Bumblebee (UHD Blu-ray) review

[David Vaughn]

Studio: Paramount
Release Date: April 2, 2019
Rating: PG-13
Film: 4/5

Plot
CYBERTRON has fallen. When OPTIMUS PRIME sends BUMBLEBEE to defend Earth, his journey to become a hero begins. Charlie Watson (Hailee Steinfeld), a teenager trying to find her place in the world, discovers and repairs the battle-scarred robot, who’s disguised as a Volkswagen Beetle. As the DECEPTICONS hunt down the surviving AUTOBOTS with the help of a secret agency led by Agent Burns (John Cena), BUMBLEBEE and Charlie team up to protect the world.

My Thoughts
It must be a very cold day in hell because I actually enjoyed a Transformers movie. In fact, I liked this movie a lot. The film was written by Christina Hodson (Unforgettable) and directed by Travis Knight (Kubo and the Two Strings) which put Michael Bay in the producer’s chair—where he should stay! They do a fabulous job of actually telling a story that you care about, crafting characters that have likable characteristics and chemistry, and better yet, Shia LaBeouf and Megan Fox are nowhere to be seen!

The prequel takes place in 1987 and we see how Cybertron has perished and what brings Bumblebee to Earth in the first place. Steinfeld has great scene presence and is able to convey the typical teenage angst with her facial expressions and Knight directs the action sequences with precision and a fine touch of not letting them linger on the screen too long.

As one would expect, the 4K presentation is outstanding. The original elements were shot digitally in 3.4K, downscaled to 2K for its theatrical run, then upscaled to 4K for this release. Detail is quite good and the color saturation is excellent, particularly the primary colors. Shadows are well delineated with no obvious crush or distracting banding. The Atmos track is aggressive—sometimes maybe too much so—but it’s sure to be a crowd pleaser. The LFE is ample and hits deep, just how I like it.

Video 9/10

Audio 9.5/10 (Dolby Atmos)

Special Features:

• Sector 7 Archive
  
  
  • Agent Burns: Welcome to Sector 7
  • Sector 7 Adventures: The Battle of Half Dome (All-New Motion Comic)
• Deleted/Extended Scenes
• Outtakes
• Bee Vision: The Transformers robots of Cybertron
• Bringing Bumblebee to the Big Screen
  
  
  • The Story of Bumblebee
  • The Stars Align
  • Bumblebee Goes Back to G1
  • Back to the Beetle
  • California Cruisin’ Down Memory Lane
• Blu-ray + Digital Copy

Conclusion
Knight and Hodson have proved that it is possible to make a Transformers movie that actually does more than just provide non-stop action to keep the fanboys happy but turn off the wider audience that wants a good story along with they eye and ear candy. You see the friendship between Bumblebee and Watson develop over the course of the movie as the two fall in love and become best friends. If you’ve been turned off by this franchise over the years like I have been, you’ll probably like this as much as I did. Highly recommended.

[TRainH2O]

I like the first Transformers film and think it had a lot going for it.

Nice reboot although Transformers were a bit after my time
Cool CGI for its time
Looked and sounded great
Megan Fox........

After Fox left, there's not much left to see. I definitely wasn't watching for LaBeouf's looks or acting skills.

I was wondering how you would like Bumblebee. It sounds like it could be worth a watch. Thanks for the review.

[David Vaughn]

I like the first Transformers film and think it had a lot going for it.

Nice reboot although Transformers were a bit after my time
Cool CGI for its time
Looked and sounded great
Megan Fox........

After Fox left, there's not much left to see. I definitely wasn't watching for LaBeouf's looks or acting skills.

I was wondering how you would like Bumblebee. It sounds like it could be worth a watch. Thanks for the review.

The first Transformers wasn't horrible--it was just too long. LaBeouf was and is horrible (I don't know what Spielberg sees in him). Fox is definitely easy on the eyes but can't act worth a damn, but that begs the question, does she need to looking like that?

This one is definitely worth a look Tracy. 

[Ralph P.]

Greetings,

Glad to see that your grumpy mood was broken by this one Dave!

Nice review and I agree!

[David Vaughn]

Greetings,

Glad to see that your grumpy mood was broken by this one Dave!

Nice review and I agree!

It's not grumpiness...it's a higher bar for quality entertainment. I'm not retired, so time is more precious

[TRainH2O]

LaBeouf was and is horrible (I don't know what Spielberg sees in him).

I can buy him in his role in the very early transformers films simply due to what I imagined the character was like. However, he quickly grew tiresome. I'm not sure what he added to iRobot and the 4th Indiana Jones (the disaster that it is) would have been much more tolerable with someone else playing his character.

He's one of those actors that I just don't get. 

[Ralph P.]

It's not grumpiness...it's a higher bar for quality entertainment. I'm not retired, so time is more precious

Greetings,


No, it's definitely grumpiness. Now, if you WERE retired you'd have an entirely different outlook.

[David Vaughn]

Pretty cool retro trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9lq-vnkdQQ

[gonzalc3]

Watched the movie at the theaters and really liked it.

Great review David!

Going to buy it once that it goes on sale.

[tripplej]

Thanks for the review. I heard lots of good things about this movie so will check it out.

[flyinion]

Got this in on Netflix blu-ray and watched it over the weekend.  I was extremely happy that the blu-ray included the  Atmos track.  So not only did I have absolutely great sound especially thanks to my recent "nailed it" Audyssey MultEQ run the other night since the app got rid of the 20Hz subwoofer rolloff I got some nice subsonic stuff back just in time, but also we really enjoyed the movie itself.  I'm not sure if they're intending to reboot the series already or if this was just purely a sequel, but I do know they need to keep the same directors, writers, etc. for future installments that might be in the works.  IMO this is one of if not the best movies in the franchise so far.  I understand the #2 was supposedly rushed because of the impending writer's strike back then, but still..........