Bumblebee Blu Ray Review (Paramount)

Bumblebee is a 2018 action film directed by animator Travis Knight (Kubo and the Two Strings, The Boxtrolls, ParaNorman, & Coraline). It was written by Christina Hodson (Birds of Prey, BatGirl, Unforgettable, & Shut In). It was produced by Michael Bay (Transformers franchise, Bad Boys franchise, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre/The Beginning, Friday the 13th, & A Nightmare on Elm Street), Don Murphy (Natural Born Killers, Double Dragon, Apt Pupil, Shoot Em Up, & From Hell), & Steven Spielberg (Jurassic Park/World franchise, Men in Black franchise, Back to the Future franchise, Gremlins franchise, & Poltergeist). It’s the sixth installment & the prequel to the Transformers series. It’s a re-boot for the popular Hasbro product. It had an estimated budget of over $100 million & it grossed $466.9 million at the box office worldwide!!!!

On the planet Cybertron, the Autobot resistance led by Optimus Prime (played by: Peter Cullen from the Transformers franchise, Rambo TV Series, G.I. Joe TV Series, & The Original Ghostbusters) is on the verge of losing the civil war against the Decepticons & prepare to evacuate the planet. A Decepticon force led by Soundwave, Shockwave (both played by: Jon Bailey from Transformers: Combiner Wars), & others intercepts them during the evacuation. Optimus sends Autobot scout B-127 (played by: Dylan O’Brien from Teen Wolf, American Assassin, Deepwater Horizon, & The Maze Runner franchise) to Earth on an escape pod in order to set up a base of operations where the Autobots can regroup. B-127 reaches Earth alone, crash-landing in California & disrupting a training exercise by Sector 7. Colonel Jack Burns (played by: John Cena from WWE, Blockers, The Wall, & Daddy’s Home 1/2) presumes B-127 to be a hostile invader & pursues him. Blitzwing (played by: David Sobolov from The Flash, Guardians of the Galaxy TV Series, Transformers Prime, & RoboCop: Alpha Commando) ambushes B-127 & tries to get Optimus’s location but he refuses to tell. Blitzwing tears out his voice box & damages his memory core before B-127 manages to defeat him. Before collapsing from his injuries, B-127 scans a nearby 1967 Volkswagen Beetle & transforms into one. In 1987, teenager Charlie Watson (played by: Hailee Steinfeld from Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, True Grit, 3 Days to Kill, & The Edge of Seventeen) remains traumatized by the death of her father & resentful of her mother Sally (played by: Pamela Adlon from Californication, King of the Hill, Sgt. Bilko, & Lucky Louie/Louie) for moving on too quickly with a new boyfriend named Ron (played by: Stephen Schneider from Broad City, Save Me, & Imaginary Mary).

Charlie finds a yellow Volkswagen Beetle in a scrapyard belonging to Hank (played by: Len Cariou from Blue Bloods, Death Wish, Prisoners, & Damages) who gives it to her as an 18th birthday present. When she tries to start it, Charlie unknowingly activates a homing signal that is detected by Decepticons Shatter (played by: Angela Bassett from American Horror Story, 9-11, Black Panther, & Green Lantern) & Dropkick (played by: Justin Theroux from Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Inland Empire, Mulholland Drive, & American Psycho) as they interrogate the Autobot Cliffjumper (played by: Andrew Morgado from Breaking Homicide & Law & Order True Crime) on one of Saturn’s moons. They go to earth to track down the missing B-127. They convince Dr. Powell (played by: John Ortiz from The Cloverfield Paradox, Kong: Skull Island, Silver Linings Playbook, & American Gangster) & Sector 7 to help them locate the target. Charlie becomes friends with B-127 & gives him the name of “Bumblebee”. Charlie finds another new friend named Memo (played by: Jorge Lendeborg Jr. from Spider-Man: Homecoming, Alita: Battle Angel, Brigsby Bear, & Love, Simon) & he decides to help them out after witnessing what Bumblebee can do. Charlie deals with family problems & feels like she’s not apart of it anymore. The two teenagers are forced to battle the evil Decepticons to save the earth!!!!

You can definitely tell that Michael Bay didn’t direct this new Transformers entry. It’s completely different from all the others. It’s more character & drama heavy when it comes to the overall material. It focuses more on Charlie Watson & Bumblebee than anything. The classic Autobot & Decepticon rivalry is there but it’s more of a background thing here. The action is few & far between but when it happens it’s what you would expect from this universe. The beginning & the end provides plenty of that. I love how they went with the old school look of the characters compared to updated versions in the previous films. It really brings you back to the original cartoons & toys when they first started out. It was cool to experience the origin story of Bumblebee & actually hear him talk before he lost his voice. It shows how he becomes the character everyone knows & his unique dialogue. The soundtrack is one of highlights & music is always quality when it comes to the Bumblebee role. Peter Cullen, Pamela Adlon, Hailee Steinfeld, Angela Bassett, Justin Theroux, & John Ortiz boosted the production with their performances. John Cena fit his role so he was decent in this compared to some of his other work. It was a fun & entertaining re-boot for Transformers with a little more comedy than usual, It’s not the best feature from the franchise but it’s better than a few of the sequels. I am looking forward to what they do next with this series!!!!

Let’s talk about the high definition presentation from Paramount! This 1080p (1.78:1) transfer looks stunning & they captured the late 80s here. The visuals are always impressive when it comes to Transformers, I can only imagine what the 4K looks like. It has a variety of audio when includes English: Dolby Atmos, English: Dolby TrueHD 7.1, Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1, Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1, French: Dolby Digital 5.1, French (Canada): Dolby Digital 5.1, Italian: Dolby Digital 5.1, & Portuguese: Dolby Digital 5.1 on the disc. The dialogue is very clean, the action is elevated on this, & my personal favorite was the soundtrack that fit the time of this feature which sounds great. It has various subtitles which includes English, English SDH, French, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Norwegian, & Swedish. Paramount always kills it when it comes to technical aspects & this release is no different from all the others.

Let’s discuss the special features from Paramount. “Sector 7 Archive” has two segments which include “Welcomes to Sector 7” is under a minute. It’s a fun little video featuring John Cena. “Sector 7 Adventures: The Battle at Half Dome” is a little over 9 minutes. It’s a motion comic of the mini comic book that’s included with this release. It’s Bumblebee’s next adventure after this feature & it’s really cool. 9 “Deleted and Extended Scenes” that end up a little over 19 minutes which includes “Original Opening”, “Drive to Karate Class”, “Birthday Present”, “Car Wash and Beetle Breakdown”, “Charlie Drops Off Mona and Conan”, “Decepticons Inspect the Armory”, “Drive to Cliff, Sector 7”, & “Appliance War”. A little over 9 minutes of “Outtakes” which includes “Burns Meets Bee”, “War Room”, “There’s a Door in My Way”, “Charlie in Trash”, & “Saved the World”. “Bee Vision: The Transformers Robots of Cybertron” is almost 4 minutes. It’s the full sequence of the battle between the Autobots & Decepticons. It has plenty of information about all the characters involved in the war. “Bringing Bumblebee to the Big Screen” is a 5 part featurette. “The Story of Bumblebee” is almost 4 minutes. It has interviews with director Travis Knight, writer Christina Hodson, actor Hailee Steinfeld, & various members of the production. They go over how they wanted to do a different take on the Transformers universe. They said Bumblebee was the perfect character for it’s own film & to start everything over with. They chat about the origin story. They bring up the connection between Charlie & Bumblebee. They mention how Bumblebee relates the best with humans compared to the others. “The Stars Align” is a little over 7 minutes. It has interviews with director Travis Knight, writer Christina Hodson, actors Hailee Steinfeld, John Cena, & various members of the production. It focuses on the Charlie Watson & Jack Burns characters. They said they wanted to switch it up from your typical lead male character & make it a girl. They talk about Hailee Steinfeld being the only choice for the role & pitching her for it after her performance in The Edge of Seventeen. They chat about wanting to go in a different direction for the government character so they went John Cena. They bring up his dedication & how he just fit with what they were doing for this. “Bumblebee Goes Back to G1” is a little over 10 minutes. It has interviews with director Travis Knight, writer actor John Cena, & various members of the production. They chat about gong back to the basics with these characters. They talk about them looking more like the original cartoons, movie, & toys that we all grown up with back in the day. It goes behind the visuals & all the hard work it took to re-create this world. They all did their research & made sure that they stayed true to the original source material. Everyone involved were fans so they took this project very serious. “Back to the Beetle” is a little over 6 minutes. It has interviews with director Travis Knight, actors Hailee Steinfeld, John Cena, Jorge Lendeborg Jr., Jason Drucker, Ricardo Hoyos, & various members of the production. This focuses on the Volkswagen Beetle car & the Bumblebee character. They chat about having various cars with different skills for the feature. Haliee brings up her experience driving them. It has some behind the scenes footage. They talk about bringing Bumblebee back to his original self like in the cartoons, movie, & toys. It shows all the different changes the character went through. It talks about his debut & how most people consider him their favorite from Transformers. “California Cruisin’ Down Memory Lane” is almost 20 minutes. It has interviews with various members of the production. They talk about re-creating the 80s for this film. It goes over the locations. It has a variety of the cars they rounded up for the production. It has all kinds of behind the scenes footage. It has a 12 page comic book for “Sector 7 Adventures: The Battle at Half Dome”. It also has a slipcover, digital code, & a DVD copy of the release. It’s everywhere right now in several different formats including 4K & DVD, CHECK IT OUT!!!!