Review of Bumblebee (2018) by Fodimus P — 12 Jan 2019

When this movie was announced I was skeptical to say the least. New director aside, how good could a spinoff from one of Hollywood's worst franchises be? Even the trailers didn't entirely convince that this would be anything more than just OK. So what a surprise when the reviews came out. Bumblebee isn't just a good movie, it's one of the best movies of the Holiday season and by far the best in the Transformers series.

It all starts fittingly enough on Cybertron, where the last of the Autobots are fighting a desperate rear-guard action against the Decepticons. From there the action moves to earth, where the giant robot battles immediately pick up again, with the army caught in the fray. Now if this sounds a lot like the previous Transformers movies it's because it is. But it's very good action that gets things off to a rousing start. And after the initial burst of explosions and CGI, this movie is about so much more than just giant robot battles.

At its heart this movie is about the relationship between Bumblebee and his young "owner" Charlie, played by the talented Hailee Steinfeld. And on that level Bumblebee is quite funny and surprisingly charming. There are strong shades of Herbie from the Love Bug as Bumblebee acts up, talks back, and generally gets himself into trouble. There's also an unmistakable influence of ET, especially in one of the movie's funniest scenes, in which an unsupervised Bumblebee tries to explore his new house, with disastrous results.

This movie works because it has characters that like and care about. Bumblebee is an adorably friendly and naive fish out of water when he isn't blasting everything in sight. It's impressive how expressive he can be with hand gestures, facial expressions, and snippets of songs on the radio. And it's kind of inspiring to see Charlie come out of her shell and get to know the boy next door. At its best, this movie is as much a coming of age story and John Hughes style teenage romance as a sci-fi blockbuster.

Despite the PG-13 rating, this is a movie I would feel comfortable recommending for the whole family. The violence is mostly bloodless and between robots, language is minimal, and the closest thing to sexual content is some buff guys taking their shirts off.

Now admittedly this movie can be pretty predictable sometimes. No points for guessing whether Bumblebee will eventually do something heroic that convinces John Cena he's the good guy, or if Charlie's frequently mentioned diving prowess will be put on display. Nor does it have the sheer awesomeness of the best Marvel and Star Wars films. But Bumblebee is what the franchise should have been from the beginning: a fun, heartfelt, occasionally cheesy exercise in nostalgia.