Bumblebee – Tripping Through Gateways

The movies I dug in 2018.

Annihilation: A phenomenal feast for the eyes and mind…this quiet and slow burn body horror film drew me in from the first frame. Truly great and imaginative Sci-Fi.
Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse: Great characters, great story and some of the most inventive looking animation I have had the joy of soaking in, this film lives up to the hype. People are telling you it is that good because it is that good. I have seen it twice in the theaters. This is usually something I reserve for films I felt strongly (positive or negatively) about, but seem to be out of line with the majority. This time? It was all to just enjoy it all over again. Sony has raised the bar with animation and super-hero movies in a single movie.
Sorry to Bother You: Boots Riley’s darkly hilarious satire of race and class starts out seemingly setting a high bar with its creative visual approach, only to take a totally bizarre out of left field twist. Brilliant and unexpected.
Hereditary: Another slow burn film, this time in horror. Unflinching at times, much of the film explores grief and loss in the face of ongoing tragedy and questions the very nature of evil. at times, it seems to be maybe a film where we are watching a family collapse and lose it’s grip on reality…until maybe it is not.
BLACKkKLANSMAN: While not a perfect film, it is one that manages to look at a moment of history and see it reflected in today. The film is pretty blatant in this, sometimes to the point of seeming a little to on the nose. But it is a funny, dramatic and engaging film with great performances.
Black Panther: Ryan Coogler gave us one of Marvel’s strongest films to date. It carried through some of T’Challa’s lessons learned in Civil War and gave him an interesting challenge. The film effectively blended the super-hero and super-spy genres, with a great cast of characters I look forward to revisiting.
Crazy Rich Asians: Like Black Panther, this was a film in part hyped up due to it being rare. The first Hollywood film with a pre-dominantly Asian cast in about 25 years. And so there was a real push to prove the masses would see the movie, as well as Asian Americans. Luckily, the film brought more than a need to succeed to the table. Sure, it is a pretty generic plot…but the jokes land more than they fail. The cast is terrific and engaging (and this being a Hollywood film, largely very attractive) and the film is entertaining.
Mission Impossible: Fallout: It is not often that a Franchise gets better with age, but Mission Impossible has managed to become more interesting as they go…starting around the third film. The core group of characters all have chemistry and the new additions are solid.
Avengers: Infinity War: This one was kind of a tough call. It is clearly a film that ended in the middle of the story. And there are some good arguments against the film…but I still liked this one. The film balanced its various storylines quite effectively, the character interactions were, at times, golden. It had a villain with a terrible but identifiable plan. We will see if Endgame alters my feelings at all.
Won’t You Be My Neighbor: Mister Rogers was a formative and unique part of the PBS landscape for generations. A challenge to colder views on masculinity that told children that they matter simply for who they were, Fred Rogers spoke to kids as people. He knew they had questions and needed answers, and that shielding them from some of the darker parts of our world was insufficient. I miss Fred Rogers. I wish we had more men like him.
Bumblebee: How the hell did a Transformers movie crack my top ten? The movie had a heart, some great human characters and well executed special effects. A smaller cast of Transformers allowed for Bumblebee to shine.

My runners up? Ocean’s 8 was a terrific entry in the heist franchise. Aquaman was a fun film, but was edged out by Bumblebee. Teen Titans Go was fun, but it was largely cotton candy…and just cannot compete with Spider-Man. I enjoyed Ralph Breaks the Internet…it was cute. Ant-Man and the Wasp was a nice pallet cleanser after Infinity War. For the most part, I enjoyed Solo and Jurassic Park: Fallen Kingdom. And I enjoyed the Incredibles 2, which was a decent follow up to the original.

well, Onward to 2019!!!

It is Charlie’s 18th birthday. And Charlie feels out of sync with the entire world. It seems her mother and brother were able to move past the death of her father. She had no friends. The rich snobs mock and bully her. All Charlie has is her car. Which does not work. A project she had been working on with her father. And she cannot even make it work.

But on her birthday, in her Uncle Hank’s junk storage she finds an old VW Bug. She tries to bargain with Hank, but he simply lets her have it as a Birthday gift. After getting it home, She makes a discovery about her car.

Bumblebee has always been one of the big favorites of the Transformers for the audience. He is easily one of the most likable parts of the live action franchise (in spite of some rather “ug” moments) and so, it makes sense to put him front and center.

This seems like it should have been destroyed by fatigue of a franchise that has never been particularly good. But against the odds, the trailers actually got even jaded fans kind of hopeful.

What we have gotten is a movie about a robot that transforms into a yellow VW Bug who is befriended by a heart broken young woman. And…

It works. It works really well. Charlie is sympathetic in her sullenness. She does not simply lash out angrily. She just cannot understand why it seems like the rest of the world has found it so easy to move on, when the death of her father seems so insurmountable. Her family is not terrible. Really…they are painfully awkward. But they are trying. Memo, the young man who is crushing on her is actually a real welcome change of pace for this franchise. It is not that he is super competent. But he is brave, funny and kind. Cena’s military man is a balanced take. He is a good guy trying to make the right decisions(and the lone voice of reason when the Government considers working with the Decepticons).

The friendship of Hailee Steinfeld’s Charlie and Bumblebee is really sweet and charming. There is just a goofy wholesomeness there that is really endearing.

I think this film has the best designs of the franchise. The Bay films have been painfully busy and confusing. Here, they have opted for looks more in line with the 80’s cartoon and toys and the result is beautiful and clean. The film makers commit to their late eighties setting by including a nearly constant barrage of 80’s classics.

Along with heart, the film has real humor.

I used to say that the first Michael Bay Transformers film was probably about as good as you could hope for when it comes to a movie about giant robots that turn into cars. Turns out, I was wrong. Six movies later, we get the best Transformers movie.

Tag: Bumblebee

My Favoritest Flicks of 2018

Backward Compatible (Bumblebee, 2018)