When someone wants to make a Spielberg-esque film, they make it specifically related to the time he made the movies they’re seeking to replicate, taking place in the late 70’s (Super 8) or early 80’s (season 1 of Stranger Things). As such, similar comparisons were made to the 1980’s set Bumblebee.
But the 1980’s are not yesterday for films like E.T. or Close Encounters,but E.T. is just yesterday for us. Both it and Close Encounters are modern to their time.
An important clarification; it isn’t “wrong” for Super 8, Stranger Things and Bumblebee to take place when they did. They didn’t “miss the point” by taking place when they did: the era of movies like E.T. is inescapable, and for the respective throwback films to honor E.T. by honoring the era it originated from is a valid artistic pursuit.
But, not to put too fine a point on it, as the specific era is something that can be explored when reflecting on those films, so is their modernity. And the reason for the modernity in Spielberg’s first contact stories is that they are first contact stories. They don’t want to correlate the era with the interest, but instead contrast the everyday with the otherworldly. They want to show what would happen if we met aliens today.
This is precisely what makes the first Transformers, at least conceptually, such an effective Spielberg throwback. It’s aiming for what Spielberg was trying to accomplish with his first contact film at the time of their respective releases.
Being a perfect harmony of their sensibilities, Bay shoots much (though not all) of the action in this first contact story from the human perspective, adding a visceral element of awe and horror through it all.
As evidence for the awe, the arrival of the title characters on Earth is clearly the most Spielbergian scene (the pool scene still gives me chills), and scene like Optimus Prime’s transformation in this moment is a testament to the former, not valuing coherence so much as it is visceral wonder.
To speak for the horror, the following duel about a minute later perfectly captures both the human and Transformer perspective. The shot of Optimus firing his weapon at Megatron (who then fires back) starts off appearing to be at height with Optimus, but when it quick pans to Megatron, we see the camera is actually behind a car with other people.
I’ll also throw in this brilliant Starscream moment for good measure. The scene contrasts wider shots of Ratchet and Ironhide with the close, visceral shots of Sam’s perspective, with Starscream’s transformation and escape uniting the two.
Dipping My Toe
My primary reason for writing this piece was mostly to set the stage for my retrospectives of this franchise.
This is fitting, because it’s not dissimilar to what Bay himself (as well as many franchise filmmakers) did with the first film.
He dipped his toe in the water with this Spielbergian first contact story, but once the first contact element was out of the way, we see there’s a reason E.T. and Close Encounters never had sequels: no one cares about a second contact story when one of the main draws for the first contact story was the freshness.
And so with that introductory freshness out of the way, Bay was able to build upon what he started and ultimately do his own thing with the concept of Transformers. And with the restraint that was only necessary for the first contact element out of the way, Bay’s unstoppable personality was allowed to run free. The comedic human subplots and extraordinary special effects and action were previously a means to the Spielbergian first contact end, but with the rest of the franchise, they became an end in and of themselves.
And as a fan of Bay’s beautiful, unstoppable madness, I’m excited to dive into the deep end.
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