Stop-motion virtuoso Travis Knight may not have gotten the audience he deserved for his freshman debut, Kubo And The Two Strings. His latest stint at the helm for Paramount’s latest Hasbro work-around with Transformers prequel take, Bumblebee, however, may bode as a worthy rebound for the director in wake of its tease on Sunday.
The Transformers film series has seen its share of both good times and bad. Apart from reviews, the franchise had been a box office hit for all four Michael Bay-directed films up until last year’s Transformers: The Last Knight which saw earnings take a dip.
Nowadays, things are in a bit of flux with a sixth linear film removed from its 2019 date while Hasbro revamps its film agenda with other lucrative IP. However, the franchise, centered on alien autonomous robotic warriors now brings its focus to the center of a new prequel with Bumblebee starring Hailee Steinfeld and John Cena.
The film is directed by Travis Knight who dealt quite the serving of cake to anyone who doubted his LAIKA-produced animated adventure, Kubo And The Two Strings. Bumblebee marks his big screen rebound with the coming-of-age story of Charlie, on the eve of her 18th birthday in 1987 in a Californian junkyard beach town where she discovers this particular car is no ordinary Volkswagen.
Cena, who teased the Tuesday morning arrival of the official trailer this week, stars as Agent Burns of Sector 7, the black-ops clandestined unit previously fronted by John Turturo’s character in the initial trilogy.
The trailer definitely feels like a less-clunkier offering and a slightly more affable, character-centric tale. Bay’s films were all nothing short of showstopping spectacle tacked on with overdrawn, quirky dialogue and some pretty questionable leniencies that made them all pretty love/hate worthy while Knight’s efforts feel a little more refreshing in terms of pacing and tone.
More than ten years and five films in, as much as this film may possibly rate better among critics, this may take some getting used to. Of course, time will tell if this bodes any different but, ahead of its December 21 release from Paramount, so far so good. Yes? No?
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Transformers franchise producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura is producing along with Bay, with Steven Spielberg, Brian Goldner, Mark Vahradian and Chris Brigham executive producing.
I honestly didn’t expect director Kyle Newman‘s latest fish-out-of-water action comedy, Barely Lethal, to be so obscure in the past year or more. Thankfully though, the film isn’t too far off from its forthcoming DVD/Blu-Ray and Digital releases next month, with actress Hailee Steinfeld starring as a young, highly trained spy on a whimsical quest of self-discovery on what it’s like to be a “normal” teenage girl.
A 16-year-old international assassin yearning for a “normal” adolescence fakes her own death and enrolls as a senior in a suburban high school. She quickly learns that being popular can be more painful than getting water-boarded.
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