"Bumblebee" Review - Exploding with Something New

“Bumblebee” may not be what it seem, but you should still expect some of the same old world you’ve grown accustomed to.

This movie was just okay to me. It’s got some really good things for you to look forward to, but some things that remain unchanged from the Transformers franchise that still bug the hell out of me. For starters, the plot is still crafted to be very childish, which makes the story unrealistic at many checkpoints of the movie. It also doesn’t help that the side characters are just awful either because they are poorly written like the parents of the lead character (some of the worst parents I’ve seen in a film), or because the actors are just terrible. I’m so tired of people like John Cena who think they can do drama films just because they did pro-wrestling. I’d rather he just stick to comedies, because he’s much better at being funny than being a military agent, especially after seeing the first scene oof his character.

I know this whole franchise is aimed for children, so these things that annoy me may not bother the general audience, but it just annoys me because I believe the Transformers CAN be better. It blows my mind that five go's at this, the series has seemed to get worse. Thankfully though, if the goal of Hollywood is to make more of these kinds of movies, then they are on the right track. As much as I didn’t feel the power of this origin story, it is significantly better than the usual bloated robot fighting picture. That’s the part you’re probably not going to expect. It goes to show when you take the keys away from Michael Bay and give it to someone with a vision and love for the original 80s TV show, you’re going to have something special on the wheel.

There is no Michael Bay crap in this. No blatant sponsors, no sex-related scenes, no soap opera drama, no patriotism shots, no racist robots, zipo! “Bumblebee” feels more keen to something like Lilo and Stitch, as Hailee Steinfeld puts so much love and normality into her role, and the development between her and the main badass robot feels truly real and honest, which is something I haven’t seen in a Transformers movie. Real and honest is the best way to describe the bets of what this film has, because for the first time, the fights are not only so well developed; but they look amazing and best of all, the entire movie is about the relationship between humans AND robots. It never leans more to one or the other, which makes for some well developed heart, drama, and even humor to a franchise that honestly was about to explode from being so over bloated with stupid endless crap.

It’s not a perfect film by all means, but it sure is a perfect beginning to possibly reboot the Transformers universe. Keep it more honest to the 80s, and these robots in disguise can only get better from here.

Neutral Nebs