Review of Bumblebee (2018) by Jon C — 22 Dec 2018

After 5 movies and making over $2.5 billion Hollywood has decided to wipe the slate clean of the Transformers franchise.

The first movie introduced the Autobots and the Decepticons to a modern audience back in 2007 yet it seemed implausible to bring these talking/fighting robots to the big screen.

The direction was handed over to Michael Bay known for making loud and explosion-filled summer blockbusters.

The movie was a lot of fun, the animators did a fantastic job with the computer-generated effects, and it made most viewers feel like little kids again.

Although Bay did take a lot of missteps; a lot of the hardcore fans of the 1980's Hasbro property felt he didnt respect the original source material from the toys to the cartoon series, not to mention the amount of stereotypes, the racism, and the immature toilet/sex humor sprinkled throughout.

Sure it was toyetic and aimed at kids but not all-family friendly, even the human parts were ranged from being corny or downright annoying.

Now because the fans demanded it the series has been brought back to its roots; the movie rightfully takes place on Cyberton where the war between the Autobots and the Decepticons is at its peak.

Optimus Prime and Bumblebee and the rest of the robots look way more like their G1 counterparts, the CGI is smoother and cleaner, and the action scenes are filmed more sufficiently so you can tell what's happening.

Our lead character B-127 or Bumblebee is separated from his comrades and lands on planet Earth only to be hunted down by John Cena's Agent Burns of the army and after a fight with Blitzwing he loses his voice and much of his tech is fried.

He disguises himself as a yellow Beetle and is acquired by a young girl, Charlie played by Hailee Steinfeld.

She's turning 18 but feels so out of place between her family and school ever since her father passed away and she's given up championship diving neglecting her brother, her mother and her new stepfather.

She and Bumblebee find each other and rely on one another to stay hidden but also remain safe.

Then two Decepticons, Shatter and Dropkick from the war track Bumblebee's signal intending to exploit Burns and the Sector 7 Division's resources to send a signal to bring other Decepticons to Earth and annihilate everything.

The movie successfully saves the franchise from all the pitfalls that have plagued the previous movies although it doesn't necessarily negate the original 2007 version's events.

There are callbacks and references from Bumblebee as a Camero to losing his voice to Sector 7 being near the Hoover Dam and so on.

Thankfully this is more kid-friendly too with the Transformers looking more like their inspired-action figures, their designs being more simplified, and a healthy dose of heart and humor that's appropriate.

The sound design is amazing, too and is super exciting when the action is taking place.

And it's not filmed so claustrophobic or edited too fast.

You definitely feel such emotion from Bumblebee's facial expressions and eye movements.

Although not all the jokes work and I'm still having trouble connecting to these human characters, they could have done without the family melodrama sprinkled in along with some other side characters.

At this point if you're going to show the actual robots then focus on them entirely.

I also really wanted to see more of Cybertron.

Still, they do get a lot right this time and it's actually respecting the lore than Bay could ever hope to accomplish while also setting up future installments.

This is a nice soft reboot for this series with terrific action and hope for the fans' love of these classic characters.