We at Deco always get the feeling our cars are spying on us. Well, you never know. It could happen — especially because the Transformers are back. Our chief Decepticon Chris Van Vliet has more on the movie “Bumblebee.”
I know that most people are going, “Oh, another Transformers movie. Really?” And I’ll admit, I was one of those people, especially because these last few have been pretty not good.
And then I saw this movie, and I’m happy to report that it’s awesome, just as good as the first one with Shia LaBeouf. I headed to Los Angeles to talk to the cast of this prequel.
Hailee Steinfeld (as Charlie Watson): “Bumblebee. I’m going to call you that.”
The movie takes us to 1987, where an Autobot named Bumblebee heads to Earth to escape a war on his planet. He hides out as a Volkswagen Beetle and looks to the car’s owner, played by Hailee Steinfeld, to help keep him safe.
Hailee Steinfeld (as Charlie Watson): “If you see anyone besides me, what do you do?
(Bumblebee transforms into a Beetle.)
Hailee Steinfeld (as Charlie Watson): “Great!”
Chris Van Vliet: “In the scenes where you’re actually interacting with Bumblebee, if I were to walk on the set, what would I see on those days?”
Hailee Steinfeld: “Ooh. Well, you might be slightly disappointed, like I was on my first day. The majority of the time, it was a tennis ball on a stick.”
As cute and as likable as Bumblebee is, a lot of people don’t want him here. A government agency headed up by John Cena is trying to hunt him down — and so are the Decepticons, aka the evil Transformers.
Angela Bassett (as Shatter): “There’s a war raging on that planet.”
If you’re saying that voice sounds a lot like Angela Bassett, you’d be right. She’s a big part of the movie, but since it’s just her voice, she wasn’t ever on set.
Chris Van Vliet: “So, if you weren’t on set with these other actors, are you just meeting them and interacting with them now that you’re on the press tour?
Angela Bassett: “And I haven’t met them yet.”
Chris Van Vliet: “Are you serious?”
Angela Bassett: “I’m serious. But my son is so excited for me to have John Cena sign his hat.”
Well, Angela and her son may be a little jealous that I’m pretty much BFFs with John Cena after this.
Chris Van Vliet: “I’ve been to the last eight WrestleManias.”
John Cena: “Me too.”
Chris Van Vliet: “Wow. We have so much in common!”
Cena tells me he’s thankful to The Rock for paving a path for people like him to go from wrestling to movies.
John Cena: “I owe a lot of what I’ve done in WWE and in cinema to Dwayne Johnson. He’s always been genuine, he’s always shot straight.”
This is the Transformers movie we’ve been waiting for. The action here is incredible. You actually care about the robots because they feel human, and the coming-of-age story at the heart of this is something anyone can relate to.
Hailee Steinfeld: “I think that this a real honest portrayal of what it really feels like growing up and feeling the ways that she feels.”
So I had this great plan where I was going to ask all of the cast members what they named their car, since, you know, Bumblebee is the name of the car here. The reason you didn’t see that in my story is because no one, not a single person, had a name for their car. Is it weird that i call mine Jean-Claude Van Slam?
“Bumblebee” transforms into theaters on Friday, Dec. 21.
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