by Erin Hatch, Reporter
Let’s establish some critical context right away so that I don’t waste anybody’s time: I am a die-hard fan of the Transformers franchise who has been direly disappointed by Michael Bay’s film series from the beginning to the point that I haven’t even shown up to the last two entries (and I had to get really drunk just to make it through number three). I have engaged with Transformers comic books and toy lines, and enjoyed some of Hasbro’s small screen efforts, but the Transformers cinematic universe has been consistently offensive to my sensibilities. If you are a fan of the Bay Transformers movies, this review might not be helpful to you. I advise you look for other opinions to guide you in whether this movie is worth your time. For everybody else: Bumblebee is a breath of fresh air that proves that the Transformers franchise isn’t inherently toxic and incomprehensible. It can get cheesy at times, and corny at others, but Bumblebee provides compelling human and robot characters and tells a story that does justice to the franchise’s roots.
Like the original animated series, Bumblebee starts off on Cybertron as the heroic Autobots are facing overwhelming odds against an army of Decepticons. With no other options, Autobot leader Optimus Prime orders his troops to flee the planet and regroup, telling soldier B-127 (Dylan O’Brien) to hide on the obscure planet ‘Earth’ and protect it from Decepticon scrutiny. Bee obeys, but is immediately tracked down by a Decepticon hunter and injured, losing his memories and ability to speak. Systems failing, he mimics an unassuming VW Beetle and goes incognito among the human population, treated as junk. Some time later, in the year 1987, human teenager Charlie Watson (Hailee Steinfeld) finds the beat-up Bug in a scrapyard and convinces the owner to give her the vehicle, only to get home and discover that she had acquired a robot in disguise. She names him Bumblebee, after the buzzing sound of his damaged voice box, and the two of them become friends. The plot revolves around Charlie and Bumblebee’s adventures in 1980s San Francisco Bay Area while tracking the progression of two Decepticons hunting B-127, until the two plot threads collide and the fireworks start.
Hailee Steinfeld brings a lot of heart to Charlie, and finally provides a live-action Transformers protagonist that feels human and sympathetic, something the films have had trouble with up until this point. In many ways, I felt Charlie was an updated version of Jack Darby from the Transformers: Prime animated series more than she was a new iteration of Sam Witwicky (though, to be fair, Jack Darby was just a new iteration of Sam Witwicky himself). John Cena plays Agent Burns, an operative for the mysterious Section 7 responsible for tracking down Bumblebee for the government. Cena hams the role up a little, but otherwise plays Burns as a strong, serious military man looking to defend his nation from an alien threat. Jorge Lendenborg Jr. plays Memo, Charlie’s neighbor and aspiring love interest, who adds some levity to the proceedings.
Bumblebee isn’t a serious film by any means, nor is it a perfect one. A lot of the acting is cartoonish and exaggerated, and the themes are simple and easy to digest, trending towards the sappy at times. There are a lot of cheesy jokes and 80s references, for better or worse. The film’s greatest flaw is an aimless period near the middle as Charlie, Memo and Bee wander their town getting into trouble while waiting for the plot to catch up to them. The story overall will probably feel familiar, another attempt at a tale of a teen and their car that has been tried by Transformers again and again. If anything, the story feels more like the premiere episode from one of the TV shows than it does a movie, especially given how much Bumblebee lays the groundwork for future Transformer films. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing: the film might not try much that you haven’t seen before, but the familiarity adds to the nostalgic feeling that this is a true follow-up to the legacy of the first generation of Transformers media.
And that is probably what impressed me the most: this is the first Transformers movie that demonstrates that it respects the Transformers franchise as a whole. Bumblebee shows that respect in the way they pay homage to G1 designs for their robot characters, especially in the action-packed opening sequence showing the fall of Cybertron. It shows that respect in the many nods and references that made it into the movie. It shows that respect by taking their characters seriously and building a story out of human (and Cybertronian) emotions. The film never feels bogged down by its nostalgia, if anything it uses those ideas to build a fresh start for the franchise and set up an entirely new series of films with the potential to be something better. It didn’t take much to get me to come around, but Bumblebee did enough to win this disillusioned fan over.
Despite a few rough spots, Bumblebee is a fun, nostalgic film about a robot that can disguise himself as a car and his adventures in 1987 with a human girl. For people who hated the Michael Bay films: this is something different, something less toxic and angry, with more focus to the action and more complexity to the emotions. For people who liked the Michael Bay films: Bumblebee still has brutal violence and giant robots fighting each other, you just might get a little bored near the middle of the film. I keep connecting it to Transformers: Prime in my head, like this is some live-action equivalent to that series despite all the G1 tributes. It reminds me of some of the best that Transformers has to offer, and it makes me hopeful that we might be getting more.
ComicsOnline gives Bumblebee 4.5 out of 5 sick eighties music references.
