Scene Analysis #13 Bumblebee vs Shatter “Bumblebee” (2018) · 11:35pm Apr 1st, 2023
Scene Rating Scale:
9/9: Flawless! Outstanding scene!
8/9: Great scene! Totally Rewatchable!
7/9: Pretty good. Not as perfect as I expected though.
6/9: Decent. Doesn’t ruin the movie/episode.
5/9: Mid.
4/9: Pretty bad. One of the weakest scenes of the movie/episode.
3/9: You hear that? It’s the wind of lameness.
2/9: One of the worst scenes of the film/episode.
1/9: Horrible, unwatchable, and unacceptable.
Hello, hello, hello, my wonderful friends. Mr. J is in the house with another scene analysis for you all today. This evening, I will be reviewing the fight scene between ‘Bee and Shatter from the Bumblebee movie. This is honestly my favorite fight scene out of all three one-on-one battles of this film. Yes, I love all three scenes, but this scene stood out the most to me in terms of choreography, animation, fluidity of action, editing, and characterization. It has all these elements to make it extremely easy to watch, comprehend, and thoroughly enjoy it.
Here, ‘Bee fights Shatter to the death which buys Charlie enough time to disable the power device on the satellite tower.
While I still admire the explosive action scenes of the Bayverse, this movie did an excellent job with the cinematography. This fight scene is a perfect example of how you animate CGI characters in a battlefield; you can clearly see what’s going on, the camera doesn’t unnecessarily do close-up shots on the robots, the camera barely shakes, and the fighters actually use martial art maneuvers during the action. It portrays the Cybertronians as strategic warriors, not mindless brawlers.
I especially want to talk about Shatter. Not only is she a manipulative, cunning negotiator but also a ferocious warrior with innumerable stellar cycles of experience—knowing her enemy and how her enemy fights. Unlike “Blitzwing” and Dropkick, she is the only one who proved to be a deadly challenge for ‘Bee.
Also, throughout the movie, she presented herself as a calm and collected Decepticon in contrast to her brutish, bloodthirsty comrade. But in this scene, after witnessing her entire plan going up in smoke, she lost all reason and what remained of her sanity and went berserk on Bumblebee.
Now, every time I see a calm, collected, logical villain in fiction, they are always bound to lose their shit and act more animalistic. To me, you’re basically showing your true colors; the calm demeanor only serves as a mask to hide the inner beast. That’s what happened to this fembot here. So in a way…her dreams got shattered…*beats drum* Get it?
Anyway, this was a well-made scene. And Bumblebee was pretty smart too. The way he diverted his blast to a dam right behind her was so well-thought-out. Even though I was puzzled why Shatter didn’t instantly stab him with that pole before he could shoot his blaster, it was still satisfying to see him outsmart her in an unexpected way because he realizes he can’t beat her in combat.
Angela Bassett did an amazing job as Shatter, and you can hear the raw anger and fear in her voice as she ultimately lost to ‘Bee at the end. Hailee Steinfeld did a great job acting as Charlie too. She didn’t stand around and scream like a banshee; she actually DID something to help stop the Decepticons from invading Earth. Teamwork is the key to success.
I will rate this a 9/9. I can’t emphasize enough just how awesome this fight scene is. Let’s hope Rise of the Beasts maintains the same spirit and tone from start to finish.
Peace.
Shatter... A Decepticon after my own demented mind