Quote Originally Posted by GoktimusPrime View Post

TF07 is a fun pop corn movie that you can watch with your brain switched in low gear. But Bumblebee is a movie that engages you at a higher cognitive level and deals with numerous themes and motifs throughout. Bumblebee is the kind of movie that I would love to dissect and teach as an HSC prescribed text (but instead, as of next year this movie will become the prescribed text that I will need to teach (starting for the Class of 2020)). Okay, for me the prescribed film text has to be in Japanese, but English teachers could teach Bumblebee as a film text. And if anyone thinks that that sounds far fetched, don't forget that Star Wars: A New Hope used to be an HSC prescribed film text for English Standard.
Ohhh that's cool for the kids, Your Name is rather original and well crafted, and Star Wars is now part of the cultural zeitgeist. I can't say I hold Bumblebee in the same esteem. It's a good movie sure, but it is just a popcorn movie that has heart (as they say), and not at all original. Aside from being a good live action TF film I don't think it's a particularly noteworthy as a piece of film literature.

I suppose you could argue that the endless chain of blockbuster action films has dumbed the film going audience down to the point that we applaud when a film requires even the smallest use of our intellect, but I certainly wouldn't consider Bumblebee to be a particularly exemplary piece of cinema.