Film Review - Bumblebee (2018)

Bumblebee is the first Transformers spin off and also the first not directed by Michael Bay this time Travis Knight the head of Laika Animation takes the helm and this story is set in 1987 when Bumblebee crashes to Earth from Cybertron and is found by Charley (Hailee Steinfeld) in an auto yard, little does she know that there is more to her new Beetle car than meets the eye.

As a long time Transformers fan I was so so happy to finally see a good Transformers movie and not having Bay in charge makes a big difference for these reasons:

- Firstly there is an awful lot of heart in this movie as writers Christina Hodson and Kelly Fremon Craig really do a lot to develop the relationship between Bumblebee and Charley and it harkens back to the boy and his car motif that Steven Spielberg tried to bring to the first live action Transformers movie in 2007 before Bay took charge with his own style but this movie takes that idea and does a much better job with it as it feels front and centre as opposed to an idea that kicks off a film that felt tone deaf in so many ways.

- Secondly the film has a far smaller scale to it than the previous Bay movies and sure there is plenty of Transformers action in the film but it all feels smaller, more personal, more connected to the characters and the storytelling and their also shot wider so you can actually see what the heck is going on and on top of all that the Autobots are not completely useless robuts who constantly get their butts kicked but I’ll stop there about those points this is a simpler story that allows the characters to come back to the focus and I am very grateful for that.

- And lastly the Transformers fan service here is fantastic, the opening scene set on Cybertron was terrific and I thought to myself “There’s Soundwave, There’s Shockwave and Starscream and Thundercracker and Skywarp” and then Ravage came out of Soundwave’s Chest and Optimus was being his noble badass self and I was a very very happy boy though if Megatron had made a cameo in the film I would’ve lost my mind (There was a scene with him in the film but it was very wisely cut.)

And also the way the Cybetron War scenes are used throughout the film it is a little reminiscent of the Future War scenes in the first Terminator film.

However if I have one complaint and its really only a minor one its John Cena and his role as Agent Burns of Sector 7 he does a good job in the role but the way the character is written it feels like a bad knockoff of the Bay style from the previous films and a lot of the scenes feel like a shaggy sideplot but hey when the rest of the film is as good as it is I won’t complain much.

And so that was my review of Bumblebee and it is about fucking time we had a great Transformers movie this has been a long time coming and I hope people go see it, 4 out of 5.