Bumblebee (2018) - Teaser Trailer Reaction

For some reason today seems to be the day that a load of studios decided to throw their trailers out into the world, with Ralph Breaks the Internet: Wreck it Ralph 2, The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part (not piece?), Mortal Engines and of course Bumblebee. Quickly though, I think I'd best put out there that I found Wreck it Ralph to be a bit of mediocre film (great first half, pretty naff second half) so a sequel doesn't fill me with much joy (even if it's trying to out-Ready-Player-One, Ready Player One); another The Lego Movie sounds appealing if perhaps destined for disappointment (I mean, the first one was really popular); and Mortal Engines could easily go either way, regardless of the incredible talent behind it (seriously, it's a wonderful creative team). Bumblebee, on the other hand, was a trailer I genuinely loved.

Now, when Transformers came out in 2007, the film came with a variety of merchandise that continued with the sequel Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, encouraging a whole new generation of kids to get into the franchise - including myself. I loved the show, I loved Transformers: The Movie from the 80's, and I was really pumped for Transformers: Dark of the Moon...right up until I got bored about half-way through and decided to call it quits on the franchise. I almost saw Transformers: Age of Extinction, and Transformers: The Last Knight sounds so awful I almost want to watch it (bar its behemoth of a running time). However, something interesting has happened in that Michael Bay has *finally* stepped back from the franchise after a considerably disappointing fifth outing. Bay made two $1 billion films in a row, but the franchise was always destined for diminishing returns - it was just a matter of when.

Bumblebee initially seemed like Paramount's cynically pandering attempt to Marvel-ise the Transformers franchise, even down to the original title Transformers Universe: Bumblebee. How could anyone hope to make anything truly special out of that? Well, then Paramount went and hired Travis Knight, director of the very popular Kubo and the Two Strings. What seemed like a slightly outside the box choice actually makes perfect sense tonally and stylistically for a Transformers film in capturing the childish wonder and excitement about these robots in disguise...and this teaser perfectly embodies that.

The film seems to want to just give everything watching a gigantic cuddle, whether it be the seemingly very intimate story between a young girl and the titular Autobot, the whimsical music, the close 1.85:1 framing or the shot of a transformed Bumblebee huddled in the corner of a garage. There's no awkward gags or anything, just a small moment as the lead girl approaches Bumblebee, and gives him a little cuddle. Yeah, sure it sounds a bit overly-soppy, but it really put me in the mind of films like E.T. - The Extraterrestrial, with this sense of whimsical childish adventure that directors like Spielberg really captured back in the day - the day in which this film is set, funnily enough. 

Bumblebee himself appears to have a simpler design, with a much brighter yellow to fit in with his beetle disguise, while the brief glimpse of [Starscream?] looked much more like a Decepticon toy with the red streaks down the grey sides. The CGI looks pretty darn good for the most part, and the designs really emulate the original looks of the Transformers perfectly.

Perhaps the film is terrible, perhaps its just mediocre, but I've actually got a really good feeling about this one, and I really want to see what Travis Knight and his team have achieved with this film, because as first impressions go, this is a really good one. Poster's pretty sweet too.