Review of Bumblebee (2018) by Devaughn B — 21 Dec 2018

From the trailers, I figured this would be the one. Finally, the Transformers film to get it right 100%, or at least wipe the taste of the last two godawful Michael Bay-directed turds, and fortunately it does that. But there are still issues here I cannot overlook, just because new director to this party, Travis Knight, get some things right. BUT what Travis Knight does here with the original G1 designs, how passionate he was about this project and all of the effort he put in to be faithful to the source material, it is amazing to see. The first five minutes, if the entire film or even half had remained that way, it would have brought me to tears. The few action sequences involving Bumblebee and the Decepticons included are fantastic as well.

Hailee Steinfeld is wonderful in this role. Her character's chemistry with Bumblebee is off the charts, and so heartwarming, but once the other human characters are involved, here lies this film's biggest problem. There are way too many human characters in this film, all played by some amazing actors, all relegated to comedic relief in every other scene. A completely unnecessary and useless love interest, a terribly miscast John Cena, and do you remember Sam Witwicky's parents? Did you hate them? Well, imagine having versions of them here that are twice as terrible, and also toss in an equally terrible sibling, all forced into way too much of the story, and even the action! That's the next main issue, the writing. And the dialogue so many of these actors are given, it's so bad; a lot of it felt like it belonged in a PG family film. Overall, this film left me a little disappointed and still wanting more. Like I said, the first five minutes are just a major tease for something we just don't get. But on the plus side, this film completely retcons Age of Extinction and The Last Knight, so there's that!