Bumblebee: Redeeming a Franchise

Charlie and Bumblebee.

As the subtitle of this blog is 'wishing and working for a world transformed' I often like to take a chance to comment on the happenings of my favorite robots in disguise. With the recent release of the film Bumblebee I wanted to share my thoughts, particularly the ways that it managed to redeem the franchise, at last showing average movie-goers why these bots are so special.

For a good number of my friends I am the biggest (if not only) Transformers fan that they know, so a good many of you have contacted me wondering what I thought of the new film (as you have done for every film since 2007). After watching Bumblebee for the first time with my wife Kristen, I simply posted on Facebook: “It took 11 years, but we finally got our movie!” There was a whole lot more to it than that. I was literally in tears when the film’s credits rolled. This was what I had hoped for back in 2007, saying way back then that if folks could get to see that this was a story about way more than alien robots who make blows-em-upsies, that these robots were deep characters with heart, then the mainstream public would finally see why something that started as a 22-minute toy commercial became something that has captivated fans like me for more than 30 years.

Unfortunately, we never got that film until Bumblebee. The first live action film in 2007 featured Transformers that were little more than a footnote in their own movie (a perfect example of this is how the character Brawl appears as ‘Devastator’ in the film, even though the toy and subsequent marketing materials had his proper name). It was quickly clear that Michael Bay cared nothing for the story or the characters. With jokes about urinating, masturbation, and rampant misogyny--not to mention a storyline that was essentially a glorified ‘America! F*%K YEAH!’ video dedicated to the armed forces--Bay had sent a clear message about who the audience was for this film: horny teenage boys who just wanted to blow stuff up. The first film was a letdown on more levels than just the depiction of the Transformers themselves, at least for me. Sure, the designs were weird and indistinguishable, and no one really got to be seen as more than an alien killing machine. But hey, it made a ton of money. Surely the sequels will get it right! Right? Right????

No. No. 1000 times no!!! Every film after the 2007 original just got worse...and worse...and worse...and worse. We saw Wheelie (an Autobot) hump a human’s leg. We saw gratuitous shots of women’s backsides and super-short skirts. We got a whole side story explaining why it was ok for a 20 year old guy to be sleeping with a 17 year old girl. We got terribly racist caricatures like Skids and Mudflap. We got Optimus Prime (the great, noble Autobot leader) utter immortal lines like ‘I’ll kill you!’ and ‘Give me your face!’ We saw that same Optimus Prime actually KILL A HUMAN (WTF?!). We saw the only semi-capable female character in the franchise ridiculed for being ‘too smart’ and ‘uppity.’ We saw storyline after storyline contradict itself. We saw more violence, misogyny, and sexual imagery than you’d get in a Fast and Furious film. Anybody remember those lovable cartoons of the 80s?! Nope! For over a decade Bayhem (or the Bayverse, or Bayformers, or whatever you want to call it) became the standard. Designs in the comics and cartoons began to mirror those in the films. Story elements, such as Bumblebee’s inability to talk, made their way into other media. THESE were the Transformers for a new generation, and I grieved.

One thing I have consistently heard for a decade is: “But I just watch these films to turn my brain off! If you’re upset with them get over it, they’re just movies!” I am so sick of this. First of all, film as an art form exists, like all art, to offer us an experience. If we turn our brains off, we cannot have a full experience. The notion of going into a movie with zero expectations, actually hoping not to feel anything, is antithetical to the whole enterprise of artistic experiences. You can’t “turn your brain off!” It’s impossible!! And why are those of us who ask for quality control and who actually appreciate beauty and craft so often vilified for “taking it too seriously”? Our culture has devolved to the point where actually expecting something to be up to some kind of standard is seen as delusional. The Bay films are, in a nutshell, a microcosm of our culture as a whole: loud, obnoxious, tasteless, and eager to go on the defensive when called out on it.

I saw each of the first five films (yes, there were five!!) more than twice in the theatres. You might ask why I would do such a thing if I can honestly say how terrible they are. I never went in to “turn my brain off,” for the record. The reason I came back was that each time I went back hoping for some little nugget that would make me enjoy the film. I searched for them in each movie, and usually I was able to find something (i.e. Sentinel Prime’s story in the third film or the introduction of the Dinobots in the fourth film). This, friends, is the definition of insanity: doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. But by 2017’s The Last Knight, a film that was so painful, so messy, and so utterly terrible that I could find no redeeming quality at all, I had had enough. The films were a joke, and what’s worse, they were a bad joke. They were the kind of racist, misogynistic, homophobic jokes that your old high school friend still tells because he doesn’t understand 1) how terrible they are and 2) that the culture doesn’t cater to him anymore. Still, you keep your mouth shut because, after all, he’s your friend. That was my relationship to the film franchise.

But something happened, and that something was Wonder Woman. Released in the same year as the fifth Transformers film, Wonder Woman proved that movie-goers were sick and tired of the same formulas that men like Michael Bay were churning out year after year. What’s more, nerd culture (itself notoriously misogynistic and often racist and homophobic) also shifted, and by the time The Last Knight was released, everyone had had enough. The film bombed (thanks be to Primus!), and the franchise appeared to be dead. I, for one, thought it was for the best. Let it die, focus on the comics and cartoons for good storytelling, and maybe someday we’ll get the film we wanted.

Well, it didn’t stay dead long. Prior to The Last Knight being released, Paramount and Hasbro announced they had called together a writers’ collective to focus on turning the live-action Transformers films into a cinematic universe a la Marvel. The disastrous returns of The Last Knight killed that idea, but they had committed to moving forward on one project: the Bumblebee movie. Many of us wondered why. Nobody asked for this. Nobody wanted to see a whole movie devoted to the lovable VW Bug of the 80s turned into a muscle car who, over the five previous films, had brutally killed no fewer than a dozen Decepticons (and urinated on a human!).

Enter Travis Knight and Christina Hodson.

For the first time since 1986 a Transformers film would not be directed by Michael Bay, and for the first time EVER it would be written by a woman. And boy, did those two things make all the difference! The first trailer landed on the second night of our honeymoon in Greece this past June. Before clicking it I said to Kristen, “Oh God! Nobody needs this!” but after one viewing we both looked at each other and said, “That...looks....good?” As more trailers were released, and more information came to light about the production of the film and the care that went into it, I remained cautiously optimistic. Knight and Hodson were both fans of the original franchise, and Knight’s recent success with Kubo and the Two Strings gave me reason, deep down, to hope that this would finally be it.

It was. And so much more. When most people ask why I love the Transformers, the answer I always give is: the characters and their story. At its heart, Transformers is about the struggle of constant change, particularly in a society at war. The Autobots and Decepticons both want the same thing (a peaceful Cybertron), but their methods are so radically different. The only thing separating an Autobot from a Decepticon is ideology. That’s it. It’s not that one looks like a Predator knock-off! And on both sides there are characters who are trying to make sense of the whole thing. Mirage, an Autobot, who has always been a pacifist--an artist prior to the war--cannot bring himself to fight. Thundercracker, a Decepticon, often finds himself at odds with his leader Megatron’s methods of conquest, though he does believe in Decepticon superiority (albeit not by the means of tyranny and destruction). These are characters who grow, who learn, who cry, and who adapt. The whole ‘robots in disguise’ angle was fun for a kids’ toyline, but within the fiction, the method of transformation is a survival mechanism. They must transform, or they will die! This is what makes Transformers interesting, what brings me back to it after so many years. And this is what ‘Bumblebee’ embodies.

The film starts out with a battle scene on Cybertron, the likes of which we have never seen before. Almost every Transformers fan that saw this film has said the same thing: the first three minutes alone are worth the price of admission. Gone are the hyper-alienized designs from the Bay films, replaced with more box-like characters reminiscent of the 1980s designs most casual movie-goers will remember. Gone are the Transformers speaking some kind of garbled alien language, replaced with voices that match up brilliantly with their voices in the original cartoon. Gone are battle scenes that look like 20 aluminum cans were hurled into a garbage disposal, replaced with vibrant colors on both sides, allowing the viewer to clearly see who is who. Within the first three minutes I was hooked and knew this would be something different.

Had there only been the excellent battle scene on Cybertron I would have been satisfied, but Knight and Hodson went above and beyond with their story. This time around we follow Charlie Watson, a teenage girl struggling with her own identity after the death of her father. Her transformation and journey of discovery is mirrored by Bumblebee, who is sent to Earth ahead of Optimus Prime for the purpose of establishing a refugee base for the Autobots. Bumblebee’s mission is cut short, though, when the Decepticon Blitzwing, trying to intercept him in order to stop the Autobots from establishing their base, rips out Bumblebee’s voicebox and damages his memory to the point that the Autobot cannot even remember who he is. With his last ounce of energy, Bumblebee takes the form of a VW Beetle, a car that Charlie discovers in a scrapyard. Hoping to find a piece of herself by repairing the Beetle and making it her very own car, Charlie discovers who Bumblebee really is when he transforms upon being brought back to her home. Immediately, the audience sees a different relationship from that of Bumblebee and Sam Witwicky in the previous films. Bumblebee is vulnerable, and Charlie meets him with compassion and love, something that all of the previous films lacked entirely. Gradually, Charlie helps Bumblebee gain a voice by installing a working radio and showing him the power that music has in communication, while Bumblebee slowly helps Charlie rediscover herself as she wrestles with her family, who have clearly moved on from her dad’s death. It is a journey of self-discovery grounded in love that makes this film so wonderful. Not only as Transformers film, but as a film in general. It’s just a good story.

But a Transformers story would be nothing without both Autobots and Decepticons, and one worry most fans had with this film was that the latter would be sorely lacking, as they had been previously. Not this time. Apart from Blitzwing, the primary Decepticons of this film are Dropkick and Shatter, sent to Earth to get information from Bumblebee regarding the whereabouts of the other Autobots. Unlike previous films, these Decepticons TALK (imagine that)! They are devious, deceptive, and cruel. Justin Theroux and Angella Bassett provide the voices and bring these characters to life in ways that no other film’s Decepticons have been. There is a history there between them and Bumblebee, and you can see it, even if Bumblebee can’t remember it. They see themselves as righteous enforcers, stamping out a rogue rebellion, and in that regard they are interesting villains. For once we care about the Decepticons, and when they show up to battle Bumblebee there is a real fear that they may win.

As stated earlier, the previous films had an extreme amount of violence. Yes, the story is about a war, but the cartoons and comics have always been aimed at kids. There is a way to tell those stories without giving us something that borders on an R-rating. Previously, Autobots killed Decepticons with no mercy and with great bloodshed (or energonshed). But here Bumblebee is clearly outmatched by the powerful Decepticons. Yes, he defeats them, but unlike when he killed Soundwave, Rampage, and Stinger in previous films, he doesn’t blow their heads off with his arm canon. Instead, he has to outthink them, using their own weapons, their own tactics against them. It’s a great way of showing that Autobots are not the same bloodthirsty creatures as the Decepticons. Such a distinction was lacking prior to this film, and was much needed.

As Kristen noted in a post of her own, it’s hard to even think of the previous films as “films,” given how terrible they are on every level. In many ways it’s not fair to even compare Bumblebee to its predecessors. Yet Bumblebee is fully aware of what has come before, and there are plenty of ways that Knight and Hodson, whether intentionally or not, take a few digs at the Bayhem of old. As Bay made every attempt to objectify women, there are three moments in the film that intentionally objectify men, having them take their shirts off. Whereas Prime had been known for ripping off the faces of other Transformers (i.e. The Fallen, Megatron, and Shockwave), John Cena’s character, Agent Burns, remarks to one of his troops, “If you lose them, I will personally rip off your face!” Even a car chase that looks like it is going to result in the crazy explosions of the Bayverse ends with all of the cars slamming on their brakes at the last moment, with no collisions and everyone being ok. The hyper-militarism of the past films is gone. In this one, the military end up being duped by the Decepticons, and in the final battle only Charlie and Bumblebee can stop them. The misogyny that came to characterize the Bayverse is (blessedly) also gone, replaced with a Transformers film that actually passes the Brechdel test! Charlie is no damsel in distress, and even when the film tries to give her a love interest in Memo, much like Rey from the new Star Wars, she makes it clear that she does not need his manly help, even remarking at film’s end, “We’re not there yet,” when he tries to hold her hand. In every way possible, this is a film that looks at its predecessors and apologizes for their sins. It is such a breath of fresh air!

Now for the big question that many folks have had: is it prequel or a reboot? In press tours everyone suggested that the film would be a prequel to the 2007 movie. The pre-screening greatly hinted at this, but the final product is much less clear. In the 2007 film Bumblebee came to Earth looking for the Allspark, as did all of the Transformers. Here, however, he is simply scouting a location for a new base with no mention of the Allspark. In the fifth film, meanwhile, the overly convoluted story claimed Transformers had been here for centuries, including a scene of Bumblebee fighting Nazis in World War II. This film makes that impossible. Furthermore, at the film’s end Optimus Prime arrives, but in the 2007 film there is a strong indication that that was his first time on Earth. Yet there are also moments that seem to make the movie work as a prequel, with the inclusion of Bumblebee’s Bayformers design, the appearances of Sector 7 and Agent Simmons, and the lack of Megatron, who is presumably frozen and in human custody, as he was during the early parts of the 2007 movie. Lastly, in the end Bumblebee even takes the form of a 1970s Camaro, the form he had the beginning of the first film, much to Charlie’s astonishment: “You could’ve been a Camaro this whole time?!”

Overall, however, I cannot see this as a prequel. Aside from the moments that contradict the previous films, the overall tone is also totally different, and it would be unfair to lump Bumblebee in with Bay’s five carnage-filled movies. Yes, there are nods to the 2007 film, as it is still widely considered a decent movie, and also because the film’s designs are over a decade old. But in the end, it works so much better as a reboot of the story. Now we can start off with a heartfelt story about Bumblebee finding himself, rather than one where he pisses on Agent Simmons.

What’s next for the Transformers film franchise? It’s unclear. Some have speculated that either an Optimus Prime solo film may be next or a CGI movie telling the story of the war on Cybertron, taking its cues from the first few minutes of this film. I don’t know what I want to see, but I do know that I am happy that this film exists, even if there is not another one coming any time soon. Bumblebee proved that a good Transformers live-action movie can be made. It showed that this franchise’s heart lies not in its battle scenes but in its characters. It showed what can happen with the right director and writer handling these characters and their stories. With a Rotten Tomatoes score currently at 93% it warms my heart as a fan to see people paying attention to this franchise and saying, “Wow! This is good!”

I highly encourage you to see this film! If you love Transformers, see it! If you love 80s movies like The Breakfast Club, see it! If you love stories with strong female characters, see it! If you want an awesome soundtrack in which the music in practically a character, see it! If you want to introduce someone (or yourself) to the world of the Transformers, see it! You won’t be disappointed! Transform and roll out!!