Blu-Ray Bumblebee Review, Out Tuesday

Tomorrow is the physical release of Bumblebee on Blu-ray and DVD. You can currently buy a digital copy of the movie but personally I tend to go for the physical copy as get the higher quality version of the film on disc AND get the digital version for the same price. The release comes in the usual Blu-ray + DVD + Digital Copy or Blu-ray Ultra 4k + Blu-ray + Digital or just DVD versions. To no surprise, the transfer to Blu-Ray remains crisp with Dolby Atmos (for english) and 5.1 Dolby in other languages. While the Blu-ray did download a few commercials, at least what I saw was Transformers related including a BotBots commercial.

Sadly the special features do not include a commentary track but does include a pretty good behind the scenes videos that actually did something remarkable - it was not entirely about trying to sell you the movie. Never understood special features that sell you the movie that you clearly already bought in on or would not be watching the special features. The first section is the "Sector 7 Archive" which is less archive and more "huh?". The is a quick intro from John Cena as Agent Burns welcoming "you" as a new recruit to Sector 7. After that is the motion comic for "Sector 7 Adventures: The Battle of Half Dome" that is set after the movie. There might be a physical copy of the comic included with your purchase but if not this has you covered with panels getting small animations as voice over tells the story of an attack by Soundwave on a Sector 7 convoy when Agent Simmons is forced to take command.

The next section is deleted and extended scenes that in some cases uses not quite completed visual special effects to complete the scene. For example the original opening of the film was not the attack on Cybertron (which remains awesome), but taking Bumblebee's point of view as he tries evade Sector 7 before concluding "mankind is not worth saving." Other parts include bits before or after certain scenes like Charlie getting her bike helmet, Bee getting a cleaned and more. The highlight will probably be the incomplete "Appliance War" sequence where Bumblebee had accidently brought multiple electronics to life such as the fridge which Charlie and Memo must neutralize. In general, all these scenes were great with character moments but those moments were usually covered elsewhere and ultimately I can see why the cuts were made.

After that you get the outtakes. Its a different take as its five scenes from the movie mixed with alternate takes of mostly John Cena chewing the scenery as game co-stars play into it. It includes takes of Agent Simmons' reaction to first seeing Bumblebee, discussing working with the Decepticons in the War Room, Memo missing out on saving the world, and my favorite was a blooper on blowing up a door that just kept going and going as the guy untangled the cable while no one on screen broke character since the director didn't say cut.

After that is a long title for a short section called "Bee Vision: The Transformers Robots of Cybertron (english only)" which replays the Cybertron opening battle sequence with brief bios showing up for each of the main Autobots and Decepticons that appeared on screen, well except for the cannon fodder that was the Seekers. The info included a good look at their robot mode, name, faction, and various alt modes. The alt modes generally including their Cybertronian, G1, and Bay-era alt modes but occasionally it includes bonus modes from other eras of Transformers such as Ironhide's elephant mode from Beast Wars. It provides a solid look at the new movie robot designs and likely create a few pause worthy moments for fans to study the details.

Last but not least is the main behind the scenes collection of five videos as the cast and crew discuss making the film. The sections discuss focusing on Bumblebee as the central character for the film, casting, the choice and work that was involved in re-creating the Transformers designs that was strongly influenced by G1 while still having their own distinct design. Also a look at the decision to go to 'Bee first alt mode along with the work involved in re-creating 1987 in 2018. There are some sales pitchy things from the cast, old habits die hard, but the edit of these sections clearly where about telling you how they made the film and not pitching you the film, which was a nice change of pace from most special features.

Over all, its a worthy edition to anyone's home video collection. If have not seen the film and on the fence about it being worth your money the best comparison is the feel that the very first Michael Bay film as far as the wonder and fun potential of Transformers on full display before the later Bayhem and nonsensical stories took over. While less complicated from a technical standpoint, visually the transformation sequences remain very visually satisfying. While I know the VFX team took hints from the many cartoons that "cheating" the sequence is fine, I couldn't tell how they cheated it. Guess a step through each frame will tell you some of the how but its not something I ever did for past movies and not going to start doing it now. End result is the film did something the last few Bay films didn't - left me looking forward to the next installment of the movie franchise in whatever form it may take.

Left image is cover for the Blu-ray release of the movie. The right image is the Bumblebee statue on display this past weekend at Wondercon Anaheim to celebrate the release of the movie. Photo credit: Rodin Eckenroth

Links to buy: Amazon | Best Buy (also exclusive Steelbook version) | Target | Wal-Mart