Review of Bumblebee (2018) by Iamdwg — 21 Mar 2019

Twelve years ago, the first film in the Transformers universe was released. I remember it like it was yesterday, laughing at the prospect of a movie based off of a child’s toy, thinking Hollywood has officially run out of ideas. Well, jury is still out on that last bit, but that initial shock that they would make a movie on the Transformers has transformed into more of an expectation. Including Bumblebee, six movies have been released in the universe, and it doesn’t seem to be letting up, no matter how much some people may be exhausted from them. That being said, it appears that majority of people not only love this movie, but consider it the best film in the entire universe. I don’t…but it’s near the top.

You can tell right away what they’re attempting to do in comparison to the other films in the universe, and I say attempting quite broadly. This film takes place in the latter half of the ’80s, so you know music is going to be littered in the movie, and that’s true enough. I even felt like this movie was a combination of films like The Iron Giant and E.T. both in tone and feel, right down to the main house the girl lives in. You have no problem believing they want this to feel like the ’80s, yet…I don’t ever feel like it IS the ’80s; not truly, anyway. Thankfully, that’s a non-issue. Other elements more than make up for that, but there’s one area that can’t escape criticism…that’s the fact that there is no goal, hence no plot. The Decepticons have a plot, which would’ve been fine if they were the protagonists, but they’re not.