Bumblebee Review: 6 Ups & 4 Downs

3. The Visual And Physical Comedy

While some of the more Bay-ish attempts at humor in the dialogue fall flat, director Travis Knight brings with him an acute sense for visual and physical comedy, resulting in some of the film's best scenes.

Some of this can even be glimpsed in the trailers, such as the moment where Charlie puts a tape of Rick Astley's Never Gonna Give You Up in Bumblebee's stereo, only for Bee to then immediately spit it out. Bee spits the tape out, Charlie has to quickly duck out of frame, the tape bounces off the wall and out of frame, only for Charlie to stand back up into frame and give her reaction.

This eloquently demonstrates Knight's firm grasp of visual comedy. For starters, it's always funnier in film to get the action and the reaction all within the same shot. It makes the moment feel alive and electric, in a way that a cut simply can't. And perhaps more importantly, things quickly leaving or entering the frame is inherently funny. One need look no further than the works of a filmmaker like Edgar Wright, Mel Brooks, or even Buster Keaton to see this firsthand.

Throughout the film, Knight is constantly playing with visual comedy and it works excellently. Also, there's a scene towards the end of the film's second act which is essentially a Charlie Chaplin comedy-of-errors sequence with Bee as Chaplin and it is fantastically funny.