Bumblebee Review

"The darkest nights, produce the brightest stars"


Bumblebee is the latest entry into the ever expanding Transformers franchise and was directed by Travis Knight (after Michael Bay stepped aside from directorial duties). The film stars the likes of Hailee Steinfield, Jorge Lendeborg Jr, John Cena, John Ortiz, Dylan O'Brien and Peter Cullen. The film follows Bumblebee on the run in 1987 finds refuge in a Californian junk yard, later to be discovered by Charlie (portrayed by Hailee Steinfield) who finds Bumblbee battle scarred and broken.

The Transformers franchise as a whole as certainly been hit and miss in terms of quality but has been bringing in huge box office returns since the original film, but for me personally with each film brings along a lack in quality storytelling and vamped up number of CGI metal on metal fight scenes which have lost their wow factor over the years, but has Bumblebee under a new director learnt anything from its predecessors or is it pretty much same old same old. 

Rather than beings a sequel Bumblebee is a prequel exploring how Bumblebee came to Earth and his adventures before the events of the original film take place, and personally I really liked that it allows Bumblebee the space to breath in this already bloated franchise and gives director Travis Knight the opportunity to explore a world where no one is aware of the presence of the transformers on Earth which I really enjoyed. Credit is also due to Hailee Steinfiled who gives a solid performance and gives the most human performance we have seen in the whole Transformers franchise and makes me want to see more of the character if the filmmakers decide to explore more of Bumblebees past. The film also has some moments of good pacing with the film being allowed to breath and time for the human characters to have their moment to shine and development and then giving Bumblebee moments to shine through lovely character bonding scenes with Charlie (Steinfield) throughout the film, and of course during those action sequences (for once no city is being destroyed!). Credit has to be given to the amazing opening sequence on Cybertron with the Autobots and Decipticons battling it out in there classic G1 series designs which just looked amazing, and I honestly wish there was a little bit more of that during the film (who wouldn't want that!).

There really was not much that I did not enjoy about this film, sure there of course where the stereotypical military "bad guy" characters throughout the film which weren't really developed throughout the film, only really Agent Burns (John Cena) really gets some moments to stand out in the film, but nothing that is memorable or fleshed out to be a worthy mention, and of course you get cheesy one liners that are meant to be funny but fall flat at times, but where a one liners falls flat you will often get a scene that makes up for it, which some great character bonding between Bumblebee and Charlie.

Overall Bumblebee is a film that gives hope for the rest of the franchise, it seems as if the filmmakers behind the film and listened to the criticisms of previous films and in return make a film that is a vast improvement over previous films in the Transformers franchise. If you are a fan of the franchise then I highly recommend giving this film a chance.

Verdict: 4 out of 5 stars