, the dolphin, to frolic. Then there’s the one of an actual Bambi and an actual Thumper caught on video, jumping around together on someone’s lawn. It’s endless. It’s also very Steven Spielberg, who happens to be the producer.

Hailee Steinfeld as Charlie and Bumblebee (in VW Bug mode) in “Bumblebee,” from Paramount Pictures. (Paramount Pictures/Hasbro)
Hailee Steinfeld as Charlie and Bumblebee (in VW Bug mode) in “Bumblebee,” from Paramount Pictures. Paramount Pictures/Hasbro

So what’s the point? Humans will befriend metal aliens someday? No, I think it’s just a timely, if perhaps unintended tribute to the current discovery by Facebook that we like to watch all kinds of sentient beings frolicking together and living in harmony. They’ve even given Bumblebee extremely expressive, waggly dog ears that prick with curiosity, and get laid back when Bumblebee shifts into angry, fight mode.

Hailee Steinfeld as Charlie and Bumblebee in “Bumblebee,” from Paramount Pictures. (Paramount Pictures/Hasbro)
Hailee Steinfeld as Charlie and Bumblebee in “Bumblebee,” from Paramount Pictures. Paramount Pictures/Hasbro

For the next installment, I’d like to see Charlie and Bumblebee do karaoke at a bar, where Bee sings Rod Stewart’s “Maggie May,” and Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga are in the audience. This movie will be titled “A Star Is Transformed.”

Hailee Steinfeld as Charlie and Bumblebee in “Bumblebee,” from Paramount Pictures. (Paramount Pictures/Hasbro)
Hailee Steinfeld as Charlie and Bumblebee in “Bumblebee,” from Paramount Pictures. Paramount Pictures/Hasbro
Film Review: ‘Bumblebee’ Director: Travis Knight Starring: Hailee Steinfeld, John Cena, Jorge Lendeborg Jr., Dylan O’Brien, Justin Theroux, Angela Bassett, John Ortiz, Len Cariou, Jason Drucker Rated: PG-13 Running time: 1 hour, 53 minutes Release Date: Dec. 21 Rated 4 stars out of 5
Mark Jackson
Mark Jackson
Film Critic
Mark Jackson is the chief film critic for The Epoch Times. In addition to the world’s number-one storytelling vehicle—film, he enjoys martial arts, weightlifting, motorcycles, vision questing, rock-climbing, qigong, oil painting, and human rights activism. Jackson earned a bachelor's degree in philosophy from Williams College, followed by a classical theater training, and has 20 years’ experience as a New York professional actor, working in theater, commercials, and television daytime dramas. He narrated The Epoch Times audiobook “How the Specter of Communism is Ruling Our World,” which is available on iTunes and Audible. Jackson is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic.
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