I’m not going to lie to you, the Bumblebee panel was one of those panels that I had to sit through in order to not miss the more highly anticipated Venom panel in Hall H at San Diego Comic-Con. The feeling was that, if I left to explore something else and come back, I might not make it in for the main event so I decided to remain in my seat and take in whatever Bumblebee had to offer.
Not saying that I think Bumblebee, which is a prequel spin-off of the Transformers franchise, is going to be a total trainwreck. I was genuinely surprised by the first trailer which seemed to be more of a coming of age story that happened to feature a robot rather than an orgy of the robot on robot violence. The trailer struck a chord because it seemed to scale back the excess that Michael Bay revels in for a more subdued and human story.
The Bumblebee panel was moderated by Entertainment Weekly’s Anthony Breznican and while not as brimming with enthusiasm as some of the other previous moderators, he still did a good job moving things along. He also seems to be a big fan of Transformers, not just the movie franchise but the craze that goes back to the toys and cartoon series in the 80s. If anything, he seemed like the perfect choice to guide the panel.
Before the panel even began we were greeted with the musical stylings of Stan Bush. His song, “The Touch”, was featured on the 1986 soundtrack for Transformers: The Movie and as soon as he played his first chords, everyone in Hall H knew what it was and the room filled with some much-needed energy after the 15-minute break between panels. The choice to have him come out and play the song only adds to the nostalgia factor that the film is going for since it’s set in 1987.
Breznican brings out director Travis Knight first and he sits alone to discuss aspects of the film. I had no clue that Knight had made the stop-motion films Coraline, Paranorman & Kubo and the Two Strings, making this his first foray into live-action filmmaking. Knight discussed his animation background, love of original G1 Transformers, and how he wanted to do something different and more intimate with Bumblebee. A featurette video played about the process, emphasizing that Bumblebee is a “coming of age” story for both the titular Autobot and Charlie Watson (Hailee Steinfeld).
Knight’s reputation with animation, as opposed to live-action films, was the topic of a lot of the discussion early on. Knight explained that coming from a background in animation, you start with a”blank canvas” and can build entire worlds. With Transformers, he says it can be incoherent visually with all that metal smashing together and so that’s why everything has its own color scheme and silhouette so audiences can better define the characters. And of course, all of the designs harken back to the G1 wave of original Transformers. They’re a “modernization,” a hybrid of old-school animated aesthetics and the live-action Bumblebee we’ve known for years.
As to where Bumblebee fits into the Transformers timeline since it is a prequel, it’s your basic origin story for the beloved character. He’s always been the one Transformer with the strongest connection to humanity. “This film effectively answers that question,”We’ll see why he becomes the character he becomes in the other movies. As for why Bumblebee is on his own here on Earth, Travis slightly dodged that question by explaining that he’s an adolescent character. That’s the framework they looked at for this character in this movie.
Knight was then asked one more question before the rest of the panel was brought out and that was will we get to see Cybertron? Knight exclaimed, “Yes, and let me tell you, it is awesome.” He also said that the film is designed for audiences who know Transformers mythology and for those who are just stepping in for the first time.
From there, Breznican brings out the rest of the panel which includes Hailee Steinfeld and Jorge Lendeborg Jr, who star in the film. They seem pretty stoked to be there and their palpable energy is instantly infectious.
Breznican then asks the stars to describe their characters and Steinfeld begins by saying that Charlie Watson is a typical, misunderstood teenager who’s experienced a major loss in her life. She craves freedom and friendship. “She sees that within a car that works,” says Steinfeld. When asked about his character, Lendeborg Jr says that Memo is a geek who loves Larry Bird and Gobots and has a crush on his neighbor Charlie which is how he gets pulled into the Bumblebee alien robot adventure. He’s shy and through the arc we see him develop confidence & sincerity.
Th conversation then shifts to the trailer which features other robots and the moderator wanted Knight to elaborate on who those robots were. Knight explains that they are Shatter (voiced by Angela Bassett, red in color) and Dropkick (blue in color, voiced by Justin Theroux) and they are two Decepticons after Bumblebee. They’re more complex in design and that’s because they’re triple-changers. They are muscle cars but also flying vehicles, as any fan knows G1 Decepticons tend to be. Shatter also turns into a harrier jet & is inspired by Nightbird from the G1 era who’s a ninja-style Decepticon. Dropkick can turn into a chopper & is inspired by Megatron.
After this, the moderator begins to talk about the human villain of the piece, Agent Burns, played by John Cena. It was then that I began to wonder why wasn’t Cena there? It seemed like the perfect opportunity to promote a film of his of this scale and as I was midway through my thought music begins to play and the crowd starts going crazy. I had to ask what the song was and the person next to said it was “The Time Is Now”, which is the WWE entrance music for John Cena. Soon enough you could see Cena making his way through the crowd and completely owning the 6,500 seated Hall H. Even though Cena came in midway through, the wrestler turned actor dominated the panel moving forward.
What I gathered from Cena is that he has tons of charisma and he’s extremely funny. He has done well in comedies like Sisters, Trainwreck, Blockers & Daddy’s Home but he has a natural sense of humor that made me completely understand why so many people like the guy. Is he capable of challenging Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson for top wrestler turned actor? That remains to be seen but he seems more than up for the task. Seeing how he owned that room really convinced me he could do a lot more.
As for his character Agent Burns, Cena says he is the villain but he is a bit “grey”. He believes what he is doing is right and he has legitimate reasons for believing what he does in regards to what the intentions are of the Autobots that have infiltrated Earth. Cena said he enjoyed getting to play the bad guy because he hasn’t been given the opportunity to do it and he relished the chance to do so.
Now on to the footage. The scene we are shown looks like it may open the film or least happen very early on because the scene seems to end where our new story will take off. The footage begins with military units chasing Bumblebee through a forest as Bumblebee chops down some trees to slow them down. Bumblebee approaches a clearing only to see it’s the side of a mine in a super tall cliff/mountain wall. It’s a dead end and the units surround him as one crashes into him knocking him down. Agent Burns (Cena) is in the back of a Humvee-esque vehicle with a tow cable gun turret and Bumblebee seems prepared to surrender (he turns off his battle mask). And just as this happens a jet fighter flies by in the sky and Burns questions who called in the Airforce.
It’s, of course, Blitzwing who flies in and attacks, seemingly killing most of the soldiers with a barrage of missiles. He crashes into Bumblebee picking him up as they fly up against the side of the mountain, scraping it all the way up. Blitzwing seemingly handles Bumblebee easily and speaks, sentencing him to “death” as he fires machine guns from his arm into Bumblebee. As Bumblebee is about to slip off the edge, Blitzwing grabs him, holds him up – this is where it’s emphasized how much bigger the Decepticon is compared to our little hero – and then drops him off the edge. Bumblebee falls all the way down and seemingly passes out next to a river and we see from his perspective that he’s losing his memory core. As he’s shutting down he sees the VW bug at a nearby campsite so that’s how he gets this form.
Th next scene begins with Charlie (on her 18th B-Day) waking up in her trailer home – all decked out in ’80s attire. She brushes her teeth while listening to a walkman and then goes through a junkyard looking for valuable or useful parts and finds the car under a tarp (after knocking the boats over). She makes a deal with the junkyard owner to work for him for a year if she can get the car to work and keep it. She tells him it’s her B-Day and he lets her have it. In her garage – as we see in the trailer – she discovers he’s a robot who acts like a scared child. It’s a touching scene and it’s clear how much Charlie is looking for a connection from a friend. Bumblebee can’t speak but can understand her. They bond immediately and Charlie says he sounds like a Bumblebee and that’s how he gets the name (also, when she first found him there was a beehive under one of the wheels).
There are a few other scenes after this, but the key one shows that Shatter and Dropkick make a deal with the military (Sector 7) and tells them that there’s a fugitive from their planet that they’re hunting (Bumblebee). The Sector 7 leader sees an opportunity to work together with them, this is where John Cena’s Agent Burns comes back into play.
We also see Optimus Prime briefly in a hologram, embracing an awesome G1 design. One sequence even has Bumblebee looking actually like his G1 design while half-transformed inside a tunnel chase sequence. This movie takes place 20 years prior to the first Michael Bay film. We also get a glimpse of Hoover Dam which connects to the first film as well.
After the particularly strong footage was over, we moved into the questions portion of the panel and while there were some funny ones (John Cena hilariously answers a child’s question about who would win in a fight between Bumblebee and an actual bumblebee) the really good question came courtesy of an alumni of the Transformers brand. Peter Cullen, the voice of Optimus Prime, stepped up to ask a question and while many didn’t recognize him, they sure did recognize his voice which made Hall H go crazy. Cullen’s question was simple: He couldn’t help but notice that Optimus Prime was absent from the trailer and he wanted to know would he be making an appearance or any future appearances. Knight then assured him, with a smile on his face, that they will make something happen. For a film that seems to embrace nostalgia, this was a perfect note to end the panel on.
Bumblebee hits screens on December 21.
