Finally, the ACTUAL Transformers!
Back in 2007 Michael Bay released a fun, sci-fi fantasy film featuring a feisty Fox named Megan and a Lebouf named Shia . . . and the world has never really forgiven him since. Oh, it wasn’t those actors that they hated, it was how the Transformers
Given the amount of digital awesomeness at their disposal, you’d think they could have added more color (and thus character) to the robots in disguise. Instead the film suffered for years because it “ruined” so many childhoods or something. I have always thought this was a dumb thing to say about any movie. If you love characters and someone comes along and doesn’t make that character as you see fit – ignore it. It isn’t canon unless you make it canon. Simple.
To whit, now we are given a first glimpse to the most beloved of the Transformers in Bumblebee in his first stand-alone film. Thing is, these new transformers actually look like the damned Transformers we watched as kids in the 80s. So, this film is set in 1987, way before the Witwicky or Yeager storylines – but they look RIGHT now.
So be it. I won’t lose any sleep over this, and neither should any mature well-adjusted adult.
From the trailer, it looks like we are getting a kind of Herbie the Love Bug meets Terminator storyline in this one. I first discovered Hailee Steinfeld in her feature debut, True Grit. And I called her out as an impressive actor back then. Some of her recent films have left me underwhelmed. But for a movie about a girl who falls in love with a car that can turn into robots, I am not looking for too much depth . . . just a lot of explosions and entertaining fights and shit.
I don’t know much about Director Travis Knight’s other work, because I never watched either film. I know he is a fine animator, of course. And Christina Hodson wrote the forgettable Unforgettable, which is pretty far away from Bumblebee.
