Bumblebee (2018)

BUMBLEBEE (2018) Three-and-a-half stars

To be honest, BUMBLEBEE was a pleasant surprise.

Granted, I knew coming in that it received better reviews than each of the five previous live-action TRANSFORMERS movies directed by the beloved Michael Bay. (TEAM AMERICA: WORLD POLICE paid Bay and his general oeuvre tribute with “Pearl Harbor Sucks.”)

In those reviews, I believe BUMBLEBEE was even recommended many times as being a TRANSFORMERS movie for people who did not like the Bay entries. For the record, I liked the first entry from 2007 and they quickly dropped in quality. (REVENGE OF THE FALLEN, though, gave Roger Ebert a zinger first sentence and book title, “A Horrible Experience of Unbearable Length.”)

Anyway, I walked into Flick Theatre in Anderson, popcorn and healthy skepticism in tow.

Leaving the Flick two hours later, I thought, “Hey, that’s the best TRANSFORMERS movie since the animated film released in 1986.”

I’ll go through a short list of reasons why.

— Length: BUMBLEBEE lasts 114 minutes, the shortest running time for TRANSFORMERS since 1986. The animated version ran 90 minutes, a good length. Bay’s five entries lasted 150 minutes, 150 minutes, 157 minutes, 165 minutes, and 149 minutes. Not only were they long but they were long and loud, very very very loud. They’re the kinds of movies heard throughout the multiplex. BUMBLEBEE, directed by Travis Knight, lacks the bloat of the Bay-directed films. By the way, Bay served as producer, just like he did for A QUIET PLACE and the FRIDAY THE 13TH, AMITYVILLE HORROR, and THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE remakes.

— Focus: BUMBLEBEE centers on the human characters far more than any previous live-action TRANSFORMERS, especially through female protagonist Charlie (Hailee Steinfeld). She’s a rock solid entry point into this world and she’s the one who finds and befriends Bumblebee in a relationship that echoes E.T. THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL and THE IRON GIANT, as well as KING KONG. I never felt that way during the Bay entries. Charlie also reminds one that had this film been made in the 1980s, her character would have been played by Molly Ringwald, maybe Ally Sheedy.

We’re swept up in the emotion of the film, just like E.T., THE IRON GIANT, and KING KONG.

— Humor: Ah, a delicate balance. Do you go too far and become camp like BATMAN & ROBIN or do you lack humor and become a rather grim affair like the Christopher Nolan BATMAN films? I laughed at several points throughout BUMBLEBEE, where I was obviously intended to laugh, like when Charlie and her possible future boyfriend / adoring sidekick Memo have Bumblebee egg and toilet paper the house and car of somebody who’s been cruel and mean to Charlie at every turn … of course, Bumblebee takes it to another level. Or Bumblebee’s priceless reaction to Rick Astley. (Maybe it’s unfortunate that Mojo Nixon’s “Debbie Gibson is Pregnant with My Two-Headed Love Child” did not come out until 1989, given its subject matter, including a Rick Astley insult. Believe Mojo called Astley “a pantywaist.”)

— Soundtrack: Tears for Fears’ “Everybody Wants to Rule the World,” the Simple Minds’ “Don’t You (Forget About Me),” Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up,” Steve Winwood’s “Higher Love,” A-Ha’s “Take On Me,” Sam Cooke’s “Unchained Melody,” the Smiths’ “Girlfriend in a Coma,” Sammy Hagar’s “I Can’t Drive 55,” Stan Bush’s “The Touch,” and DJ EZ Rock and Rob Base’s “It Takes Two” are some of the nostalgic buttons pushed by this prequel.

No doubt that a teenage girl in the late 1980s would have favored such songs. Charlie’s a major Smiths fan — I seem to also remember hearing “Bigmouth Strikes Again” — and she wears T-shirts of Elvis Costello, the Damned, and the Rolling Stones, I do believe.

I found a couple anachronisms.

“Never Gonna Give You Up” was released in the UK in July 1987 and later became a hit in America in early 1988.

“It Takes Two” did not appear until August 1988. BUMBLEBEE takes place during 1987.

However, though, I grinned from ear to ear when Bumblebee cued up “The Touch,” a hard rock anthem from the 1986 TRANSFORMERS later covered by Dirk Digger (Mark Wahlberg) during his cocaine would-be rock star phase.

— Little moments like that are scattered throughout BUMBLEBEE.

First-time live-action director Knight is the 45-year-old son of Nike co-founder and Chairman Emeritus Phil Knight. The younger Knight worked in animation (namely stop-motion) before BUMBLEBEE — his works include CORALINE and his directorial debut KUBO AND THE TWO STRINGS (2016) for Laika Entertainment; Travis Knight serves as Laika’s president and CEO (he’s also on Nike’s Board of Directors) and the company employs nearly 400 people in Hillsboro, Oregon.

Will future TRANSFORMERS movies follow the direction taken by Knight and British screenwriter Christina Hodson or go back to the Bay-ten path, if you will?

BUMBLEBEE does not lack action movie spectacle, of course, with shit blowing up real good especially in the opening and closing scenes, but the heart and humor displayed over the balance of the movie takes BUMBLEBEE to a higher level.