Sci-Fi Bumblebee (2018) [Transformers]

[Kevin]

Title: Bumblebee

Tagline: Every Hero Has a Beginning

Genre: Action, Adventure, Science Fiction

Director: Travis Knight

Cast: Hailee Steinfeld, John Cena, Jorge Lendeborg Jr., Jason Ian Drucker, Pamela Adlon, Stephen Schneider, Ricardo Hoyos, John Ortiz, Glynn Turman, Len Cariou, Kollin Holtz, Gracie Dzienny, Fred Dryer, Isabelle Ellingson, Mika Kubo, Felicia Stiles, George Anagnostou, Brandon Wardle, Lenny Jacobson, Megyn Price, Krystin Goodwin, Nick Pilla, Sachin Bhatt, Tim Martin Gleason, David Waters, Antonio D. Charity, Courtney Coker, Edwin Hodge, Jake Huang, Holland Diaz, Dave Cutler, Lars Slind, Dylan O'Brien, Peter Cullen, Angela Bassett, Justin Theroux, David Sobolov, Grey DeLisle, Jon Bailey, Steve Blum, Andrew Morgado, Kirk Baily, Dennis Singletary, Vanessa Ross, Tony Toste, Nico Abiera, Jiana Alvarez, Jace Areff, Manny Avina, William W. Barbour, Jesse Stoudt

Release: 2018-12-15

Runtime: 114

Plot: On the run in the year 1987, Bumblebee finds refuge in a junkyard in a small Californian beach town. Charlie, on the cusp of turning 18 and trying to find her place in the world, discovers Bumblebee, battle-scarred and broken. When Charlie revives him, she quickly learns this is no ordinary yellow VW bug.

 

[Kevin]

This weekend I watched Bumblebee from 2018, the Transformers prequel movie that takes place back in 1987 before all of the Michael Bay movies.

I have to admit, it was much better than I thought it was going to be. I was expecting it to be another Bay movie with stereotyped characters, lens flare everywhere, and needless explosions. It was none of those things. Turns out Bay was not the director on this one though he did get producing credits.

Hailee Steinfeld does a great job as the main character, a teen grieving the loss of her father and trying to figure out how to cope with it when she comes across Bumblebee who, by that point, has forgotten his memory. The movie is more about their friendship than the Transformers war and that is a plus. John Cena does a great job as a US military operative who first encounters Bumblebee and he plays the character without going over the top of making the character into a caricature like what we've seen with similar characters.

Now it should be said that the movie doesn't really introduce anything story wise that hasn't been seen many times before so I doubt it'll be remembered as a 'great' movie. But what it does do it does well and is a welcome change to the franchise versus the style & tone of the previous movies. If the next Transformers movie is set back in the same time period with the original style designs then it'd be a movie I'd look forward to, alas if it's another movie set in the current and is yet another sequel to the Bay movies then I'll pass.