Bumblebee

On behalf of the die-hard Transformers fan community and film critics worldwide, I thank you director Travis Knight. This is the Transformers film the world deserved.

At the same moment, let’s take a moment to say a final farewell to Michael Bay’s Transformers film-verse. His films were technically brilliant, eardrum-shattering loud and somewhat sexy (the leading ladies and the shiny cars), but were also lewd, obnoxious, and didn’t give a hoot about characters, story or common sense.

Knight’s film, written by Christina Hodson, disowns Bay’s continuity by taking the story back to its cartoony roots of the 1980s.

Opening in 1987, the home-world of the heroic Autobots and the evil Decepticons is in the midst of a brutal war. In a desperate bid, Autobot leader Optimus Prime (Peter Cullen, reprising its voice) orders his scout, B-127, to make a home-base on Earth where scattered Autobots can regroup.

B-127 (later, renamed as Bumblebee, or simply Bee) crash lands on our world, loses his ability to talk, transforms into a yellow Volkswagen, and ultimately ends up with Charlie Watson (Hailee Steinfeld), an on-the-surface rebel child who wants a car for her 18th birthday.

Even though Charlie is in a perpetual state of self-agitation, her domestic life is calm. Her mum has moved on after the death of her father, remarrying a wuss of a husband with a passive-aggressive demeanor. On Charlie’s birthday, he gives her a book titled Smile for a Change — she (and we) obviously want to smack him on the face.

Charlie is a perfect replacement for Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) and Hodson’s screenplay, unsure of how many spin-off films Charlie and Bumblebee get together, builds a far sounder relationship between the two within the span of this one film.

Bee, with his big, blue eyes is appealing — though I still fail to understand how his sensible, adult mindset from his home-world of Cybertron is transformed into that of a cute puppy when he becomes voiceless. Still, these are minor grievances in a motion picture experience that gives back so much.

Knight’s (and the franchise’s head-honchos’s) decision to bring the story back to basics is a long-overdue decision. Every old cinematic choice from earlier movies — the sharp, jagged-y robot designs, to one-second cuts, to grandiose heroic proclamations (mostly from Optimus Prime) — are jettisoned from the filmmaking process.

In its stead, we see familiar robot designs (old fans rejoice! — the robots look the same as the ’80s cartoon), an unfussy plot and action sequences one can follow. The ’80s setting — ripe with the era’s soundtrack supplementing the scenes — also helps keep the digital age clutter away from Travis’ storytelling.

Apart from Steinfeld, Bumblebee also stars John Cena as a high-ranking military man for a few scenes. For whatever time he has on-screen, Cena is fun to watch. His interactions with Decepticons Shatter and Dropkick (voices of Angela Bassett and Justin Therox), are a hoot.

The spacing between fun, funny and familial drama is smartly allotted, though things get a little too predictable and more than a little protracted in the last 15 minutes. Nevertheless, Bumblebee is a rock-solid restart for a franchise that had been bludgeoned by bombastic action, an unending barrage of explosions and toppling skyscrapers.

Bumblebee is a smart reboot of the Transformers franchise while Kedarnath struggles with more than the disaster of floods

Kedarnath

In Kedarnath, a charismatic Muslim porter (Sushant Singh Rajput) and a constantly angry, headstrong Hindu girl (Sara Ali Khan) fall in love in the picturesquely-shot mountains surrounding Uttarkhand’s Kedarnath temple. The girl’s family — especially her fiancée (Nishant Dahiya), who had been engaged to her elder sister — beats up the poor porter but, despite clichéd odds, the love birds cannot be separated by men or religion. That is, unless a natural disaster tears them — and the valley — apart.

This well-shot, well-acted but entirely unengaging story is set before 2013’s North Indian floods, which claimed more than 5,700 lives. For the filmmakers, the topic is ripe for a visual effects-laden disaster flick. The spectacle, unfortunately, nearly takes as much time screen time as the romance; neither aspect is engaging.

Rajput is a fine actor with a charming screen presence. Khan (daughter of Amrita Singh and Saif Ali Khan), in her acting debut, gets to play the role all debutants covet: an angry-girl-next-door with unflinching resolve for the man she loves. In other words, she gets the same template as Sridevi and Boney’s daughter Janhvi Kapoor; a good launching pad to showcase an actress’ dramatic skill set.

Director Abhishek Kapoor (Rock On!, Kai Po Che) piles on the romance and the sweeping cinematography, but there’s only so much one can do if the material itself is a dud.

Published in Dawn, ICON, December 23rd, 2018